Trans* Success

William Cather (1873-1947) enjoyed distinguished careers as journalist, editor, and fiction writer. Cather’s work made him one of the most important American novelists of the first half of the 20th century. He was born in Back Creek Valley, Virginia., and at the age of nine, move to live at his family homesteaded in pioneer Nebraska. There he grew up among the immigrants from Europe, most of them coming from Scandinavia, who were establishing homesteads on the Great Plains. The new ranch was not a success, and in 1884 the family moved to the small railroad town of Red Cloud, where Cather’s father opened an insurance business. Cather was educated at home, and later he attended Red Cloud High School. From an early age, Cather was troubled by his identity. He preferred to dress in men’s clothing and as a teenager he began signing his name “William Cather, Jr.” or “Dr. Will.” William was also active in community theater productions and often took male roles. In 1890 Cather moved to Lincoln to escape the conservatism of the small town.

William studied at Latin School (1891-92), and the University of Nebraska, where he first arrived at the University dressed as William Cather, his “twin”. While in college, he began publishing short stories, wrote a weekly column for the Nebraska State Journal, and he fell passionately in love with Louise Pound, a fellow student and athlete, but they became best friends. In 1895, Cather graduated from the University of Nebraska, receiving his BA. From 1899 Cather lived in Pittsburgh with Isabelle McClung, the daughter of a Pittsburgh judge. He spent 10 years there and held many jobs. First on a newspaper and then as a high-school teacher of English and Latin. Cather worked as an editorial staff member for Home Monthly and telegraph editor and theatre critic for Daily Leader. In 1897-1901 he was Latin and English teacher at Central High School and then English teacher at Allegheny High School. His first short story was published in 1892 and by 1896 he had published nine stories. His first novel, Alexander’s Bridge, appeared in 1912 and was followed a year later by O Pioneers!. McClung married someone else in 1915, but Cather had already met Edith Lewis while traveling to New York during this period.

At the age of 32, Cather moved to New York to live with Lewis and to edit McClure’s Magazine. He spent forty years of his life with her in New York city. In 1922 Cather won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel One Of Ours. Cather is most often thought of as a chronicler of the pioneer American West. Critics note that the themes of his work are intertwined with the universal story of the rise of civilizations in history, the drama of the immigrant in a new world, and views of personal involvements with art. Cather’s fiction is characterized by a strong sense of place, the subtle presentation of human relationships, an often unconventional narrative structure, and a style of clarity and beauty. Cather devoted himself to writing. Many of his books drew on his memories and knowledge of Nebraska. Cather never wrote openly about lesbian or gay themes. Much his work, however, can be interpreted with a lesbian or gay subtext if one knows to look for the clues. Nothing overt would have been tolerated by the publishers.

Radclyffe Hall (1880–1943) was an English poet and author.  He was born in Bournemouth, Hampshire (now Dorset) to a wealthy philandering father and quarrelsome mother. Lonely while growing up, she was educated at King’s College London and then in Germany. Having reached adulthood without a vocation, he spent much of his twenties pursuing women he eventually lost to other marriages. In 1907 at the Homburg spa in Germany, Hall met Mabel Batten, a well-known amateur singer of lieder. Batten (nicknamed “Ladye”) was 51 to Hall’s 27, and was married with an adult daughter and grandchildren. They fell in love, and after Batten’s husband died they set up residence together. Batten gave Hall the nickname John, which he used the rest of his life.

In 1915 Hall fell in love with Mabel Batten’s cousin Una Troubridge, a sculptor who was the wife of Vice-Admiral Ernest Troubridge, and the mother of a young daughter. Mabel Batten died the following year, and in 1917 Radclyffe Hall and Una Troubridge began living together. The relationship would last until Hall’s death. In 1934 Hall fell in love with Russian émigré Evguenia Souline and embarked upon a long-term affair with her, which Troubridge painfully tolerated. Hall became involved in affairs with other women throughout the years, possibly including blues singer Ethel Waters. In 1930 Radclyffe Hall received the Gold Medal of the Eichelbergher Humane Award. He was a member of the PEN club, the Council of the Society for Psychical Research and a fellow of the Zoological Society. Radclyffe Hall was listed at number sixteen in the top 500 lesbian and gay heroes in The Pink Paper.

Hall lived with Troubridge in London and, during the 1930s, in the tiny town of Rye, East Sussex, noted for its many writers. He died at age 63 of colon cancer, and is interred at Highgate Cemetery in North London. The vault containing his remains is in the Circle of Lebanon, half way round from the Egyptian Avenue entrance. The Unlit Lamp was the first of his books to give the author’s name simply as Radclyffe Hall. His books sold very well and some were critically acclaimed, winning both the Prix Femina and the James Tait Black Prize, a feat previously achieved only by E. M. Forster. Hall is best known for The Well of Loneliness, the only one of his eight novels to have overt lesbian themes. Published in 1928, The Well of Loneliness deals with the life of Stephen Gordon, a masculine lesbian.

Claude Cahun (1894-1954) was a French artist, photographer and writer. Her work was both political and personal, often playing with the concepts of gender and sexuality. She was the niece of writer Marcel Schwob and the great-niece of Orientalist David Léon Cahun. Her mother’s mental problems meant that she was brought up by her paternal grandmother, Mathilde Cahun. She began making photographic self-portraits as early as 1912, when she was 18 years old, and she continued taking images of herself through the 1930s. Around 1919, she settled on the pseudonym Claude Cahun, intentionally selecting a sexually ambiguous name, after having previously used the names Claude Courlis (after the curlew) and Daniel Douglas (after Lord Alfred Douglas). During the early 20s, she settled in Paris with her life-long partner and stepsister Suzanne Malherbe. For the rest of their lives together, Cahun and Malherbe (who adopted the pseudonym “Marcel Moore”) collaborated on various written works, sculptures, photomontages and collages. She published articles and novels, notably in the periodical “Mercure de France”.

Around 1922 she and Malherbe began holding artists’ salons at their home. Cahun’s work encompassed writing, photography, and theater. She is most remembered for her highly-staged self portraits and tableaux that incorporated the visual aesthetics of Surrealism. Her published writings include “Heroines,” (1925) a series of monologues based upon female fairy tale characters and intertwining them with witty comparisons to the contemporary image of women; Aveux non avenus, (Carrefour, 1930) a book of essays and recorded dreams illustrated with photomontages; and several essays in magazines and journals. Cahun’s life was marked by a sense of role reversal, and her public identity became a commentary upon not only her own, but the public’s notions of sexuality, gender, beauty, and logic. Her adoption of a sexually ambiguous name, and her androgynous self-portraits display a revolutionary way of thinking and creating, experimenting with her audience’s understanding of photography as a documentation of reality. Her poetry challenged gender roles and attacked the increasingly modern world’s social and economic boundaries. Also Cahun’s participation in the Parisian Surrealist movement diversified the group’s artwork and ushered in new representations. Where most Surrealist artists were men, and their primary images were of women as isolated symbols of eroticism, Cahun epitomized the chameleonic and multiple possibilities of the female identity.

In 1932 she joined the Association des Écrivains et Artistes Révolutionnaires. Following this, she started associating with the surrealist group, and later participated in a number of surrealist exhibitions, including the London International Surrealist Exhibition (New Burlington Gallery) and Exposition surréaliste d’Objets (Charles Ratton Gallery, Paris), both in 1936. In 1934, she published a short polemic essay, Les Paris sont Ouverts, and in 1935 took part in the founding of the left-wing group Contre Attaque.  In 1937 Cahun and Malherbe settled in Jersey. Following the fall of France and the German occupation of Jersey and the other Channel Islands, they became active as resistance workers and propagandists. Fervently against war, the two worked extensively in producing anti-German fliers. Many were snippets from English-to-German translations of BBC reports on the Nazi’s crimes and insolence, which were pasted together to create rhythmic poems and harsh criticism. The couple then dressed up and attended many German military events in Jersey, strategically placing them in soldier’s pockets, on their chairs, etc. Also, fliers were inconspicuously crumpled up and thrown into cars and windows. In many ways, Cahun and Malherbe’s resistance efforts were not only political but artistic actions.

Note:In some areas this role model is listed as a trans male, however, due to the fact that she appeared to go back and forth between multiple genders, we are listing her under Androgyne and Genderfluid. Apologies for any incorrect pronouns, there is no mention of Claude’s preferences.

S Bear Bergman (born September 22, 1974 as Sharon) is a transgender author, poet, playwright, and theater artist.  Despite a transition into a more masculine looking form, Bergman identifies as neither male nor female and prefers pronouns “ze” and “hir”.

Ze was educated at Concord Academy, was one of the founders of the first Gay–straight alliance, a member of the Governor of Massachusetts’ Safe Schools Commission for LGBT youth, and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Hampshire College in 1996.

Bergman’s work has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in the GLBT Nonfiction category and a was finalist in the Lambda Literary Award.  Bear’s most recent book, co-edited with transsexual author Kate Bornstein is Gender Outlaws: The next Generation, which won a 2011 Lambda Literary Award in the LGBT Anthology category and a special Judges Award from the Publishing Triangle.  In addition, ze continues to lecture and perform solo shows at colleges and universities throughout the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

In 2005, Bergman was awarded a Massachusetts Cultural Council grant for playwriting, as well as a Millay Colony for the Arts Fellowship award.  Ze lives in Toronto, Ontario, and is married to activist J Wallace. They have one son, Stanley, whom you can see in the picture above.

Ignacio Rivera

Prefers the gender-neutral pronoun “they,” has spoken at home and abroad on such topics as racism, sexism, homo/transphobia, transgender issues, anti-oppression, anti-violence, multi-issue organizing and more. In addition to lectures and keynotes, their work manifests itself through skits, one-person shows, poetry, spoken word performance, workshops, readings and experimental film.

Ignacio is the founder of Poly Patao Productions. P3 is dedicated to producing sex-positive workshops, performance pieces, films, play parties, panel discussions, social/political groups and educational opportunities that are specially geared toward queer women, transgender, multi-gender, gender-queer, gender non-conforming and gender variant people of color.

They also helped found the the Queers for Economic Justice, a progressive non-profit organization committed to promoting economic justice in a context of sexual and gender liberation, as one of the board members.

Ryka Aoki de la Cruz

“If I respected gender boundaries, I’d look between my legs and never be trans,” Ryka Aoki de la Cruz declares.  “If I can say I have a penis and I’m a woman, I can sure as hell say I’m a poet and write poetry.”  L.A. based performance artist de la Cruz is a trans performer: poet, musician, author, zine publisher, literature professor and activist.

The Goth lesbian has found acceptance in the alternative community.
Her artistic work has been showcased in L.A. museums, numerous poetry festivals, LGBT prides and the documentary Trans Art; and she founded  (transgiving.org), L.A.’s art and performance series dedicated to trans, genderqueer, and intersex artists. “Art is the single most powerful humanizing force we have.  So…we have a trans actor get up and do a Shakespearean monologue to poetry and then, after we’ve made the audience cry, then say, ‘Now tell me I’m not human.’”

Max Wolf Valerio is an American poet, memoir writer, essayist and actor. He lives in San Francisco, California and is ethnically Blackfoot Indian, Sephardic Jewish, and Northern European.  Valerio’s 2006 memoir “The Testosterone Files” describes his experience as a female-to-male transsexual. He performs poetry and acts on both film and stage.  Max addresses a lot of hot, controversial topics in interviews and books.  He is also incredibly open as to the changes he experienced transitioning into a man that go beyond just muscles and beards and into the heart of so many stereotypes facing men.  Max speaks out on behalf of trans women who are not being widely embraced in lesbian social circles or who are being pushed out by radical feminists.

Melanie Anne Phillips is a song writer, photographer, artist, writer, poet, and has directed and produced a few of her own feature films.  She’s most famous for writing A Transsexual Diary: Transition, Transformation, and Transcendence spread over 5 books about her journey to being a woman.  Melanie also is the creator of a Trans support site for Trans Women that contains vast amounts of information on the transitioning process.  She is enterprising, talented, and very pretty.