It's a trope of both literature and film. We have two protagonists thrown together by circumstances, allies working together. They don't particularly react to each other as attractive romantic possibilities, and instead we find them interacting as people with skills and talents, areas of expertise and passionately held principles. And they come ( Read more... )

"I was born this way", he says. "I know some of you think there must have been some event, or situation or whatever that made me like this, but honestly I've always been into dicks since before I knew what sex was ( Read more... )

My book effectively starts with eighth grade, but I covered my earlier life in my initial autobiography, the tome from which my book was taken. I've done blog posts about earlier segments in my life -- third grade; sixth gradeI've been reminiscing about seventh grade lately. It was the year just before our family moved to Los Alamos NM. In an odd ( Read more... )

In this society, morality is gender-specific. Good and evil (or good and bad, which are the words actually used) have different flavors and dynamics, as well as different manifestations, depending on sex ( Read more... )

In my blog post of two weeks ago I wrote that I'd been mulling over the possibility of marketing my book as something akin to "Nice Guy Testifies & Tells His Side of the Story ( Read more... )

Unlike my parents, I wasn't a morning person. My Dad was making puns and trying to engage me at breakfast, and I just wished he'd shut up and leave me to my dull early-morning haze. My little sister Jan's morning mood trended more towards cranky. "Tell Derek* to quit slurping his cereal, it's gross!" I scowled at her and considered doing it ( Read more... )

Nowadays on LGBTQIA group chats and in leftist social discussions, the phrase "radical feminism" most often appears in a pejorative mention -- TERFS ("trans exclusive radical feminists") being castigated for their intransigence about female-spectrum transgender people, or disparaged for being anti-sex and anti-free-speech as exemplified by the ( Read more... )

I echo my blog posts on the Straight Dope Message Board, an internet discussion board I've been a part of for two decades. It's a general-topic board where people post thought-provoking posts on a wide range of interesting subjects. For those of you with no familiarity with it, I recommend it: The Straight Dope Message BoardAnyway, there is a ( Read more... )

Tea and Transition: A Story of Love, the Human Spirit, and How One Man Became One Woman, by Nicola Jane Chase (Telemachus Press: 2015)

Barriers to Love: Embracing a Bisexual Identity, by Marina Peralta with Penolope James (Barriers Press: 2013 ( Read more... )

I do tend to whine a bit. In here, and on the topic in general. Comes with the territory: when atypical female people set out to draw attention to social feminization and the expectations and roles and whatnot that they have to cope with, it's widely perceived as aggressive belligerent ranting; when we do our version, it's naturally going to be ( Read more... )