An audio and also video (on YouTube) discussion with Dr. Robin L. Owens, whose highly regarded podcast “Leadership With Purpose” highlights this theme for women in a wide range of occupations. No matter what we do, we should have a sense of purpose and human value in it, and if we do, we’ll do a […]
Integrating science, creativity, and purpose Read More »
This topic has become ground zero, as it were, for the transmisic* community these days. As of this writing, twenty-five states ban trans students from participation in school-sanctioned sports; seventeen of them for all grades including college. Yet another lawsuit has been filed by the attention-starved Riley Gaines. This sort of “breaking news” appears widely.
Transgender women in athletics Read More »
Here is a short contribution on why a work of fiction is so important to social and political discussions, and specifically how my novel Hanna’s Ascent can stir action where a non-fiction book may fail. In the course of the ~200,000 revisions to my debut novel (the total number of “track changes” entries) I took
What a Novel can Teach us Read More »
Inputs from three different yet closely related perspectives on the crisis of legal controversy around transgender rights, and how a novel such as Hanna’s Ascent can play a vital role in making the reality clear. Episode #131 of Heather’s podcast. Jeannie Gainsburg (she/her) is the founder of Savvy Ally Action and is an award-winning educational
The Empathy Edge – Accepting and Protecting Our Transgender Community Read More »
Hanna’s Ascent is a novel, not a textbook or a tutorial. But it is the only novel with all of the following elements: a relatable (“real-life”) main character; the reality of violent transgender suppression in history; portrayal of the implacable requirement to pass for those who were not entertainers and didn’t want to be street
Novels and understanding gender identity Read More »
In the vilification-laden anonymous comment sites of social media, it has long been a staple belief that the very existence of gender identity is an affront to common sense, and therefore its elimination a reasonable subject for public debate. In that venue it is mere low-level intellectual noise, but not when it becomes a prominent
Should gender identity be debatable? Read More »
“I think, therefore I am.” René Descartes, often called the father of modern philosophy (according to Wikipedia anyway), wrote these famous words in an attempt to be certain of his existence. Later thinkers typically define existence through experience, but its meaning still has to be analyzed. While I doubt that many transgender people consult philosophy
On gender identity (Part 2) Read More »
With seven months to go before Hanna’s Ascent is released, it’s time (finally) to start learning to use this blog professionally. So here’s a start. Five and a half years ago I was just going to write down some notes to help me remember the bedtime stories I was telling myself. A month later I
On Creative Writing (and my journey) Read More »
Transgender individuals “are” the gender they identify as: a trans woman is and always has been a trans woman, and hence a woman, whether she was aware of it or not. (And mutatis mutandi for trans men). This should have been understood since the publication of “The Transsexual Phenomenon” by Dr. Harry Benjamin in 1966.
On gender identity Read More »
Jacket synopsis: After a close brush with suicide John Shelby returns to the University of Colorado in 1970, determined to be Hanna. She knows her life depends on passing; too many people think of transsexuals as despicable perverts. Despite her fears, things go smoothly. She enjoys her classes, finds friends, and revels in feeling feminine.
