As always passing is something that I’ve been thinking a lot about this week. It’s something that has come to the forefront of my thoughts as I’ve been examining the ways in which for me passing has shifted over time in relationship to my identities (both femme and not) and the ways in which passing is complex and not always a bad thing. For example, at times passing can be about safety, where at the doctors office my partner is never denied access to see me when we are passing as straight (though there were times before we passed as straight that this was a huge worry for us). There are other times, like moments I have addressed in past blogs where passing feels very alienating, and I feel as though I’m loosing a place in the queer community when people fail to see me. Passing also takes on many forms, for example for the years that I spent as an FTM, passing was about gender and my sexuality was always read as queer. Now, as a femme, although I identify as genderqueer, that aspect of my identity is very seldom recognized (and when it is, it tends to be in conjunction with folks talking about my FTM past) and my sexuality is also often not read as queer. It is without a doubt an interesting, and thought provoking place to find myself.

For me a lot of thinking about passing recently has revolved around the collaborative show Traitors without (T)reason that I am doing with my partner Kestryl Cael being accepted into the 17th annual HOT! Festival at Dixon Place here in NYC!!! The show deals all about passing, if your in the city you should come check it out

Kestryl Cael and Sassafras are a queer couple that, despite their best efforts, passes as straight more often than they would like to admit. Seeking to perforate assumtions of privilege and complicate the borders of queerness, Traitors without (T)reason explores the themes of betrayal, privilege, invisibility, sacrifice, subversion, and loss that are inextricably tied into public passing.

for more information about the show check us out at www.pomofreakshow.com

This entry was posted on Friday, May 30th, 2008 at 11:13 am and is filed under musings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.