Following OUT Magazine's lead, I've been taking nominations for the 25 most powerful butches.  I've received 87 nominations and need YOU, dear readers, to help pare them down.  Here are the voting rules/guidelines:

1. Each reader may vote for up to TEN people.  Use your votes wisely--for example, if there's someone you think will win anyway, you might want to save some votes for your lesser-known favorites.  (BTW, a huge thanks to everyone who nominated me! I'm taking myself off of the list, since [I certainly hope that] my readership would be biased.)  ;)
2. These all names came from reader nominations.  If there's anyone you don't consider "butch," feel free not to vote for them.  I have no way to know whether these people consider themselves butch, so you're really voting for the "25 most powerful people that others think of as butch."
   
3. Feel free to define "powerful" any way you want: influential, pioneering, wealthy, famous, artistic, politically powerful--whatever. And "powerful" in general vs. within the LGBTQ community? Again, up to you.

Below, I've listed all the nominees with some sort of link to information about them (since, if you're like me, you won't have heard some of these names). Check 'em out, then click here to vote!

THE NOMINEES:
Nicola Adams, British boxing champ
Jenny Allard, softball coach and former softball star
Vernice Armour, first black female combat pilot in the U.S. Armed Forces
Alison Bechdel, writer and cartoonist
Kathy Belge, writer
Gladys Bentley, blues singer from the Harlem renaissance
S. Bear Bergman, writer, storyteller, and educator
Syd Blakovich, adult film star
Angel Bouchet, actor and blues singer
Chris Bourg, Director of MIT Libraries
Paige Braddock, cartoonist, creator of "Jane's World."
Dom Brassey, hustler for queer visibility at Saint Harridan
Lynn Breedlove, musician, writer, and performer
Jeannette Bronson, organizer, Black Lesbians United
Rhea Butcher, comedian
Judith Butler, writer, philosopher, and gender theorist
Kate Clinton, comedian and political commentator
B. Cole, Executive Director of the Brown Boi Project
Skyler Cooper, actor
Jeanne Cordova, activist and author of When We Were Outlaws
Ivan Coyote, writer and spoken word performer
Malkia Cyril, Executive Director of the Center for Media Justice
Ellen DeGeneres, actor, comedian, writer, talk show host
Lea Delaria, comedian, actor, and musician
Karey Dornetto, writer, producer, and actor
Kelli Dunham, comedian
Jill Ellis, head coach of the US women's soccer team
Megan Ellison, heiress and film producer
Cameron Esposito, comedian
Melissa Etheridge, singer and songwriter
Elizabeth Falkner, chef
Leslie Feinberg, activist and author (most notably of Stone Butch Blues)
De'Borah Garner, gospel singer, "The Voice" 
Mary Going, founder of Saint Harridan
Julie Goldman, comedian
Britney Griner, basketball player
Judith "Jack" Halberstam, professor, author of Female Masculinity
Karey Halbin, oldest women to join the Air Force Reserves
Hannah Hart, internet personality, actor, and writer
Mary Kay Henry, labor union leader
Tristan Higgins, blogger (Butch on Tap)
Joan Jett, singer and guitarist
Rebecca Kaplan, council member and former candidate for Oakland mayor
Robbie Kaplan, the lawyer who represented Edie Windsor
Kate Kendell, Executive Director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights
Billie Jean King, tennis legend and activist
KMichelle, Designer and CEO of HauteButch
Sapna Kumar, comedian and actor
Elvira Kurt, comedian
k.d. Lang, singer and songwriter
Malachi Larrabee-Garza, community organizer
Jiz Lee, adult film star
Kristy Lee, singer and musician
Elisha Lim, artist and author (most recently of 100 Crushes)
Madeleine Lim, Exec Director of Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project
Marie Livingston, model and actor
LP, singer
Jane Lynch, comedian and actor
Rachel Maddow, political commentator
Sabrina Matthews, comedian
Ashley Merriman, chef
Preeti Mistry, chef
Kate Moennig, actor
Martina Navratilova, tennis champion
Tig Notaro, comedian and actor
Diana Nyad, swimmer and author
Rosie O'Donnell, comedian, actor, and author
Suze Orman, personal financial guru
Chris Pureka, singer and songwriter
Q-roc Ragsdale, filmmaker and designer
Michele Ragussis, chef and food network star
Megan Rapinoe, Olympic gold medallist and pro soccer player
Amy Ray, singer and musician
Sheree Ross, Preppy Baba
Gayle Rubin, professor and cultural anthropologist
Daniela Sea, actor and filmmaker
Sinclair Sexsmith, writer, educator, and performer
Dani Shay, musician
Jenny Shimizu, model and actor
Siya from "Sisterhood of Hip Hop"
Sheryl Swoopes, basketball player
Miki Vargas, photographer and creator of the Handsome Revolution 
Hanifah Walidah, musician, writer, and activist
Jackie Warner, personal trainer and TV personality
Mo Willis, bklyn boihood
Julie Wolf, composer and musician
Campbell X, filmmaker, including "Stud Life"

Isn't that an amazing list of powerful people in the LGBTQ community?  Makes me proud just to look at it.  Remember, go here to vote!  I'll accept votes until Friday at noon.  If you have any questions, you can email me or list them in a comment below.

Each year, OUT Magazine releases a list of the 50 most powerful LGBT people in the country.  Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, tops this year's list (pleasing Apple aficionados like me), and it is awesome and heartening to read about so many LGBT folks at the top of their game.  I'll be curious to hear what all of you think about the list; to me, it seemed that media and pop culture were a bit overrepresented, while literature, science, and medicine seemed underrepresented.  I also noticed that a mere 14 out of the 50 people on the list are women, and that VERY few of these are gender non-conforming (although Rachel Maddow and Ellen are both near the top).  It's also a tough list to make because many powerful women are rumored to be gay (e.g., Elena Kagan, Janet Napolitano, Condoleezza Rice), may or may not be, and thus wouldn't show up on the list.

I'm interested in whether there's anyone you think should be on the list but didn't make it.  The ones who occurred to me are: 

• Kate Kendell: NCLR's Executive Director and the force behind many important lawsuits on behalf of LGBT people.
  
• Rea Carey: Executive Director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force...  which is kind of a big deal.
• Pam Karlan: Top voting rights (and civil rights more generally) scholar and advocate, author of the famous Bowers v. Hardwick dissent, and oft-named possible Supreme Court candidate.

What do you think of OUT's list?  Is anyone missing?

As I've said many times in the past, being butch is awesome.  I love it, and it's natural for me, and I wouldn't want to be any other way.  That said, society doesn't always know what to make of us.  In public settings, there are a few things that butchy looking women can't get away with quite as easily as other women can.

1. Waving at kids.  If you're on the streets of Berkeley, sure.  But venture more than a few steps into midtown USA, and you're setting yourself up for some serious glares.  I've found fathers to be the worst.  What the heck, guys?  I promise that waving back at me won't make your kid gay.
   
2. Being non-emotive.  Being gruff or grouchy or simply impassive in public risks provoking the "angry butch lesbian" assumption in people.  I feel like I have to continually prove to strangers that I'm a big goofy bucket of sunshine (which, luckily, is somewhat accurate).
3. Coming quickly out of the women's restroom.  This is a great way to get unwanted attention in a variety of ways, including frightening women who are just coming in.  I just smile and say, "Everything okay?"  Faces redden.  Relief ensues.
4. Going bra-shopping.  Admittedly, this one is probably all in my head.  I feel like people will think I'm some skeevy dude or wannabe dude looking lasciviously at the lingerie--when in truth, I'm just trying to find a sportsbra that fits.
5. Complaining about gender inequality.  My complaints about gender inequality sometimes provoke people to give me monologues on gender essentialism, explaining how "most women" want to dress a certain way, do a certain thing, or whatever.  Attention: my critiques about gender inequality aren't prompted by a belief that makeup and heels are "wrong."  They're prompted by anger at, um, gender inequality.  
6. Charming men accidentally.  When I was a straight-presenting woman, I thought guys were so nice!  Free headlight changes?  Check! Free extra scoop of ice cream?  Check!  Evolving into my true butchy self was accompanied by a realization that most men are nice...  but they are extra nice to gender-conforming women they find attractive.  
7. Talking about male exes.  True, I do this sometimes just to shake up people's assumptions.  But if I mention my ex-husband (as it sometimes makes sense to do in explaining something about my past or the still-unchanged last name on one of my credit cards), I get double- and triple-takes, often followed by a conversation about how any man could possibly have NOT known I was gay (answer: I didn't act gay, look [that] gay, or know I was gay), whether said man is gay (no), and whether we are friends (yes).  Why do people liberated to ask me these things?  It must be my aforementioned bucket-of-sunshine disposition.

These are just some initial thoughts, dear readers.  Is there anything else that should be on this list?  Is there anything YOU can't get away with as easily because you're butch?

I've been putting an asterisk after trans* to signify that I'm talking about a whole bunch of trans-ID'd people at once: transgender, transsexual, transmasculine, transfeminine, whatever.  I thought this was "correct"--not in the politically correct sense, but in the sense of using the most inclusive language possible.  But recently, I received the following message:



I love your blog. As a transmasculine genderqueer person, it has provided me with resources for clothing and style and perspectives that I haven't been able to find anywhere else. However, I wanted to let you know that while I'm sure you have the best intentions, it's not cool to use the asterisk on the end of the word "trans". It's an easy mistake to make. For one thing, the asterisk is unnecessary, but more importantly it has been used in the past to exclude trans women from the word trans. "*" turned the word trans into a term specifically for trans men, excluding women and nonbinary people to an unpronounceable punctuation mark. I hope I've been helpful and I look forward to reading more of your blog.


...So this is where I turn to you for help, dear readers.  Trans, trans*, or something else?  Help me out.  And while you're at it, maybe you can share some other terms that you like or don't like.