Posted on
Advocate.com January 03, 2011
Justin Bond: New Name and Gender
By
Advocate.com Editors
http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2011/01/03/Justin_Bond__New_Name_and_Gender/Performance artist Justin Bond has written an essay to announce a new name — Mx Justin Vivian Bond — and gender identity.
Bond, who once portrayed the female half of the Tony award-nominated duo Kiki & Herb, has "chosen to add Vivian to my name because I want a name that provides a balance to the traditionally male name of Justin and because it means 'to be alive.' To really be alive and live my experience of the world as fully as possible I have to give life to the parts of me I feel I was asked to kill off as a child."
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The Singer's Name Is Mx. Justin Vivian Bond, And V Is Trans
http://www.queerty.com/the-singers-name-is-mx-justin-vivian-bond-and-v-is-trans-20110103/"When I was younger I used to refer to myself as a 'non-op transexual,'" writes the singer-songwriter Justin Bond, "meaning I was a transexual who didn't need to have surgery to assert what I was. But I was wrong because without assertions people can only make assumptions and I no longer wish to indulge or refute the assumptions or labels other people choose to place on me, I simply want to inhabit my very clear vision of myself." Which means Bond, in addition to beginning a hormone regimen, is adding the name "Vivian" and assuming the prefix "Mx." And so: Mx. Justin Vivian Bond is neither male nor female, but transgender, and you may refer to Bond as neither a he nor a she, but a v.
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Mx Justin Vivian Bond: A User's Guide
New Year, New Name, New Gender
http://justinbond.com/?p=537This is an essay to inform you on the most sensitive, respectful ways to approach the continuing evolution of your friend, neighbor, family member, collaborator or subject, Mx Justin Vivian Bond as I begin a new era in my life's adventures.
Many years ago while I was sitting at Cafe Flore in San Francisco, one of my favorite places on earth. I was approached by a transexual woman who engaged me in conversation and during our chat she said to me, "Justin, sooner or later you're going to have to come down off the fence." I was quite taken aback by this statement as I hadn't really thought of myself as being on a fence. But after some thought I realized what she was saying. By saying I would have to come down "off the fence" she was saying that sooner or later I would have to make a choice and conform my identity to embrace the gender binary and validate her choice to climb over the fence to the "other side". Personally, for me, I have never believed there was another side for me to cross over to. Sometimes I wish I did.
