In a world where Thomas Beatie’s pregnancy can capture world-wide attention overnight, it’s difficult to foretell the top trans stories of 2009.  But here’s a sneak peek.

Activism/Politics
Despite our collective sigh of relief November 5th 2008, there’s still plenty to fight for:  nationally (ENDA), and locally, as in Gainesville, Florida, where March’s elections may overturn the 2008 City Council decision authorizing transgender individuals to use women’s bathrooms.

If you want to make a difference, participate in the National Center for Transgender Equality’s 5th Annual Lobby Days in Washington, D.C. April 26-28; or join the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) for a new national day of action, TransAction!, Feb. 27.

Books
Can’t afford to go to the movies in 2009?  Read a book! Trans publishing house Homofactus Press has two on the docket: March’s Visible:  A Femmethology; a two-volume anthology from queer femmes edited by Jennifer Clare Burke; and October’s Kicked Out, by current and former homeless LGBTQ youth forced onto streets because of their sexuality or gender identity.  Edited by Sassafras Lowrey Kicked Out has a foreword by Matthew Shepard’s mother and has been endorsed by PFLAG. 

Nonfiction works by trans folk include editor/filmmaker Morty Diamond’s collection on trans masculine dating, Gendered Hearts; trans activist Jamison Green’s  Transgender Voices: Beyond Women and Men co-edited with Lori B. Girshick and trans academic Richard Juang’s Transphobia: Critical Perspectives on Anti-Transgender Violence.

Tomes about transgender care include Social Work Practice with Transgender and Gender Variant Youth by Gerald P Mallon and Substance Use Disorders in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Clients by Sandra Anderson.

In the fiction category, artist Egypt Urnash’s long awaited post furry scifi sexcapade graphic novel, Five Glasses of Absinthe, should be completed by year’s end.

Events
There’s dozens of events incluing Boston’s First Event Transgender Conference.   With over 600 people expected to attend, the January 18 event is one of the largest in the world. 

Jan. 26-28’s Equality and Parity conference in Los Angeles promises statewide action for transgender HIV prevention & care.   The Transgender Education Association brings the International Foundation for Gender Education’s (IFGE) Annual Conference to Alexandria, VA Feb. 4–7.  

The Gender Identity Center of Colorado’s annual trans conference, the Colorado Gold Rush will be held in Denver, March 26-29; while Philly’s Liberty Conference will be April 30-May 2; and the 27th annual Be-All extravaganza for trans women will be held June 2-7th in Chicago for the eighth straight year.  

After the Pride season winds down, Atlanta’s 5-day (September 22-27) symposium, Southern Comfort Conference is followed by the weeklong Fantasia Fair held every October since 1975 in the LGBT resort town of Provincetown, Mass.

Music
Tyra Banks’ favorite trans musician, Joshua Klipp is co-producing a new LGBT music festival in San Francisco called SUPA-Q. The Sexy Urban Phonic Artists festival will be held this March 13-15.

Trans albums planned for release this year include gender bending model, Jeffrey Star’s first full-length, Beauty Killer;  Modern Day Pinnochio’s debut Here I am; San Francisco’s foxy trans-rocker, Shawna Virago’s highly-anticipated entry; and trans MC Katastrophe’s The Worst Amazing, which will only be printed on vinyl. 

Trans-Genre’s first compilation CD, Trans-Fusions, contains fifteen audio tracks from artists like Coyote Grace, Ryka Aoki De La Cruz, Sassafras Lowrey, Dylan Scholinski and Modern Day Pinnochio.

Performances:
Trans choreographer Sean Dorsey starts the year out right, presenting Uncovered:  The Diary Project at the end of January. The new concert is based on the lifelong journals of trans pioneer and gay FTM, Lou Sullivan (1951-1991); and explores the gaps between recorded history, collective memory and lived experience.

In 2009, comedian Ian Harvie continues his self-titled cabaret show, collaborates with Margaret Cho in theaters and clubs around the country, performs at music festivals as his new alter ego Travis Wayne, and is the first trans performer to appear on ABC’s Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen.  But it’s his MANologues (TM) project that Harvie calls “most important.”  He’s been interviewing butches and trans guys in order to create a non-comedic performance piece (premiering this spring at the LA Gay Lesbian Center) to “help create community between butches and trans guys,” Harvie explains.  “No one feels a hundred percent okay about their bodies.”

Two spirit performer Jennifer Lanier’s None of the Above debuts this spring at Portland, Oregon’s Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center, a venue which will also host Collective of Geniuses’ Queers Heart Geeks for Pride. 

Transgender g-ddess Kate Bornstein will be keynoting conferences, facilitating her workshop: Your Gender: Now You See It, Now You Don’t - examining intersections of the oppressive systems of gender, sexuality, race, class and age - and receiving an award from Boston’s KESHET, which promotes inclusiveness of LGBT Jews.

TV/Film
With Dirty Sexy Money canceled you’ll have to turn to cable for trans content.  So far the Brad Pitt produced, Ryan (Nip/Tuck) Murphy created 4 oz, about a male-to-female transformation still isn’t FX’s fall schedule; but RuPaul’s Drag Race, drag queen competition, debuts on LOGO in early 2009.
Female to Femme filmmaker Elizabeth Stark’s latest, the short Little Mutinies, premiers during the 2009 film festival circuit; meanwhile former fest favorite, the award winning Girl Inside will be released on DVD through Women Make Movies.

Last but far from least, FTM porn star Buck Angel received three 2009 adult video AVN award nominations: one as transsexual performer of the year, one for the film Even More Bang For Your Buck II, and one for that film’s FTM/FTM sex scene—which became the first such scene ever nominated for an AVN award.  While waiting to see if he’ll win, Angel’s the subject of two foreign documentaries and modeled for British artist Marc Quinn - famous for carving a gold statue of Kate Moss - ‘s latest sculpture.

2009 sees trans author Jacob Anderson-Minshall penning the TransNation column, co-hosting the Gender Blender radio show, co-authoring a memoir, and promoting Blind Faith, the latest Blind Eye mystery.  For more info check out Anderson-minshall.com.