It’s called “New Orleans” (read the rest of Susie’s post here). Considering all the (deserved!) hype that Precious is getting, I’m psyched to see Sapphire’s older stuff coming out of the woodwork, too.

I read Push when I was 13 or 14, I think. I found a review of it in That Lesbian Magazine That Was Then Known As Deneuve (little did I know I’d be writing their youth column all of a year later). I loved it, and cried over it, and I’ve kept the book all these years. I haven’t seen Precious yet, but I’m so glad that Sapphire’s work is getting the attention it deserves. About damn time.

Mme. Melissa, we’re sporting the same shade of chipped burgundy nail polish. And the sternum is one of my favorite parts of the body — my own & other people’s.

melissa:

Sternum status, five weeks on: solid, white, unmarred, with a bit less angora.

(This is clearly the result of spending too much time puttering around online due to flu.)

Okay. So, I don’t really want to give these people my money, and I don’t really want my friends to give them their money. But dang! How much do I want this shirt so I can do some ridiculous role-play in it (preferably at a public party or in a shoot)?

I know that Focus on Family also sells these shirts, and that queer activists & allies were calling FoF to get free stuff for awhile. The article I found says that FoF caught wind of that and doesn’t send folks “0” donation stuff anymore. However, I recall a friend saying you just had to call in your order by phone and be very firm about not donating.

I might just do it. I’ll let you know what happens. This shirt really needs to be mine.

Friends & readers,

If you’re in the Bay Area, please come to this on Sunday. (Grazie mille, Leah & Liz, for organizing.)

Also, today is Trans Day of Remembrance. Event listings are on the website.

I’m stuck home with flu. Lighting candles & saying prayers for the folks who’ve gone home, tonight.

Love on alla you,
Gina

—-

PRESS RELEASE

TIME: Sunday, November 22, 3:30pm
LOCATION: Mac Arthur and Grand Ave. at Lake Merritt

CONTACT: Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Liz Latty
EMAIL: morethanavigil at gmail

BAY AREA COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO HOLD VIGIL FOR QUEER AND GENDER NON CONFORMING TEENS MURDERED IN MARYLAND AND PUERTO RICO

OAKLAND, CA - Outraged at the murders of two queer and gender non-conforming teenagers last week, Bay Area queers and allies will gather at Lake Merritt this Sunday for a candlelight vigil and open mic to mourn and brainstorm ways to keep their community safer from violence.

Last Friday, 19-year-old Jorge Steven López-Mercado got into a car with Juan Martinez-Matos, 26, who later said he had been “searching for a prostitute.” Martinez-Matos murdered, beheaded and dismembered López-Mercado after, he said, he discovered that López-Mercado had male genitalia and was wearing feminine clothing. Martinez-Matos then set fire to Lopez-Mercado’s remains and left them on the side of a road. Martinez -Matos is now in custody and has confessed to the murder. His bail is set at $4 million.

The same week, in Baltimore, Maryland, queer fifteen-year-old Jason Mattison, Jr., was raped and stabbed to death in his aunt’s home by an adult male, a family friend with whom, according to a Baltimore police spokesperson, Mattison allegedly had a “forced sexual relationship.”

Queer activists say they worry that López-Mercado’s murderer will successfully invoke the defense of “gay or trans-panic” to justify the brutal killing. “The fact that Martinez -Matos is saying that López-Mercado was ‘wearing women’s clothing’ indicates that he might try to say he was ‘fooled’ and therefore ‘forced’ to kill López-Mercado for their gender identity,” Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, one of the organizers of the Oakland vigil said.

“This is completely inexcusable,” Liz Latty, another organizer of the rally this Sunday, said. “It’s blaming the victim. We unequivocally denounce the way that the lives of queer and transgendered people, sex workers, people of color, women and low-income people are devalued and seen as disposable. We especially denounce the ways in which feminine-presenting sex workers of color are incredibly targetted for violence.”

Referring to López-Mercado’s murder, police investigator Ángel Rodríguez Colón told Univisión, “These types of people, when they enter this lifestyle and go out into the streets, know that this could happen.”

“We are outraged at the murders of López-Mercado and Mattison,” Oakland vigil organizer Latty said. “We, queer and transgendered people in Oakland, are mourning these senseless deaths. Yet we are also a resilient community. We wish to stand in solidarity with those in Puerto Rico and Baltimore who are surviving despite this invisibility and injustice.”

Bay Area organizers of the vigil have been in contact with friends of López-Mercado and are hoping to coordinate memorial events and future actions with the Puerto Rican and Baltimore queer communities.

Harry Rodriguez, a spokesperson for the FBI in Puetro Rico, said that the agency will monitor the investigation since federal statutes regarding hate crimes are implicated. Puerto Rican lawmaker, Charlie Hernandez, who authored the Hate Crimes Act of 2002, has been asking officials to consider charging Matos under that law. It would be the first time in Puerto Rico that a murder would be classified as a hate crime. According to the National Lesbian and Gay Task Force, López-Mercado is the tenth murder victim of a hate crime in Puerto Rico in the last seven years.

But Oakland vigil organizers say they want a different kind of justice that doesn’t rely on increased policing or punishment. They say that the prison system has not made life safer for victims of violence, especially those who are queer and transgendered people of color. Organizers say that violence against queer youth of color is only exacerbated by increased police enforcement, which disproportionally targets and locks up low-income people, people of color, sex workers, and gender non-conforming people.

“Hate crimes legislation and more police patrols would not make our communities safer. It would not have prevented the murders, and no punishment will bring these two men back,” organizer Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha said. “Systemic homophobia and transphobia killed López-Mercado and Mattison, who like other queer or gender non-comforming youth of color, faced barriers like street harassment and discrimination in every facet of life. What could’ve actually saved the two young people’s lives are things like free or affordable public transportation, an end to housing and employment discrimination against people of color, queer and trans folks, and the decriminalization of sex work.”

“We don’t know how Lopez-Mercado identified, gender-wise, right now,” added Piepzna-Samarasinha. ” What we do know is that transphobia is a huge part of why they were murdered. As we continue to receive information from Lopez-Mercado’s friends and family members about how Lopez-Mercado saw their gender, we will change their pronouns to the ones they preferred. We want to work to create a world where all people are free to live in safety with any gender expression they desire.”

Vigils mourning López-Mercado and Mattison will also take place this Sunday in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Amherst, MA, Tara Haute, Abilene, TX, Atlanta, and Durham.

I’m home sick (yuck), and catching up on things like internet tv, drinking orange juice, & livejournal (shhh). I found this link from a post in a trans-related community on ye olde lj. It really is too perfect. 

You know how it is.  You’re enjoying yourself, kicking back and relaxing at the pub or maybe at the library; or maybe you’re in class or just casually surfing the internet, indulging in a little conversation. The topic of the conversation is about a pertinent contemporary issue, probably something to do with a group of people who fall outside your realm of experience and identity. They’re also probably fairly heavily discriminated against - or so they claim.  

The thing is, you’re having a good time, sharing your knowledge about these people and their issues. This knowledge is incontrovertible - it’s been backed up in media representation, books, research and lots and lots of historical events, also your own unassailable sense of being right. 

Colin: [Mutual Friend] was all “No, Gina’s not a gossip” and I was like “No, Gina’s a TOOOOTAL gossip, I love it” and ze was like. “Huh. I guess she is… But I still want to tell her everything!”
Me: Oh, I’m a total gossip! I just understand discretion and confidentiality. Being trustworthy and dishy aren’t mutually exclusive.

Hi friends,

A reminder about Sex Workers’ Writing Workshop tonight, and our Winter Schedule:

Sex Workers’ Writing Workshop
Wednesday, November 18th, 6pm-8pm
Center for Sex & Culture, 1519 Mission Street, San Francisco (cross
street 11th — it’s the building with the pink awning)
Sliding scale $10-$20 *more if you can, less if you can’t, nobody turned away*
Workshop facilitated by Gina de Vries

Blurb:
This is a writing workshop for current and former sex workers to share
their writing and get honest, non-judgmental feedback. Workshop
participants are not obligated to write exclusively about sex work,
but writing about work in the sex industry (as well as writing about
other topics) will be welcomed. This is a place where people can write
and share about their sex work experiences without having to censor
themselves or explain every detail. Beginning writers are encouraged
to attend along with more seasoned wordsmiths.

And, in case you need it, here is Sex Workers’ Writing Workshop Winter 2009 Schedule:
Wednesday, December 2nd, 6pm-8pm, CSC
Wednesday, December 16th, 6pm-8pm, CSC

Also, I’m going to Portland next week for Thanksgiving break. Any
groovy things/people I should know about there? Tell me!

Love on alla you,
Gina

I’m taking a vacation! An Actual Vacation!

I’m going to Portland from 11/23-11/28. To hang out with Rose & Pidge, take long walks, read books in coffeeshops, eat good food, rest a lot, & go out dancing. And also perhaps cruise.

I am so happy!

And I still have about 300 (of 700, so I made a lot of progress) pages of reading to do. Getting back to that, now.

Thx, Miss Rose! Whenever I feel discouraged about writing, I will look at this & smile.

(Now, however? I Must Read. Roughly 600 pages. About 100 for Monday, & about 500 for Tuesday. I’ll be getting back to that, now…)

Me & the Fragglemonsters are extremely enthusiastic about Rose’s zine, All of Them With Teeth: monster hymns and sermons. I’m only two hymns in and I already feel the need to blog about it!

If you aren’t familiar with Rose’s work, she is, among other things the big brains & bigger heart behind the brilliant & lyrical Taking Steps. Go have a look at her blog, get your socks knocked off, and order a zine. You’ll be very, very glad you did.

Rose is a phenomenal & lyrical writer, a fabulous performer, a gifted spiritual worker, and really really fucking smart. We met through her equally wonderful girlfriend around this time last year, and bonded instantly over many things, from writing to activism to spirituality to word nerdery. I asked her to perform at Girl Talk in June and hope to include her in many more shows to come. I’m honored to call her a friend and colleague.

Also, if you’re in the Bay Area, go see her (and Leah! and Cherry! and assorted other wonderful Mangos!) perform at Beloved in Berkeley on Sunday. I went to the San Francisco show last weekend and was blown away — I’d go to the Berkeley show, too, if I wasn’t out of town that day.

(Also? On a personal note? I’ve had the loveliest couple days writing, reading, homeworking, staying up late dishing, going to Mass at Mission Dolores, walking all around the city, eating lots of good food, & mani-pedi-ing with Rose. Having friends in from out of town is a such a nice break in the midst of all my mid-semester zaney-ness. It’s like getting the vacation brought to me, and oh, is that needed right now.)

Move over, Bert & Ernie!

GAAAAAAAY. And adorable!

My last couple weeks have been kinda weaksauce. In short: School has been hella stressful and my heart is a little ouchy. I’ll be fine, and life is mostly pretty awesome, but, you know, weaksauce. It happens.

I realized tonight that I have been sublimating all my feelings of sadness, stress, anxiety, anger, and melancholy into cooking and baking. There are worse ways of dealing. I bought like $40 worth of fancy cheese, bread, and pesto on Wednesday night and made myself what my friend Mandisa referred to as “extravagant grilled cheese.” And now I have a lot of cheese & bread leftovers. Picnic time!

Today I went to the Alemany Farmer’s Market and bought a huge box of white pomegranates for $3. So I came home and made tempeh and rainbow chard in a white pomegranate sauce over spinach fusilli for lunch. I’d never cooked with pomegranates before, let alone white ones, but it was pretty awesome. And I have about a million pomegranates left. Maybe Rose will teach me some of the pomegranate recipes she is always taking about while she’s in town for Mangos with Chili?

And right now, inbetween reading books & writing about them, I took a break to make satsuma brownie cupcakes. As in, brownie batter put into cupcake tins. Flavored with fresh satsuma juice (satsumas also from the Farmer’s Market).

Apparently the solution to weaksauce is to… Make strongsauce? With pomegranates?

If I put on a show around International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers’ the week of Thursday, December 17th (that is when Day to End Violence is), would you come?

I’m envisioning an evening of performing arts where we gather sex worker community & allies to remember our dead and to celebrate the living. It would be distinct from the memorials that are being held in that a) it would not be on December 17th, and b) it would be more of a celebration, less of a somber memorial. And it would hopefully benefit local sex worker organizations.

Anyway — is there community interest in this, as an extension of/compliment to Day to End Violence work?

If there was only something between us, other than our clothes.

I’ve been writing a lot about adolescence these last couple weeks, and am on something of a music, books, & zines nostalgia kick. Tonight, I present to you — Fisher-Price My First David Bowie Video!

Factoid #1: If memory serves me right, this is one of the first representations of “alternative sexualities” — specifically kink, genderfuckery, exhibitionism, & body modifications — that I ever saw in the media, mainstream or otherwise.

Factoid #2: This song is also how I started listening to Bowie. I bought Outside in 1995 & then I worked my way backwards thru my parents’ collection of his LPs (yes, actual LPs, the vinyl kind).

Factoid #3: I remembered tonight that I totally stole my parents’ LP of Ziggy Stardust when I was a teenager. And their signed copy of Howl. I gave both of these items back eventually, but I feel a little jerky about it now.