Billy Tipton, Trans Jazz Musician

[Scuba]

Great read...great person. I may have to go back and read Billy's story again!

[Chancie]

Originally Posted by Greyson

<snip>

I do wonder if Billy Tipton was a Transsexual or was a butch "passing" and decided to live his life as a "man" because he needed a source of income. During his lifetime it was de facto that a woman could not break into the field of a professional jazz musician.

Maybe it was a combination of the above and then some. May he rest in peace.

Originally Posted by lettertodaddy

I'd consider Tipton transgender, in that he crossed from one gender to the next. But that's just using my own understanding of the word 'transgender'.

I recently reread A Ghost in the Closet, one of those funny Mabel Maney books, which are hilarious queered tributes to a certain genre of literature. She mentions Billy Tipton in the forward, so I've been thinking about him lately.

I generally prefer to use the identity that someone uses for themselves, but because we don't know what Tipton would say, and because many subtleties of gender are used now, I think, He lived as a man and husband and a father, so that's how I think of him.

I just finished rereading Patience and Sarah, a classic of lesbian literature, a must read when I first came out, and there is a sub theme of a passing woman. The characters in that book wouldn't use the words 'butch' and femme', but I suspect that some of us would see ourselves in those characters.

There were plenty of passing and butch and transgender people around before we all started using those words, but I have always been curious about the discourse and gender identity have impacted each other.

[lettertodaddy]

That's a good point about terminology, Chancie. From just the surface reading I've done on Tipton, he identified as female for part of his life, adopted a male stage persona (but identified as female) early in his career, and at some point decided to live life as a man. During his time period, I don't know what terminology would have been used to describe him.

[Miss Scarlett]

A book was written about him called "Suits Me: The Double Life of Billy Tipton" by Diane Wood Middlebrook

i read it about 6 years ago and thought it was very good.