10 October 2004
CALL FOR PAPERS: Desire in Transition
Desire in Transition: An anthology by, for and about partners and potential partners of trans(gender/sexual), intersex, and gender queer people
Partners and potential partners of gender queer people are extremely diverse and rarely visible as a group. We are people of all genders (trans and otherwise), people of all sexual identities (straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, trans-sensual, s/m, vanilla, some of us still searching for terminology and some happy without it), not to mention body sizes and shapes, races, ethnicities, health statuses, physical abilities, economic classes and so on. Part of our invisibility is that there doesn’t seem to be a simple name for the one thing we have in common. “Homosexual” might work for similarly gendered trans people in relationships, but not all of us with differently gendered preferences are comfortable with “heterosexual,” and “transsexual” is already taken.
It’s time for an anthology to begin to illustrate who we are (in all of our
diversity), the issues with which we struggle, and what we’re doing to make
the world a better place. I imagine this book as a beginning of a conversation
among lovers of gender variant folks and the varied communities to which we
belong.
So, I’m looking for writing (essays, memoirs, stories, poetry, etc.) on the following topics or others that you believe would be important for such a book:
- Coming out stories (How has your thinking about your sexual identity and relationship changed over time? Did a partner you were already with, come out as trans? Or, did you find a pattern in the types of people you were attracted to? What have you come out as? Have you come out more than once, with more than one sexual identity? How did others react when you told them? What were your hopes and fears in coming out? How have they come true or not? Did your partner or ex come out to you? And how did you react?)
- Sex (Desire, erotica, safer sex, S/M, vanilla, phone sex, public sex, fantasies, fuck-ups, and so on…)
- Relationships (Is there anything special about trans or differently gendered relationships? How have your views on relationships changed with your partners and/or identities? Changes during transition, trans people telling their partners, non-trans partners’ transitions, how to be a political ally to your romantic partner/s, inter-racial relationships, internet dating, monogamy and polyamory, commitment ceremonies, state-sanctioned marriages, domestic violence…)
- Creating Community (Where do we fit, and how have our communities responded? How have our non-trans-identified communities adjusted or changed? Who has come into our lives that we might not otherwise have met? What barriers have obstructed our efforts to create community, and how have we dealt with them? What has been fun or fabulous about your gender community?)
- Organizing for Social Change (What kinds of trans/partners political organizing are we doing? What tips do we have for others? How do we work with and in existing political organizations - queer, people of color, labor, feminist, fat liberationist and other movements? How has being a partner of a trans person fit with and/or changed and/or enhanced your political analysis?)
Submissions should be no more than 15 pages (double spaced) or 3700 words.