The New York Times (12/2), in a front-page story, describes the growing phenomenon of gender-identity rights and how educators, young parents and mental health professionals are letting even very young children be the sex they choose rather than the sex they appear to be. There seems to be a fairly large number of ‘… kids who come to school who aren’t gender typical.’ Some parents are even ‘… choosing to block puberty medically to buy time for them [the children] to figure out who they are.’ Some professionals are beginning to see gender variance as natural. ‘Studies suggest that most boys with gender variance… grow up to be gay.’ However most gender-variant girls end up as heterosexual women.
From the ‘Love-The-One-You’re-With’ file, The New York Times Book Review (12/3) takes on a bio of a complex writer with Benita Eisler’s Naked in the Marketplace: The Lives of George Sand. Aurore-Lucile-Amandine Dupin, who became Sand, wrote ’80 or so novels’ and left a reputation as a ‘cigar-smoking, man-eating, transvestite lesbian nymphomaniac.’ Actually she went to bed with more men than women, including Chopin, although actress Marie Dorval was a serious fling. Sand was, says the book, a person who was romantic with many, wrote much of a worthy nature and was thought of fondly by many prominent people, including her friend Gustave Flaubert.
Tidbit for moviegoers: The New York Times (12/1) says many of the pre-1934 flicks that the censor-driven Production Code was invented to ban are now being shown again and some are doozies. If you get a chance, check out Clara Bow (?!) in Call Her Savage (1932), in which she visits ‘… what may be the first gay bar shown in a mainstream American film and deal [s] with the advances of a particularly affectionate Great Dane.’
From the ‘Good-Idea-For-A-Fad’ file: The New York Times (12/3) reports on the growing flock of hets-against-marriage-unless-my-gay-and-lesbian-friends-can-marry-too. The Government Accountability Office says that marriage licences confer 1,138 federal rights on the new couple and these straight folks are willing to forgo them for the cause. Says Sarah Augusto of Davis, Calif., who calls Jon Bell her partner: ‘ [Because people assume she’s a lesbian] My partner is male…. We’re not getting married because it’s not a universal right, and I feel the word ‘boyfriend’ trivializes our relationship. It’s really been shocking to the people I tell that to. Probably as shocking as if I were a lesbian.’ Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are generally acknowledged for publicizing the idea.