ORIGINAL PLUMBING

Translady Fanzine is a fine art photographic periodical, that in its first issue, features high-gloss portraits of video and performance artist Zackary Drucker. Amos Mac, editor and founder of the trans male quarterly Original Plumbing, is both photographer and publisher. Photographs are taken from the collaborative series "Distance is Where the Heart Is/Home is Where You Hang Your Heart" documenting a visual memoir of Drucker's early life in locations shot in and around her family's home in Upstate New York. Drucker writes in TF: "How can we have fans if we don't exist? How do we know we exist without visual affirmation?"

This week has been chock-full of awesome articles and online conversations! Here's some of what we've been reading:

• The Black Women Film Festival happens this weekend in Atlanta, Georgia!
• Heather at AfterEllen gives her two cents on the events surrounding Glee's Dianna Agron performing in a t-shirt that says "LIKES GIRLS." For more, I recommend Jenny Aisenberg's piece at Velvet Park.
• The Times speculates on "why women don't get caught up in sex scandals." (via Briar Levit)
• Bust responds to recent articles that suggested women "grow up" and be less "girly." What Tami Said comments on the racialized aspects of the personae in question.
• The Daily Beast elaborates on just how horrifically anti-gay Presidential contender Michele Bachmann really is.
• Tiger Beatdown and Original Plumbing introduce their new bloggers, including Bitch contributors s.e. smith and Emily Manuel at TB and Thomas Page McBee at OP.
• Stinkin' Thinkin' opines on "Why Addiction Recovery Should Be A Feminist Issue."
• Clutch talks about a shockingly racist and sexist online ad by a Tea Party group.
• ColorLines and KABOBfest continue the conversation about Tom MacMaster and Bill Graber pretending to be high-profile lesbian bloggers. At TransGriot, Monica recalls her online run-in with Graber.
• Pam's House Blend provides statistics on same-sex couples to encourage the New York Senate to pass marriage equality.
• TransGriot pays homage to late rapper Tupac on what would have been his fortieth birthday.
• Shakesville's Melissa McEwan shakes her head at Mitt Romney's joking about unemployment.
• Liz at Our Turn admires ass-kicking female characters and shares her take on the Double Dare documentary.
• TransQueers XXX and TransErotica on Tumblr provide places for trans* individuals to share naked and/or erotic photos of themselves. (Both pages NSFW.)
• Queerty wants to know what it can do to better serve its female readership! Ideas? Go go go!

Share your thoughts (and/or other awesome articles) below!

Links, links, links!

• Salon explores the implications of the fate of the Wonder Woman show described in Jennifer K. Stuller's podcast. (Spoiler alert: It's not going to air.)
• Muslimah Media Watch writes of Arab women and democracy.
• ColorLines speaks of CNN anchor Don Lemon's coming-out (good for him!) and their hopes that analysis of the intersection of racism and homophobia will go further.
• In the gross-but-perhaps-unsurprising file: ColorLines also discusses Ron Paul's stance against the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Meanwhile, Mother Jones compiles his "15 Most Extreme Positions."
• In better news, Truth Wins Out founder Wayne Besen provides numbers indicating increasing support for QUILTBAG rights, even in conservative circles, for HuffPo.
• Liz of Our Turn proposes a Bechdel Test for politics.
• On AlterNet, Bitch contributor Brittany Shoot interviews Will Potter on his new book about the law's disproportionate punishments for environmental activists like himself.
• TransGriot shares author Janet Mock's "It Gets Better" video.
• Bitch contributor s.e. smith unpacks the victim-blaming media surrounding the leader of the International Monetary Fund's arrest for sexual assault on Tiger Beatdown.
• The divine Kate Harding blogs about this same IMF coverage, the media surrounding Schwarzenegger, and what it all implies about the USA's troubling confusion between consensual affairs and assault. (via AlterNet)
• AfterEllen relates Tegan and Sara member Sara Quin's response to rapper Tyler the Creator's misogyny and homophobia.
• Ms. speculates on why vibrators still aren't mainstream.
• Are you in NYC? Mark your calendar for next weekend's release party for Original Plumbing's Green Issue!

Et tu?

Original Plumbing, a new magazine published and distributed out of San Francisco, is a fresh new publication dedicated to FTM sexuality and culture. Made for trans men by trans men, its first issue ("The Bedroom Issue") came out in October and features voices from five rooms and a couple different continents, with content ranging from interviews to fiction to a detailed summary of how Germany's health care system helps transitioning. They're off to a great start, and I asked editor-in-chief/photographer Amos Mac and assistant editor Rocco Kayiatos (who raps as Katastrophe) a few questions about future plans for ORIGINAL PLUMBING.