Visit A Sex Club! Expose Phallusiesf TransFag Meet Your Inner Fag! Rag Issue One Information & Networking Fall 1996 For Gay /Bi Transmen Welcome... Bienvenu ... G'Day Mate! Welcome to TransfagRag ... At the Conference. as in my on and offiine took over a year behveen the first thefirst (andas faras I know, the correspondence. I was struck by how many inspiration and the premiere issue of this only!) internationalnewsletter of us had never met another gay FTM until newsletter. It would not have beenpossible forgay and bisexualtransmen quite recently. some until they came to the at all without the help, financial support. and theiradmirers! Conference. A few didnot knowthere were and emotional support I received from all any others besides them till they got to the of you. I want particularly to thank David TransFagRag was born in the heady days Conference or saw on the Web the Call for for the name. Raven Goodrum for the after the First International FTM Submissions for the book I hoped to beautiful logo that combines the yin/yang Conference in San Francisco in August produce about us. Many were in support and the phoenix. both potent symbols for 1995. Like many of the rest of you. I had groups in which all the other guys were those of us who have lived in two genders been amazed at the number of straight. I began to think how great it and gone through transformation: Matt FTMs/MtMs who identified as gay or bi. would be if somehow we could set up a RiceBlakk and Elanor Lynnfor circulation Considering that back in the early '80s the supportnetwork forgay and bi FTMs. and distribution assistance: Angels only gay FTMs I had knownin all of North Alexander (Bear) Goodrum and Mel America were Lou Sullivan. later founder When I had embarked on the book project (Wolfie)Y. and Patrons Matt F.. JakeHale. of FTM International. and one other on what I then called FTM transgender Linden P .. Scott S.. Mick Stone. and Mal­ personin Toronto. and that back then most queers. I thought one of the keys to colm W .. as well as all 90-plus Charter treatment providers and academics either increasing our ,isibility in the gay male Subscribers(listed in the Directorysoon to ignoredus entirely or denied we existed(a community was a less cumbersome term be sent to subscribers) for their financial situation which later changed largely than · gayand bi FTM transsexual' and one support. Thanks also to Jake. Walter thanks to Lou). I foundit both exciting and that did not keep pointing to the fact that Bockting, Mike Hernandez. Eric Kris­ moving. Growing up, I had thought I was we had once been identified as female. tensen. Jill Nagle, Kazz Parkinson. all alone on the planet in feeling theway I When I saw a book at A Different Light SheerChaos. Mick. AndyWhite. and Todd did. some strange mutant that no Bookstorein San Francisco that referred to Whitworth. for their articles. There are psychology or psychiatry book had ever us as FTM 'transhomosexuals' I thought many others who donated money, made heardof. a biological female,vith an inner that term was a bit better. but still too suggestions. provided encouragement. and conviction of being a male attracted to cumbersome. Fittingly, while chattingwith otherwise contributed to making the other males. Now. far from being alone. I some fellow FTMs in front of the gender newsletter you hold in your hand a reality. was surrounded by individuals from all section. I hiton ·transfags. · To thankthem all would virtuallyduplicate over the country. some younger than the Charter Subscriber List. so I'll just say myself. some older. diverse in background When I brought up the idea of possibly one big thanks to all of you .. .flulru r.m and lifestyle. who knew what it had been startinga newsletterfor us. David Harrison like to grow up as what we had all. at some suggested calling it TransFagRag, and the Transfa&}lag is dedicated to the memory of point. come to call a female to male or rest is. or willbe. history. Ofcourse. due to LOU SULLIVAN (1951- I 991), friend and male to male transsexual. and to also be my poor health. to the stresses of my own mentor to those of us who knew him, and attractedto men. transition. and to other commitments. it inspiration to transfags everywhere. Page 2 Transfag:Rag: Fall 1996 TJKMALE BOX· Kazz Parkinson Says Hello.from Drizzly Olde England � Hello from drizzly England (loud cries of assume that you are able to do so because "Gee. \Ve just love your accent!"). Here are c;......... "'Jt�) there are some genetic gay guys whose the basic facts: age 37. finally getting to _[; � sexuality is the same as mine--i.e. ifs the grips with "What the fuck am I?" ��� 1·· < /-.\\ image they get turnedon by. the genitals are -actually I think I knew it all along but negotiable if everythingelse is attractive. just didn'tsee how it was possible. Hmmm. Sometimes it still doesn't. ... Will have LL.d� Comments anyone7 Is this how/why it's startedhormones by the time you read this. / possibleto be a gay FIM? ( Jl V Fm finally J I'd call mysel gettingto grips with 0 ga ''Whatthe fuck because am I?" I fetishisemasculinitY°J even when My business card states "Kazz Parkinson. it'sfound in Writer. Artist. Musician and all-roundarty women person.·· The claims for beingthese things rest on having been paid money, on more So then. I suspect these subjects are 1 Butto get onto a more practical question. than one occasion. for each of these comp 1 et e O ld ha t • 1·1 s Jus• t that I've o nIY JUS· t started paying attention ... anyway feel free activities. by sane people who are not So OK, I did the prosthesis thing with the friends or relatives. My regular salaried O reply to me if anyone has anything intereSting to say on the following. condoms and hair gel (thank you Mike H) employment involves doing butch things and very convincing it looks. And of course with computers. (Fill in the obvious I mm a terribly nice strap on. and several innuendo here.... ) I'd call myself gay because I fetishise masculinity. even when it's found in pairs of trousers that it will fit under. Is omen. Ten-inch wangers are utterly there any gadget I can rustle up that looks My degree was in Philosophy and right and can be used? No I didn't think gy, fo w b lovely, but so are ANY human genitals, Experimental Psycholo llo ed y there was. but I thought I'd better ask..... legal training which failed to turn into a including of course the intermediate sort p rpo knam . roduced by the action of testosterone on career. Kaz.z is a dual u se nic e Best wishes. it's a form of mv female name and also clits. On the faceof it froma brief glimpse short for Kasi�ir, my to-be-adopted at gaymale culture, one would assume that KA2ZIEE. anyone ho dn't h e regular dick middle name. so I'm now practising \: _di av � . :vould beJust ignoredor reviled. However, KAZZ AKKIN_SON1s mdeed an •'flll- und arty carefullv:· "MartinK asimir Parkinson." 1: ro_ some of you guys seem to be hacking it. I person �he didthe illu strahons on this pac'?e! IIJRIIBS Transfag:Rag YIJBI/IIIJli/lJ _ Staff Editor/Designer/ProductionManager C JulianLeonard CirculationAssistant MattRice Bl4kk DistributionAssistant ElanorLynn LogoDesigner Raven Goodrum Name DavidHarrison Muse SheerChaos PatronSaint LouisGraydon Sullivan (1951-1991) Shareyour unique Sendsubscription requests, submissions, and letters to: TFR, Elessar Press, selfwith your fellow transfags! 1259 El Camino Real, Suite 151, Menlo Park CA 94025 Or justdrop usa line. or [email protected] Everything in Tramfaglagis copyrishtcdby the writer or artisl All nice letters will be answered. Photocopying forsharing is fine, Nasty ones go in the circular file. bat reprints reqaire permissionof thecopyrisht holder. TransfagRag Fall 1996 -------------------------- Page3 The TFRIn terview: Dr. WalterBockting Research Project on Gay /Bi FTMs Needs YOUR Participation! DR. WALTER BOCKTING, one of the few J: TVhv do vou think there v.·aslis such overcome. It becomes easier when one researchers who have studied g_ay/bi ITMs, resist;nce ,; believing we exist(ed)--gay recognizesthe gift in beingtransgender. discusses his ongoing study with TFR. Dr. s l meet h era is. wh O te Ih em Bockting coordinates the gender program FTJ f Sfz l t p ts fl I1' J: Have you found that gaylbi FTAfs take they like men they muSt not realZv be at the Universityo f Minnesota. longer, or have a more complexprocess, of transsexual. And rea ing a lot of trans � _ realizing they are transsexual? Julian: Dr. Bockting, I know you knew literature, we're often mv1s1ble--FL.vfs are Lou Sullivan, is that how you got assumed to be fo rmer lesbians interested in WB: interested in gay FTA fs? relatingas men onZv to women. For some of the FTMs I interviewed. their sexual orientation towards men made Walter Bockting: In 1986, Eli Coleman WB: Fortunatelv, much has changed in them doubt their transsexual feelings. I and I met in The Netherlands, which is this respect. M�st pro\-iders today know believe that the increased visibility and where I'm from. At that time I was a about gay FfMs and recognizethat gender initiatives such as TransFagRag will graduate student and was involved in identitv and sexual orientation are two change that.