RIT’s GLBT Center Presents:

“A Journey from Female to Male”

Presenters:
Dragonsani Renteria and Jennifer Mantle

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

6-9 PM

SDC 1300
RIT Campus
Rochester, NY

Free and Open to All!

Workshop conducted in American Sign Language. Voice interpretation provided.

About the Presentation:

In this widely acclaimed, thought-provoking presentation, Dragonsani “Drago” Renteria and his partner, Jennifer Mantle, will help inform, educate and enlighten us on issues that affect transgender and transsexual individuals. Utilizing powerful images and healthy doses of humor, Drago will share his personal journey making the physical and cultural transition from female to male. Jennifer will share her perspective as the partner of a transman, lead us through issues of transphobia and educate us on how to be trans allies.

This presentation is guaranteed to challenge the way you think about sex and gender!

About the Presenters:

Drago Renteria is a Deaf, Chicano transman who is passionate about making a difference. He has presented to diverse audiences nationwide on LGBTIQ issues. He is founder of the national Deaf Queer Resource Center and has served on numerous local and national boards including the boards of FTM International and the Youth Gender Project. A speaker in demand, Drago is adept at making his audiences feel at ease when discussing sensitive topics. Drago is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and did part of his undergraduate work at Gallaudet University. He currently serves as CEO of a web hosting/development company and lives blissfully in San Francisco with his partner Jennifer and their adorable dog, Magnus.

Jennifer A. Mantle is an RID certified sign language interpreter, CI and CT. With her partner, Drago, she has presented nation-wide on her experiences as the partner of a Deaf transman of color, and is thrilled to have a piece on the same topic published in Eyes of Desire II: A Deaf Gay and Lesbian Reader. She is a former board member of Female-to-Male International (FTMI) and facilitated their support group for partners of transmen for four years. She was honored to receive the Transgender Law Center’s Trans Ally award in 2005. Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Arts from California State University, Hayward and is currently pursuing a Master of Arts in Women’s Spirituality at The Institute of Transpersonal Psychology.

Pumphrey and Gerson. (Photo by Drago)

The Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf (RAD) will host two open forums, a youth show and a party from April 11 to 13, 2008 on the NTID/RIT campus in Rochester, New York. The activities are being led by RAD Youth Coordinator Kriston Pumphrey and RAD Vice President Mich Gerson, both of whom are RIT students.

“RAD recognizes the importance of our future generation and the need to preserve, nurture, invest and encourage the youth within the Deaf GLBTIQ community,” wrote Kriston Pumphrey of the events.

A RAD board meeting is also taking place that weekend.

All events and meetings are open to to the public. For more information, visit the RAD website at http://www.rad.org.

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Join the new Deaf Queers & Allies group on Facebook! Formed in
January by the Deaf Queer Resource Center, this new group is a fun way to network, meet new people and share information.

Everyone is welcome to join!

Don’t have Facebook? Register for an account.

Keywords: Facebook, Deaf, LGBT, GBLT, gay, lesbian, bi, bisexual, trans, transgender, transsexual, transexual, genderqueer, gender queer, Queer, questioning, allies

December 1 is World AIDS Day.  Please take a moment to remember the
many special people we’ve lost to AIDS and HIV-related complications.

The Deaf Queer Resource Center recently updated the List of Names of
Deaf Lost to AIDS website.  The list includes the names of CODAs,
interpreters and hearing signers who were an active part of the Deaf
Community.  Sadly, more names were added to the list this year.
Until there’s a cure, AIDS will continue to claim the lives of those
we love.

You can view the list at:  http://www.deafaids.info/

Some Statistics:  http://www.until.org/statistics.shtml

Learn more about AIDS at http://www.avert.org/aids.htm

Anthology of gay deaf writers illuminates intriguing queer subculture

By Kathi Wolfe

Jon A. Kastrup, a deaf gay man, has loved art since his youth in the 1970s. Yet, Kastrup became a mechanical engineer and a lawyer because he felt the need to prove himself in the hearing world. He later found happiness when he moved to San Francisco and became an artist. “Would I have been an artist if I were hearing?” Kastrup wrote in a recent essay, “I do not know. I could have stayed on as a lawyer … dealing with money-grubbing clients.

”Kastrup is one of more than 85 deaf and hearing people who tell their stories in “Eyes of Desire 2: A Deaf GLBT Reader,” a new anthology edited by Raymond Luczak, a gay deaf writer. Contributors to this wide-ranging collection include R.N. Taber, a British gay and partially deaf librarian; U.S. performance artist Terry Galloway, who’s finishing up her memoir “Mean Little deaf Queer;” Kavo Sharma, a deaf Hindu lesbian, who writes about drug addiction and recovery; and “Grygon,” a hearing asexual who, according to the contributor’s notes, “draws inspiration for her art from the deaf and sexual communities.” (The essayists distinguish between being culturally “Deaf,” communicating by sign language, and others who are small-d “deaf” who communicate through lip-reading.)

“Desire” is an engaging portrait of a relatively unknown part of queer culture. The essays, poems and interviews in the anthology are a mosaic of the lives of gay and trans deaf people, who encounter prejudice based on their deafness and sexuality in the gay and hearing worlds.

As is so often the case with people who live at the intersections of identities, struggles for dignity and self-awareness are complex, involving various parts of the self. For example, “Ocean” is a Gallaudet University graduate and an ordained Wiccan high priestess.

“I’ve been blessed to deal with the burden of being double marginalized as a member of both [the Deaf and Pagan] communities,” she writes, “as well as the beauty that comes in merging my identity with my spirituality.” Yet, “sexuality is one of those things that defy any kind … of labeling.”

FINDING WAYS TO merge identities also comes up in an essay by the anthology’s editor, Luczak, who came out in 1984. Early on, he learned of an “old tradition” from “Buzzy” Contrerio, a member of the Capitol Metropolitan Rainbow Alliance of the Deaf.

“They hosted ‘eye’ parties back in the days when it wasn’t as acceptable to be out,” Luczak writes. “They never said the word ‘gay’ … but they pointed to their eyes discretely to indicate that a certain person … might be ‘one of the family.’”

“Eyes of Desire: A Deaf Gay and Lesbian Reader,” an anthology edited by Luczak and published in 1993, was an invaluable first look at queer deaf life. Yet, as Luczak writes, this collection was compiled before the advent of “accessible and affordable technologies” such as e-mail, when more people were hesitant to be open about their sexuality.

“Eyes of Desire 2” offers an updated and more diverse view of this cultural subset. Transgender and intersex voices are included, there is more of an international perspective, and more of the contributors are comfortable with coming out.

This collection is an intriguing showcase of how the writers, often facing discrimination, seek to connect with others. Some of the best pieces in the book are those with a pointed sense of humor. Mel Whalen’s essay is an amusing response to being asked, “What are the benefits of being deaf?” She skipped church as a child because “they couldn’t figure out how to make it accessible,” Whalen writes, “… but I didn’t miss the guilt … that so many religions install.”

As with many anthologies, the writing is uneven. Some pieces such as Galloway’s or the excerpt from “Reading Lips,” a play by Michael Conley, are of a high literary quality. In other essays, the writing is pedestrian, though the stories are worthy of attention. Despite this caveat, “Eyes of Desire 2” is an intriguing compilation of seldom-heard voices.

© 2007 The Washington Blade | Reprinted with Permission