Books/Magazines
Trans Columnist Celebrates 100th Anniversary
By Chrys Hudson

Nov 22, 2007

Jacob Anderson-Minshall

When author Jacob Anderson-Minshall wrote his first TransNation column for the San Francisco Bay Times he had no idea how popular it would become. Now, as he releases his 100th column, the weekly, syndicated article appears in LGBT publications from San Francisco to New York —and on GayWired Media's portals Gaywired.com, 247Gay.com and LesbiaNation.com.

"It's been an amazing two years," says Anderson-Minshall. "I've interviewed some of the most renown trans people in the world-from actors like Candis Cayne (from ABC's Sexy Dirty Money) and Calperina Addams, to authors Kate Bornstein and Jamison Green, musicians like The Cliks, Katastrophe and Joshua Klipp, porn star Buck Angel, former Las Vegas showgirl Jahnna Steele, and literally dozens of other activists, politicians, artists, scholars, athletes, filmmakers and folks from every walk of life. I feel incredibly honored to have spoken with these remarkable individuals."

Kim Corsaro, the publisher and editor of the San Francisco Bay Times, says that TransNation has been "an important voice in the paper," and has sparked numerous letters to the editor. GayWired's L.A. Vess concurs, "We've gotten great feedback on the column."

Unlike most columns, which tend to be personal essays or opinion pieces, Anderson-Minshall —who transitioned from female to male less than a year before TransNation debuted —has positioned the weekly column as a space to profile remarkable individuals from the trans community. In doing so, he says, "I try to let my subjects speak for themselves-even when that means setting my personal opinions aside." 

Anderson-Minshall formatted TransNation this way so he could increase coverage of the trans and genderqueer communities and illustrate the great diversity of gender expressions that are often lumped under a transgender umbrella. 

"There's a significant population of people who were assigned one sex at birth, and now live as a different sex, but do not identify as transgender or transsexual,” he says. “They are men and women. Period. Because they often don't feel like they are a part of the LGBT community, their voices frequently go unheard in queer press. TransNation is a forum willing to share these perspectives." 

For his 100th column, Anderson-Minshall profiles activist Donna Rose, a former Human Rights Committee board of directors' member who left her post in protest of the organization's unpopular position on the stripped-down Employment Non Discrimination Act (ENDA). 

"The debate over ENDA and the unparalleled support of transgender rights, from over 300 LGBT organizations, that has come out of it, make this the biggest trans story of 2007," Anderson-Minshall contends. "That makes it fitting as the topic for my 100th column. By my 200th, I hope I'll be celebrating the passage of a gender-inclusive ENDA."

Anderson-Minshall co-authored Blind Leap, the second installment in the Blind Eye mystery series he writes with his wife of almost 18 years, Diane Anderson-Minshall, the executive editor at Curve magazine, with whom he also co-founded Girlfriends magazine.