Regie Cabico, Joy Carroll and I after Sparkle, the Queer Open Mic at Busboys and Poets. (4th Wednesdays) Moments before this photo, Joy asked me how to stay alive. Joy recently came out as trans and performed as a girl for the first time last night at the reading. It was a spectacular, strange and even slightly disturbing performance piece. I loved it because it messed with our sensitivities, used words like pangenderational and generally fucked with boundaries. Joy talked to me about being born the son of a CEO and how her family thinks it is a phase they are going through and that they should get over it and go to law school. I honestly felt kind of useless as a resource. As a cisgender female, I felt like I could offer very little understanding of what’s it’s like to be openly trans or genderqueer in public. I suggested following/reading Kate Bornstein and plugging into the local DC community as well as radical spaces or infoshops in the area. I know how critical reading zines was for me when I first started settling into my queerdom. Earthbless, Tumblr too. High-res

Regie Cabico, Joy Carroll and I after Sparkle, the Queer Open Mic at Busboys and Poets. (4th Wednesdays) Moments before this photo, Joy asked me how to stay alive. Joy recently came out as trans and performed as a girl for the first time last night at the reading. It was a spectacular, strange and even slightly disturbing performance piece. I loved it because it messed with our sensitivities, used words like pangenderational and generally fucked with boundaries. Joy talked to me about being born the son of a CEO and how her family thinks it is a phase they are going through and that they should get over it and go to law school. I honestly felt kind of useless as a resource. As a cisgender female, I felt like I could offer very little understanding of what’s it’s like to be openly trans or genderqueer in public. I suggested following/reading Kate Bornstein and plugging into the local DC community as well as radical spaces or infoshops in the area. I know how critical reading zines was for me when I first started settling into my queerdom. Earthbless, Tumblr too.