Just a few weeks back at the Whale Well in November an exciting new book, TRANS: Transgender Life Stories from South Africa was launched at a fantastic party.
Amidst the array of fascinating speakers on the night, Robert Hamblin took the podium. He introduced himself in the form of a poem. Enjoy it here:
MY NAME IS
My name is Robert Hamblin.
I am an artist.
I am a photographer.
I am a part time grass roots type of activist
and the chairman of the board of transgender organisation.
I live in a house in Melville. I have my own business.
I am a Transgender man.
This means I used to be seen as a woman.
This transition has taken five years.
I use men’s toilets.
I was asked to come and tell you about Transgender people.
I decided against that because it would be
a bit like telling you about humans.
You get too many kinds of humans.
There are many kinds of Transgender people.
So yes, to change one’s gender you need to
get help from doctors,
take hormones to change your looks and give you the right perspective,
and sometimes people have surgeries.
But as I said, I am not going to tell you about TG people…
There are too many kinds.
I am going to tell you about me.
Then you can say I once met a Transgender guy.
He was extremely handsome, clever and charming…
I wonder if other Transgender people are similar.
I am Robert Hamblin. I am an artist,
a photographer, a part time gender activist.
I have my own business.
I have a mother who loves me and accepts me as a male.
I have a father, but he died. My stepfather does not like me much.
My brother, who is younger than me, humiliated me
and threatened my life when I told him that I was going to transition.
The rest of my family love me.
I drive a BMW, an old one, dolphin shape.
It’s paid for.
I am engaged to a girl who has curly hair and freckles
and a pale skin. She loves me a lot!
She will marry me in May next year.
She leaves poems and chocolates in my suitcase when I travel.
Her father said I am the best man he could have wished for for his daughter.
I have hair on my back and chest.
I am 40.
People say if I am a man and I live with a woman
I am heterosexual.
I say if they say so…
I am a feminist because I believe men and women are not equal in this world.
I would like that to change.
Some feminists say I cannot be a feminist. I still am.
Some people say I am not a real man
I still live as one.
People ask me why I changed my gender.
I now tell them because I am Transgender.
It’s a bit like being Afrikaans.
I just am.
Transgender people change their shapes.
After that guy on Oprah told the world that he used to be a girl
but that he was having a baby
people asked me if I could, or if I would?
I said no, I don’t like that part of my body or the way it works.
I also said I think he is wonderful for doing that.
Trans people should have reproductive rights too.
I try everyday to be happy that I live in a country where
I am free
to be an individual.
I am happy that I am free to be strange to others
and ordinary to those who love me.
I am Robert Hamblin
an artist in love
I am not crazy,
I don’t hurt children.
I don’t have a criminal record. I don’t do crime.
People ask me if I am happy now
I say everybody has a chance to be happy
if they get to be who they are.
I am Robert Hamblin.
My mother loves me with a smile
I am not crazy.
I am successful.
I am 40.
I take testosterone injections every two weeks
If you are going to ask me questions about my private parts,
you have to buy me drink and maybe kiss me first…
My name used to be Adele, but I can advise you
it is rude to ask Trans People their old name.
When I was small I did not understand
why people kept telling me
the clothes I liked to wear
the way I used to play and the fact
that I could stand and pee was wrong.
They told me girls don’t do that.
I wished I knew then, that those things were just…
well, what I liked!
I am Transgender.
I changed my shape because that is what Transgender people do.
I am Robert Hamblin.
I have gay friends.
I have strait friends.
I fall in love with women.
I think men are sexy but that confuses them.
I eat food. I live in a house.
I want people to be tolerant of one another.
I run 5km’s a day and work out three times
a week with Bonny.
I don’t shave because I look good this way.
I am Robert Hamblin.
I am lucky.
I am loved.
Sometimes my life is hard.
Sometimes I am in danger.
I am Robert Hamblin.
I think I might be more like you than different from you.
I work with an organisation called Gender Dynamix.
We help people who want to change their gender.
Not all Trans people are privileged like me.
I do this work because I want this to change.
I am Robert H.
Just Robert to you by now.
I sleep in a bed.
I don’t have a grandmother any more.
My grandfather was a bad dude to women.
Some people say what I did
is against the laws of nature.
I tell them about Parrot fish
and five other kinds of animals
that change their gender.
I have a friend who is a priest. He wears glasses.
He says sin makes us sick and uncomfortable in our bodies.
He says God gave us technology to fix that.
I don’t know about that but I admire him for understanding
The possible scheme of things.
I am Rob.
Some gay people distrust me because they think I am strait.
Some strait people distrust me because they think I am gay.
Some feminists distrust me, because despite my background,
I now have a patriarch’s face.
I tell them I am not like that.
You need to get to know me.
Then you will say, Oh, you are Transgender, I accept you.
Some of my best friends are Transgender
and then we will laugh!
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December 14th, 2009 @09:43 #
Wry and funny. What a multi-faceted, multi-talented man.