Trans people we admire

[Jerzy Bondov]

I've got a lot of use out of Lisa Melton's fantastic video transcoding tools. She also started WebKit and Safari when she worked at Apple. Putting the trans back into ratecontrolled video transcoding

[Tarquin]

As previously said Angela Morley but specifically for Watership Down.

Original hired composer Malcolm Williamson also had the gig of the Queen's Jubillee and after a long lead time turned in next to nothing. Morley stepped in and knocked out an absolute gem, one of my favourite scores of all time, in under 2 weeks.

Couple of years ago I sat on Watership Down with not another soul around  and listened to Angela Morley's music and it was glorious.

[Former Problem]

Her score is so beautiful, it always makes me cry, particularly the end credits track.
I think, 'Oi, Glinner, if you think there's no such thing as trans art....'

[Former Problem]

https://x.com/i/status/1798821853651456330

Another zinger from Mia Moore.

Also, Jane Brown and Elaine Fuentes, two young trans femme filmmakers whose youtube work is really interesting. https://www.youtube.com/@Elaine_Fuentes

[wobinidan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Universal_Friend

The Public Universal Friend[a] (born Jemima Wilkinson; November 29, 1752 – July 1, 1819) was an American preacher born in Cumberland, Rhode Island, to Quaker parents. After suffering a severe illness in 1776, the Friend claimed to have died and been reanimated as a genderless evangelist named the Public Universal Friend, and afterward shunned both their birth name and gendered pronouns. In androgynous clothes, the Friend preached throughout the northeastern United States, attracting many followers who became the Society of Universal Friends.

Identifying as neither male nor female,[26][27][28] the Friend asked not to be referred to with gendered pronouns. Followers respected these wishes; they referred only to "the Public Universal Friend" or short forms such as "the Friend" or "P.U.F.", and many avoided gender-specific pronouns even in private diaries,[37][36] while others used he.[38] When someone asked if the Friend was male or female, the preacher replied "I am that I am",[39][40] saying the same thing to a man who criticized the Friend's manner of dress.

[wobinidan]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lan_Caihe

Lan Caihe is a Chinese mythological figure, and one of the Eight Immortals in the Taoist pantheon. Presence in the Eight makes this figure one of the more familiar out of hundreds of other Taoist immortals. Lan Caihe is the only one of the Eight Immortals whose gender is ambiguous. Lan lived as a homeless street entertainer, who wandered all over China, singing philosophical songs.

Lan's songs were improvised on the spot, while drunk[10] (or believed to be drunk),[19] and performed in a "half-crazy" way.[10] Lan's voice was famously beautiful,[6] but Lan's songs and attire were so strange that people thought this person was mentally ill, so some onlookers said slanderous things.[1] However, the songs were hard to understand because they were intelligent and philosophically advanced, denouncing life and its pleasures,[1] warning that life is short,[24] telling about immortality[10] and the immortals,[6] and urging everyone to seek the Tao (the Way).[5] This made the songs "unintelligible to ordinary mortals."

Although Lan seemed to be performing music to earn a living, whenever anybody gave Lan money, the musician used it only to pay for food and drinks,[6][10] and otherwise didn't use it for their own benefit. Sometimes Lan strung the money on a cord[1] (Chinese coins having a hole in the middle for stringing), letting it drag on the ground while walking along,[6][10] or waving it to the time of their song.[1] Lan gave the rest of the money to the poor.

[Shaxberd]

Oh, if we're talking historical trans people, let me tell you about Amelio Robles Ávila, trans man and decorated veteran of the Mexican Revolution.

From 1913 to 1918, Robles fought as "el coronel Robles" with the Zapatistas under the command of Jesús H. Salgado, Heliodoro Castillo [es], and Encarnación Díaz [es]. Robles gained the respect of peers and superiors as a capable military leader, and was eventually given his own command.

Robles's male identity was accepted by family, society, and the Mexican government, and Robles lived as a man from the age of 24 until his death. According to a former neighbor, if anyone called Robles a woman or Doña (an honorific for women, similar to English Mrs.), he would threaten them with a pistol.

He lived until 1984, so it's impressive to think about how much social change he saw, while also reflecting that he was still a few decades out from seeing a world with greater recognition of people like him.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I've got a lot of use out of Lisa Melton's fantastic video transcoding tools. She also started WebKit and Safari when she worked at Apple. Putting the trans back into ratecontrolled video transcoding

She may well already have been mentioned, possibly even by me, but I'm a big fan of software developer, vintage electronics collector and video and lofi digital art maker Cara Esten.

She gave me some recs for some video art books/films recently as I'd bought a book and she reckoned it wasn't very good.

[Beloved of Jo]

Seems like as good a place as any to mention the death of Lynn Conway, who was fired by IBM for being trans in the 60s and apologised to by them only 4 years ago. She just passed away the other day, aged 86.

[Agent Dunham]

I only found out about Lynn Conway (RIP) yesterday while watching Dead Domain's speech at Spokane Pride (on YouTube), which was worthy if a little dull compared to some of their other video projects. But yeah, Dead Domain.

Oh, and Luxander (it/its).