Gender

The New York Times posted a very good article on transgender people and pronouns. People tend to think of the pronoun change as happening at the same time as a sex change, but that just isn't true. Gender is gender, regardless of sex.
I do believe that male and female souls are inherently different, and that the soul is what I, at least, and others, are attracted to. Not just female body parts, female souls. It is the only explanation I can think of for several phenomena.
As a junior in high school, I read a very interesting book called Both Sides Now: One Man's Journey Through Womanhood. The author, Dhillon Khosla, was born with the body of a woman and took sexual partners from both sexes before being with women exclusively, and finally discovering the concept of transgender and making a full transition. Even when presenting as a woman, Khosla found that several, if not many, of his female partners were not already in the 'lesbian pool', but had never been attracted to a 'woman' before. They thought of the experience as a change to their sexuality, rather than seeing Khosla as a man. One time in a grocery store, Khosla found himself being stared at by a very young child. The mother apologized and said that 'he usually only stares like that at men.'
This all seems to point to the idea that these people are reacting to something about Khosla that their subconscious recognizes, without him ever having told them about being transgender. I read somewhere that transgender people are found to have brains structured more like the gender they identify with than that of their biological sex. So, you might say, it's their minds that create this attraction.
I find transgender women attractive, and not transgender men, without even knowing them. This baby could not have known what Khosla's mind is like. I once, correctly, identified someone in a serving line as transgender without speaking to them. I can also easily see the duality in a genderqueer person I know. It's like the person gives off gendered 'vibes' that I can sense, and I think other people can, too. They're just far more likely to ignore that and base their ideas of the person's gender off what they can see.

With that in mind, I'd like to encourage everyone in the Northern Virginia area to participate in a Queer Art Show that George Mason University is putting on.

Deadline: March 18^th

George Mason University’s TQ Mason, in association with LGBTQ Resources, is looking for LGBTQ* Artists to contribute to an art show. The show will be held from April 1st-7th, with the possibility of some pieces being up more permanently.

This show is exploring the theme of gender, but it is a theme in the broadest sense, and not intended to be limiting.

We are aware that parts of the LGBTQ* alphabet get left out, and this show is aiming to avoid that. We especially want to showcase artists who are part of the ignored and lesser-known letters.

A photo of the submission should be sent electronically to our contact email, or burnt onto a CD and dropped off at the LGBTQ Resource Office. Required information includes: preferred name, contact email and phone number. We will contact everyone before the show about who has been accepted. Accepted submissions have to be transportable to George Mason University in time for the show. It does not cost anything to submit or participate.

Please send submissions, questions, and comments to:  

 tqartshow@gmail.com      

TQ Mason is GMU's trans* and queer inclusive support/action group open to people of all genders, identities, expressions, and sexualities.