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Tona Brown: Why she kicks ass She is the first African-American Transgender violinist and vocalist to sing for a seated President of the United States of America, she did so in June 2011, when she was invited to perform the National Anthem for President Barack Obama in New York City during the opening ceremony of the LGBT Leadership Conference and Gala Fundraiser.  As a professional musician and vocalist, her career spans across North America and Europe. Ms. Brown formerly was on the National Advisory Board of OUTMUSIC – The LGBT Academy of Recording Arts (The LARA). She programed and conducted the very first classical performance for the 7th Annual OUTMUSIC Awards with her 11 piece AIDA String Ensemble playing Vivaldi’s ‘Summer’, this acknowledged with a roaring 5 minute standing ovation. She also has been featured in numerous newspaper, magazine and television programs for her work with the youth in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and for her recitals, such as articles in the Advocate magazine and The Virginian Pilot. She was selected to do a national tour with the “Tranny Road Show” a multi-media, tour group of Transgender artists that toured from Florida to Canada in April 2006.  Ms Brown was also a featured soloist and speaker for the 2nd Annual LGBT Pride Month Commemoration Ceremony for the Department of Veteran Affairs singing the National Anthem. She was also a guest on the “Anthony McCarthy Radio Show” speaking about her volunteer work with Hearts and Ears Inc. (via womenwhokickass)

Tona Brown: Why she kicks ass

  • She is the first African-American Transgender violinist and vocalist to sing for a seated President of the United States of America, she did so in June 2011, when she was invited to perform the National Anthem for President Barack Obama in New York City during the opening ceremony of the LGBT Leadership Conference and Gala Fundraiser.
  •  As a professional musician and vocalist, her career spans across North America and Europe.
  • Ms. Brown formerly was on the National Advisory Board of OUTMUSIC – The LGBT Academy of Recording Arts (The LARA). She programed and conducted the very first classical performance for the 7th Annual OUTMUSIC Awards with her 11 piece AIDA String Ensemble playing Vivaldi’s ‘Summer’, this acknowledged with a roaring 5 minute standing ovation.
  • She also has been featured in numerous newspaper, magazine and television programs for her work with the youth in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia and for her recitals, such as articles in the Advocate magazine and The Virginian Pilot.
  • She was selected to do a national tour with the “Tranny Road Show” a multi-media, tour group of Transgender artists that toured from Florida to Canada in April 2006. 
  • Ms Brown was also a featured soloist and speaker for the 2nd Annual LGBT Pride Month Commemoration Ceremony for the Department of Veteran Affairs singing the National Anthem. She was also a guest on the “Anthony McCarthy Radio Show” speaking about her volunteer work with Hearts and Ears Inc.

(via womenwhokickass)

(Insert birth name), Mekhi by Diana Corvelle Gouache and watercolor on cut paper Diana Corvelle has been doing portraits of me since high school. In the art classes we’ve shared she’s done doodles of my face in notebooks – sometimes with suggested hairstyles that I would later don, sometimes with ethereal elements I could never have imagined – each iteration more beautiful than the last. Recently Diana did another portrait of me as the 31 year old man I am - face to face with my feminine, pre-transition self. I’ve stared at this piece for a long time now (debating whether or not to post it on this very public blog), curious about how she feels to have known me for so long as a mis-matched shell of the real person inside.  I feel uneasy looking at someone so foreign, yet so close. So beautiful, but so un-realized at the same time. As uncomfortable as it is staring into my former exterior, there is an immense amount of joy that comes with knowing that someone who has known me for so long has accompanied me on this journey, and that she has the understanding that the person inside remains the same. It’s comforting to still have her treat me the same – to still have her draw my face. Words from Diana about the piece: “My gouache and cut-paper works began as an extended autobiographical series.  I was looking to make sense of my life experiences by painting them allegorically.  Using cut-paper imagery as allegorical symbols seemed safer —and more beautiful— than depicting my difficult and messy issues in a more literal way.  The cut-paper imagery alluded to my experiences without exposing too much of myself in the process, thereby enabling me to explore my feelings in a protected place.  After having done a number of cut-paper pieces in this way, I began to paint the experiences and personal narratives of others.  Mostly my subjects are family members or friends that I have known for a long time, and who don’t mind sharing the intimate details of their lives with me.  The study (Insert birth name), Mekhi was done in response to Mekhi’s gender transition.  I wanted to create something that clearly showed the immaterial difference in the person I knew and cared about, even as a physical transformation was taking place.  To mark the physical change, the two portraits-within-shells are created using two different processes.  The (Insert birth name) portrait is rendered realistically in gouache with cut-paper, while the Mekhi portrait is done in watercolor, using a mask-resist method to create the hard-edges and graphic stylization.  Likewise, to emphasize my friend’s unchanging core, I composed the two portraits as symmetrical mirror-images of each other.  I settled on the chambered nautilus imagery because I thought it beautifully illustrated the feeling that an exterior is merely a “shell” to house the self.  I thought it was a fitting symbol given that in our society, as in nature, shells can be altered, outgrown, or replaced.” See more of Diana’s beautiful work on her website, HERE. 


(Insert birth name), Mekhi by Diana Corvelle

Gouache and watercolor on cut paper

Diana Corvelle has been doing portraits of me since high school. In the art classes we’ve shared she’s done doodles of my face in notebooks – sometimes with suggested hairstyles that I would later don, sometimes with ethereal elements I could never have imagined – each iteration more beautiful than the last. Recently Diana did another portrait of me as the 31 year old man I am - face to face with my feminine, pre-transition self. I’ve stared at this piece for a long time now (debating whether or not to post it on this very public blog), curious about how she feels to have known me for so long as a mis-matched shell of the real person inside.  I feel uneasy looking at someone so foreign, yet so close. So beautiful, but so un-realized at the same time. As uncomfortable as it is staring into my former exterior, there is an immense amount of joy that comes with knowing that someone who has known me for so long has accompanied me on this journey, and that she has the understanding that the person inside remains the same. It’s comforting to still have her treat me the same – to still have her draw my face. Words from Diana about the piece:

“My gouache and cut-paper works began as an extended autobiographical series.  I was looking to make sense of my life experiences by painting them allegorically.  Using cut-paper imagery as allegorical symbols seemed safer —and more beautiful— than depicting my difficult and messy issues in a more literal way.  The cut-paper imagery alluded to my experiences without exposing too much of myself in the process, thereby enabling me to explore my feelings in a protected place.  

After having done a number of cut-paper pieces in this way, I began to paint the experiences and personal narratives of others.  Mostly my subjects are family members or friends that I have known for a long time, and who don’t mind sharing the intimate details of their lives with me.  The study (Insert birth name), Mekhi was done in response to Mekhi’s gender transition.  I wanted to create something that clearly showed the immaterial difference in the person I knew and cared about, even as a physical transformation was taking place.  

To mark the physical change, the two portraits-within-shells are created using two different processes.  The (Insert birth name) portrait is rendered realistically in gouache with cut-paper, while the Mekhi portrait is done in watercolor, using a mask-resist method to create the hard-edges and graphic stylization.  Likewise, to emphasize my friend’s unchanging core, I composed the two portraits as symmetrical mirror-images of each other.  I settled on the chambered nautilus imagery because I thought it beautifully illustrated the feeling that an exterior is merely a “shell” to house the self.  I thought it was a fitting symbol given that in our society, as in nature, shells can be altered, outgrown, or replaced.”


See more of Diana’s beautiful work on her website, HERE. 




Tyler | Transgender at 5

Kathryn didn’t even want to be around other little girls, let alone acknowledge that she biologically is one.

Jean tried to put her daughter’s behavior to rest. She sat down with a toddler-version of an anatomy book and showed Kathryn, by then 3, the cartoonish drawings of a naked boy and girl. “See? You’re a girl. You have girl parts,” Jean told her big-eyed daughter. “You’ve always been a girl.”

Kathryn looked up at her mom, incomprehension clouding her round face.

“When did you change me?” the child asked.

Read the full article from the Washington Post, HERE

I am extremely excited to present a GAQ feature interview and photo spread with incredible photographer and artist, Sophia Wallace. Wallace merges narrative, documentary, fashion, and performance strategies to create dialogue around notions of gender and identity.  And it’s beautiful work. Perhaps the most striking thing about Wallace’s work for me is her ability to create imagery as crisp and fashion-forward as those in your latest issue of Vogue, while simultaneously offering cultural commentary and bringing thought provoking themes to the fore.   I asked Wallace some questions about her work, her process and the ideas behind it all. Click the photo for the entire spread, or click HERE to download. 

I am extremely excited to present a GAQ feature interview and photo spread with incredible photographer and artist, Sophia Wallace. Wallace merges narrative, documentary, fashion, and performance strategies to create dialogue around notions of gender and identity.  And it’s beautiful work. Perhaps the most striking thing about Wallace’s work for me is her ability to create imagery as crisp and fashion-forward as those in your latest issue of Vogue, while simultaneously offering cultural commentary and bringing thought provoking themes to the fore.  

I asked Wallace some questions about her work, her process and the ideas behind it all. Click the photo for the entire spread, or click HERE to download. 

USED BINDER GIVEAWAY!

I have recently been blessed with the opportunity to have top surgery after binding for close to two years. I would like to give my used binders away (10 in total, including one swimsuit) to those that need them. The binders are from underworks and range in size from small to medium.

Please e-mail the answers to the following questions to theGAQ[at]gmail.com:

Name:

Age:

How do you identify?:

Size binder requested: (small or medium. please specify if you would like the swimsuit)

Brief paragraph about why you need a binder:

Tumblr/Website/YouTube URL:

Mailing Name (if different):

Mailing address (US only please):

**Other notes on the giveaway: 

-These binders are for those having trouble getting a binder on their own. I’d like to reserve these binders for those who are unable to get binders on their own, whether it be because of financial issues, familial issues, etc. Please do not apply if you can afford to purchase a binder on your own.

-Preference will be given to people of color. Queer and trans people of color oftentimes have significantly fewer resources than their non-POC counterparts. theGAQ is a blog about providing visibility and information for QTPOC in a tumblr-sphere where there is little to no representation of us. If there are more questions, please see, HERE.

-You will use the binder to present as male and/or to curb dysphoria.  This is not about policing identities. I just ask that you be using the binder in your daily life and not for performance purposes (i.e. doing drag, etc.)

*Read more about chest binding resources, HERE. Also, please see other binder giveaway programs and spread the word to those in need: In a Bind, Big Brothers Used Binder Program, and the Pay it Forward binder program for folks in/near Australia and New Zealand.  


*PLEASE NOTE: Giveaway has ended.

Episode 2.5 of “The Peculiar Kind” explores employment and discrimination within Queer and Trans communities of color. I’d highly recommend taking the time to watch this informative video of some wonderfully talented and creative folks who got tired of the bullshit and decided to to it their own way. Featured in the video are:

Hubba (@ruggedambition | http://www.ruggedambition.tumblr.com)
Ryann (@supamckenzi | http://www.bklynboihood.com)
Monique (http://www.Etsy.com/Shop/BannedFromTv)
Tru (Facebook: Tru Angelino) 

Support our community.

@janetmock uses her voice to speak out for those trans women whose voices have been silenced by violence, abuse, death and prison sentences at a keynote address for USC.

“For trans women of color, these women’s murders are constant reminders that who we are falls so outside of the box of what society says is acceptable that our deaths and even our lives don’t matter. We are in effect disposable.

And our entire system validates this belief. Even when we stand our ground and defend ourselves our lives can be taken away. I look at CeCe McDonald, a 23-year-old black trans woman who was verbally assaulted and physically attacked in Minneapolis last year. Her attackers pelted racial and transphobic slurs at her. They even sliced her cheek. And when she had the audacity to fight back, one of her attackers died. Though she was the victim in this incident, CeCe is the one sitting behind bars right now, facing a murder trial.

CeCe’s freedom has been stripped from her and Paige’s life has been taken away from us. These women won’t be able to tell their stories and it is for them and girls like us that I decided to step forward and finally tell my story and own my truth.”