Spirituality for the main characters

Here is another thing to think about.

I've described Sarah as a liberal Christian who attends a Unitarian Universalist congregation. Given that, and the traditional Christian churches' rampant homophobia, I am starting to think about Sarah's spiritual upbringing, and how much of it will be included in the novel.

First, I need to think about how religious Sarah's parents are. I could make Sarah's mother, Ellen, a bit religious, in line with her upbringing under conservative Grandpa Warren. However, this also needs to be reconciled with the hippie background of Ellen. I need to figure out what kind of role American churches played during Ellen's college years in the 1970s; while the conservative religious groups, such as Moral Majority, started to form back then, being an American Christian in the 1970s would've been a different political (certainly less conservative) experience as compared to today. I also need to figure out Sarah's father, Kevin, and his religious background - or for that matter, his entire childhood, which is a blank sheet to me at this time.

Once I establish some sort of Christian order for Sarah's parents, I could send little Sanford to church with them - and as the churches, first the American expat churches in Europe then the mainline congregations in California, turn ever conservative in the 1980s and on, explore how the homophobic sermons (especially the ones on Deuteronomy 22:5) will affect Sanford and his gender confusion. It will certainly be a very negative experience, and even more so once Sanford grows up into a teen, and those feelings intensify. As the adulthood (and womanhood) starts for Sarah, it'll hit a point where Sarah will no longer feel comfortable going to a church - until finding the Unitarian congregation in Berkeley a few years later (where she meets Kirsten).

Despite the negativity, I do want to keep Sarah a liberal Christian, believing only in the very core values of the faith, such as the coming of Jesus. Sarah will reject the prevailing Christian notion of God as a mean, judgmental figure - and mankind as being sinful by default. That'll draw Sarah away and away from traditional churches and toward the Unitarian belief system, even though Sarah will always consider herself a believer of Jesus.

Meanwhile, I expect Sarah's parents to find some compassion and support at the Church of Christ congregation. There is one a block away from Sarah's high school (I visited the church grounds in May 2006), and it will fit Kevin and Ellen's personal theologies - and needs - well.

Of course, Kirsten goes a step further than Sarah, and becomes a Goddess Woman. I could write out Kirsten's spirituality based on my own beliefs.

I don't expect Perfect Girl to delve heavily into religion and spirituality, but I do want to make the Christian homophobia (and the resulting discomfort for Sarah) well known, and have it play a role in Sarah's upbringing. To eventually find comfort in the Unitarian belief system will be a huge plus for Sarah (and similarly, Church of Christ for her parents).

It's getting more and more overwhelming

Perhaps this is just part of life, but the more I delve into the novel work, the more complicated things get, with so many possibilities for telling Sarah's story.

Sarah started with a very simple idea: I needed a transgender character, who had been laid off from a corporate job. Given the bleak job market situation for transgenders, I had no trouble picking Sarah's job - a flight attendant at a fairly LGBT-friendly airline. But now that Sarah is the protagonist, and she has been begging me for years to tell her entire life story, things are getting really complicated.

I think I got most of the teenage years part down - down to the high school, the bashing incidents, and the fellow classmates. But getting to that point from childhood will be a lot of blanks to fill, even after writing two childhood scenes for my last writing class.

I also have an okay idea of what Sarah's early years of adulthood (and womanhood) should be like, but some details need to be filled in. And as she starts working as a flight attendant, I need to pick which incidents on the job will need to make it into the story. Any flight attendant can tell stories about burning her hands in the galley of a 727, but not many can tell about worrying about facial hair growing back, on the job, during a lengthy delay. And there is also the issue of Sarah's first love Martha, and the difficulties in killing her off through a hate crime in NYC.

And as much as I love my alter ego Kirsten, and as much as I want her to be Sarah's life companion, I have yet to find the spark that sets off their love at first. The two are quite different - Sarah is a Christian while Kirsten is a Goddess Woman, and Sarah is into women's rock while Kirsten is into pop and Top 40. Perhaps more freewriting will reveal something. I also need to set the pace for their relationship going from friendship to love - not too fast, but not too slow either.

Hoping for some new inspirations soon. And when I have enough material on hand, I'll start bugging my mentors. Masha Hamilton wants me to take her advanced Level II class when I have 150 pages ready.

(And speaking of inspirations, I did book my next Bay Area trip, for Christmas weekend. Hope it'll help.)

Odds and Ends

First: the writing class is over. It died down toward the last week or two, when I was getting my second excerpt critiqued. But I am happy with what I was able to get out of that class. I will save all the feedback, and look forward to returning at a later date - hopefully when I have more privacy to work on my novel. Masha Hamilton is a great instructor, and I'll be more than happy to take classes with her again; I will also look into buying some of her work.

Second: I decided to stay home for Thanksgiving. The closest I'll get to the Bay Area will be about halfway, Hearst Castle. As for the Bay Area itself, I am still shooting for a Christmas visit - in fact, I will book my hotel right now.

And speaking of Christmas in the Bay Area, I have already come up with an itinerary that will serve my novel needs (novel sights), my personal rejuvenation needs (my past hangouts and the Unitarian Church), my sightseeing needs (Redwood National Park near Eureka), and more. Hoping it won't be too rainy.

Employment Non-Discrimination Act

This has been a major issue among all major LGBT organizations, and among many politicians, over the past few months.

Currently, in about half the states, it is still legal to discriminate based on sexual orientation, and in about 3/4 of the states, based on actual or perceived gender identity. A federal measure to make this discrimination illegal was introduced in the federal House of Representatives, though some gay elitists, such as Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), forced the gender identity provisions to be taken out. Openly lesbian Representative Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) did offer gender identity protection as a separate amendment, but that did not come to a full vote.

This week, the sexual orientation-only measure passed the House, though the Senate is not going to work on this until after the 2008 presidential race. And in any case, W has promised a veto, since he believes that protecting LGBTs from discrimination infringes on his base - the death cultists - and their destructive religious beliefs.

It bears remembering that without actual or perceived gender identity protections built in, any attempts to protect LGBs from discrimination will be a half-effort at best, since most LGBs are NOT discriminated against based on who they have sex with, but on their perceived deviance from prevailing gender norms. Only gays who look and act straight, like Barney Frank himself, will benefit; that's only 1/3 of the population, since most gays, especially in the lesbian community, look obviously "gay." Most larger gay organizations, including National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, have opposed the sexual orientation-only bill for this reason, and recently, even the elitist Human Rights Campaign has come around to agreeing with adding gender identity protections.

With the transgender community having neither the numbers nor the monetary clout (most transgenders are either unemployed or in poverty) to mount an effective lobbying campaign, it's up to the LGB community to recognize their own stakes in this fight, and lobby for an all-inclusive legislation, not the sham that just passed this week. I know this from experience at the California state level, where transgender employment protections languished for years at the indifference of many gay organizations - and the poll-watching politics of Governor Gray Davis. (Davis did sign the transgender protection law - only after he was recalled.)

It's bad enough that W has messed with the rights of transgenders already, by making all transgender marriages ineligible for immigration benefits, and by declaring that only the government can determine one's gender for affirmative action purposes. And of course, there is the upcoming REAL ID act which will make life hellish for many transgenders. If the Democratic Congress isn't willing to do much better, caving into the demands of white straight-looking gay elitists instead of the truly vulnerable, then things indeed look very bleak.

Midge Potts

I've heard her name for a while from my CodePink DC contacts. And as it turns out, CodePink's Midge Potts is a transgender woman.

There are plenty of conservative transwomen out there, and Potts is one of them. Unlike most, however, Potts has actually served in the military, and knows all about the horrors of war. Her high-profile protests have caught the attention of peace activists (and their foes) throughout Capitol Hill and beyond.

Most importantly, just as she has shattered the male-female dichotomy imposed by the society, she also believes in shattering the liberal-conservative dichotomy propagated by the powered elites, and returning power to the everyday people.

This is one activist that I will continue to keep track of.

Midge Potts

Travel plans again

As my novel class with Masha Hamilton winds down, and as the long weekends and the holidays loom ahead, I am starting to think of another return to the San Francisco Bay Area.

I've been returning to the Bay Area at 8-month intervals, and the last planned return was to be over this past Labor Day, with a side trip to the redwoods of the far north of California. However, that was scrubbed, and it's been a while since my last actual visit, which was over New Year's Weekend (which included a wild New Year's party with CodePink).

Thanksgiving and Christmas weekends look fine to me at this time, and Christmas will be the more likely choice. I will be better situated to visit both the Unitarian church in Berkeley, and the crossdresser boutique Carla's (where Sarah buys her wig and breast forms for the early days of womanhood), if I choose to go for Christmas weekend. I also want to revisit a few other novel sites. (Of course, the trip to Redwood National Park will still have to fit in somewhere...)

I'll start checking my schedule to see what works out best for me.