I'm sure it's a big deal for Tom, the same way it was for James (Jan) Morris and Richard Raskin (Renee Richards) and the now Jillian Page, among others.
The headline on the print Washington Post gossip page was
It's Tom for now. Soon: Laura
and I had no idea what that meant.
The on-line version read:
Against Me! singer Tom Gabel plans to become a woman
and that made more sense than another on-line story that said he plans to "change genders." I think I need to find the story editor and whack him several times with The Post style manual. I'm sorry. I'm not trying to pick a fight with those who call sexual reassignment surgery, gender reassignment surgery. I just see gender as how you see yourself, and sex as what you are. I know, others disagree. I'm open to persuasion. Until then... Whack!The story in a nutshell: Tom Gable, lead singer for the band Against Me!, plans to take action on his transsexuality; he's not sure how far he will go at this time. He is not attracted to men and plans to remain married.
I say "he" because I haven't seen any self-reference as she. I mean no disrespect to the future Laura Jane Grace.
The Washington Post story can be found here, and an AP story, reprinted on The Post website is here.
But also take a look at Aeify's blog where she found a link to the band's The Ocean, and she includes the video and lyrics. She also links to an MTV story.
Until someone finds a way to convert chromosomes from Y to X surgically, I can't see a way of calling of sex reassignment surgery.
ReplyDeleteI do see your point though. It's not really gender reassignment either, since the surgery doesn't alter the person's brain gender.
I guess it really needs to be called something like body gender alignment surgery.