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“I couldn’t get the voices out of my head of people telling me I’ll never be a woman, I don’t look like a woman, I don’t sound like a woman, and it’s never going to happen,” Guinan says.
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Now she talks about not wanting to “let down” other transgender men and women who see her as an inspiration for bucking convention and stereotype to enter a profession where she is looked upon as an outsider.Īlthough she has grown accustomed to feeling separate from the norm, she admits it took years of burning under society’s intolerant glare for her to emerge stronger, certain of who she is and her place in the world. Guinan doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t feel mostly different from everyone around her. A silver necklace with a dolphin pendant hangs around her neck, a gift from her boyfriend. On this particular evening, she’s wearing a black sweater, black top, and tight blue jeans. You have to know what you have and know what you have to work for.” “You don’t have to be six feet tall and built like a linebacker to do this job,” she says, arms folded across her chest. When it comes to stamina, though, Guinan says a lot of women in the department would best her. When my mother needs furniture moved, she calls me.” My body has a lot of natural strength to it,” she says. Standing six feet tall, Guinan weighs 240 pounds and doesn’t lack for strength. That said, unlike many women who aspire to join the FDNY, she had no trouble meeting the job’s physical requirements. “There’s such an attitude in society that firefighting is for straight, masculine men,” Guinan says.
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Growing up, she heard stories about the escapades of her forebears - both of whom are heterosexual and, as she puts it, masculine and athletic. Her father, George William Guinan V, is an FDNY lieutenant her grandfather George IV retired as a captain. Guinan does have something in common with many in the FDNY: The department runs in her family. (the Vocal Organization for International Courage and Equality), Guinan has seen her profile rise as a role model for others who battle gender stereotypes in male-dominated professions. Since September, when a poster of her wearing a tight T-shirt reading “So Trans So What” went viral as part of an awareness campaign for the LGBTQ-advocacy group V.O.I.C.E. The FDNY employs more than 10,400, only 44 of whom are women, and Guinan is the only member who has served the department as both a man and a woman. Not surprising, given that she is New York City’s first and only transgender firefighter. “It’s just something I’m passionate about.” Guinan (pronounced GUY-ninn) tends to get worked up on the topic of gender. “Our society doesn’t have language to define that!” ‘Transgender’ is about my gender it has nothing to do with my sexuality. “How does the world define a woman who was born male who likes men? What is the sexuality for that? You could say I was gay, but I don’t identify as male. “I don’t have a sexuality!” Guinan exclaims. Leaning over the kitchen countertop in her two-bedroom apartment in Queens, Brooke Guinan tries to explain, via four horizontal lines she has plotted on a piece of paper, how the notion of gender is far more complex than the two extremes of “male” and “female.” The lines represent four continuums: biological sex, gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation. “The world doesn’t have language to actively allow me to identify myself.” Backpage says it has spent much time and millions of dollars to ensure that its classifieds involve only legal activities and consenting adults, but the headaches endured.New York’s Bravest is trans FDNY firefighter Brooke Guinan
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senator and New York Times columnist Nick Kristof for enabling child prostitution. "For Village Voice and its sister papers one financial bright spot has been, an online classified ads site - but it has been denounced by religious activists, a U.S. "Weekly papers are financially troubled these days, undermined by drops in readership, advertising and relevance," David said. "The business has moved online - and so has the Voice's audience, which expects us to do what we do not just once a week, but every day, across a range of media, from words and pictures to podcasts, video and even other forms of print publishing," Voice owner Peter Barbey said in Tuesday's statement.īarbey purchased the alt weekly in 2015, amid scandal, as NPR's David Folkenflik reported at the time.
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The Internet revolutionized classified advertising, sending shock waves through newspapers all across the country, including free alt weeklies. "For Voice devotees, the golden age was always the one just past," The New York Times writes.