In point of fact, it was 21 years ago today. It was the day the OJ Simpson trial began. Details...
It was twenty years ago today
Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play
They've been going in and out of style
But they're guaranteed to raise a smile
So may I introduce to you
The act you've known for all these years
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
We're Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
We hope you will enjoy the show
We're Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sit back and let the evening go
Sgt. Pepper's lonely, Sgt. Pepper's lonely
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
It's wonderful to be here
It's certainly a thrill
You're such a lovely audience
We'd like to take you home with us
We'd love to take you home
I don't really want to stop the show
But I thought that you might like to know
That the singer's going to sing a song
And he wants you all to sing along
So let me introduce to you
The one and only Billy Shears
And Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
What would you think if I sang out of tune
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm gonna try with a little help from my friends
What do I do when my love is away?
(Does it worry you to be alone?)
How do I feel by the end of the day?
(Are you sad because you're on your own?)
No I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm gonna try with a little help from my friends
(Do you need anybody?)
I need somebody to love
(Could it be anybody?)
I want somebody to love
(Would you believe in a love at first sight?)
Yes I'm certain that it happens all the time
(What do you see when you turn out the light?)
I can't tell you, but I know it's mine
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm I get high with a little help from my friends
Oh I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends
(Do you need anybody?)
I just need someone to love
(Could it be anybody?)
I want somebody to love
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm gonna try with a little help from my friends
Oh I get high with a little help from my friends
Yes I get by with a little help from my friends
With a little help from my friends
I've been singing the tune of education about transgender and gender-variant people since I came out in 1992. As I've learned myself, I have found ways to share. The hope, of course is that one day we can earn the respect and acceptance of the people in this society...at least sufficient to the point that we can live without any more danger than any so-called normal person must endure. At the beginning, my aim was to try to make it o that nobody else be as badly treated as I was when I came out. I have not forgotten that.
Crimson flames tied through my ears
Throwin' high and mighty traps
Countless fire and flaming road
Using ideas as my maps
"We'll meet on edges, soon," said I
Proud 'neath heated brow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.
Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth
"Rip down all hate," I screamed
Lies that life is black and white
Spoke from my skull, I dreamed
Romantic flanks of musketeers
Foundation deep, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.
In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not I'd become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My pathway led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.
(guitar solo)
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now
My guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms
Quite clear, no doubt, somehow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.
Rip down all hate. Worthy goal. Lies that life is black and white...or that it should be determined by chromosomes. Transgender people like myself are here to deny that. Genetics is not destiny. You can grow up to be who you desire...but it will take some effort..and not be without its struggles. You can find yourself if you search long and hard...and you can let yourself free.
I've written fairly regularly through the decades a column I have called The Gender Prison. Currently it appears on Tuesdays at Voices on the Square around noon Pacific...and I republish it here later in the day. Occasionally, I hope, someone groks that I and people like me are not the inhabitants who are incarcerated there. We've broken free. It's all you guy who have yet to do so. The media shrieks at you incessantly about how to be a man or how to be a woman...and most o you listen like that's an order. And the number of Joe Six-Packs and Sally Soccer mom's proliferate. Do you think that makes the world a better place?
White bird,
in a golden cage,
on a winter's day,
in the rain.
White bird,
in a golden cage,
alone.
The leaves blow,
Across the long black road.
To the darkened skies,
in its rage
But the white bird just sits in her cage,
unknown.
White bird must fly
Or she will die
White bird,
dreams of the aspen trees,
with their dying leaves,
turning gold.
But the white bird just sits in her cage,
growing old.
White bird must fly or she will die.
White bird must fly or she will die.
The sunsets come, the sunsets go.
The clouds roll by,and the earth turns old.
And the young bird's eyes do always glow.
She must fly,
She must fly,
She must fly.
White bird,
In a golden cage,
On a winter's day, in the rain.
White bird,
In a golden cage alone.
White bird must fly or she will die.
White bird must fly or she will die.
White bird must fly or she will die.
So...today is, as some have called it, my rebirthday...21st of those, in fact. I've preferred, rather than using the term rebirth, to usurp the terminology of those who would deny that I can really exist...and say that on that day I was really and truly born again...given a second chance at life.
And I have never been confused about that...or who I am.
We come into the world and take our chances
Fate is just the weight of circumstances
That’s the way that lady luck dances
Roll the bones..
Thus it seems Einstein was doubly wrong when he said, God does not play dice. Not only does God definitely play dice, but He sometimes confuses us by throwing them where they can't be seen.
--Stephen Hawking
Just because you don't know how we transpeople came to exist does not mean that we don't. We're here, we're queer. Adapt.
Breathe In Peace. Breathe out Love!
Time to break out the bubbly! And the brownies!