TS-Si Op-Ed

Washington, DC, USA. The sky was overcast, then partially cloudy; the temperature down from the day before, the humidity up; a mild breeze that sporadically grew to wind and then not.

We have a double booth intentionally. One for TS-Si, the other for HIPS (Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive) who have never had access to a public gathering before, certainly not one the size of Capital Pride. This will be their first time in the public light encountering the gay community and straight middle America.

The crowds have been wandering in for the last thirty -minutes. We’ve already had a few religious types stop by to gather information for outreach programs. The anti-gay religions don’t even bother, having already decided that a transsexual sinner is no better than a gay one. 

Prime time.

Transmen

Transgenders

Hookers

• More religious types gathering information. There seems to be a movement afoot spanning various religions. Transsexuality and Transgenders are finally on the map, although no one appears to know exactly what a transgender is.
   
• Therapists, who apparently read TS-Si. A couple shrinks come by, happy to notice they are on the TS-Si recommended therapist list; a couple others wonder why they are not on the list. We start searching the crowd for anyone who looks like an angry, unrecommended therapist who might want to administer his or her personal treatment to our booth (or us).
   
• The curious, almost all open minded, straight and queer.
   
• All flavors of transsexuality (those with just a glimmer, those still searching for easy answers, those in transition, and a lot of post-ops who appear to be everywhere).
   
• A true believer who appeared to want to recruit us for a twelve step program to cure our transsexuality. My daughter Felicia is the first to encounter him and quickly backs away when she sees the glint in his eye. Sharon takes over, suggesting that the Log Cabin Republican tent might be a better target for his ministry, and deflects him away.
   
• Those who are happy to see transsexuality out in the open and discussed. Some of them have never seen the word “transsexual” displayed in public before.
   
• Transsexual folk from small towns in Florida and the Carolinas, Pennsylvania and Delaware, West Virginia and places further west. Some of them were on the verge of happy tears when they talked to us.
   
• Transgender advocates spreading the great nonsensical umbrella that we are all the same, surgery isn’t necessary, and women and men are one and identical. They get quite angry when we respond to their desperate proselytizing declarations with one of our own:
   
  Transsexuality ain’t transgendered.
   
  A man in a dress is still a man.
   
  Transsexuality is a medical condition requiring surgery to correct,
  not cosmetics, not a pretty frock,
  not someone yelling at us to get onboard their p. c. train.
   
  We tell them we support their lifestyles, whatever they may be, encourage them to come out (and accept the consequences of their actions as those born transsexual do), and send them off back into the crowd to spread their gospel.
   
• A twinkish young male walks by dressed in tight white jockey briefs, packing something extra to enhance his manhood. Nothing more. He seemed out of place in what has become a family festival. He looks like a lonely throwback to earlier time when most queers were still in the closet and tighty whiteys were a radical political statement. Sun Trust Bank must have been thrilled that he was carrying one of their corporate bags.
   
• A Drag Queen, dressed as Marie Antoinette if she wore white face, poses for photos.
   
• We learn that Serena’s day job (night job) is as a professional drag king, leader of a group of other performers.
   
• Friends stop by, hugs and kisses are exchanged but no communicable diseases.
   
• Serena, showing responsibility and knowing how to stay within the fringes of decorum, quickly hides the dildos as a young boy races ahead of his mother and approaches the HIPS booth. The boy catches a fleeting glimpse as they vanish and is all wide-eyed while his mother rolls hers. He will have questions later.
   
• Families are walking everywhere. Straight, Gay, Lesbian, and the unlabelled masses.
   
• Rock and dance music plays continuously from the various stages.
   
• Behind their fences, the beer gardens are full of sweaty bodies.
   
• Boy walks by in minimal leathers and tattoos. 
   
• Children run to our booth, ask if they can have some Mardi Gras beads. They usually take just one (the teens and early twenties each take two or three). We smile at the parents, talk middle class nicely, and give them a TS-Si pamphlet and some handouts. They take a pen and leave money in the donation box.

We carry our stuff back to car. Much less remains than when we arrived.

Ms. Lisa Jain Thompson is a Co-Founder & Principal of TS-Si. She also serves as a Contributing Editor and columnist for the TS-Si website. She maintains another site, StarPoet.com, for her poetry and literary works.

Ms. Thompson's signed articles contain her own opinions and do not necessarily convey an official position of TS-Si, its partners, or affiliates. Lisa welcomes your comments. Use the form below or email via her TS-Si Contact Page. We will not divulge any personal details or place you on a mailing list without your permission.

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