Plumbing

Talking about magazines, yesterday I remembered Original Plumbing, a magazine one of my friends used to collect. It's been about ten years of that and I was wondering if he still has them. We used to pore over them and basically decide which of the guys were hot. Yep. We were terribly vacuous but also thought it was great that trans masculine people had a magazine dedicated all to themselves. Those magazines are kind of collector's items at this point. Original Plumbing is not being published anymore. There had been few, if any magazines oriented towards the T in LGBTQ. Specially FTM transpeople. It was a quarterly founded by Amos Mac and Rocco Kayiatos and I think it created a space that now is sorely missing in the LGBTQ publication queersphere.

AMOSMAC
ROCCOKAYIATOS

You see, over ten years ago, there was no Instagram, Facebook was nothing but a website with a few students and YouTube was not the behemoth it is today. Social media had yet to poison the well. Looking for trans representation was a full-time job. Literally, for some. There were no tutorials on how to inject T, no before-after vlogs about upper body surgery or histories about transition. Nothing. Anybody looking for any information about Trans lives would have to have first person accounts from acquaintances or friends or through Chat Rooms or MySpace (remember those?). Even LiveJournal was a source.

So the creation of Original Plumbing was revolutionary at the time. It tackled issues of masculinity, transness and the incorporation of transmasculine voices into the LGBTQ discourse. Something that I think is still lacking in today's world of oversharing and information overload. I liked Original Plumbing not only for the eye candy, but because it made all these people much more real and in a way, because the magazine transcended the physical aspects of transition, which always seem to have so much impact on people who are not used to trans bodies.

The magazine only had a twenty issue run and that made it unique but at the same time that's what makes me miss it. Not like there's much room for print 'zines these days (I don't know anybody else who still subscribes to Out, or The Advocate BTW) but it would be cool to have it. If only because I prefer print to electronic magazines and books.

The good news is that Original Plumbing is also a book and you can order it from FeministPress. If only for nostalgia, or to learn something new, it would be good to have it. Maybe a gift? Besides, independent press and bookstores need to be supported. Especially in times of Pandemics.

Don't you think?

XOXO