About a Boy Who Isn't - After Boys Don't Cry came out and won an Oscar for Hillary Swank, the plight of transgendered individuals was publicized. The NY Times has published an article About a Boy Who Isn't, describing the life of another biological female who is living as a man. Even within the LGBTQ community, I don't think that most lesbians and gays know much about transgendered individuals or necessarily think that we have much in common with them. Adding the fact that someone so young can already have an understanding of his own gender identity makes it even more difficult for me to understand. It's remarkable that M. has been able to prosper, yet I'll be interested to see how his story plays out over the next few years of high school and physical development.

One interesting note for me was that this article was written by Benoit Denizet-Lewis, a former writer and editor for the noble, but ineptly executed XY magazine. XY is aimed primarily at gay and questioning male youth from in the demographic range between 12-29. I occasionally pick XY up at the newsstand and once again this month the editor's column whines about the lack of advertisers. XY has to realize the touchy nature of advertising in a magazine targeted at an audience too young to legally have sex. Abercrombie & Fitch and Showtime are not obligated to advertise anywhere, and asking readers to cancel their subscription to Showtime is somewhat pointless...don't most of these young reader get cable at their parents' home anyway? Rather than bitching about Showtime's lack of interest in advertising and airing this behind-the-scenes business in the magazine. The magazine business is tough even for the big fish (see Talk Magazine), so I think XY needs to find more productive ways to subsidize their costs.