TRANSGENDER
JENNY ROBERTS/BOYS DON’T CRY
Waterstone’s, Glasgow, Thu 1 Nov/ Grosvenor Cinema, Glasgow, Sat 3 Nov.
As Britain tries to move with the times and promote itself as a nation of equality, why is it still struggling to accept transgender as a way of life? For some the problem is that they believe nature is being altered, for others it is blind ignorance and for many it is an area of confusion about facts, terminology and feelings as well as a fear of causing insult.
We live in a world where we are judged on our appearance from our weight to the clothes we are wearing. Imagine how it must feel for someone who believes they are ‘wearing’ the wrong body?
One such person is Jaye Richards, who has recently taken the high profile role of chairperson of Pride Scotland. Jaye is the first transgendered person to head a Pride event anywhere in the UK and is ‘delighted to be elected’ not only as a woman but as a transgendered woman. ‘As a minority group we are underrepresented because a lot of us just want to fade into the background,’ she says. ‘But we are doctors, lawyers, dustmen and train
drivers; we are all around in society.’
For many it is easier to live a restricted life out of the public eye but this is not the case for Jaye. ‘Especially after surgery we just want to fade into the background and lead ordinary lives as ordinary people,’ she says, ‘but a few of us will stand up and do a public role because the public at large need to know that there is nothing weird or wacky about this; it is a gender issue
not a sexuality issue.’
Things have progressed to the point that transgender is now recognised as a physiological medical condition. Glasgow and all major cities have clinics that deal with the problem through treatment programmes. ‘The stigma of transgender is disappearing,’ says Jaye, ‘especially now that we know it is caused by hormone imbalances which mean that your brain is in the body of
BOOK REVIEW
PATRICK GALE
Rough Music (Flamingo 536.99 CO.”
Author out of the ghetto
Hilary Swank as a woman ‘wearing’ the wrong body
one sex and your body is that of another. In fact, one in 20,000 human births in the world are intersex in one way or another, from slight modifications of the anatomy to full blown genital dysphoria.’
The issue of transgender is being highlighted in the Glasgay festival when lesbian transgender author Jenny Roberts talks about her new Cameron McGiII
Mystery book at Waterstone’s. There is also a
‘Fi’ough Music is my most personal novel.’ best—selling writer Patrick Gale told a captivated Glasgay audience at the end of October. ‘I wanted to COHJUI‘G up my world of being a seven- year-old boy and my sense of feeling different. l didn't know what gay was then, but I realised I had another life. one that was not reflected in the Puffin books I devoured.’
Rough Music is an engrossing family drama set in a seaside cottage over two summers. set apart by 32 years. Exploring the minutia that makes up a family's lives. it's about a yOung boy taken on an idyllic summer holiday by his prison governor of a father and beautiful mother. Then. 32 years later. he returns. single and gay. looking after his retired father and mother suffering from the onset of Alzheimer's.
It's a real page-turner, full of narrative drive. compelling characters and intertwmed lives. making the reader desperate to find out what
screening of the film Boys Don 't Cry in which Hilary Swank plays the role of a man trapped in a woman’s body who lives in a small town loaded with oppression and bigotry. After the screening, the Equality Network is holding a discussion on transgender with an introduction by Tim Hopkins and talks from Simon de Voile and Ailsa Spindler. (Jane Hamilton)
happens next. Inspired by lris Murdoch and Armistead lvlaupin. Gale's gay characters are never ghettoised. but part of the fabric of bigger lives.
Gale has always been a writer. He went to choir school. then Oxford. He wrote his first novel. the delightful. The Aerodynamics Of Pork for himself. but unbeknown to him. his friend sent it to a publisher. At the age of 24. it was published simultaneously With his second novel Ease. 'l've never had a real (OI). With a real salaiy' he says. ‘l'm not normal.~
Ten novels later. Gale says: ‘I need to work harder. I'm quite a lazy writer.‘ He has a new editor. a gay woman. who pushes him hard and enCOurages him to take the diffiCuIt option, which partly aCCOunts for the maturity and darkening of tone in Rough MuSic. lt's a big important book. confronting families. failures and the uncertainty of a way of life wrthout set guidelines. (John Binnie)
Out takes
How to spend your pink pounds
WOMEN WILL. BEE FLOCKING to Edinburgh's Cameo specia' one-off screening of BUN/it.” (Mon 5 Nov). a scorcher e‘ a film neir which plays Ettotillil With notions of butch and lemme. and how a ‘.'.’()l‘l£ll‘ gets what she really u'xants. A plethora of pink l‘l()‘.’l()f§ aie at the Grosvenor including a Derek .Jarman retrospectixe. a fancy dress performance for Pr'isc/l/a Queen Of 1 he {)esw.‘ (Fri 2 NOV) and i'i/r'iu'nigr’ig‘ Cowboy (Sat (3 Now.
Morris dancing
THERE’S OPPORTUNITY TO hear talks by leading gay American practitioners. Mark Morris, whose dancers always wowed audiences at the Edinburgh Festival and at 0.0. Blooms is in Glasgow dancing and talking about his career (Sat 10 Nov). Tim Miller (Sat 3 Nov) is running a queer performance workshop at the Tron exploring personal stories and activism.
Gt AS(".AY HAS A ()i’ll liill !t\. the gorgeous St Andrex'fs l in in St Andrews Square (71" Sat. 3 Nov \'.’|II‘. the Macappeiia l‘;‘:.".: in aid of l esbiai‘. 8. (3a). S‘.‘/it(:lil)()aitl. (In ss dress r‘gi en pointe comes from I :‘:§; Ballets 'lrocadero de Moritz;- Carlo ll' (linbuigl: l estixa. Theatre, in what l).’()""i3t‘:tl 1.: z a hoot of a shonzp l :keu se ' Ania/ing l().'“i£if3ll‘.. honest ‘ bring Glasgay to an ear splitting end \.'.‘:th I‘IS one show at the Tron lStll‘. .1 .No. DELMONICA’S, AS A LATE addition to the Glasgay brochure, hosts Natalie’s Annual Lezzie Beauty Pageant (Fri 2 Nov) and is encouraging all those gay cowboys and girls to ride the specially-installed Bonking Bronco (Sun 4 Nov).
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