Jamie is so much more to us than a guiding light and mentor,

and is so much more to us than just an older sister.

She has so much experience and knowledge in many different aspects of transgenderism and has personally taken on the fight to promote the acceptance of cd, tg,  and ts and has travels to different cities to do such work.

She belongs to many different groups and organizations that help fight prejudice in all areas.

It is so good to know her.

<Carol>

The following is a article she wrote for a GBLT magazine:

Sept 25, 2002

By Jamie

            I was the 5^th child.  Mother named me Quentin for Quentin Roosevelt never realizing it meant ‘the fifth’ in Latin.  When I was about age 2, my older sister around age 6 asked Mother for a ‘little sister’.  The fiction is that mother pointed at me and said, “there, take that one.”  I was very happy until around age 5 when two Appalachian louts started ridiculing me for looking like a girl.  I went home, took Mother’s scissors, went out under a tree in the front yard and cut off the long hair.  Suddenly I was cast out of Eden with the feeling that “people are no damned good.”  I was cut off from the feminine in a way that still bugs me.

Coming Out,

 Is a metaphor for the process of revealing the secret self.  For some persons it is a traumatic single event, but in my case will probably continue for the rest of my life.  I am male, but enjoy pretty feminine clothing whether I wear it or see it on someone else.  Trying to present as a woman has been wonderfully educational.  The public equates it to homosexuality.  I disagree emphatically.  Their perception of it as blindly erotic is only partially & initially true.  It is a harmless symptom of the need for connection with the feminine that begins in childhood and is not solved by marriage.  We all think that marriage will “fix it”, but later discover that even “good” marriages have a lot of emotional unavailability.  The message I got was that crossdressing had to be kept secret, it was something to be ashamed of, but my association with UU ideas beginning in 1965 made me realize that this phenomena wasn’t intrinsically negative and it wasn’t purely male.  It could also be used in positive ways by both sexes to partially cross a barrier.  It marked my decision to fight rather than passively accept the ignorance and that’s when I began to switch from the personal to the political.  My association with this congregation has given me the courage to refuse external definition and instead seek a fuller humanity in ways that support life instead of denying it.  I still have a lot to learn and I’m grateful to all of you for your support.

            Around 1989 I began practicing for public presentations on gender issues, defining “gender” not as sex, but the social roles based on sex.  The freedom to transcend gender roles is a major source of psychic energy.  It allows males to nurture, experience beauty and sensuality.  It allows females to experience, freedom, power and authority.  It is the new civil rights movement.  I have spoken to classes at Sinclair College, Miami University, Ohio State, The University of Dayton, NCR, Lucent Industries, and numerous gender events plus participation in two PFLAG national conventions.  I advocate for gender flexibility to lower communication barriers, reduce domestic violence, improve childcare and stabilize families.  Men and women have always envied each other, but I see no reason why this envy can’t be converted to something positive.  Around this fellowship I see lots of gender flexibility that is rare elsewhere.  In particular I see many new fathers and young male teens assuming responsibility for childcare.  It makes me feel good to be associated with you.

I have been affiliated with transgender groups since the mid-60s, but only recently began focusing on the political.  Around 1998, after joining Parents & Friends of Gays & Lesbians (PFLAG), I was elected transgender representative to their Dayton Chapter and now serve on their Board.  (Transgender is an “umbrella” term covering people who feel their socially prescribed roles based on sex are too narrow.)  This experience has given me an unexpected insight into the “why” of LGBTH phenomena (i.e. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Heterosexual).

            While a 3^rd year Electrical Engineering student at The Ohio State University, I abruptly realized that what I was learning about technology would have been obvious given the proper mindset.  Sex and gender issues can also be obvious if you think about them instead of passively accepting social dictates.  The salient fact (salient here means, ‘the biggest lump’, the Gordian Knot, the dead horse in the road) is the almost universal separation of infants by sex and the discouragement of their hands-on sex education until social maturity is attained.  Society deliberately interferes with a natural process.  It is a Faustian bargain aimed at reducing incest and unwanted babies, but ignorance and frustrated libido greatly increase the probability of teen rebellion, suicide, antisocial behavior, substance abuse and unsanctioned forms of sexuality plus we are overpopulating anyway.  Even if individuals can hide their personal responses to Eros until heterosexual coupling is sanctioned, memories of alternative sexuality may still derail their relationships at some future time.

So far I have nothing better to offer, but at least seeing the causes helps me defend myself.  Essentially I am saying that LGBTH phenomena has its roots in the attempt to limit fertility beginning before adolescence.  Those of us considered queer are then blamed for not fitting a defective theory.  I’m more than a smidgen angry, but my best outlet is to work for change.  I think we will come to consensus eventually, and find better solutions, but as yet we have no fix.