Category: Columns

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #103, Fall 2003.

by Miqqi Alicia Gilbert

It?s fascinating to sit in an outdoor caf? or pub and watch the people stroll by. It?s just amazing how they vary in height, weight, width, facial shape, body configuration, skin color, eye shape, hair color and quantity, and on and on. Think how rarely we confuse people, how unusual it is to mistake one person for another. It?s so rare that when it happens we?re struck by it, and wonder at the similarity, at how one person can look so much like another. Even when people are the same height and weight, even when they have the same measurements, we know they?re different. This is because there?s an infinite number of variations among people, and when we take them all together those infinite combinations result in individual uniqueness.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #103, Fall 2003.

? Why do transgender people often find themselves competing for the same seat at a table?
? What must you know about someone before you can even consider extending friendship?

Expectations of Gender
? Judy Osborne


At the moment of birth, a glance at a baby?s genitals confers lifelong legal and social expectations. These expectations vary greatly among societies.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #102, Summer 2003.

by Monica F. Helms

I was going through my morning routine, getting ready for another day at Tapestry Towers. Only a few months ago, we all thought we would lose our jobs because of the lavish spending of the editor, Dallas Denny. However, Dallas used her beguiling ways to convince a Saudi sheik to float a multi-million-dollar loan, which in reality should be considered a ?gift,? as she has no intention of paying it back.

As I adjusted my skirt and slipped into my flats, I heard what sounded like a knock at the door. Rounding the corner into my living room, I saw the strangest thing?the air in front of the door appeared distorted, like ripples in a pond. The ripples increased in intensity and air started rushing into the center. The turbulence was so intense that papers flew off the table and into the opening.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #102, Summer 2003.

by Miqqi Alicia Gilbert
The richness and soul of a society is indicated by the way it cares for its differences, for those within it who don?t fit the general categories. In our western societies, we are more and more making room for those who are on the edges, who don?t fit in the mainstream categories and boxes. In many jurisdictions, for example, one can?t construct a new building without including facilities and access for the disabled. More and more elevators have Braille markings, more public transport has facilities for wheelchairs, and so on. This indicates that our society is beginning to take care of those who previously had to fend for themselves.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #102, Summer 2003.

by Li Anne W. Taft

I once read a novel in which the only life choices for the characters were to look and act like John Wayne or Madonna. I trembled at the thought of such limitations being put on my own gender expression. Recently, when I read a letter to the editor in the Honolulu Weekly, the phrase ?the gender of our sex? caused me to shiver once more. Both writers seemed to assume that sex?our biological characteristics?is inevit-ably linked to the appropriate socially-constructed gender.

I calmed myself by reviewing my beliefs that gender identity need not follow any particular path or the social dictates of our assigned-at-birth sex. Realizing that not everyone feels the same and that society often chooses what is appropriate, I quivered once more, even as I sat in the warm tropical sun.