Articles / Fiction

Madison Smith dead at 122

To the Editor:

Thank you for your moving tribute to Madison Smith, the last transgender person in America. It is indeed a whole way of life that passed with her. Nowadays no one born male has any desire to wear women’s clothes, or to live as a woman, and vice versa with women. As expected, rates of depression, suicide and prostitution have all dropped significantly.

Most of your readership is too young to remember this, but growing up in lower Park Slope, Brooklyn (now sadly underwater), I saw a number of older transgender and genderqueer people around. It was fascinating for a young child to see people who had a combination of male and female characteristics. You can get a bit of this flavor from watching old movies, but it was even more interesting in person. We have lost a bit of color in our lives, but at least we can be assured that through the discovery of hormone balancing, no one will ever again have to suffer the way that transgender people suffered.

I commend the Central Executive for their continuing success in these matters.

Sincerely,

JENNIFER X. LIU

The Palms at Baffin Island

2 Comments

  1. Some people have told me they were upset by some of the implications of this post. I’m always leery about explaining creative writing, but I think I can clarify a few things.

    * The words of the character “Jennifer X. Liu” are not meant to represent my own opinions about this matter.
    * This piece was inspired by the discussion in the Breeding out homosexuality thread.
    * None of the transpeople in this fictional world are exterminated (any more than we are today). The idea is that by maintaining a particular hormonal balance in the womb for every fetus, no more transpeople are born after a particular date.
    * I am extrapolating from certain ideas about transness. I do not necessarily believe any of these ideas, or that the events described are possible or desirable.

    It wasn’t my intention to offend anyone, and I hope that this clears up any misunderstanding that could cause offense.

  2. That’s the “Breeding out homosexuality” thread on the My Husband Betty message boards.

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