One Trans Response to “Cloth…”
I recently blogged my notes on trans themes in my Nebula-nominated “Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds.” Shortly after that, Corey Alexander/Xan West posted an essay titled “One Trans Response to “Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds”. It is a powerful, hard-hitting entry. I am very honored to have this perspective and this reaction to my work. I hope you give it a read (but note the content warnings).
Here is an excerpt from the beginning of Corey’s entry:
About content: this post speaks openly (and in some detail) about trans oppression in queer communities (with a focus on the ways trans men are targeted), gender border wars, purging, and gender-based coercion and abuse in relationships. Most of that discussion is in the first section, so if you want to avoid it, skip to the section titled My Response to Grandmother-nei-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds.
My Own Context for Reading Rose Lemberg’s Grandmother-nai-Leylit’s Cloth of Winds
I remember the hardness of the chairs in the auditorium. I remember the buzz of the fluorescent lights. I remember trembling in my seat, my stomach in knots. I remember the energy in the room feeling dangerous to me, like if I moved I might get noticed, get hit by the violent storm.
I don’t remember what exactly people said at that queer town hall meeting. I have tried, today, as I write this, to recall those kinds of details. But I can’t access them. I don’t know how I ended up in that room. I don’t know who I came with.
It was 1996, probably. I think. Twenty years ago. And it was the first time I heard queer cis women speaking openly about the reality that some of their partners, some folks in queer women’s community, were transitioning.
[read more]
Originally published at RoseLemberg.net. You can comment here or there.