December 20, 1978 - East Village - Journal

My Christmas shopping is nearly complete, except for my brother Frank and sister Pammie, but accomplishing that should be easy thanks to a bet at OTB with Bill Yusk coming through. Wise Philip at Aqueduct. An unexpected boon thanks to a dream about the race. Like DH Lawrence's The Unrealistic Dream Of A Horse Rider. A naked man with a cowboy har riding a bathtub gave me a name. Wise Philip. I had once dreamed him before and Bill and I had bet of Johnny D ridden by Stevie Cauthen. The naked man came through again. I told Bill to not talk about this to anyone.

"It might break the link."

LATER

Alice called from West Virginia and said, "I want to travel."

Her father had given her an Amex card for Christmas. She didn't mention anything about her missed period. She hasn't said anything about an abortion either. I'm thinking about being a father. She doesn't really want to have a baby. She hasn't said anything, but she wants to be an actress and there aren't too many roles for pregnant women in the movies.

I want to travel too and not just to West Virginia, but Boston is the only possible destination for the foreseeable future. It's been over four years since I hitchhiked to California, something I had done three times from 1972 to 1974. I've been stuck here on the East Coast for years. I doubt I'll ever hit the road again.

Alice on the other hand could leave me in a heartbeat and I couldn't blame her. Her absence was felt this week as I walked home from CBGBs along the dark street hurried by winter winds, searching the empty sidewalks for faces, finding none only the shadows of destroyed buildings. The ruins of the Lower East Side. AS much as I fear her fleeing to Paris or LA, I'm sure she will return. Where else can she go? Anywhere.

A bullet struck Malcolm X Snipers struck at JFK A sniper killed Martin Luther King Assassins surrounded RFK.

These men died before their time Why did they die and I outlive them? Boy Dylan also lived Nixon survived his disgrace Why did he live with so many others died Thousands of American dead in Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, Million of Cambodians. A curse on Kissinger

In 1960 my friend Chaney drowned in Sebago Lake

If he had lived He might have died in Vietnam AS I might have If my mother signed my enlistment papers At age 17. I so wanted to leave home. James McNeil, a hometown boy, died in ASia, Struck my lightening. The young die young. Kissinger still lives Nixon, Pol Pot, and the Shah The Pope too The Eternal Church.

My only choice. Live a joyous life With the evil far away Worshipped by the people Not as Gods, but as leaders, Leading us the Armageddon Where the evil and good will be burned in an atomic hell Freeing Earth of Man For anyone that remains the charred flesh of the living The crumbling bones of the dead. Paradise.

John Kemp and Grant Stitt are coming over. I haven't told anyone about Alice's lateness for her period. We were heading up the GG Barnums, a Times Square transvestite disco with a trapeze act appealing to the three or more genders of humans. I like a brunette there. Shannon. Skinny and looking like a Vogue model. Maybe I'll see her there.

Mukhannath Alone

Last week while waiting for the B54 bus at JayStreet-Metro Tech I spotted a figure in a chador crossing the plaza. Not an usual sight in Brooklyn with its sizable Muslim community, however this person's gait was unusual for a woman and I realized that they were trans-gender. They weren't wearing a veil and their face was male. I was surprised but also happy that this person was strong enough to be their self, considering rampant American transphobia and Muslims' disapproval of any sexuality other than male or female.

I wanted to approach this brave soul, however respectfully refrained approaching them.

THey were unaccompnied by a male.

This sighting was a first, but perhaps not, since many Fatwahs have been issued by Mullahs on the sexual diversity in the cause of social justice. The Koran reads in Surah 42 Ash-Shuraa, verse 49-50), "The dominion of the heavens and the earth belongs to Allah. He creates whatever He pleases. He grants females to whomever He pleases and males to whomever He pleases or grants them a mix of males and females, and causes whomever He pleases to be barren. He is All- Knowing, All-Powerful."

Fundamentalist interpretations of the Koran have led to the persecution of gays and transgender people through the Muslim world as their Christian counterparts seek to criminalize transgender and gays throughout their realm, going as far as Uganda seeking the death penalty for the violation of their Transgender God in a MuuMuu's Ten Commandments.

Based on Al-Tabari’s understanding of the Hadith, he at first, acknowledges that the Prophet did not forbid the hermaphrodite and mukhannath from entering the women’s quarters until he heard them giving a description of the women in great detail.

There was an understanding which rejected the belief that Allah never makes a mistake.

As an Atheist I reject such blind judgments by a mythical Supreme Being and vow as I have always to protect those without protection. I used to use violence to do so, but I am a seventy year-old man with a recent liver transplant. My anonymous donor was a forty year-old woman weighting three-hundred pounds and who might have shot herself in the head. I took it on myself to call them Paula whose final sacrifice granted me life.

We are us.

We have no gender.

We do not reject others with multiple genders.

We are travels of eternity and eternity only exists in the Now.

Resist all attempts to make us 'them'.

There are no absolutes.

And bonne courage to that brave soul crossing the plaza.

please read the June 2020 article: Countering Islamic conservatism on being transgender: Clarifying Tantawi's and Khomeini’s fatwas from the progressive Muslim standpoint by Aisya Aymanee M. Zaharin

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8726683/