Fearless Friday - Linkage
(Icon via garwlban)
A few weeks ago, I shared the news that Vermont had passed legislation marking progress on the path to gender and sexual equality.
This week, Vermont Public Radio's "Vermont Edition" devoted a show to transgender rights in Vermont. It's definitely worth listening to.
For writers, "Vermont Edition" reinforces this post at GayYA.org, specifically this: "There is no single narrative that describes the emotional and physical nature of being trans, and there is especially no singularity with regard to how one understands coming to identify as trans-anything." When we write, ALL our characters need to be individuals.
Jillian Page's Blog Post "Trans Does Not Mean Gay" in the Montreal Gazette is a thought-provoking look at the way we too often lump gender identity and sexual orientation into the same category, and looks at the tension between the two. It's something I had to think about a good bit while I was writing StT, although from a different angle.
There seems to be a lot going on in Canada these days, as The Torontoist.com reports here. I was especially struck by the point that drag tends to be equated with trans, when they are, in fact, not identical. It's a confusion I think is all too common, and--again--it's something I had to deal with when I was writing StT.
On a more personal note--with all these Canadian links, it seems so very appropriate that I'm going to get to see Eddie Izzard in Montreal next week, where he's peforming as part of the Montreal Comedy Festival (if you're lucky, his face will be the first in the rotation on the home page). Since he's been gigging in Paris, he's even going to do one show in French (not the one I'll see).
I'd love it if you'd let me know what you found fascinating about these posts.