A Dahl’s House

A French guy named Jean-Yves Blondeau has created a plastic suit equipped with 31 wheels which allows him to roll down streets at speeds up to 60 miles per hour while switching positions at any time. It’s like break dancing, plus roller blading plus street luge. Very groovoi!

Tomorrow is the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance, created to memorialize those who were killed—more than one person per month over the last decade—due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice. For me, this year it’s personal, since I got to know the mother and sister of a transwoman, Krystal Heskin, who was killed near Chicago last April.

Locally, there will be events in both San Francisco (starting at 6:30 p.m. at the San Francisco LGBT Center, 1800 Market Street with a march to Congregation Sha’ar Zahav, 16th and Dolores streets, for a memorial event starting at 7:30) and in San Jose (7 p.m. at the Billy DeFrank LGBT Community Center, 938 The Alameda). Join us.

While there’s sometimes acrimony between the LGB and T communities—and sadly too often within the T communities too—it’s worth remembering that those who hate us—and sometimes attack and even kill us—don’t bother with the sort of distinctions we sometimes obsess over ourselves.

Finally, much as it’s important to remember our dead, it’s equally important to remember our living. There are still many fights to be fought. Crossdressers in particular need to become engaged. On various crossdressing forums, it’s not uncommon to hear the complaint: “but women can wear whatever they want.” (Which ain’t exactly true, but that’s another post.) Guess what, women earned the right to wear pants, to have a broader range of gender expression.

Crossdressers are notoriously politically inactive (although it should be noted that while crossdressers rarely leave the closet, a number transsexuals disappear back into the woodwork as soon as they’re able). So the “transgender” organizations end up being predominently made up of transsexuals, and not surprisingly, even with the best of intentions, it’s their interests that become top priority. I’m not saying their concerns are unimportant, just that we crossdressers have our own concerns that are also important—and it’s unrealistic to expect them to be given top priority if we’re having some else carry our water for us. So if we want our voices to be heard, we need to speak up for ourselves.

(Admittedly, it’s tough. The Catch-22 is that because of the stigma, the vast majority of us are reluctant to put ourselves in a position where we may be in the public eye. How many transsexuals would out themselves if they could avoid it? I’m still figuring out how to negotiate the issue of activism and privacy myself. It would a lot easier if I were just fully out, but I confess I’m not quite ready for that step yet.)

But act we must.

We lost one of the Good People.

Retired San Francisco police sergeant Elliott Blackstone, the first police officer in the nation assigned to work with the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities, has died. He was 81….

During his 26-year career with the San Francisco Police Department, Mr. Blackstone helped mend the rift between the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community and the police department. Before his assignment in 1962, the department’s previous interaction with the community largely involved raids on bars and entrapment of gay men in bathrooms.

“He didn’t see any reason why homosexuality or cross-dressing should be illegal,” said Susan Stryker, a historian and scholar who directed and produced a documentary, “Screaming Queens,” which tells the story of a 1966 riot at Compton’s Cafeteria in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. That event sparked San Francisco’s transgender rights movement. After the riot, Mr. Blackstone trained other officers on transgender issues, and he is featured throughout the documentary….

Mr. Blackstone was assigned as a liaison to the emerging gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities after a police bribery scandal involving gay bars. He said in an interview with The Chronicle this summer that he worked in a hostile climate within the Police Department and focused much of his efforts on the transgender community.

“They hated me. They thought it was wrong for a policeman to associate with these ‘faggots,’ ” Mr. Blackstone said. “But they needed help, so I helped.”

He started the first transgender support group in the country and even took offerings at church to buy hormones for transgender people when the city refused to fund them.

Why it’s useful the drop into stores even if you’re not seriously looking… Since I was at the mall today, I popped into Lane Bryant and discovered that they had a number of size 11 rings in stock. Woot! (Unfortunately, most women’s rings stop at size 10, so it’s difficult to find things in my size and even Lane Bryant usually doesn’t have them in stock, so they must’ve just gotten a new shipment.) Needless to say, I splurged a bit and picked up four rings, plus a set of earrings.

I go home tonight and found Boris hanging out on one of the curtains. Fortunately, I was able to corral him onto a newspaper and deposit him outside—where there’s undoubtedly more bugs to munch on anyway. Good hunting, Boris!

I wasn’t the only one with living Halloween decorations. I was cleaning the house last weekend and spotted this. Normally I’ve got a live-and-let-live approach to spiders, but I can understand arachnophobia after seeing this critter, who probably measured 2-inches from front to back. Boris’ spidey-sense must have warned him I going to the garage for a rolled-up newspaper, because he was gone by the time I got back—thus avoiding the sticky end of his namesake.

Creepy, crawly
Creepy, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly
Creepy, creepy, crawly, crawly…

Turns out I wasn’t one of the winners in costume contest. OTOH, someone pointed out that as a consultant, a lot of people at the company didn’t know me.

Ah well, there’s always next year….