Knowledge Portals
Issue #5 November 2023
Sandy
The set of interests that draw me to newsletters consist of the people who read them and make them, (our communities) and the materiality of their existence and circulation (the paper ties).
While diving into the much misunderstood or erased trans history in the U.S. for another project, I kept finding reference to something: the newsletter. Considering my proclivities towards paper in general, it made sense that I was putting a little tab in every book, article, or hyperlink that referenced a physical artifact of our history. The more I saw, the more I read, the more I wanted to hold something in my hand. My sense of community is one that often feels ethereal or diffuse, and I tend to look to something material to ground me in the sensation that I am held within. So I wanted to feel the texture of the paper under the ridges of my fingerprint as a way of connecting with this rich history.
So on a work trip to San Francisco, I extended my stay to visit a glorious place in the basement of an office building of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district, the GLBT Historical Society Archives. I spent the day pouring through the Francine Logandice Collection. Francine Logandice, born in 1928, was a trans woman who owned a resort and several bars in California in the 70s through to her retirement in 1991. The collection contains ephemera, letters, books, publications, photographs, newsletters, etc. related to trans and S&M communities, spanning 8 decades! I was floored by Logandice’s devotion to collecting these materials, particularly the community-generated newsletters, and donating them to the archives. (For more about Francine Logandice, here is a link to an interview with her, conducted by Susan Stryker.) I took copious notes in each publication I flipped through, detailing all the things I loved, had questions about, or connected to something else I had seen. Those notes would then determine much of the following year of my life. They also led me to Sandy.
Sandy Mesics is a registered nurse and certified nurse-midwife and was the director of St. Luke’s School of Nursing from 2004 until 2019. I found reference to Sandy Mesics in an issue of Female Impersonator Newsletter announcing the new home for Neptune Productions, the publisher of F.I. Newsletter. Sandy worked as the editor for several transgender newsletters and publications in the 70s and 80s sparked by a desire for greater access to information for trans people, like who were the right doctors to go to, or the ones to avoid, and tips on trans life. After looking at her work through “research goggles” for the film, I knew I wanted her to be involved in the project.
After a few emails back and forth and a chat over Zoom, Sandy graciously agreed to meet in person. I cannot even begin to tell you how wonderful and generous she is. After her years of work making newsletters like Female Impersonator and Image Magazine, which provided for trans folks and built community, she continues to show deep care for her community and many generations of trans people by being open to sharing her stories today.
I had the immense pleasure of getting together with her for lunch on my last trip through Pennsylvania to see my parents. We chatted over Arnold Palmers about life, children, career, and the legacy she built with Image Magazine and Female Impersonator Newsletter, among other publications. Sandy’s dedication to creating something with integrity and of use for fellow trans people, amidst the many limitations of publishing at the time, and her own energy to keep it going, is nothing short of miraculous. Female Impersonator Newsletter is abundant with features, reviews, tips and tricks, news, personals, and stories. I am in awe at what she was able to do when my tired ass can barely get out a few teeny tiny newsletters a month. There was such joy for me in sitting across from the woman who created the knowledge portals on paper, that exhibited the heritage of care practices within our communities. I had held these traditions in my hand all those months ago in a basement in San Francisco and that day I ate a Caesar salad with the woman who created them in the first place.
Sandy and I talked about the traditions of connection, and how things have changed for trans people since her work in publishing concluded and she embarked on her impressive, decades-long nursing career. We talked about how the traditions of connection, that she was instrumental in forming, have morphed with the advent of the internet. When talking about the early trans message boards Sandy posed a gorgeous idea that trans people made the internet what it is! Those early online spaces further expanded the networks of community and resources set forth by the newsletters and I love to imagine that trans people helped build and inform the ways that people are using the internet today!
For the curious, I highly recommend perusing issues of Image Magazine and F.I. Newsletter. I am so grateful to and for Sandy and cannot wait to see her again. Hopefully, you will have the pleasure of meeting through the documentary!
More Personal
After rambling about Personals in the last issue of Gender Appropriate, this stunning curation of personals from The Transvestite World Directory and New Trenns Magazine, curated by longlostpersonals and sexchange.tbt, popped up on Instagram. Strong recommend!
This led me down another personals rabbit hole that I may never emerge from…
Submissions
Looking for any T4T dating stories for the newsletter, but the inbox is always open for feature ideas, films to review, promotion, questions, and mutual aid calls.
If you want to submit to Gender Appropriate send me an email at posle@substack.com
Editor // Ezra Rose
I am a working filmmaker and producer with a passion for on-camera interviewing. Reach out!
Thank you to AB Brown for your generous edits.