Justin Vivian Bond's Dendrophile
ONSTAGE / In conversation with gender-queer artist
Carole Pope / National / Tuesday, June 07, 2011
http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/Justin_Vivian_Bonds_Dendrophile-10266.aspx[...]
CP: You recently changed you gender identity to V. What was the reason?
JVB: I just changed the language. My identity has always been trans. I grew up in the '70s, where you were either a man, a woman or a man trapped in a woman's body or a woman trapped in a man's body. I didn't feel like I was trapped in anyone's body. I didn't feel like people didn't understand the transness of my identity. I feel like I can articulate it now to people, but it was difficult when I was young. I started estrogen therapy and decided to be very aggressive about my transness so that I have a physical, medical and historical record of being a trans person. So it can't be ignored when I'm not able to assert it.
