I've two articles in the Nov/Dec 2022 issue of Texas Observer magazine. First, a culture feature about the state of bookstores in #Texas, co-written with Gayle Reaves. And then I teamed up with #trans photographer Jesse Freidin to share his art project, "Are You OK?" in a photo-essay documenting the lives of brave young transgender Texans.

The magazine is out now on newsstands, with all articles available online soon.
#LGBTQIA #Books

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Travestis are a Latina street-based trans culture, dating back a few decades. Old-fashioned travestis didn't have the concept of "transgender" to identify with; we were medicalised as "transvestic fetishists", and my ancestors ran with it and wore it with pride. Or sometimes didn't, and it hang on them like chains. Did we use the term because we had nothing better, or because it was a distinct gender identity? Are travestis transgender, are we trans women, are we women but not transgender, or are we some sort of nonbinary transfeminine third gender? The answer is "yes".

Travestis have always had the traits now associated with trans women: bodily dysphoria, female identities and expression, use of hormones/surgeries to embody female lives, etc. But many also embraced some traits that gringo trans women have come to draw strong boundaries on: a certain fluidity between the femme gay male identities (maricón/bixa/etc.), the crossdressing sexual fetish communities (like Brazilian cdzinhas), and gender identity; blending together the affirmation of gender with the affirmation of free, unbounded, in-your-face sexualness; and girldick. (So much girldick. The "big dick travesti top" is basically a cliché.)

Nonetheless a lot of this was imposed, a lot of it is reclaiming, and there is tremendous variation of gender feelings in our cultures. Travestis who lived civilian lives (i.e. not sex workers) had to present as male during the day; that led to many identifying as bigender, often downright plural. The medicalisation of genital dysphoria led to the word "transexual" defined as a woman who had vaginoplasty; so in one use of the word a travesti was a woman who hadn't, either for not wanting surgery, or not having access to. I've seen old travestis say things like "I wish I could be a full woman, but I don't have the cash so according to science I have to be a travesti". In cases like this it's clearly not a self-selected category. On the other hand many non-genitally-dysphoric travesti used the word to distinguish themselves from the transexuals for not wanting a vagina. But also, many travestis are actually genitally dysphoric, and the emphasis on the penis as the definitive trait was forced by porn producers and pimps against their will. Some travestis, even back in the 70s, 80s always claimed womanhood. Others would identify as half-women (compare the American "half-sisters"), or "more woman than women", or "neither woman nor man but a travesti goddess".

The one common trend is, we're all fem. I don't think I've ever seen the word used by transmasc communities; those were, afaik, blended with the lesbian-butch scene (<3).

So when the modern concept of transgender identity developed, a lot of travestis affirmed themselves to be trans women as well as travestis (which is my case). Others felt "trans" to be some sort of white gringo thing and reaffirmed the raw&real street BIPOC travesti culture as its own thing. And I see many now adopting the nonbinary umbrella, enby pride colours etc., even gender-neutral neogrammar. In the U.S. this could be compared to Sylvia Rivera, for example; the first S.T.A.R. stood for Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, the latter incarnation changed it to "Transgender" revolutionaries—because they saw the trans struggle as applying to them, and themselves as ancestors. Same goes for the Latinx travestis, now part of the local trans movement.

My own tentative definition—what I in particular mean when I claim the label—is this:
The Latina travesti is a local, reclaimed, BIPOC-led, sex worker–led, working-class Latina street transfeminine culture. Travesti is both a gender identity and a political identity. To identify as "travesti", then, is to acknowledge your history as bound with this specific community. My own gender feelings have been shaped and directed by travesti forms of expression, behaviour, communication; I didn't long merely for a woman's body, I wanted a travesti woman body.

But that's me. Travesti scholar Ana Flor has argued that not even that political definition is universal among us, and the travesti identity remains stubbornly elusive and impossible to define clearly. And, that's the point. It has always been and will always be a transgressive identity. The Black-indigenous street culture is not white academia, it's not a culture given to tightly legislating what words can and cannot mean. In her song "Mulher" ("Woman"), favela travesti muse Linn da Quebrada affirms herself as "neither man nor woman, but a fem tranny"; then, a minute later, she's asserting that even if the mirror doesn't know it she's all woman, woman, woman, woman, woman; then in a different song she reclaims the "Black bixa" (~=effeminate gay male) identity. And she's t4t lesbian.

Our curvy voluptuous bodies won't fit your little rules, yo.

(photos have captions)

Hello! We've had this account squirreled away since the far right mass report campaign that targeted antifascists.

There's currently a lot of energy going into social media alternatives, as we've seen an influx in followers here recently. That's very good and necessary but we aren't exactly savvy in this space. We don't know who is who or if anyone is who they say they are, unfortunately.

Our link to this account is in our bio on the bird app; you can see that we are the same collective here as there. Consider such verification steps, or others, as we all find our way on this new path.

Y'all are probably 10 steps ahead of us if you found your way here, but "stay safe" is always worth saying. 🖤