june 6.2003 * J u t Mrt.p21
amison Green returns to Portland a new
man. This month the former president of
FTM International will he hack in the
city where he once lived to give the
keynote address at Pride.
Regarded hy many as an inspirational
speaker and leader in the trans movement,
Green is sometimes called an activist. But he
says, “ I don’t consider myself an activist
because I’m not the kind of person who goes
out and does protests...I prefer to do my polit
ical work in a more educational way in meet
ings, building alliances and doing trainings.”
Pride Magazine 2001 called him the elder
statesman of the trans community. In 1999
The Advocate named him one of top 25 best
and brightest political activists. Green also
was the first woman cable splicer in Oregon
for Pacific Northwest Bell in 1973.
He kx)ks forward to visiting Portland,
where he spent 5 1/2 years in the 1970s. He
received undergraduate and graduate degrees
in English from University o f Oregon.
Green says he spent 22 years trying to be a
lesbian, many o f those in Oregon. “ I think
Portland is a lovely city. I think on the whole
Portland is a city that, like much of Oregon,
embraces individuality, combined with a kind
o f social consciousness that is necessary to pre
serve the environment.”
Green began his transition from female to
male in 1988 at the age of 40. “I cannot say that
I was a man trapped in a female body. I can only
say that I was a male spirit alive in a female body,
and I chose to bring that btxly in line with my
spirit and to live the rest of my life as a man."
He hopes his speech will be educational and
inspirational. “Pride is an opportunity to be
proud. I think still there’s a lot of people who
Homecoming king
J
Keynote speaker Jamison Green
puts in a good w ord for Portland
by
K athy B elge
don’t understand who trans people are and
why we should be proud of them. Although
Pride is a happy occasion, we have to be aware
about why it’s important to come together and
take a stand for who we are. Because if we
don’t, we just get more and more oppressed.”
Green travels around the country speak
ing at conferences, corporations, colleges,
community organizations and police
bureaus. He has appeared in a half-dozen
documentaries and on television programs
in Columbia, Turkey, Australia and the
United States. He also wrote the 1994
landmark report Discrimination Against
Transgendered People for the San Francisco
Human Rights Commission.
“To me it’s all about human dignity," he
says. “I don’t care what someone’s sexual
orientation is; that is not the issue. I do not
care what they look like or if they fit into
some idea I might have about a gender role;
that is not the issue. The issue is that we’re
all human beings and we should be free to
express ourselves as long as we’re not hurt
ing someone else.”
Jamison Green has been called the elder statesman
Green is also an accomplished author.
of the trans community
His day job is as a technical writer for a
large corporation. He has a master’s degree in
a Visible Man will be released early next year
creative writing and has published numerous
by Vanderbilt University Press. An overview
articles of creative nonfiction.
of the development of the FTM movement
Green’s recently completed btx)k Becoming
based on his own experience, it will be mar
keted as a textbxxjk and an information source
for the general public.
Despite some setbacks, like the Human
Rights Campaign’s refusal to amend the
Employment Nondiscrimination Act to
include gender identity, Green says people’s
awareness of trans issues is growing. “The trans
movement is really building at a phenomenal
pace considering the political climate right
now. We passed more protective ordinances in
more cities in the last couple of years, in places
where people would have thought it impossi
ble like New York City, Chicago, counties in
Kentucky and in Georgia and Florida.”
When he’s not trying to change the world,
Green makes time for his other passions, music
and voice acting. In the ’70s he was part of a
duo with a partner (“they called us the Sonny
Ck Cher of the lesbian community”) and played
Portland clubs when he was still female-bodied.
“When she left me, I was so devastated, I
couldn’t even listen to music. It was just too
painful,” he says. “As I started to heal emo
tionally from the breakup...my voice changed
and I couldn’t sing the same way and I wanted
to train my voice.”
He took up voice acting and has worked
on many voice-overs, including a children’s
arcade game. He also drums to satisfy his
musical creativity.
G reen ’s heart appears to be on the mend
as well, as he’s engaged to be married in
October. j n
J amison G reen will speak 2:40 p.m. June 15 at
the Unity Stage. For more information visit
www.jamisongreen. com.
KATHY B elge is a Portland free-lance writer.
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