How nice that selling out enables her to afford such an elaborate operation.
There wasn't any mention of surgery. Just female hormones and electrolysis.
― kornrulez6969, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:28 (twelve years ago) link
my mistake! i take it back.
― billstevejim, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:28 (twelve years ago) link
i def hear the uninsured concern
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:33 (twelve years ago) link
health insurance rarely pays for sex change operations
― Poliopolice, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:39 (twelve years ago) link
my city's health plan started paying for those a decade ago for city employees
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:40 (twelve years ago) link
but you live in San Francisco. That's not typical at all.
― Poliopolice, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:53 (twelve years ago) link
i'm curious whether they pay for cosmetic surgeries as well (which many might argue this is)
― Poliopolice, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:54 (twelve years ago) link
what's up poliopolice
― dayo, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 19:57 (twelve years ago) link
Ah shit, yeah, I didn't even think of the American thing. Over here you can get operations on the NHS if you've lived as the other gender for about three years. Though apparently the process can be incredibly frustrating.
― emil.y, Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:04 (twelve years ago) link
unfamiliar w/ band, but looks like he was a cute boy so pourin' one out.
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:08 (twelve years ago) link
inimitable bleat of a voice
― these pretzels are makeing me horney (Hungry4Ass), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:08 (twelve years ago) link
she was, sorry
xp
― World Congress of Itch (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:09 (twelve years ago) link
this is the first cool thing about against me, that's for sure
good for her!
― Bandersnatch Cumberbund (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 9 May 2012 20:13 (twelve years ago) link
oh m@tt when will you know the joys of Reinventing Axl Rose
I think this is awesome.
― sleeve, Thursday, 10 May 2012 13:25 (twelve years ago) link
Over here you can get operations on the NHS if you've lived as the other gender for about three years.
honest question: how do you prove this?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 10 May 2012 13:46 (twelve years ago) link
you show your paystubs
― Poliopolice, Thursday, 10 May 2012 13:50 (twelve years ago) link
I would recommend reading the columns A Transgender Journey by Juliet Jacques - it's a personal account, and obviously people have different experiences, but it's very well written and covers a lot of the bases of what you need to go through.
― emil.y, Thursday, 10 May 2012 13:55 (twelve years ago) link
trying to recall the last time someone's music career was damaged by coming out of the closet
How's Ricky Martin these days?
― i love the large auns pictures! (Phil D.), Thursday, 10 May 2012 14:25 (twelve years ago) link
Clay Aiken doing OK? I think so, right?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 10 May 2012 14:26 (twelve years ago) link
Martin came out in 2010 (way later than he should have imho) well after his career had peaked and he'd basically retired.
Aiken's on Broadway iirc, where they don't tolerate homosexuals
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 15:46 (twelve years ago) link
Martin's coming out so late into his career slough is precisely what was wrong.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 15:54 (twelve years ago) link
how about the village people?
― Poliopolice, Thursday, 10 May 2012 15:56 (twelve years ago) link
what about them?
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:05 (twelve years ago) link
what's up Poliopolice
― dayo, Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:06 (twelve years ago) link
were they ever even IN the closet to begin with? that was 35 years ago, and even 5 yo me knew they were gay.
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:06 (twelve years ago) link
yeah his gay following was huge, I doubt it would have damaged his career to come out sooner - probably would have boosted it tbh
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:07 (twelve years ago) link
Hey Dayo! How's it hanging?
― Poliopolice, Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:07 (twelve years ago) link
Ted Haggard seems to have lost a lot of followers
― Poliopolice, Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:13 (twelve years ago) link
Hate to admit it, but this was sort of my first thought too.
― jungleous butterflies strange birds (Eric H.), Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:14 (twelve years ago) link
and how was Ted Haggard's music career going pre-outing?
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:14 (twelve years ago) link
That photo of Tom and his wife is cuet.
― poxen, Thursday, 10 May 2012 16:26 (twelve years ago) link
― i love the large auns pictures! (Phil D.), Thursday, May 10, 2012 7:25 AM Bookmark
his album last year debuted at #3, so quite alright
― The Reverend, Thursday, 10 May 2012 18:26 (twelve years ago) link
my co-columnist at the voice actually wrote something pretty informative recently about how no out gay artist has never had a #1 album in the US: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/music/2012/05/adam_lambert_gay_pop_star.php
― some dude, Thursday, 10 May 2012 18:57 (twelve years ago) link
stop dividing the LBGT community by preferring Rufus Wainwright's music, ship!
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:05 (twelve years ago) link
interesting piece (i'm not finished with it yet) but that little factoid kinda says more about how charts are weird than about homophobia in the record-buying public imho
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:05 (twelve years ago) link
lol alfred
― some dude, Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:06 (twelve years ago) link
for ex:
On the male side, Boy George's self-declared status as America's favorite drag queen (about as far as a pop star could go publicly in 1984), didn't hurt Culture Club at all on the Hot 100, where they scored six Top 10 hits including a No. 1 ("Karma Chameleon"). But despite selling four million U.S. copies, 1983's Colour by Numbers spent a frustrating six weeks at No. 2, a reflection mainly of its misfortune at being released within the same year as Michael Jackson's Thriller.
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:07 (twelve years ago) link
yeah i'm not saying that stat in and of itself is a huge thing, nor does CM's column to be fair, but i was surprised to hear that Elton's string of #1s ended almost immediately after he came out, had no idea.
― some dude, Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
yeah there's no question CBN would've been a #1 album otherwise
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
this is kind of a silly tangent as to whether it's brave commercially of a punk rock singer to come out as transgender. it's just brave of a person, i don't care if you're "used to it" or not.
― da croupier, Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:14 (twelve years ago) link
which, frankly, strikes me as really bizarre. I mean, I have that record and it's pretty good but it is so strange that something that goofily arty and day-glo and obviously gay was such a huge success. it's a very odd combination of styles - calypso/reggae, R&B croon, synthpop - delivered in neonized sub-Harlequinade drag queen package ... just, why did this appeal to huge swathes of America? did it tie into some club med fantasy people liked to indulge in or something?
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:16 (twelve years ago) link
The timing of Elton's fall made for irresistible speculation, but I wonder if the slow change in the pop climate had something to do with it too: the Hot 100 was moving towards disco and disco-inflected pop in 1976 and 1977, and Blue Moves was out of step[/i] (it doesn't explain the debacles of the disco-inflected A Single Man or the Thom Bell-produced Victim of Love, of course). My other question is how fast word traveled about Elton's RS admissions. How many kids and boomers read RS in the late seventies? Was the subject discussed on "Nightline" or something?
There's also the quality of the music. Elton had recorded spotty albums but few of the albums b/w 1976 and 1982 boasted one memorable single. He admits to being burned out at the time and it shows. His imperial period, to quote the Pet Shop Boys, had ended.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:17 (twelve years ago) link
These images and tropes signified as "New Wave" and played exceptionally well on MTV. Also, the songs were damn good and fully deserved hits.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:18 (twelve years ago) link
it's like the amorphous sexuality of UK glam transferring over to America a decade late (see also Prince, MJ etc).
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:18 (twelve years ago) link
yeah I'm not knocking the material on CBN. some of it is beyond silly but there are def hooks there.
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:19 (twelve years ago) link
Speaking as a guy who didn't have MTV until the late nineties, I heard Culture Club hits beside Men at Work, Matthew Wilder, and Lionel Richie and didn't notice anything amiss; they all played with "island" rhythms.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
maybe disco's success had dislodged America's sexual mores enough to allow less traditionally gendered artists to come through via New Wave
― Roger Barfing (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:20 (twelve years ago) link
ahhh Matthew Wilder
MTV.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:21 (twelve years ago) link
suddenly English nancy boys in pirate makeup singing over glam chords and disco bass lines were acceptable
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 May 2012 19:22 (twelve years ago) link