Dolly Gets It

Yet one more reason to love Dolly. She has just been nominated for a Golden Globe for her song Travelin Thru from the movie Transamerica. The story is about a transexual.

Form the New York Daily News:

I'm just so tickled," chirped the country goddess, whose tune "Travelin' Thru" received a nod for Best Original Song.

Dolly composed the ballad for "Transamerica," in which fellow Globe nominee Felicity Huffman plays a woman who comes by her breasts the hard way - through a sex-change operation.

Parton told us you don't have to know the song is about a transsexual to like it. Given its Christian imagery, she said, "country fans may think it's gospel.

"That's not particularly the kind of movie they'd go to see. But it's a beautiful movie, and they might be lured to it by the song.

"I've known a few transsexuals," said Parton, who's something of a gay icon. In fact, she thinks "Travelin' Thru" turned out as well as it did thanks to the guidance of a friend who used to be a woman. "I have firsthand knowledge of how complicated the whole process can be," she went on. "I knew this person before, during and after he was a man. You might call him 'A Boy Named Sue.' That's what his name used to be.

"He works for me," Dolly went on. "He typed up the lyrics when I was writing and rewriting it."

Yet more evidence proving that to understand different kinds of people it helps to really get to know them. This is a lesson the Church still needs to learn.

BTW, the term transexual confuses some. My limited understanding is that a transexual person is someone who has the body parts of one sex and the mind of another. It might also apply to someone who was born with both sets of reproductive organs (yes, this happens) and was physically assigned a sex by doctors at birth that is inconsistent with who the person feels they are. Sexual reassignment is an option that helps put things back in order for some of these folks, but it is expensive and not available to all.

I know folks who are transexual. I love them. They tell me they do not choose the life they have to live, and seeing how the world treats them as they struggle through an already difficult life, I believe them. But I have to say, their perspective is unique and valuable. Also, transexuals and transvestites are not the same thing. A transvestite is a person of one sex who dresses in the clothes typical of another. This behavior has nothing to do with sexual orientation. I have less of an understanding of transvetism.

There's your gender identity lesson for the day!