Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Breasts, Booze, Vids and Tunes

Yes, I know some of you aren't into breasts, but there certainly was a plethora of them at the Rogue tonight thanks to Genesis P.Orridge and Psychic TV! Genesis took her top off, and then shirts started flyin! Partyin at the Rogue rocked!

Genesis stopped by for hugs and piccies after the show, thank you Genesis! And thank you for the amazing statement you issued regarding transgender rights. Which is so perfectly written, passionate and engaging, that I put it all in bold at the end of this blog entry. And I agree, "You've gotta fight for your right to PEE PEE!"

You all were amazing. You had me dancin on the tables when you brought Crystal up on stage! And everyone around me was dancing the night away too! Now I'm going to have to download some of these songs from i-tunes!

By the 2nd to last song (If I'd known that, I'd have waited!) I went outside for some air, and I'm glad I did because I met Joanne from AZ Trans Alliance and she shared some passionate thoughts about activism in this stage of her life. I wish I had the whole thing on video, but here's part:



Before I could go back inside I met these lovely ladies who insisted on showing me their cleavage! (Oh my virgin eyes!) One of whom joined me later to share her thoughts about the whole Anderson's situation. Michele was there as well, and you can see me talking with her on youtube as well.



There are so many more pictures I want to share with you all! I will upload them to the photos page of azsisters.org soon!


PSYCHIC TV/PTV3 STATEMEANT REGARDING TRANSGENDERED RIGHTS
At the proposed venue ANDERSON’S in ARIZONA.

When PTV3 was booked to play at Tom Anderson’s club on Monday 27th August 2007 we were completely unaware of the ongoing civil righs issues and the local controversy surrounding the club’s owner’s victimization of transgender persons.

As our tour has progressed we began receiving email messages from the promoters expressing concerns about the continued viability of the venue under these volatile circumstances. Due to the wonders of MYSPACE technology we also received haunting pleas and disturbing enquiries from Gay, Lesbian & Transgender activists AND individuals.

They asked us to consider canceling our concert rather than to appear to endorse Tom Anderson and company’s actions, albeit by default. We heard that “due to some complaints by unidentified biological women concerning the use of the women’s bathrooms at the club by transgender and transvestite persons. There is a real difference between both those communities that is often overlooked. Transgender people absolutely commit their lives and physical bodies to becoming the opposite gender identity to that with which DNA supplied them at birth. This is often at great personal cost and sacrifice. They often are ostracized by family, friends, workmates and their local community. No person changes gender identitiy lightly and ALL
in an enlightened democracy must honor the courage of our brothers and sisters in the transgender community. No transgender person identifying as female would ever stand up to pee, which seems to beh the problem at the heart of the issue locally.

Transvestites choose to temporarily dress as the opposite gender and whilst in their (in this instance) female persona will consider themselves temporarily “female”. Whilst it may well be possible that certain transvestites were “standing to pee” one MUST consider the alternatives.

Transgender women cannot use male bathrooms without genuine fear of harassment, ridicule, humiliation and violence. Our culture is constructed upon pre-hstoric behavior patterns that originate in male dominated cave clans where survival was imperative and rested upon attacking anything different, outside their experience, or just plain other; the unknown was always considered a threat and was always intimidated. 40 thousand years later it is the time for us to become mature and communally remove these behaviors from our culture or be damned.
As the lead vocalist of Psychic TV I am perceived as transgender, and I am proud to be. My official ID states I am FEMALE, yet I was informed that not only would I be forced to use a separate bathroom from other women, including my female spouse of 14 years, but also there would be “guards” policing the use of these segregated stalls! What exactly is the club afraid of? If the question is hygiene then I suggest an honor system based upon polite notices requesting all people perceiving themselves as women respect all varieties of women using the facilities by sitting to pee. And
if anyone out there is under the illusions that women’s bathrooms are innately more sterile and clean. Think again! Since becoming female I have been amazed at the level of pornographic grafitti in women’s stalls AND the equality of “spillage” and mess generated by both sexes.

The issue of transgender rights regarding public bathrooms is a national one. During my transition I was threatened with arrest at JFK Airport in New York for following the letter of the law and trying to use the men’s bathrooms. But to use the women’s bathroom, which is what the security insisted I did, was at the time illegal…so WHERE exactly do you believe our community should pee? Or we less that citizens, like the slaves of not so long ago, and witnessing a return to a new form of segregation? Gender segregation?

This is why Tom Andersons “solution” is and always was unacceptable. First he banned TWO entire communities for living out their Constitutional rights to SELF-DETERMINIED IDENTITY. Then he proposed policed segregation. In Many states in the U.S.A. it is illegal for transgender persons who are female to use any women’s public bathrooms. Exactly WHERE do thos people controlled by fear of the new expect us to go? In the street? Behind trees? Under cars? Whilst it may seem ludicrous to those of you who have not had the precious gift of living within both gender communities during your lives, the constant threat of official and community discrimination is a very real issue of quality of life and democratic rights.

PSYCHIC TV received information that protests were to be held outside the club if we played. For myself the position I was put in by Tom Anderson’s various actions AND his courting of the media to short-circuit civil liberties responses was intolerable. I see myself as incredibly fortunate in having a platform through Psychic TV/PTV3 to discuss issues, spread PANDROGENY (POSITIVE ANDROGENY) messages to our fan base, and through interviews, to you the media and the public you seve. I have suffered from Doctors refusing to treat me when I was in danger of dying within 3 days because I was transgender. I have been threatened, attacked, omitted from
events and gatherings of close family. Yet I count myself blessed to have been so accepted by our sisters and brothers in the transgender communities.

We felt, as a band, we simply could not be seen to endorse Tom Anderson’s policies by appearing at his club, despite his offer to treat ME as an exception. It would be an unforgivable betrayal of so many people’s trust in my integrity of spirit. With protests threatened and guards policing the situation the possibility of feelings naturally running high could have led to somebody being hurt, injured, or property damaged maybe even arrests of those of us enflamed by righteous indignation over this attempt to legitimize turning us into a marginalized sector of second class citizens with fewer legal rights than biologically heterosexual members of this
society and culture.

For this reason, AND because we truly do want our transgender brethren to enjoy our creative environment we as a band have chosen to move our concert away from Tom Anderson’s club and will now perform at THE SET, in TEMPE, ARIZONA on Monday 27th August 2007.

PLEASE inform your friends, readers, and viewers of this change on YOUR behalf in protest against the encroachment upon transgender civil liberties. Remember…

You’ve got to fight for your right to PEE PEE!

PEE WHERE THOU WILT SHALL BE THE WHOLE OF THE LAW!!!

Thank you for your time and attention.
Cari saluti,
GENESIS BREYER P-ORRIDGE of Psychic TV/PTV3.

Scottsdale, Arizona 25th August 2007.

www.genesisp-orridge.com

pandrogyne@gmail.com

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