Quick Updates

My work Internet connection is FUBAR - it may have been targeted by South Korean pro-government hackers, like my laptop. After all, it's unacceptable for them that I support the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in the US military - oh, the horrors of flaming faggots taking over the God-fearing US Armed Forces and the defense of the hackers' fair country from the Communist Menace.

But in the meantime, the following (in addition to a high-stress day job) have kept me super-busy:

• Karaoke nights around Los Angeles. I'm really enjoying karaoke - especially when I am starting to get more and more of the female range AND tone.
• Las Vegas, where I ended up buying a vacation timeshare. Good thing I can afford to spend money on things like this. Could be something to share with my new girlfriend.
• OutFest, the annual LGBT movie festival in Los Angeles. I had to schmooze with many high-powered LGBT producers in Hollywood, including, of course, transgender icons Calpernia Addams and Andrea James.
• Even more time with Calpernia, at her new routine, Transfixed, performed with Jer Ber Jones, a drag performer.

My novel seems to be taking a back seat at this time, and I don't expect to be able to enter the UCLA Extension residency at this time. But it was nevertheless priceless to spend Sarah's 32nd birthday, celebrating it with none other than Calpernia, the one who shall play Sarah, should Perfect Girl ever become a movie.

On the aviation front, my airline business simulation is doing nicely, though my approach this time was too conservative, and I am not growing my business as well as I'd like. I did have some nice milestones, however - I co-founded the game's greatest airline alliance, and from my Athens hub, managed to kill a Prague-based competitor and turn Prague into my second hub. Most importantly, a Puerto Rico-based alliance partner is run by someone who lives in Florida in real life, and flew for United Airlines as a flight attendant for 16 years before being forced to retire for health reasons. I hope this person will be a gold mine of information for me - he says he was rated to be an international purser, and at the time of the 9/11 attacks, often indeed worked Flight 175, one of the hijacked flights. Lots of insights that can only be obtained from a real-life coworker of Sarah's - and I'm starting to exchange information. Although I have not told him that Sarah is trans or lesbian, I've told him everything else about her.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell (10th anniversary of PFC Winchell's death)

As I spent this past 4th of July weekend, most of it driving to/from Denver, I was reminded of one sad anniversary. This is the tenth anniversary of the savage death of PFC Barry Winchell. Winchell had been dogged by rumors about a gay relationship he supposedly had, and of course, the rule Don't Ask, Don't Tell was in effect at the time (as it is today).

The media did not understand, and did not know, how to handle this matter, because Winchell's relationship was with a pre-operative transwoman. Of course, it's none other than Calpernia Addams, who, now post-op, is now in Los Angeles and my friend. People couldn't even agree on whether to consider Calpernia a woman that she really was, or a man by reason of physical anatomy, and this was important, because this would determine whether Winchell's relationship was gay or straight.

This senseless tragedy was a clear reminder that transpeople are out there, and are NOT going away, and as long as that is the case, homophobic legislations like DADT and Defense of Marriage Act will have problems standing. Such legislations assume a clear delineation between men and women, but in reality, such clear delineation is wishful thinking.

This tragedy completely destroyed Calpernia's privacy, and outed her completely. She pretty much lost the option of living a stealth life and blending into the society. However, this only made her stronger; she's presented herself in the Winchell matter and well beyond with composure and dignity. I am very grateful to her for that - and for showing a very dignified face of the transgender community. Calpernia has since moved on to a more fulfilling, productive life in her own right, and now asks that people do NOT bring up the issue of PFC Winchell, as it's such a painful chapter of her past.

This reminds me - I need to get back to Calpernia's memoir, Mark 947, and start reading it. But the memoir deals with many other painful issues, and PFC Winchell is just one of many that scar her life. I don't think I'm ready to deal with all the theocratic negativity and other things yet. In fact, I may never be ready.

And I must join Calpernia, the surviving family of PFC Winchell, and many others in demanding that DADT be replaced by a much more sensible policy - one that allows openly gay servicemembers, and punishes soldiers solely on actual misconduct. I also find it appalling that a talented Arabic/Persian/Korean translator, Lt. Dan Choi, has been discharged under DADT, and even more appalling that the far-right theocratic Korean-American community will NEVER even allow a fair discussion of Choi and his issues.

Thoughts from Denver

I am spending the 4th of July weekend in Denver, which is about 850 miles from my place if I fly on one of Sarah's planes, but 1,000 miles, as it turns out, with my car. While Denver is a pleasant city in its own right, I feel that it's tame compared to cities on the West Coast or farther east, and its value primarily is as a regional transportation hub and gateway to the Rockies.

I don't think Sarah would be spending too much time in Denver, despite Denver being a major United Airlines hub. She might be just coming in from California, and going off to another point on a different flight after a quick rest.

But if Sarah ever bothers to spend time here, she might find a few places to hang out at. The Capitol Hill neighborhood, like its Seattle counterpart, is heavy on LGBT culture, and I indeed found a few lesbian bars that Sarah might want to hang out at, though they're kinda tiny. In any case, Capitol Hill is tame compared to its Seattle counterpart, or comparable neighborhoods in San Francisco or Los Angeles, but given that this is the Rockies and the prairies, where theocracy and homophobia run rampant, whatever scraps the progressive Denver atmosphere can offer will be like seeing an oasis in the desert. But honestly, I am far more likely to envision Sarah, either alone or with Kirsten, hanging out in other lesbian enclaves, probably Boulder or Estes Park; Estes Park also happens to be the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, where Sarah could put some of her hypoxia training to good use, because the air is so thin up there. At 12,000 feet, even a short hike can be extremely challenging, as I found out the hard way today.

Thinking of Sarah, I even ended up driving out to Denver International Airport, passing by the site of the old Stapleton Airport in the process. Denver International is so huge, that while its grounds stretch south to I-70, it's a 10-mile drive from the entrance to the terminal. But it was good to see some of Sarah's planes coming in to land in the shower. Denver is the last remaining United hub that I have NOT used as an origin or a final destination (I used Washington-Dulles two months ago, Chicago-O'Hare two years ago, and use San Francisco and Los Angeles all the time), and this was my first-ever visit to the landside of the airport. I do hope I can fly into Denver in the future, if only to explore the Rockies further.

It's almost 8PM and I am completely wasted. My plan is to start my drive back to Los Angeles around sunrise.

My photos on Calpernia's blog

After our meeting together last night, I sent Calpernia Addams a couple of Facebook messages, sharing my transgender photo collection from South Korea and Hong Kong.

The Korean collection has now made it to Calpernia's high-profile blog:

Calpernia.com

Glad to be able to help spread the cultural insights wide and far.

Some updates...

Yep, that's me hanging out with Calpernia Addams.
Could become the cover for Perfect Girl as well!
(In that case, Calpernia as Sarah and me as Kirsten)

I've been very exhausted lately - I've been functioning like a socialite as of late, attending a zillion functions and going through a ton of time and money. All for a good cause, however.

First of all, one of the people I ended up meeting in San Francisco (edit: name and link removed) hit it off with me quite a bit - to a point where she's gone ahead and listed me as her girlfriend on Facebook! Well, I wasn't exactly looking forward to dating, but I could indeed use a dating life right now. And on top of this, since this "love flame" of mine is a transwoman herself, I now have a first-person look at a relationship between two trans lesbians, which I could translate into Sarah's first relationship, that with Martha.

And just two days after spotting Calpernia Addams (and her spotting me) at San Francisco's Pride Parade (but going nowhere beyond that), I met with her again, this time at Lucky Strikes Bowling Alley in Hollywood. Calpernia co-hosted a fashion show to benefit the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals; being a cat lover myself, I was very happy to attend this event, and have some chances to discuss various things with Calpernia while at it. Calpernia really entertains the idea of me asking her to play Sarah, if Perfect Girl ends up in a movie deal. She does consider herself too old, however, and she would rather play Sarah's mother or older sister, she says, but if she must be Sarah herself, it'd be no problem losing her fear of heights and becoming a lesbian, she told me.

In the meantime, the website project that I had previously mentioned is taking too much toll on me. I will withdraw from that project, so that I can do my day job and also resume writing Sarah's story. After all, I want to have a working draft by mid-August, so that I can take it to the UCLA Extension residency class and have my trusted mentor Gayle Brandeis work with me to refine it.