Help Me Save TG Art History

This is a personal request. Below is an item I’d love to see belong to the community instead of an ebay dealer’s collection. This is a painting by a famous transgender artist and, much like the Lilly Elbe painting currently displayed in the TG Center, I believe that preserving and making the significant art of our community accessible is a worthy endeavor.

I’m writing to see if some of you would be willing to join with me in purchasing this item. I believe that this is something the that should rest in the hands of the trans community. Because I believe this, I’m willing to give $100 towards obtaining this painting. This is on top of the $200 I’ve already given this week to the TG Center in support of the good work it does (as noted in the TG Center email I sent out yesterday). As many of you know, I’m not rich. I live in an efficiency apartment and drive a 16 year-old car. I greatly value the various work the transgender center does and I want to support it to the very best of my ability. If you would like to join with me in saving this piece of transgender art history, please email me at my personal email address: gypsyrose1972@gmail.com and let me know.

You need not donate today. All I’m asking for is your pledge of support. Send me an email with your contact info and let me know how much you’d like to pledge to support the acquisition of this piece of transgender history:

Please send me your pledge of support now since the auction ends at 6 PM today.

Research this famous trans artist:

http://www.artnet.com/artist/654063/michel-marie-poulain.html

http://zagria.blogspot.com/2009/09/michel-marie-poulain-1906-1991.html

For the Ebay listing, info and various photos, please click here.

If instead of contacting me, you’d like to make a donation online, you can donate via the following special paypal link: Click here to donate Thank you!

Cristan

New Painting

I just got done with a painting that I’ve been struggling with for many months now. Last night, in a flash of inspiration, I finished it up in one sitting:

“The Three Pillars”

The piece is around 5 feet tall and 2 1/2 feet wide.

The title comes from the 1965 Western Zen classic, “Three Pillars of Zen: Teaching, Practice and Enlightenment”.

The Ghosts of Hempstead Highway

Since I’m supposed to be off today, I only worked half a day. So, with a few hours to kill, I decided to take a drive down old Hempstead Highway. I noticed the highway has a lot of rundown buildings that looked like they were left over from the 70s and 80s and thought I’d check them out:

At the Car Wash

Car Ash

The Machine

Waiting room looks like it’s waiting for customers

 

The BBQ Place

Interesting abandoned structure

Menu is intact; trays sit just inside of the window

The Barber’s Strip

Barbershop on the corner. Note the intact Barber pole

Inside the Barber Shop. Note the filled spray-bottle

Whatever this used to be, it’s now a fern garden

At the End of the Road

Hempstead Highway ends just after Beltway 8. At the end of the road the highway becomes particularly junky. However, the wisteria vines add just a hint of color to an otherwise dreary scene. To me, it looked like nature was feebly trying to rebel against the litter:

A Rant About MTF “Stealth”

The use of the word stealth has lost it’s meaning in the last decade. I here people who go to TG support group meetings, activities and who run TG websites claim to be “stealth” now. When I came out, going to TG support group meetings, activities and running TG forums was the definition of being out in a big way! Some now say that “stealth” means one thing and “woodworking” another. I call BS. You can’t woodwork without being stealth. It’s like saying that the word “hide” and “conceal” are fundamentally different. If you’re going to conceal something, you have to hide it; if you’re going to woodwork, you’ve got to be stealth. Some say “stealth” means privacy. Privacy is not telling my sex partner that I had my appendix removed; stealth is not telling my sex partner that I had my penis removed.

Pretending that being “out” now means telling the everyone you meet you’re TG is BS. Associating with others in the TG community while claiming to be stealth is a mischaracterization of what stealth is.

Stealth is pretending to everyone that you’re a biological female. It means living in fear that the husband you lied to will find out that you didn’t actually have a hysterectomy. It means always wondering if your friends would really like you if they knew the truth. Stealth is running away from or verbally running down your trans brothers and sisters so that others won’t make the connection. Stealth means that you hide being trans.

Stealth is about shame and nothing more. Not telling the grocery sacker that you’re trans is not stealth. Trying to get your parents to lie to your new boyfriend is being stealth. Not telling every co-worker in the building that you’re trans is not being stealth. Not telling your best friend is being stealth.

If you associate with other trans people, you’re not in stealth because your putting yourself in a position of allowing more and more people to know the truth about your past. Isolating and hiding your past is what it means to live in stealth.

Stealth people say things like “I just want to get on with my life as the woman I am” – a sentiment that sounds rational enough. The problem is that it’s also a delusion. Stealth people rationalize their lies by believing that being trans was just a medical problem that was fixed. If you believe that, remember that I said that you’re delusional when your best friend, your husband, your boyfriend, your adopted child, etc finds out that you lied.

Anyway… pretending to be a biological female is stupid and never works. You can never destroy every piece of history documenting your true past and you certainly can’t kill everyone how knows the truth. Choosing stealth is a shame-based way to live because it supports the belief that being trans is bad and should be hidden. Being a transwoman is just another way of being a woman. If you want to save yourself a lot of misery, be truthful about the history that made you into the wonderful person you are today to the people who matter to you. You don’t need to tell the gas station attendant, but the point of transitioning is that you get to live authentically. Don’t put yourself into a position that you have to go back to living a lie; don’t go from one closet to another.

A few more shots…

Yesterday I saw something I’ve not seen in years:

You know, I even have one of those silver-head 101 KLOL t-shirts in the back of my closet. After Clearchanel bought it, didn’t they turn 101 into a Tajano station?

I spotted this old house today. I pass by it all the time, but I’ve just never seen it before today:

This old house is located just inside the loop on the West side close to I-10. The place even has a 1980-era car parked in the drive.