GAYLETTER

As we get ready to ring in the new year, there is so much to look back on and be happy for as 2015 comes to a close. What with the nation wide legalization of gay marriage in America and racial movements being heard world wide, one would think that maybe cultural ideals are beginning to change for the better. However, for every step forward, there is always a step back. Our trans brothers and sisters are continuing the arduous task of fighting to be heard and treated equally. As I write this I am painfully reminded of society’s prejudices, as people gather in Texas sporting t-shirts that read “No Men In Women’s Bathrooms,” and are fighting to keep the LGBT community away from the protection of common laws. Oppressive Conservatives aside, I still feel lucky we have wonderful leaders like debut author Juliet Jacques who continues to push trans-issues to the forefront of the public’s consciousness.
Trans: A Memoir is Jacques tender story detailing her time spent moving from collegiate cross-dresser to eventual gender reassignment surgery at age thirty. Though this is her first book, Jacques is known best for her column ‘Transgender Journey‘ which was written for the Guardian (It has since been credited as the first time the gender reassignment process had been chronicled for a major British publication).
The book chronicles Jacques’ time spent finding herself; in various transgender avant-garde film characters, England’s eccentric alternative pop rock scene, and in previously written transgender theories. Trans, while detailing the ups and downs of the transgender experience, is also centered around gender politics. Its most poignant moments are those where the readers find themselves with Jacques as men harass her (“It’s alright – I know what you are”) “in makeup by day, or dresses by night.” Thus opening up the dialogue for the problem with society’s gender ideals, and allowing Jacques to move from transwoman to trans-activist. Her story isn’t weighed down by the depression that plagues her adult life, but is filled with her British wit and love for football. She was able to find a balance that invites the reader as much as it does educate — finding a tone of voice that never once seems too pretentious, but more like a very concerned close friend.
After a year of countless memoirs being written by women (I’ve since lost track of which former rock goddess has published their memoir in 2015…) it is wonderful to see Jacques’ book in stores, reminding readers everywhere that as much as the memoir genre has gained popularity, many transgender voices are still waiting to be heard.

Juliet was kind enough to answer some questions of mine, check them out below:

Trans both invites and provides a vast array of necessary information — I wonder how difficult it was to find a common place between writing the educational and the inclusionary? For me, the educational was the inclusionary — bringing some readers up to speed with trans history, politics and culture, with the aim of transforming those readers and hopefully helping them to take part in a more trans-inclusive society. It was difficult to find the right balance between that informative material and the personal narrative — it was only when I began the second draft that my editor suggested separating them into different sections, and that made it work.

In the Guardian you said that “transitioning was about re-launching the symbiotic relationship between my body and mind from a starting point that felt right.” In 2015 trans acceptance is as alive and progressing forward, but what is your feeling on trans-awareness? And the public acknowledgement that many trans people suffer from mental illnesses as well?
 This ‘trans tipping point’ that we’ve heard so much about is, primarily, a media phenomenon – I don’t know how much it translates into better medical provision or employment protection, improved relations with various authorities or more social safety. Awareness will lead to greater acceptance, I think (although with that comes a different type of resistance) and hopefully more people will understand that for trans people, living in a transphobic world is the greatest threat to their mental health.
Throughout the course of your life you said you weren’t able to realize you were actualizing your goals, yet there you were doing so. Assuming the best, what do you hope for Trans and its journey throughout the global market? I don’t really have those kinds of hopes for it – to be honest, I’m just relieved that it’s finished and published, and that none of my anxieties about my family or friends, the trans community or reviewers hating it were realised. The only thing I can control is whether or not I did my best with it, and I think I did.

You’re a big football fan, are you looking forward to Rio in 2016? I enjoy the Olympic football tournament, it’s a good chance to see some up-and-coming players, but I’m more interested in the European Championships in France. I’ve always loved French football and as usual, there is plenty of tension in their team but also plenty of potential – I’m intrigued to see how they perform before their home crowds.

Be sure to get Trans: A Memoir here.