Beyond Transition?

As usually the rule, the Huffington Post "Gay Voices" recently published an outstanding post called "Beyond Transition" Documentaries.

Transgender writer Mitch Kellaway did a wonderful job of featuring more than a couple "mainstream" transgender women and men as well as a number of individuals not quite so well known:

To give you an idea of Mitch's work, here is an opening excerpt:

"Mass media have a history of erasing transgender people's complexities and lived experiences. It happens whenever there's an act of misgendering or misnaming or a reliance on social assumptions that trans existence is essentially tragic or reducible to medical procedures. Thankfully, this year has seen a steady stream of trans-focused independent documentaries to offer a counterpoint, illuminating how nuanced, flawed, individualistic, and human trans lives are.

 I spoke via email with several filmmakers to learn how they worked toward capturing rich portraits of trans folks that evoke resilience, humor, history, and joy. A common theme emerged from our conversations: Gender transition, while a significant milestone, is not the only, or even necessarily the defining, part of every trans person's life. It's an ongoing process that informs and interacts with other roles and identities, albeit one that is too often rendered tragic by medical and legal stumbling blocks and social stigma. And, like any major change, it's worth celebrating -- even as life goes on despite and because of it."

As I followed down the list of documentaries, of course I knew of Kate Bornstein's (left) story and now there is actually a film being produced called "Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Present Danger" about her.

On the other hand there were many others in the post I had never of such as Bambi Lake (below) who is featured in Sticks and Stones and The Golden Age of Hustlers. I had no idea Bambi Lake was a "notorious" San Francisco performer who wrote the song, "The Golden Age of Hustlers," which is now being performed by trans artist Justin Vivian Bond in New York.

Bambi Lake

As I said there is a ton of information in Mitch Kellaway's post and you can follow the link above to read it!

As I did, I began to think what "beyond transition" would mean to me and will mull it over it a future Cyrsti's Condo post.