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June 30, 2008I just want to celebratepride–gay and otherwiseWELL, I MISSED THE OPPORTUNITYto play “gay for a day” with my great Brooklyn friends Jon and Oscar. I had other things to be proud of. They arrived Friday on the Coast Starlight from Seattle, bemoaning the lack of gay visibility in Seattle, a travesty balanced by the gay population on the F trolley from the train station to my place. Wherever we are going for dinner, requests Jon, we have to be able to look out and see gays. So I lead them to the window counter at Fuzio where we have a perfect view of the pre-Pride crowd.On the way I ask Jon to take seriously the danger of crossing SF streets recklessly. They drive like maniacs here, you know. “Then we’ll have to cross like maniacs,” he says, stepping into the intersection. He of course knows better; “They’ll cut you to the curb,” he agrees. At Fuzio we pick up on the energy circulating and take to waving at passers-by to join in the vibe and get their reactions. Some are mystified, some approach the window thinking they must know us from somewhere, some wave back. We’re just having silly fun.After dinner, on Castro, we bump into the Tranny parade braving the chill. How far we have come since Christine (née George) Jorgensen, one of the pioneers of sex reassignment surgery, b. 1926, d. 1989. She was big news in 1952, when she, as she later put it, gave the sexual revolution “a good swift kick in the pants” by being one of the first transsexuals to receive hormone therapy and, later, a vaginoplasty. The procedures took place in Denmark, and though an American ambassador helped her change her passport designation from male to female, Jorgensen was later unable to marry Howard Knox, a Massapequa typist, because her birth certificate still listed her as biologically male. She was ahead of her time, but her time has finally come. As it has for lots of now legitimately married folk. EVER KNOW ONE OF THOSE PEOPLEwho is always upbeat, smiling, enthusiastic, optimistic, energetic, who always puts the best spin on things? Obnoxious, yes? We all know people like that, but how many of them are like that the day after they’ve had a bilateral mastectomy? I can name one, my friend “Kaye.” Kaye was first diagnosed with end-stage cancer in October of 2003. She was given a prognosis of two-to-three years. In 2004 I took a cross-Canadian train trip with her, not knowing if it could my last opportunity to spend time with her. She’s still going strong in 2008, and came out of her surgery like a champ, like she’d been on vacation, excited and eager to relate her experience. In fact, I told her, she reminds me of myself on a manic high. I spent the Pride weekend in Berkeley helping Kaye get her bearings and tending to her. She has always had more energy than I, and this weekend was no different. What else would you expect from a woman whose calling card identifies her as a “creative appreciationist.” Thanks to a modern medical miracle called the On-Q Painbuster, which drips local anesthetic directly into the wound, she was pain-free, lucid and full of stories. THE AX FILES HITS THE CENTURY MARKI’ll tell some of them in time, but this is a quick one, y’all, on the occasion of my 100th column—pathetic an achievement though it be, as it took me more than three years to get here. That’s about 2.5 columns a month (though some of them are as long as a novella). I think h brown cranks out 100 in a month. Well, needless to say since I quit my job I have stepped up production, but once my flat is sold it’s time to move certain projects back from the back to the front burners. I promise I’ll keep coming at you at least once a week, for those of you who would actually miss me if I were gone. One friend and reader recently called me to make sure I was OK, because I hadn’t posted in a while. I am blessed with great friends and great readers. So in commemoration of this milestone, upon the popular demand of exactly one reader, I have compiled a collection of the first one hundred short attention span poems—available as a Word document ONLY BY REQUEST to axfiles@sbcglobal.net. It is also a comprehensive listing of my columns along with links to them. Search the archives or browse for surprises. I JUST WANT TO CELEBRATEanother day of living for us all. Welcome back, Kaye, to your large and loving, supportive fold of friends and relatives. It’s you that I was proud of this weekend.Courage, thy name is Kaye! The author’s friends Oscar Wiener andthe other white meathead, with Buddha. ------------------------------------------------------------ Glad to know ya
This was quite the weekend for pride. copyright Alexandra Jones 2008 |
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