This is where you get to find out a little about me and my family. I'm 35 years old, and I am a recovering participant in rigid gender stereotypes. I am a pre-op transsexual, and I am choosing to be non-op as long as I can in protest of the limited gender choices we are forced into by our culture. (For my own sanity, when the car is broken, you eventually have to get it fixed! But I have been living with a broken car since 1996 and I see no need to do anything about it any time soon.) I am waging a gender revolution against any and all discrimination and self- or surreptitiously-imposed limiting of the human condition and self expression.

Man and woman as gender classifications do not adequately provide for all of the possibilities of variety in gender, and by having only two, the assumption is that they are opposite and clearly divisible. I prefer to think of the man/woman gender dichotomy not as two end points on a line, but rather as two oceans on a globe. Man Ocean and Woman Ocean actually don't have a clearly defined border and the waters from one easily flow into the waters of the other. Therefore, we may belong to one or the other or somewhere in between or even in a completely different, uncharted ocean altogether.

Gender is a sense of belonging to a particular group, whether that group consists of one or thousands. In fact, gender is a conscious choice of belonging and identity. It is not something that can be determined by scientific data, by psychological treatment, or HRT and SRS, for that matter, but simply IS because we say so. We choose who and what we associate with. We choose our sexual preference and we choose how we present ourselves. We do not need to resort to "biologically determined" roles, because doing so puts the power of our selves, bodies, personas in the hands of others. It takes away our freedom of choice. It puts us in the categories of disorders and dysphorias and syndromes and diseases, things that can be cured. As long as we allow ourselves to be treated like diseases, we will encounter people who will want to cure us. There is no cure. There is no disease.

We are.

We choose.

What's wrong in making a conscious choice and accepting the consequences, good or bad, of that choice? I simply want to be me, without fear of reproach, recrimination. And I hope you do too. May you find the happiness and truth you are searching for.

"May the fire be your friend, and the sea rock you gently; May the moon light your way, 'til the wind sets you free" -Shriekback

Sometimes I think that being a woman trapped inside the body of a man is like saying I am a blonde trapped inside the body of a brunette.

Don't let the darkness suffocate you.

Here's my most recent theatre work which deals with gender issues.

Book reviews and recommended reading.

Hear me rant and rave.