Transplendent

Now this is a very nice idea: a journal that focuses on trans issues from both academic and popular perspectives. The world always benefits when people are celebrated, rather than ridiculed, or worse, discriminated against, because of traits that cause no harm to themselves or to others. And the great Divine on the cover? Wow, count me in!

But wait, that's not Divine. Rather, it's the equally great John Candy doing Divine. How could they mess up that badly? And anyway, Divine wasn't trans. He was a drag artist. What's going on?

Moreover, upon inspecting the list of contributors, a whole series of red flags is raised. Look at those names! It's a who's who of anti-liberal regressives who never saw a trendy issue they couldn't exploit to advance their own fame and fortune; humanism, tolerance, and compassion are the last things on these contributors' minds.

Reading the articles' blurbs finally reveals that this is obviously a hoax. Have you ever read a bigger load of nonsense in your life?

Although the analogy is flawed (since the communities referenced herein do not suffer from any sort of malady), anyone thinking that the person who assembled this satire is mean-spirited and anti-trans is like someone who would take offense at mocking television ads from Big Pharma, claiming that the mocker is actually ridiculing people with medical conditions, instead of ridiculing the corporations that exploit them.

As a minority community facing increasingly hostile attacks from bad illiberal actors, the trans community--as all minorities that endure discrimination do--deserves to be treated as the full equals they of course are. What the community emphatically does not need is to be exploited as pawns by those whose agenda is one of self-aggrandizement, bandwagon jumping, and virtue signalling. Don't be fooled by egomaniacal scoundrels whose sole interest is their own fame and fortune. They don't care about you. They only care about themselves.

CHESA BOUDIN: IT/IT/ITS AND THE NEW AGENDERISM ? Advocating for the unhoused, for those with substance disorders, and for persons with mental illness to live their chosen lives free of government intervention, as well as spearheading a genuinely liberating revolution in its city’s draconian incarceration policy, Chesa Boudin (it/it) has surely done its famed activist parents proud through its transformative work for not only the disenfranchised’s quality of life, but for all the people of San Francisco. More recently expanding its laser-focused eye to the pressing issue of gender liberation, Boudin believes that since gender is assigned at birth, it is not a natural component of our makeup, and should be rejected by all in favor of an orthodox agenderism. ISLA BRYSON: THE COMING PRISON BREAK FROM CIS OPPRESSION A new face in trans prisoner rights empowerment, out and proud transgender person convicted of a crime Isla Bryson (she/her), in coordination with her trans allies in the Scottish National Party, successfully earned the right to be housed in a prison for people with vaginas, despite her being a person with a penis. As Bryson was convicted of rape, this is an especially sweet victory for trans rights, paving the way for those found guilty of lesser crimes to reside in the prison of their choice, not in the prison the patriarchy deems appropriate. “I have not yet begun to fight!” she writes. JUDITH BUTLER: GENITOPLASTY AS METAPHOR Non-binary lesbian Judith Butler (they/them) is a world-renowned queer theorist at the University of California Berkeley. In a remarkable act of solidarity with the trans community, Butler recently underwent elective phalloplasty, immediately followed by restorative vaginoplasty, in Tijuana, Mexico (the transphobic and patriarchal American medical establishment refused to perform the surgeries, they report): “Our genitalia are inherently political, and should be treated as instruments of societal change,” they write; “They are at least as much metaphors for the human condition as they are mere flesh and blood.” GLENN GREENWALD: DIVINING THE DIVINE DIVINE The maverick drag artist Harris Glenn Milstead, better known to the world as his fearless alter ego Divine, brought his artistic and political visions to mainstream America and the world at large in such classic John Waters films as Pink Flamingos, Polyester, and in his mainstream breakthrough performance in Hairspray. In this issue’s cover story, investigative reporter and famed outspoken critic of mainstream liberalism Glenn Greenwald (he/him) renews his proactive LGBTQIA+ support by meticulously examining the multi-faceted subtexts of Divine’s oeuvre, divining the diva’s remarkably prescient views on both trans and genderqueer identities. IBRAM X. KENDI: THE DANGERS OF PRENATAL CISNORMATIVE LANGUAGE “The womb has ears,” writes National Book Award winner and antiracist scholar Ibram X. Kendi (he/him) in this cutting-edge investigation into our species’ remarkable capacity to learn cultural mores during the prenatal period: we risk lifelong negative consequences if denying the developing fetus exposure to anti-cisnormative/anti-heteronormative language. “Brain and language development are at their peak levels during the fetal period, and it is the duty of everyone to speak out against cisnormativity especially during these critical months: “Engaging in any other verbal strategy with your fetus eternally condemns you to the wrong side of history.” LINDA SARSOUR: THE ETERNAL BRAID: TRANS RIGHTS AND PALESTINIAN RIGHTS Empowered Palestinians’ rights, women’s rights, and trans’ rights activist, woman of color, Nakba survivor, and Palestinian refugee Linda Sarsour (she/her) illuminates the inspiring history of trans lives in Palestine. Across the millennia, trans Palestinians have been exalted and honored in their ancient homeland, and continue play a remarkably vibrant and vital role in maintaining Palestinian identity in the face of the Zionist aggressor. Though their history has been completely suppressed by the settler/colonial apartheid regime, which has imported from its communities in Europe its appalling legacy of reactionary anti-trans bigotry to their conquered lands, herein, Sarsour sets the historical record straight. AL SHARPTON: THE TRANSGENDER ROOTS AND BRANCHES OF HIP HOP Political activist, religious leader, and cable news mainstay Al Sharpton (he/him) always brings his scintillating intellect and heartfelt integrity to a wide range of issues pertaining to both the African American community and the oppressed at large, having established himself as one of our most reliable fighters for social justice. Here, the Reverend argues that finger-pointing at the supposed homophobia, transphobia, and sexism encountered in rap and hip hop is a racist and transphobic ploy. Rather, such lyrics are a cypher, a metaphoric coding for a call to arms: “We are with you, trans allies!” has always been the real message, one lost on those too blind to “fight the power.” CHASE STRANGIO: FREEDOM OF SPEECH INCLUDES FREEDOM FROM SPEECH Deploying the meticulous legal argumentation for which he/they is/are so well-known, Northeastern University-trained lawyer and Deputy Director for Transgender Justice, ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project, Chase Strangio (he/they / him/them) demonstrates that The Peoples’ tradition of what he/they term “Free Silencing” (the right of individuals and groups to quell speech they deem harmful to the commonweal) long precedes the establishment of the United States and the first amendment to its constitution, and is absolutely essential to both protecting and enabling our move towards a more progressive, more inclusive, and more tolerant social order. LIA THOMAS: OLYMPIC GOLD: WITHIN OUR REACH The rise of champion collegiate swimmer Lia Thomas (she/her) is one of recent history's most inspiring stories in our struggle for trans equality. In one fell swoop she freed both her body and her soul when she transitioned and unleashed her newfound confidence in collegiate competition, winning meet after meet, shattering record after record, even as transphobes and other reactionaries throw obstacles in her lane at every turn. In this, her first extended public statement of purpose, she pledges to keep fighting for her—and all trans athletes’—natural-born right to compete up to the Olympic level, and to go for the gold: “I just want to be who I am; I just want to swim, and I just want to win.”