From the Hotline

During the interregnum (there’s a $64 word for ya), I had to attend to the AO hotline. We had an interesting call from someone who claimed to be an editor for a magazine from NY called Details. Seemed she wanted to know what a heterosexual crossdresser was and how that was different from a homosexual crossdresser. I blush to confess that due to the timing of everything I didn’t learn of the call until long after it was made, and it sat neglected and lonely in our voice mail box for about two weeks. When I tried to call back, I got no answer. Write it off as yet another prank. (Oy! And let me tell you those do happen... lots of people think it’s funny to call and give someone else’s name as urgently in need of contact and support, and give work, home and cell phone numbers. IT’S NOT FUNNY KIDS!) But, I digress.

Coming back from Boston, the other week I was perusing the magazine rack, (no NOT that part of the magazine rack), when what should I spy with my little eye but Details magazine for January/February 2003! I open the mag and what does my same little eye but an article titled "More than a Woman". Alex is an 6’3" ex-football player who becomes Minerva Steel by night. The pics for the article are good, although the article describes in loving detail an outfit with a Kimono that really deserves a picture. Overall a very positive picture was presented. Alex is engaged, having determined he’s straight and his fiancée goes out with him. She says, "When Alex is in drag, people always flirt and compliment her. A real girl just can’t compete". Of course, where Alex goes is another story, since the only place Minerva Steel exists is drag bars. Support groups or any semblance of interest in a normal woman’s life are outside his comprehension or interest. This Minerva is no feminist, even if she’s a sight to behold.

New Years 2002

I had the fortune, or misfortune to have New Year’s to myself as my beloved partner was traveling at the time. I attended the New Year’s production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Cleveland Public Theater. Dinner, followed by the Show followed by a party afterwards. I’m pleased to say that the stage production is much more uplifting than the rather depressing movie version. And despite the press Hedwig isn’t about a transsexual, or about being transsexual or finding one’s gender identity. It’s about finding love and whether one can find completion from a relationship with another person. All the other stuff is just window dressing. The show was ably performed, two women serving dinner hit on me, and I was asked to dance at the after party. I had a glorious time. Let this be an inspiration for single guys who think that minor eccentricities in wardrobe will render them forever un-dateable.

Missed Opportunities

"What", you exclaim, "it cannot be", that Moi has missed an opportunity. Tis true. I just got back from LA where an exhibit called "Fashion and Transgression" was running at the University of Southern California’s Fisher Gallery. I just couldn’t get to the exhibit given what else was on my schedule. Among the material in the exhibit are photos and documents referring to "Barbette the Enigma", an high wire artist in 1920’s Paris.

Barbette was actually a young man from Texas who contrived to perform his high wire act while giving the audience the impression it was performed by a nude (except for jewels on the breast and belly) woman. This is somehow, in manner not made clear in the review, connected with the show’s thesis that one year’s fashion faux pas are next year’s mode in demand.

The exhibit runs through April 12th, in case you happen to be heading to the left coast.

You can find more information about it at

http://www.usc.edu/org/fishergallery/exhibitions_current.shtml

The Article from the LA Weekly can be read at:

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/03/11/style-athey.php

The mirror has two faces:
Barbette Applying Makeup
by Man Ray, 1926; courtesy
of the J. Paul Getty
Museum, Los Angeles





Legal News

According to the January 31st issue of the Gay People’s Chronicle, State Representative Dan Brady will introduce a bill protecting the civil rights of GLBT citizens of Ohio. Considering the story about Peter Oiler earlier in this issue, we will be following this effort with great interest. Now what does a well-dressed lobbyist wear?