Life's a Beach
WetHotAmerican Summer
Summer Babes
Honky Tonkin
Unchained Melodies
Lost Mixtapes Vol 1
Beach Drinking [mix for Homoground.com]—
WOOHOO.
Let’s not forget though that many states don’t offer employment protection for LGBQ people. So while STRAIGHT trans* people now have across-the-board protection due to a national law, it’s important to remember that our brothers and sisters (cis and trans alike) and genderqueer siblings who are of a non-heterosexual orientation are still at risk for employment discrimination in more than half of the states.
XXBOY HAS A NEW ANTHEM! I <3 Beth Ditto.
[side story: I once met her in Seattle at the Capitol Hill Block Party and was probably the most starstruck I’ve ever been. All I could get out was “I think you are amazing.”]
(Source: Spotify)
The lead singer of Against Me!, formerly known as Tom Gabel, has come out as a transgender woman and changed her name to Laura Jane Grace. I will be listening to Against Me! all day (possibly all week) In honor and celebration of Laura Jane Grace’s coming out and the fact that she has done an exclusive interview with Rolling Stone about her ongoing journey. So brave and so important. I think this might be the watershed coming out that we as a community need. Although Against Me! has very radical roots, they have become a pretty mainstream punk/rock group with a pretty mainstream following consisting mostly of straight cis white dudes, so this is a big deal. Exposure and education. Ms. Grace’s decision to be very public about all of this is so admirable. And I want to write her a teary letter of gratitude. For now I will just set my spotify to all the old Against Me! classics. :)
News story via Pitchfork:
Tom Gabel, leader of Florida punk band Against Me!, has revealed that she plans to begin living as a woman. Gabel will take the name Laura Jane Grace, in addition to altering her body through hormones and treatments.
According to Rolling Stone, Gabel has “dealt privately with gender dysphoria for years.”
The origins behind Gabel’s new name are hinted at in the lyrics of Against Me!’s song “The Ocean”:
“And if I could have chosen,/ I would have been born a woman,/ My mother once told me she would have named me Laura,/ I’d grow up to be strong and beautiful like her.”
Gabel told Rolling Stone,
“I’m going to have embarrassing moments, and that won’t be fun. But that’s part of what talking to you is about – is hoping people will understand, and hoping they’ll be fairly kind.”
Earlier this year, Gabel performed an acoustic rendition of a new song called “Transgender Dysphoria Blues”:
I tracked down someone’s interpretation of the lyrics to Transgender Dysphoria Blues [MIGHT BE TRIGGERING]:
Your tells are so obvious.
Shoulders too broad for a girl
Keeps you reminded,
Helps you remember where you come from.
You want them to notice the ragged ends of your summer dress.
You want them to see you like they see every other girl.
They just see a faggot.
Now hold your breath until it gets you sick [?]
Washed up on the coast,
Oh, we should do this thing the whole day long.
Washed up on the coast,
Oh, we should do this thing the whole day long.
Washed up on the coast,
Oh, we should do this thing the whole day long
With you.
You've got no cunt in your struts.
You've got no hips to shake.
You know it's obvious
But we can't choose how we're made.
You want them to notice the ragged ends of your summer dress.
You want them to see you like they see every other girl.
They just see a faggot.
Now hold your breath until it gets you sick [?]
Washed up on the coast,
Oh, we should do this thing the whole day long.
Washed up on the coast,
Oh, we should do this thing the whole day long.
Washed up on the coast,
Oh, we should do this thing the whole day long
With you.
With you!
With you!
Read more at Rolling Stone and be sure to get yr copy of this month’s RS for the full story!!!
So we steal every chance we get
every advantage is taken when no one’s looking
we hide behind closed doors, and we don’t stop until
we are the people we’ve decided we should be.
I wanna be a shot heard round the world, fucking unstoppable
this distance is not something we’ll regret
from here, and now, and then, and forever, and days after that till the very end.
(Source: Spotify)
—
NCTE Executive Director Mara Keisling on the MSNBC special “Transgender in America” which featured Keisling as well as Kate Bornstein and others.
Autostraddle did a great piece on the special (which was actually very well done, by the way) here.
STARTING 20 MINUTES:
Join us for “A Healthy People 2020 Spotlight on LGBT Health: Transgender Health” on Tuesday, May 8 from 1 to 2:30 p.m. EDT. This Webinar will provide more information and stimulate discussion about:
For info and to register, go to http://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/USOPHSODPHPHF-3e2397
