Jan 192017
 
Photo by Ryan P. Fluger

Photo by Ryan P. Fluger

Jen Richards will join me LIVE in studio on Sex Out Loud this Friday 1/20 at 5 pm Pacific/8 pm Eastern. We’ll talk about the groundbreaking webseries she co-wrote, produced, and stars in, Her Story, and the Emmy nomination it earned. Plus, she’ll dish on her new multi-episode role on the Nashville and what it’s like to be the first transwoman to appear on a CMT network show! We’ll discuss trans media representations and why they matter. Call in to talk with us at 866-472-5788.

Several ways to listen to the show:

–Stream it live (or listen on demand later) on the VoiceAmerica website
–Download the VoiceAmerica Variety Channel app and stream it live on mobile devices
–Download the podcast on iTunes

Jen Richards is a writer and actress, as well as a consultant and advocate who works with national organizations and media projects. She is the co-writer/star/producer of the Emmy nominated series Her Story; co-producer of the upcoming docu-series More Than T and writer of its accompanying Trans 102 series; a 2016 Outfest Screenwriting Fellow for her feature script Any Given Week; and will be appearing in several upcoming projects, including CMT’s Nashville and CBS’s Doubt. Jen was a series regular on E!’s I Am Cait, featured in Logo’s Beautiful As I Want To Be and AOL’s True Trans with Laura Jane Grace, and has appeared in several videos for BuzzFeed, OWN, and After Ellen. She has published essays on multiple platforms, and wrote the 2015 Sep/Oct cover story “What Trans Movement?” for The Advocate.

Prior to her transition, Jen Richards had a successful career in nonprofit and arts management, received her BA in Philosophy from Shimer College, studied at Oxford University and in Kyoto, Japan, participated in Outward Bound, was active in theater, and published articles, lectured, and led workshops on a variety of topics across the country.

Jun 172014
 

diane and jacob

This Friday on Sex Out Loud at 8 pm ET / 5 pm PT, Diane and Jacob Anderson-Minshall discuss their recently released book, Queerly Beloved: A Love Story Across Genders, a memoir of how their relationship survived Jacob’s gender transition. Their story has been the subject of numerous articles (including in The New York Times) and radio shows (like NPR’s Story Corp). They’ll discuss their personal journey along with ideas around queer identity, long-term relationships, and society concepts of gender. This show is live and we’ll be answering listener questions.

This week’s show is LIVE. Find out all the ways to listen here so you can call in with questions and comments at 1-866-472-5788, join the discussion on Facebook or Twitter, or e-mail me via tristan(at)puckerup.com and I’ll read them live on the air.

Diane and Jacob Anderson-Minshall are co-conspirators in life and love. They co-author the Blind Eye mystery series (Blind Curves, Blind Leap, and the Lambda Literary Award finalist Blind Faith). Their memoir, Queerly Beloved, is about how their relationship survived Jacob’s gender transition. Their story has been the subject of numerous articles (including in The New York Times) and radio shows (like NPR’s Story Corp).

Diane is an award winning journalist and editor. She is the editor at large of The Advocate magazine, and editor in chief of HIV Plus magazine. She penned the erotic-thriller, Punishment With Kisses, and her writing has appeared in dozens of publications and anthologies. She also previously served as editor in chief of Curve magazine. Honored by LA Pride in 2013, this year Diane received a Western Publishing Association Maggie Award for leadership.

Jacob has written for numerous LGBT and feminist publications. For four years, he penned the nationally-syndicated weekly column, TransNation. He later produced and co-hosted the radio show, Gender Blender. His writings have appeared on Advocate.com and been included in anthologies like Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex, and Power, Trans People in Love, and Portland Queer. Jacob recently served on the board of Lambda Literary Foundation.

Sex Out Loud airs every Friday at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET on the VoiceAmerica Variety channel. You can listen on your computer, phone, or tablet, find all the ways here!

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Feb 182014
 
Photo by Aaron Treadwell

Photo by Aaron Treadwell

This week on Sex Out Loud I’m so excited to spend an hour with writer, activist, and New York Times-bestselling author, Janet Mock. Since stepping out into the public eye in 2011, Mock has founded #GirlsLikeUs, a media visibility campaign for trans women, and spoken about issues of identity, safety, health, and community all over the country, including appearances on Melissa Harris-Perry, HBO’s The Out List, and MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts. Her memoir Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More was released in early February and is currently on the New York Times bestseller list. We’ll be talking about her journey to becoming a public activist, the power of writing and storytelling, plus taking live questions from you!

This week’s show is LIVE, which means we’ll be giving away a Sportsheets prize to a lucky fan. Find out all the ways to listen here so you can call in with questions and comments at 1-866-472-5788, join the discussion on Facebook or Twitter, or e-mail me via tristan(at)puckerup.com and I’ll read them live on the air – you could be chosen to win!

Janet Mock is a writer who founded the #Girlslikeus project, a media visibility campaign for trans women. Her memoir “Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More” was published in February 2014. Since sharing her story in 2011 through Marie Claire magazine, Janet has been featured in the HBO documentary The Out List and appears regularly on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry show. She currently serves on the board of directors for the Arcus Foundation and has been recognized by the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, the Center for American Progress, the Women’s Media Center and GOOD magazine for her work. A native of Honolulu, Janet lives and writes in New York City with her boyfriend Aaron and their cockapoo Cleo. Follow her on Twitter at @janetmock.

Sex Out Loud airs every Friday at 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET on the VoiceAmerica Variety channel. You can listen on your computer, phone, or tablet, find all the ways here!

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Dec 042012
 

This Friday, December 7th on Sex Out Loud Radio, I talk with adult film director Nica Noelle for the final installment of my “Live in LA” series of interviews recorded in studio in Los Angeles. Nica will talk about how she first got into the industry and what led her to write and direct her own films. She’ll delve into what makes a great porn movie, which performers she loves to direct, and how she comes up with story lines. She’ll talk about her new studios Hard Candy and Girl Candy, her foray into gay male porn with Rock Candy, and TransRomantic, which features the first line of adult romance movies starring trans women. Tristan will ask her about fan feedback, her own fantasies, and why cheating is such a popular plot point in her movies. Join us for this fascinating look inside the mind of one of the adult industry’s most successful female directors.

Nica Noelle is one of the most prolific writer/directors working in adult films today. She has been credited with innovating a new approach to capturing sex on film and influencing a generation of adult filmmakers and performers. Ms. Noelle has created six successful studios in the last five years, and is currently working on her seventh with her business partner Executive Producer Jerry Anders of AEBN.net.

Oct 072012
 

 

[Attention folks near NYC! This Friday, October 12th, 2012, there will be a book release party for Roving Pack at Bluestockings. Details after the review. ]

Roving Pack, the debut novel of writer Sassafras Lowrey, follows a year in the life of Click, a trans kid in Portland navigating the meaning of family, love, longing, and belonging within circles of queer homeless and transient youth. The novel gives voice to a sea of characters that ring so true and familiar to those heard in our queer lives , but are so rarely depicted on LGBT pages. Click’s story begins with a heartbreak and keeps them coming; we follow along in the search to find a stable home for Click’s pack made up of daddies, boys, dogs, cats, and rats (with an occasional femme*) that come and go from Click’s life with the blazing hot intensity that often accompanies our exploration of new adult desires. Click’s sexual desires are honestly depicted by Lowrey in way that is deeply validating – this book fiercely shows the hotness, the complications, and the everyday details of leather and BDSM, as well as transitioning and genderqueer living – but the similarly complicated desires of home and loyalty are the main focus of Click’s story. Every moment is an opportunity for a character to disappoint or surprise both us and Click.

Roving Pack is told in the first-person by Click, with a blend of public online journals, inner friend filters, and the private diary. For those of us who came through the early-adopter Livejournal years, this book is like being included on EVERY filter, and seeing as much in the public face Click presented for the sake of loyalty as you do the private pains of difficult love. This intimate voice pulls you immediately inside the vividly depicted communities of trans and queer youth in Portland and the book soon becomes a compulsive read that quietly devastates you all the way to the end. Immediately upon turning the final page, I missed Click. I still want to hit refresh on my browser to see if another post will appear. And while steeped in contemporary culture and online narrative styles, the novel also reminded me of the smart and ragged intensity of Sarah Schulman’s early novels about dykes and fags in 90s NYC. There’s a universality to Click’s desire to belong, as well as the wish for home and looking for it within the faces of our queer loved ones who are supposed to understand us more than any one else in the world. There is also a shared devastation in those moments when our new queer families let us down. Roving Pack is an emotionally difficult read at times, but I couldn’t turn away from Click, nor from Lowrey’s elegantly rough and direct storytelling. Ze’s writing pairs the passion and authenticity of Click’s voice with sharp observations and strong narrative momentum.

*This book is for every member of the pack, though femmes be warned, Click and various other characters are very butch- and fag-centric, so there are occasionally some opinionated moments of ignorance. While they made me wince, they also felt true to the characters and the community.

~~~~~

Please join us at the official NYC release event for “Roving Pack” to celebrate the publication of this highly anticipated debut novel by Sassafras Lowrey (editor of Kicked Out)

OCTOBER 12, 2012
Bluestockings Bookstore – 172 Allen St. NYC
7pm

 

~~~~~

A. Raymond Johnson is a writer, shiatsuist, DJ, and karaoke aficionado. He received his MFA in Fiction from Antioch University in Los Angeles and has been awarded writing residencies at Ragdale and Millay Colony for his novels-in-progress. He has blogged since 2000, including at Out Magazine’s Popnography and I Fry Mine In Butter. His short story “Tammy Faye” is part of the upcoming book, The Collection (Topside Press, 2012).

 

Aug 082012
 

James Darling has starting a new transsexual porn site called FTMFucker.com under the TROUBLEfilms network – Watch the trailer and read more about it below!

Oakland, CA – FTMFucker.Com launched recently, featuring exclusive content directed by FTM porn star and up and coming director James Darling. Darling won Heartthrob of the Year at 2012’s Feminist Porn Awards in Toronto, and has appeared in dozens of adult releases this year alone.

FTMFUCKER.Com is one of the first porn sites of it’s kind – featuring gay porn, straight porn, and queer porn starring at least one trans man in every scene. FTM Fucker updates with fresh, exclusive new content once a week, including hardcore video shot in HD, and high resolution photo galleries you can download.

“Trans men being seen as erotic beings is relatively new phenomenon and I’m proud to be a part. This is only the beginning!” – James Darling said in his FPA 2012 Heartthrob acceptance speech. He adds, “Trans men have a special chance to define our own language and terms, how we are spoken about and marketed in porn, because it is a blossoming, exciting new niche in the adult industry. This launch marks an exciting new era – there has been a lack of porn featuring trans men for a long time, and now there’s FTM Fucker!”

FTMFucker is hosted by TROUBLEfilms, led by queer porn icon Courtney Trouble. TROUBLEfilms hosts the pay sites QueerPorn.TV, Indie Porn Revolution, the amateur submission-based Queer Porn Tube, a VOD store at CourtneyTrouble.Com/Store, plus distributed films by up and coming porn directors such as Tobi Hill-Meyer (Doing It Ourselves, Genderfellator) and Courtney Trouble (Live Sex Show, Fuckstyles) – with much more to come in the following year. Darling states, “Joining up with TROUBLEfilms was the obvious best fit, as they are known for their longstanding reputation for ethical production practices and a dedicated cult following that’s excited for this kind of porn.”

“Bringing James Darling and FTMFucker.Com into the TROUBLEfilms family solidifys TROUBLEfilms as the go-to spot for ethically made, interesting, high quality indie porn,” says Courtney Trouble. “With IndiePornRevolution.Com being one of the first porn sites to feature trans men ten years ago, branching out into a site that specifically highlights FTM performers is the logical next step.

FTM Porn may be the first genre of its kind to be defined by and for the performers highlighted. Giving trans men the opportunity to film their own sex lives, define their sexualities, and work in the adult industry on their own terms sets a standard for other genres to follow suit. James Darling is an incredible porn director and will take this industry by storm – TROUBLEfilms is just lucky to be on board!”

James Darling is a FTM porn performer and sex educator based in the Bay Area. He won Sex Performer of the Year by Transguys.com in 2010 and Feminist Porn Awards Heartthrob of the Year 2012 for his work across multiple porn genres.

Jul 252012
 

CALL FOR ENTRIES
San Francisco Transgender Film Festival

Deadline: September 5, 2012
Festival:
November 8-11, 2012  (San Francisco, USA)

INFO:www.sftff.org

The San Francisco Transgender Film Festival (SFTFF) seeks entries for its 2012 Festival  (deadline September 5). The Festival will take place at CounterPulse in San Francisco, November 8-11, 2012.

SFTFF accepts narrative, documentary, experimental, animated films and music videos. All work should be created by transgender/gender variant people. All work submitted must be 20 minutes or under. Please only submit one film.

The San Francisco Transgender Film Festival was founded in 1997 as North America’s first transgender film festival. We exhibit groundbreaking, provocative, outrageous, courageous, moving and innovative works that show the complexity of lives lived on the transgender spectrum. The San Francisco Transgender Film Festival is co-presented by Fresh Meat Productions.

DEADLINE FOR ENTRIES: September 5, 2011
Early submissions are encouraged.
There is no entry fee.

FORMAT
Please send your submissions on DVD only (North American format).
Please note: If your film is accepted, you may be asked to send us your film in Quicktime format.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR FILM

  1. Download and complete the Entry Form and print a copy.
  2. Send your Entry Form and one copy of your work (DVD only) to:

SF Transgender Film Festival
c/o Fresh Meat Productions
P.O. Box 460670
San Francisco, CA
94146-0670
USA

  1. Email a 300-dpi (high resolution) JPG image for your film to sftransfilm@gmail.com.
  2. We will email you notification when your submission has been received.

GUIDELINES

  1. Please include all required materials when submitting your entry – don’t forget to email us a JPG for press purposes (All work must be 20 minutes or less! No exceptions).
  2. We cannot return any submitted materials.
  3. We will notify you if your work is accepted by September 10th.
  4. Once a film is submitted, it may not be withdrawn for any reason.
  5. For questions or more information, contact: sftransfilm@gmail.com.

FESTIVAL SCHEDULE
The Festival will take place at CounterPulse in San Francisco, November 8-11. For venue, program and schedule information, visit our Calendar page in September. In the meantime, Join our email list to receive updates.

For more information on how to submit your film, please visit our Submissions Page.

Jul 162012
 

This Friday, July 20th, on Sex Out Loud, I’m happy to welcome educator, filmmaker, and pop culture icon Buck Angel. We’ll discuss changing representations of trans male sexuality, including the making of his docu-porn Sexing the Transman and its success on the film festival circuit. Buck will also discuss the upcoming sequel, Sexing the Transman 2, due later this month and his transition from being an adult film star to a speaker and educator. I will also get a chance to talk to Tobi Hill-Meyer, a filmmaker currently working on Doing It Again, an erotic documentary about trans women’s sexuality that weaves together explicit scenes and interviews with trans women and their partners.

Buck Angel

As a visionary filmmaker, activist, educator and lecturer, Buck Angel launched Buck Angel Entertainment as a vehicle to produce multi media projects that will motivate viewers to think outside the box. Buck Angel’s message of empowerment through self-acceptance and being sexually comfortable in your own skin has struck a passionate chord with folks all over the world. Since Buck coined “it’s not what’s between your legs that defines your gender!”, the phrase has become an anthem for people everywhere who have been inspired by this message of self acceptance. Buck has been featured in nearly every imaginable international media outlet: television, radio, web, and print. Buck Angel made history when he received the prestigious award from Adult Video News (AVN) for Transsexual Performer of the Year in 2007 for his groundbreaking work in the adult entertainment industry. Buck has received international recognition and continues to be a huge box office hit in numerous markets.

Tobi Hill-Meyer

In 2010 Tobi Hill-Meyer made her film making debut, winning an Award for Emerging Filmmaker of the year and being named #3 in Velvet Park Media’s list of the 25 Most Significant Queer Women of 2010. She is a multiracial trans woman with a long history of working with feminist and LGBTQ organizations on a local, state, and federal level, having served on several boards and offering support as a strategic consultant. Since receiving her degree in Sociology and Women and Gender Studies, Tobi has turned her focus to media analysis and productions. She is a founding member and major contributor to the media collective, Handbasket Productions. Handbasket Productions is a radical, oppression aware media collective focusing on queer culture, trans experience and sex positivity. Spanning non-fiction, fiction, and fantasy genres, we use books zines, film, music and other art to cover a variety of topics including sex work, polyamory, racism and queerspawn experience.

Jun 122012
 


My next guest on Sex Out Loud is author, performer, playwright, and gender theorist Kate Bornstein. Join us on Friday, June 15 at 5:00 pm Pacific time/8:00 pm Eastern time on the VoiceAmerica Talk Radio Network when we’ll talk about her new memoir, her years as a high-ranking Scientologist working directly for L. Ron Hubbard, her transition, BDSM and kink, her time as a collared slave, the documentary being made about her, her own mental health and the struggles LGBT folks with mental health issues face. Plus, she’ll read one of the most provoactive sections from A Queer and Pleasant Danger.

Kate Bornstein is an author, playwright and performance artist whose latest book is her memoir, A Queer and Pleasant Danger. Other published works include the books Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us, My Gender Workbook, Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives To Suicide For Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws and the cyber-romance-action novel, Nearly Roadkill with co-author Caitlin Sullivan. Kate’s plays and performance pieces include Strangers in Paradox, Hidden: A Gender, The Opposite Sex Is Neither, Virtually Yours, and y2kate: gender virus 2000.

Kate’s books are taught in over 120 colleges and universities around the world; and she has performed her work live on college campuses, and in theaters and performance spaces across the USA, as well as in Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Austria. Kate is currently touring colleges, youth conferences and high schools, speaking, leading workshops, and performing. Follow her on Twitter @KateBornstein.

Dec 192011
 

The Crunk Feminist Collective wrote up a great review of a new publication from the Brown Boi Project.  Freeing Ourselves: A Guide to Health and Self Love for Masculine Bois is a resource guide for Masculine of Center (MOC) people of color that covers health from several perspectives. CFC says about it:

The narratives of real self identified brown bois provided regarding their own journeys and processes around health were the most compelling element of the book. It is in these personal accounts that you really see the intersectional nature of health, the ways in which structural forms of oppression like queer hatred, racism, and other forms of discrimination impact people’s health on all levels.

You can get a copy of Freeing Ourselves here.