Topic: People

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #104, Winter 2004.

by Monica F. Helms

?Sheriff! Sheriff! The new doc just got off the train!?

?Calm down, Cleatis. Iffin? ya seens one doctor, ya seens ?em all.?

?Not like this, Sheriff. This doctor?s a ?she?!?

?Well, I?ll be hornswaggled. We got ourselves another Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman!?

In Trinidad, just 126 miles south of Colorado Springs, where the fictitious Dr. Quinn hung out her shingle, a new pioneer woman has come onto the scene?only this one is doing sex reassignment surgery. Dr. Marci Bowers, 45, a successful and award-winning OB/GYN doctor from Seattle, has decided to use the knowledge and skills she has learned to give back to our community. After all, she is one of us.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #105, Spring 2004.

by Alison Kemp


It?s midnight and Ayten?s red glossy lips and long black hair make him shimmer in the darkness. He?s not had the operation, so he?s still got his penis and sees no need to get rid of it. He?s just left a regular customer, a married man with children who is so enamored of his sexual forays with Ayten that he wants to give it all up, wear a dress and join his lover on the street.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #105, Spring 2004.

In June 2003, Andrea James published on her website, www.tsroadmap.com, a disturbing article about Anne Lawrence?s behavior. Although James? article is in part an ad hominem (i.e., personal) attack, her allegations about Lawrence?s conduct are nonetheless of concern; in fact, they mirror our own long-held apprehensions and provide corroborating evidence to previous allegations we have received about Lawrence?s behavior.

The Swedish Hospital Incident

In her on-line article, James describes and links to images of supportive documentation for an incident that occurred in 1997, in which Lawrence, who was employed as an anesthesiologist at Seattle?s Swedish Hospital, allegedly performed an inappropriate and unauthorized vaginal inspection of an unconscious patient. This action resulted in an investigation by Washington officials and was followed by Lawrence?s resignation from the hospital staff. Lawrence no longer practices as an anesthesiologist. Lawrence told Transgender Tapestry, ?The circumstances of my departure from Swedish Hospital were investigated in detail by the Washington State Medical Quality Assurance Commission. The commission found no evidence of unprofessional conduct. I was not reprimanded or disciplined in any way and there was no action taken against my license. I maintain and have always maintained an unrestricted Washington state medical license.?

(courtesy of Bodies Like Ours)
Over the weekend, we learned of the untimely death last week of David Reimer in Winnipeg. David was the subject of the well-known Joan/John gender experiment in the 1960?s and 1970's by Dr. John Money.  After a botched circumcision, David was given hormones and raised as a girl at the urging of Money, then a sex researcher at Johns Hopkins Hospital. After an awkward childhood and years of teasing, David discovered the truth at age 14, and he took steps to return to his male identity. David took his own life at age 38 o­n Tuesday, May 4, 2004.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #103, Fall 2003.

?By Miss Debra Kate and H. Kapplow

One of Miss Debra Kate?s biggest regrets is that her current schedule doesn?t leave her enough time to put her makeup on properly. It?s not that she doesn?t get a chance to apply everything she intends to?it?s all there?and it looks fantastic. She just doesn?t have the luxury these days of savoring the experience. Applying makeup is a fulfilling act for Debra Kate, and the pleasure she?s accustomed to taking in the process is an essential part of the magic by which she transforms herself into a woman. Or into a man. It can be confusing for the casual onlooker, trying to guess what the final transformation is. Perhaps there is no final transformation.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #103, Fall 2003.

by Maxwell Anderson Robert

Allen Eads was born December 18, 1945, in a tiny no-nothing of a town in West Virginia. The middle child of three, he had an older and a younger brother. Until the day he died, his mother called him Bobby.

Robert himself used many names. When I met him, he called himself Bob. At times he used Ray, and for those hillbilly times, he called himself Ray-Bob. As he matured, Robert became his name of choice. Robert grew up poor, as did most in West Virginia at that time, but this didn?t necessarily mean he was unhappy. He wasn?t. There were rough times, of course, but all-in-all, he was loved and cared for. His mother was a stay-at-home mom, and since Robert was a ?she? growing up, the bond was strong between them. Although his mother had difficulty with the transition to Robert, she continued to love him, and is with him now, since her death in the early part of 2001.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #101, Spring 2003.

With great sadness, I must relate to you the death of Helen Garfinkle on November 7th after a long illness. Helen was a tireless worker bee and longtime organizer of the Washington DC Transgender Community. She was best known as the President and Vice-President of the Washington-Baltimore Alliance, the oldest continuous transgender support group in the area. She was a volunteer for many, many national transgender conferences, including Fantasia Fair, Southern Comfort, the IFGE and True Spirit Conferences. She also was a staunch member of It?s Time, Maryland!, lobbying openly as a crossdresser from 1995 to 1998 for four different pro-transgender bills introduced in the Maryland General Assembly.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #99, Fall 2002.

We?ll All Miss Her
by Nancy Cain

I remember meeting Candy Scott in the fall of 1994 at one of the Innvestments meetings in Hyannis, Massachusetts. She spotted me as a newcomer and immediately latched on to me. She wanted to know all about me. I was flattered.

Originally appeared in Transgender Tapestry #99, Fall 2002.


Lessons From my Year as President
Or How to Survive with your Sense of Humor Intact

It was little more than a year ago that I was approached by friends who encouraged me to run for President of the TransGender Education Association (TGEA), one of the social/support groups in Washington, D.C. At the time, there was a palpable sense of apathy rising in a group that once numbered over 90 members. Over the years, the pool of regulars?who always found a way to stay involved?began to dry up or burn out. As elections approached, there were more open positions than there were nominations or incumbents.

by Gordene O. MacKenzie
and Nancy R. Nangeroni

(from Tapestry 098)

In the second half of the last decade, the board of directors the Boston-based Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) decided to look closely at the emerging arena of gender and transgenderism, in hopes of incorporating some of the perspectives emerging from that movement into their work. As a group of attorneys litigating key cases in hopes of setting far-reaching precedents in defense of LGBT persons, the GLAD board made it their mission to advocate on behalf of those who had been denied justice because of their gender.

Four years ago, they offered a job to a trans-identified attorney from Chicago who had been helping transpeople with legal concerns in her spare time. That attorney was Jennifer Levi. Since that time, Jennifer has been involved in?and won?a number of high-visibility court cases in the New England area, establishing far-reaching precedents on matters dear to the transgender heart. She was the primary drafter of Rhode Island?s transgender-inclusive non-discrimination law. She has been instrumental in winning favorable rulings for transpeople in employment, health care, lending, public accommodations, and education. Her arguments produced a legal victory in the Brockton, MA case where a biologically male transgendered student won the right to attend school wearing ?girl?s? clothing. She is working to ensure transpeople are included under federal sex discrimination law. We spoke with Jennifer about gender case law, and about her own gender identity and beliefs.