BEACON PRESS

I wrote a memoir, so perhaps it’s not surprising that I find outing myself powerful… . As a speaker on trans issues, I’ve trained myself to handle unintentional insensitivity and ignorance, but even after a record-breaking number of questions, one particularly tactless person in Bali set me off. Internally fuming, I went to the edge of the jungle and hurled rocks into the black night. All the old words—disfigured, abnormal, glaring, different—came alive again. I threw wildly, venting my frustration and anger, until I accidentally pegged a nearby tree. The rock bounced back and almost nailed me. I started to laugh. Which made me laugh even harder, joggling something loose deeper inside. I wondered what it would be like to really leave it all behind.

The only way we’ll be able to break down the walls that keep us apart—the stereotypes and assumptions that exist about atheists, LGBTQ people, and various religious communities—is by finding avenues to discover common ground. I believe that interfaith and queer work are two of the best ways to do so.

Stardom. It’s a greedy goal and it comes with lots of traps of arrogance, but the way I justify it is by giving back. But, I’m not a star yet. I call myself a sub-lebrity, maybe this book has bumped me up and now I’m a starlet.

A landmark day! A joy to tweet/His evolution is complete/Go forth & wed, all “I do’s” equal/Don’t-ask-don’t-tell gets gutsy sequel

There are a great number of people in the world—I dare say most of ‘em—who would say I’m a pervert and a bad person because I’m a transsexual woman. I was born male and now I’ve got medical and government documents that say I’m female—but I don’t call myself a woman, and I know I’m not a man.…