Tipping

In 2007 Newsweek published it's weekly news magazine with a cover story, "The Mystery of Gender".  It contained a number of stories on various aspects of the transgender "phenomenon" (their word, not mine).

At the time I felt it was one of the single-most significant events in the trans "movement" (I hate to use that word, but I can't think of another one that's more descriptive of what we are).

I grew up in a time when I searched high and low for any reference to transsexuals.  That's the only word there was.  There was no such think as "transgender", or "cross-dresser".  There was transsexual and transvestite.   That's it.

My mom was (and is) a notorious hoarder.  I don't think I've ever seen her throw a magazine away.  She puts them in piles, and keeps them.  As a pre-teen who was recognizing a deep-seated sense of self that was NOT aligned with what I appeared to be I searched through years and years of Time magazines looking for any reference to trans anything.  I needed to learn.  I needed to know that there were more people like me.  There was nothing.

In the early days of my transition the IFGE used to publish a magazine titled "Tapestry".  It was the most significant resource that there was before the internet, and a very big deal.  They sold it at a magazine store in Pittsford, at the corner of Monroe and Clover (I think it's a wedding store now).  To find it was no easy feat, as it was tucked away in the adult magazine section along with Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, and those kinds of magazines.

Fast forward to that issue of Newsweek in 2007.  It was a big deal.

The reason I mention any of this is that it has happened again.  The cover of this week's Time magazine is titled "The Transgender Tipping Point".

And yes - we are at a Tipping Point.  And yes, we are "America's next civil rights frontier".

No amount of money can buy this kind of cultural validation.  And the haters are blue with anger over it.  But that's no surprise....

There is no putting this genie back in the bottle.  It's not hard to find news about us these days.  This week, just go to any magazine rack in the country.