Photo Shoot & a Sexy Bear
Earlier this week when I was in Denver, I sat for a photo shoot. Along with fellow ex-gay survivor Daniel Gonzales, I will be featured in a national article that explores the ex-gay movement. (I am not at liberty to give any more details about the article at this time).The photographer really did a fine job of calming us down and getting us to act natural. Christine Bakke, who sadly was not interviewed for the piece (seems many reporters are just interested in hearing from former ex-gay men), asked me to take a photo of the studio which with the late afternoon light gave it an other-worldly feel.
Then Christine, Daniel and I joined Eugene for Ethiopian food, which since first having it with Mike Airhart and Steve Boese in DC some years ago, has turned into the official cuisine of former ex-gays and critics of the ex-gay movement.
I returned to Hartford to work on Transfigurations, (which is going soooo well) and expected to stay home, but I found out about S. Bear Bergman, a butch trans man leading a writing workshop at the Stonewall Center at UMASS (thank you Elliot for the heads up). Being a person without a car, I frantically called and e-mailed friends and quickly heard back from blogger and recently fully out trans woman Diana, (one of my queer blogger spawns, whose poetry has been featured on this blog here).
The workshop consisted of instructing us about Gender Neutral Pronouns (GNPs) like Ze for he & she and Hir for his and her. We then each wrote a short story using these GNPs and read a few aloud to see if we could note the gender clues in the stories. Even with GNPs, we have been programmed to assume certain activities and ways of behaving belong to either males or females. The workshop was fine and interesting, but I wanted to hear more from Bear. Bear spoke in such an artistic manner with words filled with meaning and dripping with humor, irony and an edge. Kinda sexy. But then trans guys are hot!
In case you were interested, I am still stuck in my sweet brown rice food loop. I do limit myself to one bowl of it (a large ONE) per day and my current garnish of choice is chopped dandelion greens. Yum!
Oh and this is too good. The Onion's video report on Gays Too Precious to Risk In Combat.
5 Comments:
That photo studio looks like something from the X-Files. Are you sure that dome thing wasn't some sort of extraterrestrial communication device? You didn't sit on it, I hope.
So jealous you got to be with S. Bear Bergman. And with Diana, who I know (virtually) from the My Husband Betty community. (Hi Diana!)
LBNL, so glad to formally have my preciousness confirmed and affirmed by the Department of Defense, even if it is ten years after I left the military. Better late than never.
Ally, I LOVE the photo! No worries, I did not sit on the dome but Christine seemed strangely drawn to it (but she refrained from sitting on it)
So, Ally, when ya gonna write something for bXg? Just asking.
The workshop was really awesome. Though, Bear says he still wishes he'd had more time to finish the workshop the way he'd originally hoped to.
And I agree, transguys are hot. :)
I can't wait to read the post that proclaims you're (FINALLY) an "ex"-media whore, honey.
You know I love you?
Right?
Ha. We were going for Ethiopian food that day my favourite place to eat was being used for some random celebrations and so wasn't serving some food. Ethiopian food definatly must be the food of critics of the ex-gay movmement. Esther
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