Raising the trans profile

 Despite all the anti-trans hate these days, I am not inclined to despair. You see, there's good news from two of my friends this week, and from others similarly promoting the profile of trans people. Many fields of endeavour accept alternative people readily, such as performing arts and academia. 

 

Trans theatre this summer

There are quite a number of trans themed theatrical performances this summer. Starting with my friend Grace Statton's performance in Gary at the Cockpit Theatre in London on 10 August.

Gary tells a story of love, self-hate and identity confusion when you realise you are what you fear. Looking at bigotry, identity, trans narratives and community, this show will resonate with some and hopefully bring joy to all.

Things are going to change... Just not in the way Gary expects. He wants your vote to make his little piece of London great again. However, after a protest gets out of hand outside a library hosting a drag queen story time, Gary wakes up in hospital. With no memory of who he was, how does he tell the world who he really wants to be? And how will the world around him react? How will HE react when he finds out who he was - someone who would hate everything about the person of the present. And how does he deal with the fact that he is now perhaps she!

Gary has a lot of thinking to do and a very short time to do it.

More info and to book a ticket: Gary

 

Gary is not the only trans play on this summer. Vladimir Luxuria, a very well known trans person here in Italy as she was a member of parliament, is performing at the nearby Borgo Verezzi Festival in Princesa, a play about the life of a controversial Brazilian transwoman, Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque (1963-2000). 

Vladimir Luxuria by Sergio D'Afflitto

The Avignon Festival in France has just hosted a long-running play Giovanni! Awaiting the Bomb, a somewhat surreal solo performance to music about outsider artist Giovanni Galli whose troubled mental state and gender dysphoria is reflected in his life and art. 

Giovanni! En attendant la bombe. Promotional image.

 

Trans academics

The other friend I mentioned, Jan Eldridge, has now become full professor of astrophysics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand, and heads the physics department there, as well as being a visible advocate for trans rights. Her inaugural lecture aimed at non-specialists, "Exploding Binaries", referring to both stars and genders, can be watched here (53 mins):  

Few of my readers will be experts in binary stars but most will know enough about the gender binary already. Jan does emphasise the importance of great hair and pretty nails here, and I'm sure we can all relate to that! I hope to see Jan again next time I visit New Zealand. Here's us in 2011.

So it's good to have another leading academic who is trans. Another professor I know is Sophie Grace Chappell of the Open University in Britain who has a lot to say about being trans (take this in the Guardian newspaper, for instance: Harry Potter helped me become a woman.)

I notice that a new Professorial Chair of LGBTQ+ History has just been created at Oxford University, the first such post in the UK. This is exciting news, too.

Thanks to all these folk for presenting trans life to the real world. And for arts and academic worlds for offering plenty of scope for trans people to lead their best lives. 

Sue x