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Author Archive: Dallas Denny
Dallas Denny’s contributions to transgender activism, knowledge, and history are legendary and span four decades. She was the first voice thousands of desperate transpeople heard when they reached out for help, and she provided the information and referrals they so desperately needed. She is a prolific writer. Her books, booklets, magazines she has edited, and articles fill an entire bookcase and are in danger of spilling over into a second bookcase. She has created and led several national nonprofit organizations, been present at the creation of at least five transgender conferences, and led two long-lived support groups, She created the first trans-exclusive archive of printed and recorded literature, which today is available to the public at Labadie Collection at the University of Michigan. She has been a fierce advocate for transgender autonomy and access to medical care. Through it all, she has stayed on task, and made it all about the task at hand rather than about herself. Now, in her mid-seventies, she maintains the same frenetic pace she has kept up since the 1980s.
Dallas’ work is viewable in its entirety on her website.
Author's Website
Those new to the transgender community may not have a grasp of what it was like for transgendered people before the advent of the Internet. Information about crossdressing, transsexualism, gender identity and all of the many issues and conditions under the transgender umbrella was hard to find. It was out there in pamphlets, books printed on mimeograph machines and office copiers. Some tomes were published by actual publishers with hard covers but copies could not be found at your local library. Much of what was printed by and about TGs from those days would be lost without the establishment of transgender archives. Dallas Denny tells of one such effort.
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One of the main interests of Dallas Denny for over 16 years has been making the heterosexual crossdresser group Tri-Ess uncomfortable. Why would a TS like Dallas want to make the ladies of Tri-Ess squirm in their girdles? Is she just a mean girl? A trouble maker? No. Dallas sees hypocrisy and intellectual dishonesty in Tri-Ess’ “heterosexual crossdressers only” policies. Has she had any success poking Tri-Ess regarding their rejection of TS and gay transgendered people? Read The Tri-Ess Wars and see.
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©1995, 2013 by Dallas Denny Source: Denny, Dallas. (1995, November). FTM Conference a Huge Success! AEGIS News, No. 1, V. 5, p. 1. Here’s a bit of history for TGForum readers… Thumbnail Photo: Illustration of Jack Bee Garland, taken from the cover of Louis Graydon Sullivan’s biography. Garland was a female-bodied man who lived in […]
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Great minds think alike. That’s the cliche and it seems that two of the great minds at TGForum were running in the same track this past week. Or at least they were reading the same blogger. Blogger Meggan Summerville published a list she title “What Not to Say to a Transgender Woman.” Angela Gardner read it and was moved to write Transgender or Transgendered” for today’s new content. Dallas Denny also read the same blog and responds.
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Stealth is useful when you don’t want your spy planes to be noticed by the people you are spying on. It’s not as useful and may be actually harmful when you’re transgendered. The burden of having to pass all the time, having to watch yourself constantly to make sure you don’t betray your gender status and then the damage to your personal relationships and career from being outed make it an unhealthy way to live. Dallas Denny read an essay by another TG writer on the dangers of stealth and has been inspired to expand on the subject.
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Some transgendered people are always playing defense. It’s somewhat natural since they have had to deal with mistreatment at the hands of others for all of their lives. Today Dallas Denny reminds us that the best defense is a good sense of humor. She counsels “Laugh a Little!”
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Dallas Denny remembers her long association with JoAnn Roberts and shares what it was like to know her and work with her in several community organizations.
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The eyes have it. Pain that is. Many people feel that those who are suffering express their pain through their eyes. The eyes are purported to be windows to the soul. Dallas Denny talks about her gender induced pain and illustrates her text with These Eyes.
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In 1998 TGForum featured an essay by Dallas Denny on the idea of the “transsexual script.” She discussed the Harry Benjamin model of the “perfect” TS and talked about how that standard began to change in the early 1990s. After taking a look at both models Dallas still has questions.
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Young Dallas Denny didn’t get much of a girlhood. For the most part she had to imagine being one of the girls. Then in her junior year she got some clothes and makeup and dressed up for an afternoon now and then. Find out what it was like being a trans student.
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History is happening all the time and those who take the time to preserve their part of it do a service to future generations by letting them know where they came from. The TG community has a long, rich history but much of it disappeared into the mists of time. Dallas Denny tells us how to preserve our history.
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Dallas Denny wrote a paper 20 years ago. Forty years had passed since Christine Jorgensen’s return to the U.S. after SRS in Denmark, so Dallas called the piece Transsexualism at Forty. Now her paper is 20-years-old and transsexualism is 60. Here’s part II of her update.
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Last month Dallas Denny’s column was a reprint of her original 1993 Chrysalis article, Transsexualism at Forty. This month Dallas look at the first three of her twelve observations from the original paper to see how they hold up two decades later.
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Twenty years ago Dallas Denny took a look at transsexualism, and this article resulted. In next month’s column Dalla will take a look at her ten observations from twenty years ago and see how they hold up. She might even add a couple of new points.
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Dallas Denny takes us on a pictorial trip back through the decades and examines how passing, for some, has become easier thanks to modern makeup and other enhancements. From Boulton and Park right up to today. Dallas takes a look at Crossdressers Across the Decades.
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The use of a transsexual prostitute in a blackmail scheme by the fictional motorcycle gang the Sons of Anarchy on the television series of the same name has provoked controversy. Dallas Denny examines the scene.
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Last month Dallas Denny posted a list of transgender autobiographies. This month she comments on how useful some of the works are in providing real, useful information about transgender issues. Are some autobiographies better than others? Find out what Dalla thinks.
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Dallas Denny wants you to know the facts of the Obama Administration’s favorable attitude toward LBGT people. All she has to do is list the actions of the Administration in the area of LGBT rights and protections. It’s quite a list.
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Before the 1990s if you were out and transgendered you didn’t have much of a chance to publish anything like a novel, scientific literature, short stories or even poems. The two niche markets open to the out TG were writing for other TGs in newsletters and magazine. The other was autobiographies.
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In 2005 a Congress passed and President George W. Bush signed into law the Real ID Act of 2005. It is a draconian law that forces everyone with a driver’s license to bring their proof of birth to the DMV to turn that license into a national ID card. It’s a nightmare for all but definitely for TGs.
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For some reason radical feminists are upset about transsexuals. Are they not really feminists but just a man haters club? Quit possibly. A publisher was set to release a book by a radical feminist. Dallas Denny and and Jamison Green sent the publisher a letter and told them to stop.
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This month Dallas Denny brings words of encouragement to transsexuals who lost their loves when they transitioned. Dallas was exploring virtual worlds when she found, after all these years, a real love.
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Dallas Denny delves into John Irving’s latest book, In One Person. What makes Irving’s thirteenth novel different from the others? You’ll find many of Irving’s usual characters and themes but Dallas says there’s more to this book.
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An op-ed in the New York Times this past weekend put forth the theory, supported by some data, that homophobes are likely to have homosexual tendencies. Coincidentally Dallas Denny feels that transphobic individuals are probably drawn to TG behaviors — or there’s some other issue at work.
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Rick Santorum makes no bones about the fact that he is for good old fashioned family values. Those of a family of Catholics from the 13th century. In Santorum’s world view there is no room for diversity. Dallas Denny points out one instance that reveals Santorum’s attitude about gender roles.
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Dallas Denny digs into the history of attempts to “fix” crossdressers and transsexuals with everything from psychoanalysis to sleep deprivation and high doses of meth. She zeros in on “reparative therapy” and disgraced practitioner Geroge Rekers.
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