Lou Reed’s transgender muse, Rachel

At Dangerous Minds today, a post about "The source of inspiration for most of the songs on Coney Island Baby, Lou Reed’s trans lover and muse Rachel," who has has always been "somewhat of a mystery figure."

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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http://www.facebook.com/dmaclennan2 Darren MacLennan

Transvestite or transgender? The title says one, the body says another…

Edit: There is a difference, right? I’m not misremembering this?
- http://re-becca.org/ Rebecca Turner
  
  The former is more of a historical medical term at this point– it’s not generally used as an identity and it’s not used as a diagnosis. Unless the author managed to track down Rachel, there’s no way to know how Rachel identifies. Transgender would be the broadest term that probably includes Rachel, but again, you can’t know if you can’t ask the person in question.
  - http://www.xeni.net/ Xeni Jardin
    
    Thanks, I was hoping I got that right.
- http://www.xeni.net/ Xeni Jardin
  
  That’s quoted text, not my words in the body.
- ethicalcannibal
  
  The word transvestite gives me the knee jerk cringes. Not because people don’t identify as such sometimes, but because it was often used as a blanket term historically for transwomen, instead of just calling them women.
  
  I read the article, and it seems to focus on othering this person, and using that as a focus on how freaky she was, and by extension how freaky Reed was in his association with her.
  
  The way it was written was . . . uncomfortable to read. I’ll just say that.
  - BunnyShank
    
    That was my reaction: Lou Reed had the relationship with her. Gender identification, sexual orientation, the length of her hair, it seems so gauche to make it anyone else’s focus. Its not just “Lou Reed had a muse (who didn’t care that he was Lou Reed btw)”, its “zomg transgendered!1!”
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000750969232 Regina Kleinzeller

As I understood her identity, she lived 24/7 as a woman. That means transgender or, perhaps transsexual.
- Drew_Gehringer
  
  Nowadays ‘transgender’ and ‘transsexual’ are kinda interchangeable, although transgender’s the more ‘polite’ one.
  - http://fallsastar.com Crashproof
    
    That depends on who you ask.
    
    The *general* understanding I have is that “transsexual” implies the person has gone through physical transition to at least some degree, and transgendered is more general term (in which “trans” could mean “transition”, “transcending” or “transgression”).
    
    But it always comes down to what the individual person says they are. In fact, many who have gone through a full physical transition don’t consider themselves trans, but simply a woman or simply a man.
    
    And historically it’s all muddled even worse than this.
CastanhasDoPara

Yes, there is a difference. Transvestites like to wear the opposite genders clothing and may or may not have any thing to do with orientation, preference or physical sex (outward or inward gender identity).

Transgender typically refers to a person who either is physically intersex (hermaphroditic), or has a gender dis-morphia/gender identity issue and may or may not have had surgery to make the body match the mind.

The two are not the same thing at all, but also not mutually exclusive either. That is to say that one could be both but one does not follow on from the other. And there is certainly no need to conflate the two as it’s obviously confusing.
danjite

So, why should it matter to me as a long time BB reader whom Lou Reed loves and what that persons identity or gender is? Is the goal to spread awareness of the “outing”? How is this beneficial to me as a Lou Reed & BoingBoing fan? How does it support Lou or Rachael (The latter of whom appears to want no public face)?
- http://www.nathanhornby.com/ Nathan Hornby
  
  You haven’t seen the most recent tagline update then?
  
  “A compendium of gender-based relationship things”
  
  Keep up!
  - Preston Sturges
    
    It works out because there is not a critical mass of gender rageaholics. Otherwise you get the flaming and the mind reading and the stalking and the banning.
- vonbobo
  
  It’s so I have something to talk about at the bar tonight.
  - Preston Sturges
    
    “Say, you look just like Lou Reed’s ex girlfriend!”
- duncancreamer
  
  Well, some of us find this much more interesting and on BongBrand than say, ElfQuest.
niktemadur

Lou Reed for Congress! As a “Family Values” Republican! He’ll fit right in! I can hear the chants from the Senate Gallery: LOOOOOOOOOU!
Guillaume REMY

Transgender ? transvestite ? Who cares anyway ?
Doo , Doodoo , Doodoo , Doo…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p_cXfdz8Hw
http://marjaerwin.livejournal.com/ Marja Erwin

I’m not sure of transvestite’s cultural meaning at the time, but transvestite wasn’t always used as restrictively as now.

For example, STAR, founded by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha Johnson, initially reclaimed the term transvestite before switching over to transgender, and from what I’ve heard STAR was intended to include people who were transsexual and other people who would face the same discrimination, and many gender-nonconforming people on the street.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_YDTN7MUIUZNGTVOYR7ZJSXZAN4 kid_a_ok_com…

Shaved her legs then he was a she?
- timquinn
  
  totally relevant and thanks for the reminder. It was different times and that moment helped make this moment.
dormouse42

Personally, transsexual is how I identify though I fall then under the larger transgender umbrella.

I tend to not like the term transvestite as I’ve always heard it used in a negative and insulting manner. But that’s just me.
Marc_Campbell

In researching Rachel’s life, there is little to draw upon. She is referred to both as a transvestite and transsexual in the various articles or quotes I have managed to find on her.

As a long-suffering Lou Reed fan, I find his relationship to Rachel fascinating in the same way that I find most of his life fascinating. I wasn’t “outing” Rachel. She did that quite well on her own. She was a prominent figure in New York City’s nightlife of the 1970s. A regular at Max’s. She was photographed by Mick Rock for a fashion spread in Penthouse magazine.

The most surprising thing about the life of Rachel is that we know so little of it. Here’s a woman who lived with one of rock’s biggest stars for three years and no one even knows when, where or how she died. I couldn’t even find out her full name.

I think Rachel’s anonymity has more to do with Lou than Rachel wanting her privacy. Reed made a conscious decision to go “straight” (the bi-sexual thing had served it’s purpose as a fashion statement) and Rachel didn’t figure into his public personae anymore. She disappeared as quickly as she had come into his life. The scene was fickle and she was no longer a part of it.

I think Rachel deserves some recognition. She inspired some of Reed’s best songwriting and managed to keep him happy at a low-point in his life.
- millie fink
  
  If that’s true, I wonder how Laurie Anderson fits his current persona.
  - blueelm
    
    Probably very well.
    - millie fink
      
      Here’s hoping!
      
      Given what they’ve given, I think they both deserve happiness.
marilove

Eddie Izzard is a transvestite. A quite proud one. He’s a straight man who enjoys dressing in women’s clothing, and makeup. Or, rather, feminine clothing, because they are often styled to his liking, rather than just woman’s clothing bought off the rack.

Executive Transvestite!
Preston Sturges

She was photogenic.

Looking at the photos and considering what she’d dealt with as a full time trans in that era, I’d give 10 to 1 odds she could have kicked Lou’s ass in less than 30 seconds.
Fangaffes

To whoever wrote the article:
It’s the 21st century. Get with it. There’s no freakin’ hyphen in “bisexual”. Just like there’s no hyphen in homosexual. Got it?
http://whatexit.org/tal/mywritings/how-to-spell-bisexual.html