I’ve heard from Ian Harvie, Silas Howard, Ivan Coyote, and Bear Bergman (who sent me an updated headshot – refresh your browser cache if you don’t see it, it’s a great shot), and all have given their blessing to be included on the list. When I removed the trans men I took down Lynnee Breedlove, because I thought I remembered Lynnee identifying as trans, and according to LynnBreedlove.com/bio s/he does identify as trans to some degree, but also goes by genderqueer pronouns. So I am including Lynnee with that understanding.
I’ve emailed the other trans men on the list at this point, and will fill their spaces probably next week if I don’t hear back.
I made a special note saying that I removed Kael T. Block from the list, who is a trans man, but for separate reasons. The reasons are that I’ve had many, many comments and emails from people defending those who have gone public to tell their stories of sexual abuse at his hands, and their critique that that is not “hot.” Of course, I had no idea about this when he was included in the list; I did not have time to do research on each and every person, aside from some very preliminary data gathering. I was asked – urged – by many people to remove him.
If you didn’t see the Village Voice article in the pride issue this week, check it out: The Butch is Back. It’s about #1, of course.
Just a heads up, your links for Ian, Silas, Bear, and Lynnee are broken because they point to 25-50 instead of 26-50.
I think the conversations around the inclusion of trans men have been interesting, informative and a critical necessity in the dialogue on gender identity, not least because of your very thoughtful responses. However, here's the question I've been asking myself since I read the first comment in the blogosphere: Would there have been anything like this furor if – without changing anything else about the descriptors, explanations or rules – the list had been entitled " The Sugarbutch Hot List."
As long as I"ve been pulled out of lurker-land, anyway, Ivan E. Coyote is at the top of my personal pantheon of hotness.
It would be fierce if you showed a teensy bit of compassion for the victims of Kael Block's violence. Its obvious that you are removing him just to save your reputation, but I guess that I expected more than that, as you are a self proclaimed feminist writer.
The reason that this is all “he-said-she-said,” is because we live in a rape culture where his victims will probably never get the justice they deserve especially not within our "criminal justice" system.
[ You're right, that write-up did come across like that. There are so many problems with the blame-the-victim rape culture, I absolutely agree, and my write-up was not necessarily respectful. His removal was not only to 'save my reputation' but to say that that is clearly something wrong, and not hot. – ss ]
You missed a couple.