This is an overview of zines with trans, gender-related, and drag content over the past 15 years or so.

This is of course a subjective retrospective. The material I used in compiling this was the zine reviews that I've done over the time in which I was doing my zine; the reviews are available on my website. In many cases, publications came to my attention after they'd been published for some time, which tends to skew my perception of chronology. It's also important to let the creators speak for themselves, and to examine the original zines. In San Francisco, many of these zines are available in the archives of the GLBT Historical Society. I plan to eventually place my collection of zines there. As much as possible, I want to use the words the publishers of the zines used to decribe what they were doing. And I should mention my motto from Holy Titclamps: Nothing should be assumed about anybody's sexuality, including yours. Among the earliest zines that dealt specifically with these areas were zines such as My Comrade, based in New York, and the Fertile Latoyah Jackson Magazine, from Los Angeles. Both started publishing in the late 1980s, and had their own takes on drag and pop culture. People involed with My Comrade were at that time or later involved in such projects as the Pyramid bar and, most famously, Wigstock. The magazine included photographic tableaux and articles by and about various New York drag queens, including HaHappi Phace, Tabboo!, and so on. The Fertile LaToyah Jackson Magazine was a zine published by Vaginal Davis, and the zine described its titular figure this way: "Fertile LaToyah and the Afro Sisters are black teen drag queens, who are the taboo love dream of every lily white punque rock boy in America." Vaginal Davis has of course gone on to do work in many different media and opened for Margaret Cho's nationwide comedy tour. It took me a while to start getting them, but there were several established magazines which I eventually became aware of. Cross-Talk: The Gender Community's News and Information Monthly was a magazine published with amazing frequency from the late 1980s until about 1996. It was printed on non-gloss white paper featured news and columns and covered a range of topics. There were at this time glossy full-color magazines which at least at the time I reviewed them, appeared to cater to heterosexual crossdressers, such as LadyLike. Besides photos, these also included fictional stories, columns, and interviews. The first publication I recall seeing from a FTM perspective was a British newsletter called Boy's Own which included articles evaluating medical services, and advice on topics such as checking out if a counsellor is legit and getting a passport.

Some drag-oriented publications have included Dragazine, a glossy magazine which included interviews with drag performers, and Popcorn, which covered the Atlanta scene which included campy cable-access performer DeAunra Peak and various Atlanta expatriates like RuPaul. Toronto zine Gendertrash was one of the most in-your-face and exciting zines. The zine questioned women's shelters about whether they would admit transsexual women, discussed genderphobia in separatism and the patriarchy, and included a story serialized over several issues titled: TSe-TSe TerroiSm. The creators of this zine, Mirha Soleil-Ross and Xanthra Phillippa Mackay have gone on to do numberous other projects, including radio shows, service meals for trans sex workers, and filmmaking you may have seen some of Mirha's films in past Trannyfests. Published with surprising frequency during the mid-90s, TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism covered a variety of subjects, including pieces in several articles on Camp Trans. In around 1995, Riki Anne Wilchins published "In Your Face: political activism against gender oppression" Riki has of course gone on to GenderPAC. There have even been zines done by trans prisoners. The Satin Shoe: a zine of mutual respect and freedom to be was produced by prisoner Pat Earl, whose inspirations included Valerie Solans' Scum Manifesto. Other zines have included writing by prisoners, including Penetrated Pork, which published a piece by prisoner Vernon Maulsby about transphobia. In some cases, I've received some very promising zines in the mail and then never heard from the creator again. Waste of Space was a great zine by a transsexual punk dyke from Eugene Oregon, but I only ever saw two issues. Revolutions Per Minute took on topics of gender identity issues, and published a manifesto beginning "There is no sex, and the idea of a fixed gender is a myth." Unapologetic: The Journal of Irresponsible Gender was a chicago-based zine from a transsexual punk perspective. A more recent one-off was T, a zine from Chicago by and about trannyboys. I saw several issues of Willyboy, published from Portland, though the creator now apparently lives in Seattle. This zine, produced by an FTM guy, was packed with content, and included an issue with a theme of Transsexualism and Disability. In the late 90s I started seeing more zines with drag kings. One example was the Danish zine Mohawk Beaver, which had great design and photographs and writing. The creator has also done film projects. Some queer zines which were not primarily about trans issues would touch on topics. For instance, an of Brat Attack: the zine for leatherdykes and other bad girrlz included articles on "gender tripping," butch identity, and dykes and male to female transsexuals. An issue of punk-oriented queer zine Violin Outbreak included a profile of transsexual

rocker Jayne County. An issue of Vancouver publication Lezzie Smut included an article by a post-feminist transsexual lesbian; Queer Latino zine a la brava had a profile of Madre Teresita, who is transgendered; Bi magazine Anything That Move has had a profile of photographer Loren Cameron. I next want to mention some comics zines. Published in the early 1990s, Homozone comics featured a science fictional future in which the Castro had become a walled concentration camp, and featured characters from across the GLBT spectrum. Mona, who lives in London and also did the zine Girly and was in the band Six Inch Killers did a couple of comics, Transtastic Comics and Sky High Heels. Another comic from England is the fairly recent comic from FTM artist and filmmaker Jason Elvis Barker titled Pear Shaped Boy. Finally, some recent zines that are still around Make is a zine with a political focus, which can be contacted through a website at makezine.org Xerox Revolutionaries is a zine distro which is run by a trans guy in Florida, who has published zines such as The Fat Kid's Life and Kweer Corps International and also distributes zines by other people. Mutate has included articles on growing up transgendered and other pieces about gender, and while the website seems not to be working today, is still available on paper issues, including from Xerox Revolutionaries. While there was a peak in the number of zines produced in the mid-90s, and perhaps the decline in the quantity of zines produced is attributable to the easy access to free information on the internet after that time, it is still worthwhile to go back and look at what was produced in the past and seek out the zines currently being done. May 18, 2003 By Larry-bob Roberts larrybob@gmail.com http://holytitclamps.com