Gina

From now on, whenever my Anxiety Loop starts telling me “You’re not doing enough”… I should really just take a look at one of my bios. Maybe also my CV if it’s a particularly bad anxiety day and I need not just convincing, but hella convincing.

Case in point — my bio for Coming & Crying. I’m putting this up here because as I was reading it over I was like “Oh. Yeah. I guess I do do a lot, don’t I?”

Gina: 1. Anxiety: 0.

GINA DE VRIES is a queer femme Paisan pervert, and a writer, performer, and activist with a long history doing political organizing in and with queer, trans, and sex worker communities. Gina has performed, taught, and lectured everywhere from chapels to leatherbar backrooms, and recent university appearances include Reed College, Yale University, Harvard University, and the Pacific School of Religion. Recent publications include Issue #4 of Bound to Struggle: Where Kink and Radical Politics Meet, Girl Crush, The Revolution Starts at Home, and Femmethology; shows she’s curated include “Ecstasies & Elegies” (for International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers), “Rebel Girl: a riot grrrl nostalgia show,” and “Girl Talk: a trans & cis woman dialogue” (with Julia Serano); and movies she’s gotten naked in include Doing It Ourselves: The Trans Women Porn Project. Gina is the founder and facilitator of Sex Workers’ Writing Workshop, a writing class for current and former sex workers at San Francisco’s Center for Sex & Culture (where she also serves on the Advisory Board). She’s currently pursuing her MFA in Fiction Writing at San Francisco State University, where she is working on a novel and a book of short stories. She likes glitter, the color fuchsia, leopard print, and political discussion as foreplay. Find out more at ginadevries.com, and keep track of her on the daily at queershoulder.tumblr.com.

Why are our (my) standards for ourselves (myself) so intense and weird? It boggles me, sometimes.