The Gender Rebels Podcast

  We review Netflix's Will & Harper. Overall we think it's really really good and can help educate people who might need it.   Faith says she can't get U.S. State Department Security Clearance because she's too weird.  We agreed Mike "I'm a weird guy" Warnke is also probably ineligible. But Weird Al is pretty wholesome; I bet he could get it.   Could you get clearance?   Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.  Faith's book, American Transgirl, available now! Music by one of our favorite bands, the super cool, all-female punk band Jasper the Colossal. Download their new album "Take Your Time" and all their tracks on iTunes. 

We review Netflix's Will & Harper. Overall we think it's really really good and can help educate people who might need it.   Faith says she can't get U.S. State Department Security Clearance because she's too weird.  We agreed Mike "I'm a weird guy" Warnke is also probably ineligible. But Weird Al is pretty wholesome; I bet he could get it.   Could you get clearance?   Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.  Faith's book, American Transgirl, available now! Music by one of our favorite bands, the super cool, all-female punk band Jasper the Colossal. Download their new album "Take Your Time" and all their tracks on iTunes. 

We're in the news again, yay. First, the stats: The US held 21.0% of the world's prisoners in 2015, even though the US represented only around 4.4 percent of the world's population in 2015. The Wikipedia site "Comparison of United States incarceration rate with other countries" has additional sobering stats. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_United_States_incarceration_rate_with_other_countries#:~:text=The%202021%20US%20incarceration%20rate,in%20adult%20facilities%20in%202015.     Highlights of Kamala's fox interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbNxiLaY6I0   Alford plea (not "Alfred" plea): https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/alford_plea An Alford plea, also known as a "best-interests plea," registers a formal admission of guilt towards charges in criminal court while the defendant simultaneously expresses their innocence toward those same charges.(It) skips the full process of a criminal trial because the defendant agrees to accept all the ramifications of a guilty verdict (i.e. punishment).   Prisoners were left to their own devices during Hurricanes Milton, Florence, and Katrina: https://www.ncja.org/crimeandjusticenews/some-florida-jails-and-prisons-evacuated-ahead-of-milton-but-many-incarcerated-remained-in-storm-s   The number of inmates requesting gender affirming surgery every year is miniscule, according to Bureau of Prisons. There have been only two known surgeries approved via court action. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/16/us/politics/trump-prisons-transgender-care-harris.html   Trans folx are more likely to be a victim of a crime: https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-trans-press-release/   Let's step outside of prison for a minute. The #1 most common gender affirming surgery in minors? Researchers found roughly 150 cases in which a minor received gender-affirming surgery in 2019. But of those cases, 146 — about 97% — were chest reduction surgeries performed on cisgender male youth, constituting gender-affirming care for conditions like gynecomastia (which can develop nearly half the time among those undergoing testosterone-dominant puberty). https://www.them.us/story/gender-affirming-surgery-vast-majority-cis-kids-study

Faith and Kath are surprised that they liked this movie so much.  Remember Amanda Bynes? She's so funny and we at TGR Headquarters wish her well. The movie is helped by surprisingly funny Channing Tatum in his first movie role and a bonkers story by Billy Shakespeare.  Apparently pretending to be the opposite sex is stressful and Bynes said she struggled with depression for months after seeing herself onscreen.  Sounds like gender dysphoria is hard even in small doses. Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.  Faith's book, American Transgirl, available now! Music by one of our favorite bands, the super cool, all-female punk band Jasper the Colossal. Download their new album "Take Your Time" and all their tracks on iTunes. 

Today we watched director Billy Wilder's 1959 hit Some Like It Hot, winner of 11 Academy Awards. Our feelings are... complicated. But for a movie with cross-dressing, produced in compliance with the Hays Code's absurd limitations, it is actually pretty cool.      Marilyn Monroe's character gave off "Born Sexy Yesterday" vibes. Pop Culture Detective coined the phrase for characters like The Fifth Element's Leeloo; learn more here! In 2023, J. Harrison Ghee won a Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical  for their performance in the Broadway musical, the second out nonbinary actor to win the award.  (Mere MINUTES after Alex Newell, the first out nonbinary Tony winner. So close!)   I know what you're thinking-- Best Actor? Nonbinary person?  Well, there is a larger conversation happening about gendered award categories for major performance awards. Maybe we'll see some changes in the future.   Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.  Faith's book, American Transgirl, available now! Music by one of our favorite bands, the super cool, all-female punk band Jasper the Colossal. Download their new album "Take Your Time" and all their tracks on iTunes.     

Yesterday we went to I Saw The TV Glow followed by a Q&A with writer/ director Jane Schoenbrun.  Brigette Lundy-Paine and Justice Smith star in a coming-of-age story where two junior high outsiders find each other and bond over a creepy Buffy The Vampire Slayer-like TV show.  The show gets darker and the protagonists' ties to reality start to loosen.  We've loved Brigette Lundy-Paine ever since Atypical and see all their work-- even Amelia's Children, yikes.) Unlike Amelia's Children, I Saw The TV Glow was excellent: dark and strange and sad, with an amazing soundtrack. We highly recommend it!     Topics of conversation covered: Buffy creator Joss Whedon is a terrible person  The Cocteau Twins has an album The Pink Opaque   Our episode on Bringing people into the closet with you   Faith like the band Velocity Girl Faith's blog is still up!    Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.  Faith's book, American Transgirl, available now! Music by one of our favorite bands, the super cool, all-female punk band Jasper the Colossal. Download their new album "Take Your Time" and all their tracks on iTunes.   

This week we saw a reddit post that asked "Would I be a bad leftist if I get SRS?" It started with "my ex told me that girls who get SRS are an obstacle for trans liberation." Wow. We knew Faith needed to weigh in.   Caution: we make pretend sex noises throughout this ep. Try to not get too turned on, thanks.   Gaslighting means "manipulating someone into questioning their own perception of reality".   Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Listener Claire asks a great question about how to move in a more feminine way. We can't all be ballerinas or elegant gliding angles on ice like the truck drivers of Manitoba, but we can all take some yoga or barre, work on our posture, get video to track our progress, and attempt to emulate the Playboy bunny walk. But ultimately, it all comes down to practice.   Barre class and how to pronounce it. (It's just "bar", y'all.) Frances Ha starring (probable possible likely Academy Award winning director of "Barbie") Greta Gerwig where the character Frances has a "weird man walk". Fashion Week staffers work for free. What's Guelph? Faith loves her chirp wheel because her shoulders and neck get super tight from sitting at her desk.   Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.    

  Facial feminization surgery (FFS) is not covered by some health plans. If your health insurance company says they won't pay for a surgery you need, you can appeal that decision. Listener Robin asks for tips from Faith, who succeeded with her appeal on her third try.   Our other FFS episodes: Faith F's her F Part I Faith F's her F Part II Faith vs Her Health Insurance   "Insemination style genitalia" and "gestational genitalia" are terms that Faith thought up in her weird brain and we do NOT recommend googling them. Kath thinks AFAB and AMAB are adequate.   Faith learned about appealing decisions from your health insurance at the Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference. There was no 2023 conference but there will be one in 2024 and we will see you there!    Legal aid societies that can help you with your appeal, for each state.   Faith said people with gestational genitalia (aka AFAB people or people who were assigned female at birth) "retain neoteny". Neoteny refers to child-like facial characteristics. These “neotenous” characteristics include a large forehead with lower set eyes, nose and mouth; a smaller, shorter, more recessive chin; fuller lips; larger eyes; a smaller nose; higher, thinner eyebrows; and a rounder, less angular face. This can be (but is not always) associated with attractiveness, to some people.   Our old video of conventionally attractive people whose facial features are androgynous or even skew toward those of the opposite gender included the jerk Ezra Miller. Join us in cancelling that creep.    Faith's surgeon, Bella Avanessian, MD at Mt Sinai, also has Jazz Jennings as a patient. See Dr. A. in this video as a baby doctor, just starting her surgical fellowship.   Legal Eagle YouTuber has an episode about arbitrators and also "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia".   Former New York State governor Mario Cuomo groped staff members and helped the LGBTQ+ community a lot. Those are two uncomfortable truths we have to live with.

Ken Ham founded the Creation Museum and Faith got extra credit for going to see him speak on--what else?-- science.  This is a cool diagram of all the metabolic processes. Kath remembers each and every detail of this diagram, even now, 20 long years since her graduate biochem class.   Amanda The Jedi reacting to "Pure Flix", the Christian alternative to Netflix. Her other videos are really good, too.   Bob Jones University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) as of  2017 and the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools as of 2011.    The Kids in the Hall sketch Homo Alone.   At 3:30 in this video, Pat Robertson says people in San Francisco wear rings to give other people AIDS.   The southern strategy linked the GOP with racists and evangelicals.   Check out Self Made Kingz for cool shirts!   Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

  "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you." We misattributed this quote to Lee Atwater. It was in fact Lyndon B. Johnson.  Don't feel bad for Atwater; he was no peach either.  Here's audio of him spelling out how Republicans should signal that they support racist policies without actually saying racist things. TW for some seriously fucking brutal racial terms.   Fauci could have handled the AIDS crisis better.  This Frontline tells you all about it.    The Justins in Tennessee. (the link is a gift article; enjoy!)   The GOP won't change their policies to get more voters. They'll just get rid of democracy.   Protest works. There were sustained protests in East Germany before the wall fell like the Leipzig prayer protests every Monday. ACT UP used unapologetically confrontational die-ins to force progress on AIDS funding, research, and treatments.   Conservatives don't want their kids learning about Ruby Bridges or Rosa Parks.   RIP Congressman John Lewis and let's all make good trouble.       Buy Faith's book! It's the mid 1990s, and a high school guy in Georgia is grappling with his queerness, his faith, his friends, and his future in Disgusta by Faith DaBrooke. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!    

  In our final episode on transgender music, we discuss Jenny Lewis in Rilo Kiley One of The Guys, The Regrettes A Living Human Girl, Liz Phair Firewalker, Metric Too Little Too Late, R.E.M. Hope, and Chvrches Death Stranding. We really hope you liked this series!   Buy Faith's book! It's the mid 1990s, and a high school guy in Georgia is grappling with his queerness, his faith, his friends, and his future in Disgusta by Faith DaBrooke. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!  

  We're back with even more songs.  And this ain't all, there's still a part 3 in your future!   In this episode, we discuss: Fraulein Wunder Wenn Ich Ein Junge War or "If I Were A Boy". Faith's judgment: a good song.  The Soviettes Middle of the Night  Hole My Beautiful Son and the link shows you a picture of Kurt Cobain looking pretty in a dress and lipstick and pearls at 0:52 Lords of Acid I Like It (best known for the song The Crab Louse about pubic crabs)  James Laid  St Vincent has a song about Candy Darling Green Day King for A Day The Replacements and Peter Buck Androgynous Laura Jane Grace is lead singer of Against Me! and she transitioned in public. One of the band's albums is Transgender Dysphoria Blues.  Pitchfork hates every album.   Trans or queer musicians: Kim Petras  Romy Haag Pete Burns of Dead of Alive which you know from "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)".  Kurt Cobain  New York Dolls  David Bowie  Getting a used toaster as wedding gift is just one of the many objectifying, dehumanizing virginity metaphors Faith was taught. But sure, let's follow that comparison to its conclusion.  A used toaster? What if it's just the right toaster for you? What if it's amazing, and it sees you and treasures you for who you are, and it makes you laugh, and it shares your values and interests? Yes, then I wouldn't care if the toaster has a few crumbs in its tray from a previous owner.    Buy Faith's book! It's the mid 1990s, and a high school guy in Georgia is grappling with his queerness, his faith, his friends, and his future in Disgusta by Faith DaBrooke. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!  

You KNOW we have opinions on everything from "Lola" to "Walk On The Wild Side" to "Dude Looks Like A Lady". The good, the bad, and the strange.  And this is just part one!! Links galore: Jasper the Colossal Markers and Beer live version. It slaps.      Make famous friends by cultivating fandoms for less- famous people. Faith admires awesome YouTuber Lindsey Ellis -- and she reteweeted one of Faith's dog pics!  Lake Baikal is a super deep lake. Terrifyingly deep. SNL Ashlee Simpson debacle.   Okay, music! In this ep, we discussed: Aerosmith's Dude Looks Like A Lady. Faith's judgment: Not a good song. Here's a picture of Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe (not Poison; apologies to both Mr. Crüe and Mr. Poison), for reference.  Hair metal, for reference including two cool lists of Top 10 Best and Bottom 5 Worst Hair Metal Bands.   The Kinks Lola. Faith's judgment: Good song but not on her mix or karaoke list. Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground Take a Walk on the Wild Side (Faith's judgment: good song and not on her karaoke list) and Candy Says (Faith's judgment: same-- good song and not on her karaoke list)    Learn about: Candy Darling ! Andy Warhol's Factory ! Joe Delassandro !   The Community commercial where they say "meet different people!"     Many familiar crabs are of the genus Cancer   Suzanne Vega As Girls Go.  Faith's judgment: not a good song. Matt Baum's Culture Cruise on YouTube talks about the representation of gays in TV and movies.  Madonna's What It Feels Like For A Girl. Faith's judgment: a good song.    Garbage Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go),  Androgyny, and Bleed Like Me . Faith's judgment: 100% awesome songs.  Bonus is their cover of Candy Says that's also spectacular. The JT Leroy literary hoax    Buy Faith's book! It's the mid 1990s, and a high school guy in Georgia is grappling with his queerness, his faith, his friends, and his future in Disgusta by Faith DaBrooke. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!      

Transition is expensive.  A listener writes in to ask, what's the harm with starting an OnlyFans account to help with the costs? Chasers are creepy, but money is money. She's got systems in place to ensure her anonymity and safety.  What do you think? Topics in this episode include: Usury laws Bible says don't charge interest when you lend money, but Christians still seem to like it for some reason.  "Caveat" means an old-fashioned necktie, we're pretty sure.  Don't Fuck With Cats taught us people can locate you based on your images, if they're motivated enough. NYC paramedic outed (correction: not fired) for having an OnlyFans account. The concept of "less dead" in criminal justice  Porn actress Asia Carrera retired to Utah because no one looks at porn in Utah.   Speaking of Utah: the only thing better than the breathtaking canyon walls of Zion National Park were the cute Utah queers we encountered there. We see you and we love you. Faith does not love driving in Phoenix AZ.       Listen past the end credits for sounds of one of our dogs sleep- barking!   Buy Faith's book! It's the mid 1990s, and a high school guy in Georgia is grappling with his queerness, his faith, his friends, and his future in Disgusta by Faith DaBrooke. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!  

Krav Maga is a hand- to- hand combat technique originally developed by the Israeli armed forces.   And Faith and Kath took the field by storm a few months ago.  Hear how it's going in their women- only classes and their mixed classes.   Buy Faith's book! It's the mid 1990s, and a high school guy in Georgia is grappling with his queerness, his faith, his friends, and his future in Disgusta by Faith DaBrooke. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!  

  Listener and Rebel Erin wrote in to ask about mourning her lost girlhood, and also about her obligations to help other transfolx having a hard time with transition.  Thanks Erin!     Buy Faith's book! It's the mid 1990s, and a high school guy in Georgia is grappling with his queerness, his faith, his friends, and his future in Disgusta by Faith DaBrooke. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Listener Hayley actually wrote in with three excellent questions.  She asked the Rebels' thoughts on transgender representation in video games, transitioning in the public eye, and how transgender academics handle a lifetime of publications attributed to their deadname.   Buy Faith's book! It's the mid 1990s, and a high school guy in Georgia is grappling with his queerness, his faith, his friends, and his future in Disgusta by Faith DaBrooke.   Faith has been playing Civilization for years and Civ 6 is the newest one. A recent article about trans representation in video games-- including 3 games that get it right.   The super-easy, super-tasty popcorn recipe Faith likes.  And that website has a TON of great vegetarian recipes.  We're not even vegetarian and we like Cookie & Kate's recipes!   Within the last year, leading academic publishers have developed a simple policy to help transgender academics: rapid and discreet revisions on all electronic resources. Nature, Science, Elsevier, Wiley and other of the top academic publishers are paving the way.   Kath does not know how to pronounce Elsevier. It is "el suh veer". Both of her guesses were wrong.   Wiley published the MR safety book with Kath's chapter, chapter #30.  But don't buy that book. Buy Faith's book.    Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

You know things are bad if the Gender Rebels do a political episode about sports.  But ignoring politics is a luxury for privileged people and we're just plain pissed.   Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

The book is here! The book is here!!  The second edition of Trans Bodies, Trans Selves is finally out, featuring 2 pieces by our very own Faith Da Brooke!! We can't contain our excitement even though this 649-page ENCYCLOPEDIA is going to put us out of business.  Written almost entirely by trans people, it is an exhaustive resource on healthcare, legal stuff, relationships, history, poetry, and more. And we were so lucky to have the opportunity celebrate the launch by interviewing 2 of the people who were the force behind this, Kelsey Pacha and Kevin Johnson. Kelsey Pacha is more than just President of the TBTS Board. He's also a consultant for workplaces who want to move forward with their diversity, equity, and inclusion. Kevin Johnson is a doctor in upstate New York specializing in addiction medicine. Help us get Trans Bodies, Trans Selves into libraries! Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.    

What does it mean to want to transition, while also being aware gender is a construct? Does transition mean gender is not a construct? Taylor writes in with this excellent question and a few other great insights.   Faith brought up the monkeys who wash their sweet potatoes, which is an atypical behavior that nonetheless spread through the troop and was even handed down through generations.  They do it today; you can go to Japan and see them. It's an amazing case study of behavior that meets three proposed aspects for a cultural behavior: emergence, propagation, and modification.     The "modification" part is most relevant to Taylor's question. Yes, gender is a construct, a cultural behavior.  It has a lot of problematic aspects but also a LOT of aspects that feel right to many people.   So trans* people and even plenty of cis people modify gender constructs to fit themselves. We live gender in the way we want.   Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Listener Emma is early in her journey, and she writes in to ask for tips or reassurance.   Your first step on your trans* journey is always LEARNING as much as you can!  Emma is already right on track but there are great resources that can help. Check out My New Gender Workbook by the always amazing Kate Bornstein. Also, You and Your Gender Identity: A Guide to Discovery by Dara Hoffman Fox.    Our episode Bringing Others In The Closet With You. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.  

"I don't understand," they say, and now you've got some work to do.  Listener Kai asks how to explain what nonbinary means to their boyfriend's religious parents. Luckily, Faith knows how to talk to religious people so you know The Gender Rebels have some thoughts.   Checkout our episodes with our nonbinary friend Avery: Everything In Between and Nonbinary Talk With Avery. A nonbinary person is not necessarily intersex, but Avery said it can be a helpful metaphor to people who prefer to start from a scientific example. Check out our intersex episode for details. Faith is a fan of Sci Show and they also have an episode on intersex people.   Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman by Abby Stein is just one of many stories from religious or formerly religious people dealing with queerness, transition, or being nonbinary or intersex.  Also it's just a great read.  We love Austen Hartke and he has done so much fascinating work on queer interpretations of the bible. Check out his book Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians if that YouTube clip piqued your interest. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.  

Memorial Day used to be Decoration Day because you're supposed to decorate the graves of fallen soldiers. Yes, housewives were told to put hot dogs in Jello.  We wouldn't make up something like that. NASA briefly considered sending women on the Mercury VII mission but ultimately made John Glenn the first American astronaut in orbit instead. NASA's official selection criteria for astronauts was Less than 40 years old; Less than 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) tall; In excellent physical condition; With a bachelor's degree or equivalent; A graduate of test pilot school; With a minimum of 1,500 hours total flying time; and A qualified jet pilot. But the unofficial criteria? Well, they were all white male Protestants with wives and children. They were all the eldest or only sons in their families and they were all raised in small towns.   Grilled broccoli is amazing.  Don't forget the red pepper flakes! I like to leave the stems long; they make a nice handle for turning on the grill surface.   Be sure and check out Kath's other podcast Lab In the Time of Coronavirus. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Faith is a Star Trek fan, and this is Kath's first Star Trek episode ever. The New Generation's Season 5 Episode 17 "The Outcast" was a heavy-handed, clumsy, well-intentioned episode about gay things.  It was 1992 so we're giving them a break.   Why is the flight deck called "the bridge"?  There's only one way to find out. Be sure and check out Kath's other podcast Lab In the Time of Coronavirus. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Kath has questions for Faith about John Cameron Mitchell's discomfiting masterpiece Hedwig and The Angry Inch.  (Several unpleasant topics come up, so heed the trigger warning at the start.)  Origin of Love is a song that makes Kath cry.  Happy tears-- it's ok. Maybe it's time to get an Origin of Love tattoo. That'll give her something to cry about. Learn more about Romy Haag. Learn more about Theo Kogan.  Watch Shortbus if you dare. Got a great voice? Are you scrawny or Taye Diggs? You, too, could play Hedwig, like all of these people.   Be sure and check out Kath's other podcast Lab In the Time of Coronavirus. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

A gay holiday movie with the luminous and exquisite Cate Blanchette? Yes please.

You're a transman but internet trolls only see "trans" and assume you're a transwoman.  "YOU'RE NOT A REAL WOMAN. YOU'LL NEVER BE A REAL WOMAN!1!!11!" might feel great.  But does it feel great? Should it feel great? What do you do when you accidentally receive affirmation from a hater?   Be sure and check out Kath's other podcast Lab In the Time of Coronavirus. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

We've created a podcast within a podcast: The Rebels Go to the Movies!  In our first episode, we watch and review The Matrix.   SO MANY SPOILERS.  So see it before you listen. If you haven't seen it yet, why not????? It's so good! Lily Wachowski recently confirmed it is, indeed, an allegory for the transgender experience.   Be sure and check out Kath's other podcast Lab In the Time of Coronavirus. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

  Listener Devin sent this question many months ago (and we re-recorded this episode to replace the one we lost when Kath's hard drive died). It's great to have accomplished everything: coming out, the surgeries, the name change, building a support group. But now what?   Be sure and check out Kath's other podcast Lab In the Time of Coronavirus. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Listener Cormac asks if Faith felt nostalgic when getting rid of her old clothes   We have previous episodes on Developing a Sense of Style and Feminize for Free. They're female-oriented episodes but a lot of the advice applies to guys too. Faith loves Manda & The Marbles.  You should too.   Get your own Music Band T-shirt like Steve Buscemi wore in 30 Rock.   High-quality Inkbox fake tattoos seems like a great Christmas present for Faith, right? Yeah but not, like, 20 of them.  Lesson learned.   Faith only wears black T-shirts.  Lou Malnati's Pizza doesn't make a black T-shirt.  (Note: Lou's is not Chicago's best deep dish.  Giordano's is. Specifically, the 730 Rush St location for its convenience to Kath's old lab at Northwestern Memorial.)   Salvation Army dislikes gay people no matter what they say. Goodwill isn't great either but at least they're not actively homophobic.   Out Of The Closet is a national chain of non-homophobic, non-exploitative thrift  stores that directly help people living with HIV and AIDS. From their website: Ninety-six cents of every dollar collected at the stores directly fund AIDS Healthcare Foundation's HIV/AIDS programs and their new housing services, as well as on-site pharmacies and free HIV testing. AND they were featured in First Girl I Loved, a super-gay movie WE loved. Queer Exchange is a buy and sell group on Facebook.  They have them for lots of cities, not just NYC. But Housing Works is NYC only.   Guys helping guys at r/malefashionadvice Green Day Good Riddance lyrics so you can sing along REM Don't Go Back to Rockville lyrics so you can sing along   Be sure and check out Kath's other podcast Lab In the Time of Coronavirus. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Faith finished her time in the hospital and is now home, recovering.  Her final day as an inpatient was an ordeal.  Post-op care is going much better at home.   We discuss everything about vaginoplasty in two different previous episodes so check them out if any terms are unfamiliar.   Blood pressure is measured with a sphygmomanometer (not a "sphygmamomometer" as we mispronounced it).   Be sure and check out Kath's other podcast Lab In the Time of Coronavirus. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Pardon the poor audio quality.  We recorded this episode on my phone and I did my best to clean it up!  THANK YOU to everyone who was  so supportive and encouraging on Facebook and everywhere else.  We really felt the love. More updates to come!  Stay safe and healthy, Rebels!       Be sure and check out Kath's other podcast Lab In the Time of Coronavirus. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Systemic racism is deadly. We need to put in the work to educate ourselves and start to proactively dismantle destructive organizations and unquestioned assumptions. We're using this episode to amplify the voices of POCs and keep society moving along the road to recovery.  CLICK THESE LINKS. Black Lives Matter  If you have some cash, consider donating to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.  Activists we love: Munroe Bergdorf and Janaya Future Khan Podcasts we recommend: Queer Women of Color and Afroqueer VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE in your local elections. Here's how to register and here's how to find when they are and who's running. Merriam Webster improved and clarified the definition of racism. The protests are working. Minneapolis will disband the police force. Other areas are discussing defunding their police forces. "Breonna's Law" outlaws no-knock warrants in Louisville. The Louisville police chief was removed from his post after an unrelated shooting by police officers-- another unarmed black citizen, this time at a protest. Louisville's mayor has issued a request for proposal for a comprehensive, top-to-bottom review of the entire Louisville police department  The officers who killed Breonna are on administrative leave. (The question of their firings or prosecutions come after the investigation.) Keep it up. Redlining is an example of deliberate, institutionally-deployed racism.  We still deal with its repercussions today. The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 is just one of many attacks on thriving African American communities throughout history. Read The New Jim Crow about racial discrimination in law enforcement and the rise of mass incarceration. Finally New York State has a special prosecutor's office to investigate cases where a person dies while in police custody. Previously, these investigations were done by local district attorneys. This old system was crippled by built-in conflicts of interest, since local district attorneys have to work with cops on their other cases.  A good article about armed cops in schools aka "school resource officers". Remember that stupid whitewashed Stonewall movie?  At least the Marsh P. Johnson character appeared onscreen for four seconds.  Kath is always talking about asymptotes: things approaching zero, always getting closer to it but never quite getting there.

No visitors in the hospital.  Thanks, COVID. Can Faith doing this without Kath, or should she reschedule AGAIN?  Be sure and check out Kath's other podcast Lab In the Time of Coronavirus. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

In this episode we answer a question from a young transgender girl who is curious about the potential issues and frustrations involved with changing your name.  Be sure and check out Kath's other podcast Lab In the Time of Coronavirus. And if you want to learn more about Life Magazine's privacy issues, check out this Dollop episode.  Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

An awesome Redditor sent Faith 11 great questions and we go through them all, bam bam bam, for your listening pleasure. The Pitch Drop Experiment is a demonstration of viscosity where pitch in a funnel yields one very slow drop every 7-9 years (until the lab installed air conditioning which then slowed the rate of drippage too ever 12-13 years). Of course Flying Synagogues are a thing. Or they were in 2006. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Got Netflix Party?  Patrons are invited to join us in watching Tootsie on Sunday Apr 4 at 8 pm eastern time!  Is it a bold mainstream portrayal of crossdressing with A-list actors and comedians, a tasteless comedy that makes trans people the butt of every joke, or something in between? Join the chat and chime in when you're moved, tickled, or aghast.  And y'all? Faith has never seen it!   Not a patron yet? Spend $1 to join the party!

  Neither of us are transguys.  Still, we know how to kill time during SIP (shelter-in-place). Practice tying your ties! Actually, no.  Instead, perfect that bowtie. Long ties are vectors. Gross. Prep for your grandpa days and learn to whittle! Smoke a pipe!  Figure out your future grandpa smell!  (Usually tobacco, hair pomade, aftershave, and grandpa funk, but do it your way.) Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Delicious Chik Fil A sandwich recipe-- all the yum, none of the hate! Brining the chicken in pickle juice is the secret. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

And does it matter? Why? Let's say she passes.  Is she done with the transgender community? And is that shitty? Why? Anyway, here are some links:   Faith is using an app to count calories and it's actually helping her lose weight.  Also it's kind of  interesting learning about the calorie density of different foods.  We call it "Data Not Deprivation".   Faith loves Grimes. Grimes has a new album.  And Faith REALLY loves Grimes.  Kath is glad Grimes is pregnant because Faith dislikes kids and Kath is pretty sure if kids weren't in the picture, Faith would leave Kath for Grimes.     The "thorn" phoneme aka the "th" sound, which Faith couldn't pronounce as a kid, so she had mouth surgery to fix because otherwise she would be bullied. She was still bullied, of course, but not for the thorn thing.   Faith is a very accomplished podcaster and her other podcasts include the Last Podcast on The Left, Hardcore History, Serial , and the first- ever podcast, War of the Worlds .   Acquitted child-murdering mother Casey Anthony did not work at Universal Studios, but kept the lie going as long as she could.     Food life hack: vegetables are very nutrient-dense and low calorie.  Roast chunks of carrots, potatoes, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, zucchini, and red onion with salt and a little olive oil, and toss a little lemon tahini dressing on top. OMG yum.   Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Post-surgical recovery, physical therapy, and the patient panel were in the second part of the NYU-Langone day-long class in vaginoplasty.  Faith got antsy toward the end of the class but Kath took her to the Waterfront Ale House right after (1 block away) and everything was okay. Peggy Huddleston wants you to heal from surgery faster.  Visualization and breathing have empirical data supporting them but reiki lacks reliable evidence at this time. Trick or Treatment is a great book that looks at high-quality scientific publications about several alternative medical practices. The dilator set: throw away the purple and work your way up to the orange! Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

NYU-Langone offers a day-long class in vaginoplasty for women who have their GRS scheduled in the near future.  Caregivers are able to attend too!  So we went, listened, took notes, asked questions, and ate sandwiches.  We learned SO MUCH that we couldn't fit it all into one episode. We could barely fit it into two.  So enjoy these mega-episodes! A hand mirror is recommended for looking at one's brand-new vagina.  Your phone, or a compact, won't work.  Sure, any hand mirror will do. But here, we like to go big or go home. Psychology Today can help you find a therapist.  (That's the US link, so go here if you're Canadian, Mexican, or if you live outside North America.) The OUT Foundation partnered with NYU-Langone for the class. They can provide resources for people traveling for their GRS, and seem pretty cool overall.  They have an inclusive gym finder, host the Big Gay Field Day , and started the Don't Be An Asshole Tour. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Faith wants to be a grifter. Help Kath talk her out of it. This episode is kind of a throwback to the first podcast we dd together, Fool Me Once about scams (patrons can hear all 3 episodes we did) A bounty of links for this episode: The Community Service Society of New York helped Faith take on her health insurance company. The Mt Sinai plastic surgery dept staff supporting Dr. Avanessian are amazing human beings-- so amazing, the famously misanthropic Faith DaBrooke wrote thank you notes to them   Faith says, see Birds of Prey . Kath says, see Parasite .   Read the book My Friend Anna, so you can learn more about the shitty human being Anna Delvey, whose black chiffon babydoll dress is 99% of the reason Faith wants to be a grifter.   "Oh no!  I dropped my twelve pack of delicious Sticky's chicken fingers! My boss is gonna KILL me!"   Ear Hustle podcast from prison, where we'll definitely end up.   Orange is the New Black , the book, not the show, is really good.

If there's a medical reason (or any other reason) that makes HRT impossible for you, are you screwed? Thanks to a great question sent in by listener N.R. whose pulmonary embolism makes HRT too risky for her, Faith and Kath discuss what other options exist. They also think up terrible metaphors.   You can have an excellent stew without meat.  Seriously, try it.  We're not even vegan and we love this recipe. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.  

  BREASTS! Faith discusses her recent breast augmentation surgery: the ordeal itself (not bad), the immediate followup (kind of bad), and the weeks since then (not great, but getting better every day). Next time they tell you to grow a pair, just say "no thanks. I'll BUY a pair!"  No, wait, don't say that.  That's weird. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.  

Awesome partner Jenny asked us "I was wondering if you could discuss the gender spectrum a bit and what it means to be gender questioning. My partner doesn't really know how they feel but they know that they don't feel entirely their assigned gender. As a straight cis woman, I am having a really hard time understanding these feelings and what to do, if anything, to support them in helping them figure out what makes them most comfortable." We discuss how labels can be both helpful and unhelpful, the kinds of questions necessary, what societal strictures should be ignored, and the frustrations Jenny's partner may encounter. There's a great guide to figuring out a non-binary identity from Micah at Everyday Feminism. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

An interested listener wrote in to ask how Faith does her makeup. We discuss the basic items you need and starter tips and techniques.  YouTube will take you farther in your journey but here's how to get started. Faith got questionable advice about Cover Girl from Claire Storm-- check out her dramatic but effective contouring! Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!   Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels  Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

Sorry about the dog noises. They think they deserve peanut butter to keep them quiet whenever the microphone is out.  We're trying to break that habit. Scarlett Johanssen has said some regrettable things. Faith loves the movie Gattaca and if you haven't seen it, or it's been a while, you should at least watch the preview. New York State and New York City  have very good job protections for trans* people.  Move here!  Get jobs!  Hang out with us!   Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!     Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels    Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.

    Gaysper is an adorable gay ghost with his own twitter account. Faith made Kath a trans flag Gaysper tshirt. What are the rules for cis allies wearing trans gear? Or even for trans people wearing trans gear? Is it safe?  Does it spread awareness? Or is it basically invisible to most people? Faith's favorite band is Garbage. We have an episode about chasers, if you want to hear how they steal transwomen's photos to attract other transwomen online. Support us on Patreon to help us keep making great content, and to get some cool rewards! Check out our website for our latest episodes!     Follow us on twitter for all our shower thoughts and other musings @TheGenderRebels    Like us on  FaceBook so we can haunt your feed.