Dolly Parton & Tim Curry, allies

 I am in little doubt that the world of entertainment can write better tributes than I can - presentation is their job, after all - but I confess to being very sad that two great performers, Dolly Parton and Tim Curry, both passed away yesterday. They were both steadfast and ferocious allies to the trans and gay communities, despite neither being LGBT+ themselves, and their advocacy was special and precious. Heck, Dolly was even a Christian, which in the USA seems to mean you are required to hate trans and gay people with pathological ferocity. But it was the opposite with her.

My condolences to their families and close friends.

Obviously, Tim Curry's best known performance was as Dr Frank N Furter from Transsexual Transylvania in the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which for decades now has had cult following, and then some. My trans life was already established by the time I first saw it, yet it has always been firmly among my favourite movies for its refreshing zaniness and the unequivocal message of "Don't dream it, be it." I took that to heart and it helped me push myself to get out in the world as myself. Not your words, Tim, I know, but it was your delivery that helped me. As well as your constant advocacy and support for trans people in so many subsequent interviews, even when you were disabled in a wheelchair after your stroke. Thank you. Rest in peace, you old devil.

I confess I know less of the flamboyant yet evidently honest Dolly Parton but I was certainly well aware of her uncompromising support for LGBT+ people. Years ago I heard of how, for fun, she entered a Dolly Parton lookalike contest and only came runner-up to the drag queen who won. Far from being offended, this only seemed to cement her connection with our whole vast community. 

We lost two formidable allies yesterday, ones so much in the public eye that I worry how such people can be replaced. Then I remember that a new generation of cis / straight performers is growing up who are open allies, too. Just a few evenings ago in my new location in Italy, pop singer Dittonellapiaga, who won the Queer Prize at this year's massive national Sanremo Music Festival, was back performing outdoors to the public for free. 

Queer people have always existed and always will. I'm sorry, though, that we still need the support of cis/straight people to speak to other cis/straight people about us, but we do have them.

Rest in peace, both. 

(I'd like to put their photos up but they're all ferociously protected by copyright. This is the trouble with celebrities. Their image is public, but not once printed! So here instead is the trans flag that they helped us fly, with thanks.)

 

Sue x 

Being a model: a family tradition

 I've been taking advantage of a bit of peace and quiet this week to try out some old items that I couldn't get into when I was overweight. Monday's post was about my black daisy dress outdoors, and Tuesday's about styling a short denim skirt indoors. 

Yesterday was hot and sticky outdoors but I was determined to take advantage of the ongoing privacy to try out various combinations of miniskirts, tops, shoes and one or two other items for summer, like this summery skirt and kitten heel combination, which would make a good summer evening outfit, I think. 

But I propose to sort through the photos and post about the combinations I came up with next week. Today I want to talk about my trip to Nice's art shops as a followup to my post the other week about My Transgender Artworks 

So last Saturday I took the train across the border to France and had a day in Nice. It was hot but it's never too oppressive here by the sea. I tend to go to Nice about once a month as it's a big city full of big shops that sell things you can't get locally in my smaller town, and there's food that's different, especially a lot of ethnic restaurants that are not really a thing in Italy. I mean, Italian food is lovely, but sometimes you need a change. For lunch, therefore, I enjoyed a curry in an Indian restaurant. And I was happy to reward myself at the end of a successful day with a huge ice-cream sundae. I've been so good with the slimming that I've earned it!

Mainly, though, I went to the big art materials shops and got some fancy oil paints, a top quality canvas and some new hogshair brushes. I went for the most expensive brands because I think that if you're going to do something creative with your own hands, do it properly. For everything else, there's AI! I wanted Michael Harding paints which I know well and which that shop claims to stock but not in its Nice branch, so I went for Old Holland paints which are costly but loaded with pigment and should last years. I see it as an investment. You don't really need more than white, black, red, blue, umber and sienna to create virtually any colour yourself but I treated myself to a bright yellow and a flesh pink to make life easier. The canvas has already been sized and gessoed because I can't be bothered with all that preparation (rabbit-skin size is gelatin made from animal skin and, frankly, you don't want to know what you have to do to a bunny to get it! Kidding, rabbit is just a description of the consistency. Like cat gut or orange pekoe tea or Bombay duck, it's not what you'd expect.)

Let's see what sort of self-portrait I can come up with as part of this new trans art project. One of the reasons for taking quite a few photos this week was to use one as the basis for a painting. My face isn't so photogenic as my clothes, though, but this is the advantage of paint. The camera never lies, they say, but paint can flatter a less attractive subject. Given that one of my grandmothers was a fashion model when young in the 1930s and my mother has always been strikingly chic, especially as a young woman in the 1960s, I have an impossible act to follow, in any case. 

A painting will emerge in due course. If I like it, I'll try a full-length picture after that.

 

Pro-LGBT celebs news

I'm sad to hear of the passing the other day of singer-songwriter Bonnie Tyler. You'll find ample tribute to her in the music press and general media. I mention her not only because she was very pro-LGBT, a genuine ally, but also because it was dancing to her Holding out for a Hero that The Great Drag Race I took part in in 2010 set the world record for the largest number of dancing drag queens. That was a memorable occasion and I described it here: A trip down Memory Card Lane: The Great Drag Race. Thank you, Bonnie, for your support. Rest in peace.

Sad also to hear of the passing of Victor Willis of the Village People who turned American macho aesthetics on its head through his camp disco hits. This did so much to make LGBT culture popular, mainstream and unthreatening. Hell, even Donald Trump liked him enough to create a nice contradiction in his gay-bashing. Phobics always present specific types of minority people as a dangerous threat to a properly ordered society; Willis may have done more to neutralise that false notion of threat than anyone else in the Seventies. Right-wing homophobia now is not making as much progress as it once could, precisely because of the infectious, harmless, open-to-all exuberance of artistry like this. May he rest in peace, also.

Mel Brooks has celebrated his 100th birthday and he's been a good ally to the LGBT community. In fact, his cheeky rendering of many gay and crossdressing characters and insistence that their scenes not be cut or toned down actually made it clear to producers of stage and screen that there are more LGBT people in the performing arts that almost any other industry. Hollywood and Broadway still have a way to go to be fully inclusive but its thanks to efforts like these that they've made progress at all. Humour is a powerful weapon in that it presents seriousness and tragedy in that non-threatening way that brings a wider audience. Thanks for the laughs and the allyship.

 

Wildlife news

I have a round concrete planter that wasn't being used for anything so I threw old garden sweepings and vegetable scraps in it and created a sort of compost heap. But plants are nothing if not resilient and it's now a thriving bowl of succulents, onions, parsley, grasses and other vegetation. I was impressed by the assortment of stuff that refused to die so I started watering it regularly. A few weeks ago I was squirting the hose at it and a tiny young grasshopper popped out. Harry Hopper is his name and he is now quite a bit bigger so I squirt a few warning drops first so he can get out of the way of the water jet. 

I think he's just a grasshopper not a locust, but I live on the 6th floor so I wonder how he got up here. OK, he might have flown even as a tiny youngster, or maybe he was dropped by a bird. Could he even have been born here from an egg in old soil? He's welcome, though, just as Laura the Lizard was in 2022 when she lived in my vegetable pots, visibly growing over the summer, and Genghis and Guinevere the geckos before that. If Harry was born in this mixed plant heap then it's the only world he's ever known. Anyway, I'll keep making this random collection of plants green for him so he's got plenty to munch on.

Harry Hopper's home. Untidy but edible!

We have some cicadas in the trees in the garden who make plenty of noise, which I love as it's so characteristic of summer. If Harry's male, maybe he'll start chirping, which would be nice. Female grasshoppers don't tend to chirp, or nothing like as loudly. I may have to change 'his' name to Henrietta Hopper depending on what I can work out about this little creature.

Sue x 

Reflections on the revolution

 The other day, Wednesday June 17th, was the tenth anniversary of the Day the Balcony Collapsed and my life was never the same again. I took Wednesday easy as the anniversary brought up so much trauma. 

To recap very briefly, a balcony at the end of the street on a house identical to mine came crashing down. How exactly is a mystery. The agents who had let that property tried to make out that this was a sign that all the houses in the street were unsound and might be condemned. This was an attempt not only to cover up their own negligence but to try to persuade people to sell up cheap so they or other agents could cash in. The attempted fraud was large-scale and vile. 

One week after that the United Kingdom where I lived voted to leave the European Union. My business was intimately tied to Europe, like so many others after 40+ years membership of that body, and work dried up. These two incidents in the same week left me in a position where I faced the prospect of losing both my home and my livelihood.

Fortunately, a trans friend of mine who happens to be a surveyor told me her suspicions about the fallen balcony and suggested a course of action. My own balcony turned out to be sound, as were all the others. This is where having other trans friends can come into its own. My day-to-day contacts wouldn't bring me in touch with a surveyor who happens to have 40 years expertise in concrete structures. I happen to know her only because we are both trans. Similarly, having contacts, friends and relatives in Europe assisted me in moving to the Mediterranean.

The point is that you never know when your life may suddenly change because of accidents, political upheaval or unexpected health issues. To illustrate the last point, we all suffered from the recent pandemic, whether we got ill or not, yet none of us expected such a situation.

This is not the first time I've been in dramatic situations. When I was a newborn baby living in a foreign country, a war elsewhere in the region had a domino effect on the politics of surrounding states. What had been a sleepy, pro-Western nation suddenly turned pro-Soviet and anti-Western and threw foreigners out. I don't have a proper birth certificate because my father just had time to get the British embassy to issue a consular one for me just minutes before the building was burnt down by a rioting mob. It's been a bureaucratic issue for me ever since, as if a two-week-old baby somehow has responsibility for what the so-called grown-ups around it are doing.

So the point is, as countries succumb to malignant narcissists like Trump or psycopaths like Putin or the xenophobic incompetents like the procession of Prime Ministers the UK has had, that you have to have a Plan B for life. Just hoping that things will improve where you are is wasted effort. You have to make things work for you and, ideally, for everyone else around you. I'm doing quite well now in a totally different country and I don't actually miss the old life. I wish things hadn't worked out the way they did but as I see the ongoing economic, political and social damage caused by Brexit xenophobia in Britain, I can only congratulate myself on seeing a way out. After ten years of chaos and division without firm outcome, Britain is never now going to get out of the mess it's created for itself. Frankly, it's a country that's been increasingly poorly governed over the last 150 years or so but this is a real low. Historians of the future may well use it as an object lesson.

I'll add to this. I was raised in a cult. A cult where religion, nationalism, cultural supremacism and the narcissism of its leaders and subleaders were the chief components; fear, shame, violence and threats were its chief tools of enforcement. So much was condemned by them and being trans was definitely deemed bad. I've been deprogramming from this over the last thirty years. Now I'm not ashamed to be trans any more. I'm cautious and careful, but not ashamed. The cultism of the current crop of leaders is something I may talk about soon to advise on what theorists believe causes it and how one can override it. But at the end of the day, self-acceptance, mutual assistance, and resistance always beat domineering, bullying, threats, hatred and blind support, be it for political, religious or other notions. 

In this Pride month, I've been trying to focus on positive news, on how trans people and allies keep living and creating and being constructive citizens. I think I should also point out the survivability of the trans community after centuries of misunderstanding and persecution, at least in Western society. Other people's ideas of trans people and how to suppress them come and go, and yet nature keeps producing trans people. Maybe, just maybe, nature knows what it's doing and the jerks don't.

All praise and support, therefore, to my fellow bloggers in places that have become transphobic in recent years, like the USA and Great Britain. Well done Marian at Dotting I's and Crossing T's for working to get a second passport from another country; well done Stana at Femulate for not giving up when Trump won the election but for continuing to produce such varied, enjoyable and very popular content; well done Hannah for running her local trans group and being true to herself and her preferences despite online opposition and MAGA mania; well done Lynn at Yet Another Transgender Blog for continuing her group and dealing with her political representatives; well done Dee for being herself despite difficult personal circumstances; well done Lotte of Still in the Pink Fog for wearing her trans-indicative hair and nail varnish and tattoos in the way she wants them; and well done Carla of Pink Fog - Trans in Spain who, like me, has escaped abroad but continues to concern herself about trans rights in Britain; and on and on, I can think of so many of my friends who now live life on their terms and support others to live as they need to. You can't put us down. And, as I said, Nature keeps producing us, generation on generation, defying all the various theories and opposition to our existence. 

Happy Pride month.

 

Hot

Today the promised heat has come. I am wearing very short shorts and small tee top because any more would be too hot. I'm not ashamed to admit that I've ditched my bra. 

I've just been for a swim in the lovely outdoor pool, which this year has got some pretty statues round it, put there by an artist I know who works in bronze. I think they're really beautiful, especially in the setting. And I feel great affinity with their unashamed femininity; a shared pride, if you will. 

  

 

So, I may have abandoned my home and business in Britain, much to the delight of the ex-friends who thought it fun to see me damaged in their xenophobic rage; but now I enjoy 300 days of sunshine a year in a subtropical paradise, have new friends, new interests and am way healthier, more relaxed and better off with many more human rights, whilst their economy and lifestyle and country diminishes. I'd rather see people thrive than be crushed but since many don't see it that way I continue to press for trans rights and to resist the haters.

Sue x

Pride Month - positive press pages

 Certain parts of the world have noisy, aggressive politicians and opinionated media who are transphobic. Other places are improving and supporting trans rights. A few positive examples culled from my reading just this week:-

 

Daily press: transition assistance triples 

In Italy's north-west coastal province of Savona, inquiries to Arcigay (the national LGBT support society) about social and medical transition have tripled in the last four years. In response to this, dedicated medical services are becoming available in local hospitals. Up to now people have had to go to the main hospital in the regional capital, Genoa. There has also been an increase in requests for information from teachers and schools on how best to assist trans students. 

Trans rights are strongly protected by law in Italy, provided you are transitioning. So work still needs to be done to improve trans rights outside the officially recognised transition route. Whilst transitioning in a big city is less socially fraught, Arcigay are seeing how trans people in isolated mountain communities can be better assisted.

(Interestingly, the Arcigay enquiry centre in Savona is financially supported by the Waldensian Church through monies derived from charitable tax relief. The main protestant movements like Lutheranism, Calvinism and Anglicanism arose in the 16th century but the Waldensians are a much older, deriving from Waldo of Lyons in the 12th Century. Despite many attempts to suppress them through violence, as happened to other proto-protestant movements like the Albigensians in France and the Hussites in Bohemia, the Waldensians have kept going, mainly here in the Alps. English poet John Milton's famous sonnet, On the Late Massacre in Piedmont ("Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughter'd saints ...") is about one such Waldensian genocide in 1655. Maybe it's this history of persecution that makes them support other oppressed groups like trans people. Anyway, it makes a nice contrast to the frothing transphobia of our local Roman Catholic bishop.)

 

Fashion press: Elle magazine

I have praised this mainstream women's magazine many times on my blog. It is regularly, consistently and unequivocally pro-trans, with frequent articles dedicated to trans matters. 

This week, Elle Italia has an interview with US-Chilean trans actress, Lux Pascal, especially on her last film role in Queen of Coal, a biopic about Carlita Rodriguez, the first trans woman to be a coal miner in Patagonia in a totally male dominated industry.

 

Science press

This month's Le Scienze, which is the Italian edition of Scientific American, and its sister publication Mind on neuroscience and psychology, have three relevant articles. 

One is a long piece on vocal cord defects of all kinds. There is a very nicely written page on the different vocal cord modification procedures for trans men and trans women. The tone is as matter-of-fact yet compassionate, as it is when describing other forms of dysphonia (i.e. when your voice goes wrong) and the treatments available. Trans is a thing and science treats it as such.

Another article is short but interesting summary of a study concluding that in queer relationships, communication is key. Nothing new there as far as cis and straight people are concerned, but trans and gay people often assume that if they are with someone like them then the communication battle is half won by their both having a similar queer experience. This is a bad assumption as, in fact, queer relationships have fewer standard scripts to rely on than cis/straight ones as each queer couple is, in many respects, breaking new ground.

Finally, there is a drama initiative in the mountain province of Biella in Northern Italy to help address young people's issues. The young actors are invited to ad lib and act spontaneously rather then follow a set script and directions. This has created much more real and immediate drama. Some of the issues include gender non-conformity. Actors and audience have described a visceral reaction against misgendering, even though here it's fictional. There's nothing like showing bare abuse for what it really is.

 

So there you have some pro-trans stories from my press cuttings this week. It's all steady, solid, accepting, even practical support in the print press, which is a shot in the arm, at least for this trans woman. I have some positive items from the world of arts and music to come in due course.

 

Preparing for summer

I continue to lose weight, I am getting tanned and I am looking forward to the outdoor swimming pool opening in a few days. To avoid any dysphoria like I suffered last year, I have made sure I am fully epilated (but I will take off this nail varnish). I'm still experimenting with new looks, nails and makeup - more on that soon.

I have also been doing a lot of gardening. My olive tree - now five years old - looks like it will have quite a crop of olives this year. And I've been admiring the lanes with their prickly pears in flower:

 

Pretty but dangerous. Maybe that's how we need to be! Happy Pride Month. 

Sue x

Big new boosts for trans youngsters (and older ones!)

 It's not all bad news for trans rights. Here are three very positive news items from the last few days, ending this month on a real high.

 

Scouts and guides

Italy has a large but very fragmented scouting culture and there has always been a number of competing scouting associations. Some are lay or non-religious or non-denominational and others are Catholic and have a religious component to their activities. The largest Catholic association, AGESCI, has around 185,000 members from the age of 8 upwards, and after many years of discussion in committee, it has come all out in favour of LGBT scouts and guides. So if you are a trans girl you can be a girl guide in their association. And trans boys can be scouts. Although I think girls have been accepted as scouts for some time now anyway. 

"We are not afraid of losing members," says the document issued by the AGESCI management committee this week. "For us the acceptance of anyone and everyone comes first and foremost. We make no distinction between boys and girls." They go on to state that homophobia and transphobia have been an obstacle to bringing their scout and guide packs closer together and that they feel that recognition of LGBT rights within their organisation is non-negotiable.

This is a very big step, and obviously a carefully considered one for an organisation that is affiliated to the Roman Catholic church which is one of the fiercest critics of LGBT rights. This move does follow evidence that people in Catholic dominated countries are not prepared simply to take orders from the clergy any more but to act according to their social conscience, as we have witnessed in, for example, recent referendums in the Republic of Ireland and the Catholic cantons of Switzerland where gay marriage has been clearly endorsed by the public.

 

Young people nowadays

It's always been said throughout history that "today's" younger generation is rude, wild and out of control, in contrast to the past. If you read back through opinion pieces, literature, laws and other texts throughout history, this is a repeating meme. It's something the media have always loved to harp on. Logically, this notion can only mean that Ug and Ogga from the Caveman Days had children who were little saints and it's all been downhill ever since. Really?

I read in the science press this month about several peer-reviewed studies of young people's behaviour and outlook, with reference in some cases to crime statistics, historic school records and the like. A very brief summary of the evidence, mainly from the USA, concludes that young people nowadays, far from being on the road to delinquency, are more tolerant, more empathetic, less neurotic and antisocial, more accepting of others (notably in LGBT matters), are less likely to become involved in crime, take drugs or get drunk than in the past; that IQ is rising and that most want to make something of themselves. This is super positive and it may well be that in a post-Trump, post-Putin world, where our young get to thrive, society could be really good.

Just as a footnote on this theme, my grandfather wrote some memoirs of childhood (which he didn't publish, sadly), about growing up in the Nineteen-Teens around the time of the First World War when he and his many siblings used to be pretty wild, playing all sorts of irresponsible pranks and doing dangerous stunts, like picking the lock of the firearms cupboard where rifles for the local Volunteer Training Corps were kept and shooting the fire station bell to make a satisfying clang all over the neighbourhood, or devising a flame-thrower from a garden sprayer that burnt the rose bushes to ash, or riding round on a motorbike wearing monkey masks and doffing their hats to the startled city traffic. Despite this career of violent youthful pastimes, neither he nor his brothers and sisters grew into irresponsible adults. As he said in his defence, given that at the time the grown-ups of Europe were busy gassing and shelling and bombing each other, his generation could hardly be blamed for being a bit wild.

 

Cannes Film Festival

Finally, last week I mentioned a couple of lesbian themed films that opened the nearby Cannes Film Festival. There have been other LGBT films showing there, and very pro-LGBT directors and stars like Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz. 

The one film that seems exclusively dedicated to a trans theme is Cœur secret (A Secret Heart) by Tom Fontenille. The blurb:

Over the last 4 years, Lilou left her secret life behind, becoming a 64-year-old woman who enjoys DIY, gardening, cycling and looking after her grandchildren. As I accompanied her through her transformation [sic], I filmed a family healing its wounds and reinventing a place for everyone. This is my family, Lilou is my father. 

It's not so common to find a view of transition from a child's point of view rather than from that of the transitioner, their partner, friends or support team. It should be coming out in selected cinemas shortly.

 

Long weekend

Tuesday, June 2nd, is a public holiday here so the intervening Monday tends to get filled in with a day of annual leave to create what's called a "bridge". So it's basically a four-day weekend here when life won't be as normal. 

So what's a TGirl to do? Why, get dolled up, of course! I'm just trying out my new black nail varnish and have gone for a vampish look to start with...

 

More photos after the weekend.

I'm also inventing new slimming but filling and nutritious recipes, like this concoction of spinach, chard, escarole lettuce and turnip greens with an egg and some mozzarella cheese, and a chilli pepper thrown in to liven it up. All local ingredients, very tasty and ideal for the season. Here's my dish part-way through cooking.

 

 

Comments

Thank you for all your interesting, encouraging, funny and otherwise worthwhile comments this year. I do appreciate feedback and interaction. The only requirement is to sign up to Blogger, which I've found a very effective way of reducing spam almost to nothing. 

Have a good weekend. 

Sue x  

Queer time with Frankenstein

 Is Frankenstein a queer icon?

One of the lesser known things to see in Rome is the Keats-Shelley House, which was almost empty when I visited, despite its being right by the famous 'Spanish Steps'. Keats is the English Romantic poet and the Shelleys are the poet and his novelist wife. Keats' died in this house at the age of just 26; had he lived to old age, might he have been the greatest English poet? I think he could have been. His bedroom overlooks the steps. What an incredible home to live and die in.

But I'd like to talk about the most interesting thing I found in there, which is Mary Shelley's portable writing slope on which she penned much of Frankenstein, aged around 19. The book at the back is a signed copy of the novel.

 

The label beside it posited Frankenstein as a queer text and so piqued the interest of my travelling companion, Lizzy the Lesbian Lobster, who is always on the lookout for queer icons.

 

The label reads: 

Missing narratives …
Mary Shelley’s writing slope

Mary Shelley is an exception to the habit of erasing women from literary history, despite her own efforts to promote her husband’s legacy at the expense of her own. Her most renowned work, Frankenstein, has been and still is being reclaimed by several marginalised groups, from the rise of feminist literary criticism in the 1970s to trans and queer interpretations in the 2010s and early 2020s. In these latter instances, Victor Frankenstein’s making of the Creature was variably understood as a disregard for heteronormative “laws” of reproduction, or as a projection of homosexual desire onto another male body. The Creature has also been reread as a queer character, given his incapacity to adapt to a normative society, or even as a transgender figure, for his body disavows his creator’s expectations. In general, all these readings agree that Frankenstein’s offspring incarnates the queer urge to disrupt society’s rules. 

Personally, I think that's stretching it a bit. If you read the book - and the prose is none of the easiest, so good luck - the poor creature starts very far from being an intentional disrupter but wishes only to integrate and be accepted. Rejected firstly by his creator and then by humanity, his innocence and virtue are broken by suffering through no fault of his own. That I can relate to. A body that doesn't fit norms and perceptions might be another thing that resonates with trans people. 

 

Hungary and beyond

Best wishes to my lovely Hungarian friend Wilhelmina whom I have known since the first day I went out as Sue. The change of government in her country is very welcome within and outside that country's borders. Truth be told, we'll have to wait and see if the new parliament is genuinely willing and able to undo the damage of the previous incumbent. Given the usual attitudes of Christian nationalism as espoused by the incoming party, I'm not sure that there will be a huge move to improve trans rights there, but we can hope that with a bit of EU pressure (and cash, no doubt), things will get better. 

Last month I voted against the transphobic Italian government and I notice increasing voting shifts throughout the West - e.g. Canada, Poland, Holland and now, impressively, Hungary - against extreme populist agendas that don't deliver improvements, only isolation. No, trans people are not to blame for your society's ills and its economic downturns, as populists state. I've maintained here for years in the teeth of general despair that the public at large don't buy the transphobia that contemporary nasty parties have been nailing so firmly to their masts. When the nasties are gone, I think there will be better rights for trans people as new outlooks try to undo the damage of the present. 

 

Propaganda

And talking of bad politics, here is Propaganda Street in Rome. 

Named after the Congregatio de Propaganda Fide, Latin for the Congregation for Spreading the Faith, an office of the Catholic Church that promotes missionary work, it is headquartered in this attractive baroque building a stone's throw from the Keats Shelley House. 

So originally the word Propaganda had no especial political connotations at all. Just so you know.

The building has extraterritorial status, like an embassy. So I wonder if, say, you are being chased by the Italian police, if you can run in here and claim asylum. Mind you, you'll probably be converted to Catholicism and you'll have to swap that frock for something like these pink and lace numbers. Tough choices!

Sue x

And the Queer Prize goes to...

 I'm back home from my trip to France. I went away partly to avoid the chaos of the Sanremo Music Festival which makes life impossible in this area. Don't take my word for it: Meri the checkout lady at the supermarket, Laura my friendly newsagent and our condo porter were all grumbling today about the restrictions on movement last week and how the council can spend millions on this show every year yet the pavements remain in need of repair. So as the city centre becomes a ghetto for music executives, pop fans and TV cameramen, the rest of us have to put up with the inconvenience. Nice fairy lights, though.

Anyway, this years winner was Sal da Vinci (no relation to the Renaissance genius) who wins (in increasing order of importance) the "Golden Lion" trophy, first refusal on representing Italy at the Eurovision Song Contest, a bunch of local flowers (to be treated with reverence as our winter flowers are the pride and economic mainstay of this, the Riviera of Flowers), and a brass drain cover with his name, song and year that will grace the lengthening line of covers in the centre of the high street.

 

The idea is that when it rains, the water plus any leaves, cigarette butts and other detritus flowing down the grating should make sounds that mimic your song. A cover version, if you will.

It is possible that I made that last paragraph up.

Anyway, to get to the point, there is now a Sanremo Queer Prize, instituted last year by various LGBT organisations, to note and reward the most LGBT-friendly Festival artists, songs or messages. This year's festival wasn't anything like as camp, queer or gender flexible as other years, as it happens. So the Queer Prize was given to Dittonellapiaga for what the jury described as the most "Prideable" song, her Che fastidio! (How annoying), which won third prize overall and which describes everyday frustrations like fashion choices, snobs, politicians, tax forms and (with irony) spiked drinks that give control of you to someone else. Not strictly LGBT themed yet it resonated with the strictly LGBT jury who saw her discomfort with losing bodily autonomy as something that many queer people can identify with. Her choice for her duet evening song, The Lady is a Tramp, made famous by Frank Sinatra, describes someone who accepts her own way rather than the conventions of supposed respectability. There were other honourable mentions among other contestants, too. 

This is her performance on the first evening. I love her makeup ... and what legs! Not sure about the skirt, though ... it makes her lower half look like a mushroom! (OK, that's enough catty remarks, Sue!)

 

 

Sorry, I can't find an English translation yet. Here's The Lady is a Tramp with TonyPitony. Great drag queen wig ... and those legs again.

 

The one thing I will say about the Sanremo Music Festival is that it shows European popular music is alive and healthy. More out of laziness and cheapness than desire, Europe has been importing US films, music, foodstuffs, style and other cultural items but I think the interest is rapidly wearing thin thanks to the current crass US regime. Native productions and produce, which have often taken a back seat these last 80 years, could well move back to the mainstream here. If the US wants to keep exporting its stuff, it needs to change its tune. I think the interruptions of the English text in this number with Italian dialogue is one sign of this change, as well as a bit of the artists' characteristic irreverence.

 

March 1st

I was suffering from hay fever and I forgot to exclaim "White Rabbits!" on waking, which is supposed to bring a lucky spring. Never mind. As part of my series on odd local customs, I'd like to point out that in the mountain village of Calizzano near here, March 1st is heralded by anyone who has a horn, trumpet, shell or other item that can make noise. Half the village goes up the mountain and greets the day by tooting as hard as they can from there, with the other half of the village replying from the settlement below. Traditionally, it's supposed to encourage snowmelt and fertile fields over the growing season. 

So I missed my annual white rabbit ceremony but I did see the first butterfly of the year, a little pale blue/lilac thing. In many European traditions, the colour of the first butterfly indicates the mood of the summer to some. I'm not sure I've ever seen this colour in my first butterfly before so I don't know what it signifies. Maybe it will just be a pretty year. As Tove Jansson, in that most beautiful of children's books, Finn Family Moomintroll (original title, Trollkarlens hatt), put it:

 And suddenly they caught sight of the first butterfly. (As everyone knows, if the first butterfly you see is yellow the summer will be a happy one. If it is white then you will just have a quiet summer. Black and brown butterflies should never be talked about - they are much too sad.)

Moomintroll and the Snork Maiden spot a golden butterfly. This can only mean the best possible summer, as it turns out. They've already found some tame clouds to float on.

Meeting Moomintroll in London. Happy butterflies in my tummy.

Sue x

Nuggets of good news from Europe

 Two rulings in favour of trans people. And spring is on the way.

 

Italy 

Italy is a bit behind other EU nations in its trans rights. However, A court in Avezzano, Central Italy, has accepted that a young petitioner may change the name and sex marking on his birth certificate without the need for medical transition such as hormone therapy. The non-binary person, who has requested anonymity following online abuse, seems to be the first to be acknowledged in this way. Until now it was expected that a person would transition via the medical route before their gender was accepted and documents altered.

This is good news and marks a step closer to gender self-declaration in Italy. However, this is a local court and there could be contradictory rulings elsewhere in future that would require an overarching ruling or guidance from a higher court.

 

UN Council of Europe 

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, an agency of the United Nations that aims to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law, has voted decisively to call on its 46 member states to  ban conversion therapy against LGBTQ+ people. Some countries have already banned the practice but Italy and the UK have yet to do so.

More here: https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/02/06/conversion-therapy-quarter-of-eu-citizens-exposed-as-council-of-europe-urges-ban

 

Spring

The great Roman writer Varro stated in his manual on agriculture that spring in the Mediterranean begins on February 7th*. Which was last Saturday. It wasn't actually the nicest of days as we still had the tail end of the lousy weather system that's been drenching much of Western Europe for some weeks. Nevertheless, I went to Nice for the Saturday markets. When there's a leaden sky over the French riviera, the water inshore takes on the most unusual glowing pale turquoise colour. None of my photo devices can do it justice but this gives a bit of an idea.

The Saturday book market in the square in front of the courthouse sells not just old books but also records, posters, paintings and similar. I loved both Tintin and Star Wars as a child and I couldn't resist this mock Tintin book cover!

Additionally, Luggy the LGBT Crab, who often accompanies me on my travels, has a new companion, a blue lobster.  

(Incidentally, readers insisted that I name the bat corkscrew I got for Christmas. I've decided on Ozzy, for reasons that should be ozvious. And that's the first and last time I name any of my kitchen utensils!)

It's now decidedly warmer and sunnier and I have got an itch to do some spring cleaning and gardening this week. I've set to it with a will with my rubber gloves and apron on!  

 

More curious local culture  

Last week I mentioned the Codfish Race in Cantalupo. This coming Saturday is the "Belli e Brutti" (Handsome and Ugly) Carneval in the village of Suvero where people dress either in colourful outfits with bells and ribbons or in dark, shaggy costumes with blackened faces and horns. They knock on doors and, whilst the man of the house prepares refreshments for the, er, guests, the Belli dance with the womenfolk as the Brutti stand by and make sarcastic remarks. No one has any idea how old this festival is but a pagan origin seems highly likely. Do the Belli and Brutti symbolise good and evil, or spring and winter, or something else? No-one knows. Apparently, the costumes are often handed down from generation to generation. Maybe the Belli outfits gave Boy George some of his inspiration? 

Enjoy the Winter Olympics if you're watching. 16 different effortful ways to slide around in the cold! It makes me want a holiday in the tropics!

* Marcus Terentius Varro, De Re Rustica, Book I, chapter 28. I give this reference so you know it's not an internet or AI or conspiracy nut 'fact'. 

Sue xx 

What if everyone is transgender?

 Ten years ago I posted a question as to how many transgender people there are. The answer is unknown and unknowable, for various reasons but mainly because no-one agrees on what constitutes transgender or even male and female; because the overwhelming majority of gender variant people are in the closet, totally unknown even to the internet, only to themselves; and because often gender variance occurs for a while in someone's life rather than throughout it. 

Suppose we stop assuming, because of lack of evidence or through prejudice, that trans is or is not X number of people and take the opposite standpoint: what if everyone is actually trans? Perhaps the gender binary is an illusion caused by social and reproductive expectations for many people, especially those promoted by the aggressive people who usually dominate societies, and most of the remaining population simply fall into line for simplicity's sake. If left to their inherent sense of self, would people actually feel totally masculine or feminine as is claimed? We don't know, any more then we can claim that there are clear male and female forms. I've made more than enough references in my blog over the years to trans people going back to ancient times and arising in all cultures and locations. Transgender is very much a thing.

Supposing you took a significant random sample of people - I'm talking tens (ideally hundreds) of thousands, not the usual trans studies that involve a few dozen or maybe a few hundred out-and-proud trans people - and actually asked them honestly, privately, anonymously, without fear or favour or ability to be traced, how they felt about their own masculinity or femininity, what the answers might be. We have very little information on this and all discussion of trans people is either from haters or from the tiny number of trans people who are out and those who study that tiny minority.

I hear it said that sex is all about reproductive organs or gametes, completely ignoring intersex conditions. I hear it said that genes don't lie: it's XX for girls and XY for boys, completely ignoring the mixup of conditions like Turner's Syndrome (X) or Klinefelter's syndrome (XXY). Stangely, no-one seem to point out that, on that basis, all boys have one girl chromosome, which should surely give us the two sexes of female and transgender? I hear it said that trans people are simply mentally ill; apparently, threats and abuse seem to be the proposed cure. I hear it said that transgender ideological terrorism is converting people to believe that they are something they are not. And so on and so forth, anything to try to pretend that trans people don't actually exist or shouldn't. I said I would not transition and the reason is that I don't trust states not to turn against beneficiaries of previous government policies. Having said that, I thought it unlikely that trans policies would be reversed in my lifetime and yet, when you look at Russia, the USA, Britain, Hungary and other places, maybe my caution was well founded. 

So as my short contribution to Transgender Awareness Week, leading up to Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20th, I'd just like to ask the haters what on earth they're talking about as the evidence for there being a gender binary is laughable. How about if everyone is trans apart from the outliers, those naturally very masculine or feminine people? Could it be that you haters are simply too scared to admit or embrace who you perhaps really are, that is someone not at the extremes of a gender spectrum? 

So as many rich and powerful people in the public eye focus on trans bashing to draw attention away from their own corruption and incompetence, banning a handful of trans sportspeople from participating here, encouraging conversion therapy there or turning a blind eye to transphobic violence, I rest assured that this current game of trans Whack-a-Mole can never work in the long term because nature just keeps creating trans people and most of them are invisible and out of reach. 

Tomorrow we remember those who tried to live authentically but died for it. 

 

Sue x 

Things being various

 I end July with various little things.

 

Beauty regime

I'm pleased to say I've overshot my weight loss target of 4 kg (9 lb) this month, which I'm really happy with. I've set a target of 3.5 kg for August.

Not so great this morning was, when smoothing my legs with a razor, I nicked my ankle. It was a tiny scratch and I barely noticed it at first but before long the bathroom was covered in blood like someone had been murdered. I can't believe such a small cut could create ... well, literally a bloodbath! 

I'm sure I'll recover! But this big plaster is spoiling the look of my legs which I wanted to be gorgeous! So instead of me, here's a picture of local morning glories instead.

 

 

News from London 

I hear that last weekend's Trans Pride in my old home city of London attracted around 100,000 people. This is an amazing turnout and yet it doesn't surprise me given the anti-trans policies of the government there that is continuing the abuses of the previous one. This is one of the main reasons I left there.

By total contrast, I notice that the Tate Modern gallery in London has an exhibition on of Leigh Bowery, the bizarre performance artist who was a bi-gendered, non-gendered or even super-gendered being in the non-binary culture of the '80s, influencing music stars like Boy George then and even people like Lady Gaga now. This art and style gives me the creeps a bit, I have to say, but I do support alternative lives.

 

Facial feminisation update

I'm pleased to hear that Roz feels her facial feminisation surgery has gone well, although the bandages are still on. She thanks everyone for their kind wishes.

 

Earthquake

Another small earthquake shook my home two days ago. It's epicentre was at Tende, a few miles away over the French border. Unlike the last one, there was no damage this time. 

I was going to grumble a bit about living in a seismic area and then a few hours later the massive earthquake and tsunami off Kamchatka occurred and I have no right to complain! Thankfully, there don't seem to have been any deaths from that but a big one is still a frightening and damaging experience. I hope the locals there will be all right.

 

Tom Lehrer

It's been a bad summer for music with the deaths of leading musicians as diverse as Alfred Brendel (classical) and Ozzy Osbourne (heavy metal). It's sad to add Tom Lehrer to the roll. His acerbic, sardonic and witty songs from the 1950s-70s became classics. 

As well as innumerable sports contests, my school had an annual music contest when each sports club into which we were compulsorily divided pitted its musical skills against the others. I say "music"; it was more like regimented cacophony. Tom Lehrer songs were sung very often in this aural chaos ... and I can't help thinking he'd have been amused to know that. 

As a taster, here's how he wrote a song for the US army, "It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier", based on his experiences. Strangely, it wasn't chosen as the US Army anthem.

Sue x 

So how did Pride month go?

 Last Saturday was Milano Pride in Italy. Despite the heat, 350,000 people turned out. That's equivalent to more than a quarter of the population of the city.

It was also Budapest pride in Hungary. Despite being made illegal by the government, that Pride event attracted 200,000 people. That includes politicians from other countries keen to be seen to promote rights over autocracy.

I hear that in Britain, the anti-trans ruling from the Supreme Court is being watered down even by that court. As I've mentioned before, all sorts of cis political commentators who don't normally touch on LGBT matters have criticised the ruling and the government. 

And also in Britain, Thurso, a small town of just 9000 souls in the furthest north of Scotland, held its first ever Pride. 1000 people attended that, a stunning turnout for somewhere so small and remote. 

By contrast, I hear that a Straight Pride event in Boise, Idaho (population: a quarter of a million), billed as a "hetero awesomeness festival", not only had an underwhelming attendance (about 50), as seems so often to be the case, but it was crashed by a pro-LGBT singer. 

These are just some take-aways from the last few days. I give these attendance vs population figures because so far this year neither I and almost no-one I know, despite all being in the LGBT+community, have managed to get to a Pride event, so it shows how vast the LGBT community and its allies must be. 

Whilst there is a lot of very noisy and very nasty transphobia and other hate out there, I think the world turned a corner a long time ago and being queer in all its lovely forms is something most straight/cis people see as OK. Different, but OK. Current anti-LGBT legislation is now associated with violent and autocratic leaders so is not, in the end, going to benefit the few phobics. As a very simple - simplistic, if you will - summary of our present situation, not only does history show that autocracy is usually short-lived but our current autocrats, actual and aspiring, are remarkably incompetent and therefore likely to fail soon. When they're gone and condemned, as all such characters end up being, their transphobia will be part of that condemnation. So this current persecution is likely to work in our favour in the long run. I see this massive increase in support for LGBT Pride events, especially where the government is anti, as evidence of a better future, and that the public is broadly with us.

Stay colourful. 

 

Stay cool 

I love hot weather. My Optimum Operating Temperature has always been 28°C, even with a wig on. But it's currently 37°C in the shade (that's 99°F) as I'm posting this, and around 30° at night, and it's not even the height of summer yet. 

Mind you, the resultant lack of appetite plus exertion in the pool is working wonders for my (interminable) weight loss programme. 

Sue x

Lipsticks for lunch, and the 100-days interview

I was privileged to be given an exclusive interview with the president this week. 

(What do you mean, "which president?") 

The following transcript was found in a bathroom at the new official US presidential residence at Mar-a-Lunko, alongside state secrets.

HENCHMAN: Mr President, there's a Ms Richmond to see you.

47: Who?... Is she hot?

HENCHMAN: Well, if you asking if she looks like Ivanka, I guess not.

47: Oh. Well, that's sad. So sad. Richmond, huh? Is she rich? I'm rich.

HENCHMAN: I don't know, Sir. She wants to interview you. Apparently, you've just boosted their ratings or something.

47: Terrific. I do that. I'm a mutual aid kind of guy. Everybody says so. OK, send her in.

RICHMOND: Hello, Mr President. Thank you for your valuable time away from the golf course. I'm here to thank you for your genius policies.

47: I'm a very stable genius. Everybody says so.

RICHMOND: Well, simply put, and I'll keep it simple for you, Donald, just how you like it: not everyone likes your policies, and by everyone I mean everyone in the world, except your MAGA fans, of course.

47: Great guys, my MAGA fans. They're the majority. Huge majority. The polls say it. I'm a great believer in democracy and majority rule. The rest of the world are just a minority. That's logic. So people who don't like my po-li-cies are just nasty. Sad losers. So sad.

RICHMOND: Well, I'm a great believer in democracy, too. It's great when we can all agree with you.

47: Totally. All the great people agree with me. Like you do ... You're hot, by the way. Not a 10, but you can work on it.

RICHMOND: Why, thank you, Donald. Between you and me, confidentially, do you think I'd look better as a blonde? I hope you don't mind my asking but I hear you're experienced with women.

47: Totally. Women thank me for my advice. They all do. Blonde is hot. 

RICHMOND: That's great to know, from an expert like you. Your wife Melania isn't blonde, though, but she must be "hot", too, right?

47: Not as hot as Ivanka. 

RICHMOND: Well, it sounds like a pity that American law doesn't let you marry your own daughter. But I'm sure you can change that. A quick Executive Order, maybe?

47: Sure. I'm good at those. ...You'd look hotter if you were blonde. Oh, and lose the glasses. 

RICHMOND: Your advice is invaluable, Mr President. I'll bear it in mind. And another day I'll ask you about how to achieve great hair and makeup. Before I get down to the interview proper ... how can I put this? Do you, er, need a diaper change? It's kind of stuffy in here.

47: You want to change my diapers? Everybody does. 

RICHMOND: I'm sure you have many sycophants to do that for you, Mr President.

47: What's sick-o-pants? 

RICHMOND: Brown-nosers, Mr President.

47: Sure. I have those. Lots. Great guys. What did you want to tell me about my great presidency? That there's never been a greater presidency?

RICHMOND: There's certainly never been a presidency like it, Donald. I think the whole world agrees on that. You'll recall that Italy recently sent its prime minister, Ms Meloni, to see you. Did you like her? She's blonde and wears the latest fashions and her name translates into English as Miss Melons. And she said she wanted to work with you to make the West great again. What did you think of Miss Melons' call to greatness?

47: Well, she had great melons, I'll say that. Huge.

RICHMOND: *Sigh* It's the answer I predicted. 

47: I'm very predictable. Everybody says so.

RICHMOND: Sure you are. And your position hasn't changed for at least an hour, and we're all very impressed by that. But really I just wanted to come here and thank you. You see, when you and your friends, like Mr Putin and Mr Orban and Mr Kim - funny how they all seem to be guys - all punch down on vulnerable people, like - oh, I don't know - transgender people, say, then all the rest of the free world associates your transphobia with madness, incompetence, dictatorship, repression and randomness and starts to feel sympathy for and support those vulnerable people. So at the end of the day, when the psycopathy of Putin has finally exhausted Russia, as it seems to be doing, and the madness of the Kims has finally starved the people of North Korea, and the narcissism of Orban has finally ruined Hungary, and maybe you've finished wrecking US hegemony and our trust in it just to save your gigantic yet fragile ego from the penalties of due legal process, everyone else will associate state-sponsored transphobia with the all lunacy, failure, criminality and violence that emanates from you and your chums and be more inclined to protect trans people from what they know to be overarchingly wrong, from that chaos that has caused them significant economic, socio-political and military difficulties.

47: Too many big words. I don't use big words.

RICHMOND: I'm sorry, Donald. I mean, trans people may be suffering now, but we will be stronger and more protected when you and your friends are done. 

47: You are fake news!

RICHMOND: Thank you from Sue's News and Views. This is Sue Richmond reporting from the new US presidential residence at Mar-a-Lunko. ...And you really do need a diaper change now, Mr President.

 

This is Sue Richmond, your roving reporter, with the latest political news ...

 

Lipsticks for lunch, or: learn languages with Sue

There were various items to buy that I couldn't get locally so I headed to the nearest big town. By the time I'd done my shopping I was hungry and decided to stop and have lunch at a really nice restaurant which French day-trippers choose to eat at because, let's face it, the French know decent food. 

I chose rossetti. These are a tiny transparent species of goby that these days replace bianchetti, which are the fry (babies) of sardines and anchovies that it's currently illegal to catch as stocks are low. Bianchetti means "little white ones" and rossetti means "little red ones". Rossetti also means "lipsticks" in Italian, because they're also little and red, and let's just say that when you're a trans girl these things kind of buzz round your mind all the time, so how could I resist ordering them? 

Each no more than an inch long, and cooked in lemon vapour, they are very delicate and make an ideal starter. 

Or you can colour your lips with them. Hey, no judgment.

Sue x