Tango (11 page)

I'm grateful to that dream. It was the first time I ever experienced the feeling of what I now call the “luxury of normality.” I can't say I aspire to living that way myself because my life has been a constant series of adjustments and acceptances, but I do hope that a time will come when queer children can be themselves without any questions, able to experience the same dramas, heartaches, and joys that any other kids would have to go through, no more and no less.

FIRST OF ALL, I WOULD LIKE TO THANK MY PARENTS for loving me in the best way they knew how, and for providing me with a very good education, straight teeth, and a deep-seated stubbornness (a.k.a. patience!) that has served me very well throughout my life. Dad, Mom, Carol, Mark, Celia, and Logan: I love you endlessly.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to my lovely traveling companion Nath Ann Carrera, who has my heart and undying love, as do Sammy Jo, Caden Manson, and Jemma Nelson. I owe much happiness and love to Susan DeFelice, Mairamie Thayer, Kathy Hudson, my cousins Pam Calandrelle and Jan Bare, and my girlfriends since infancy: Lori McDowell, Teresa
Garling, and Karen Martin. You ladies, along with so many other friends and relatives, made living in small-town Maryland bearable for me and, by accepting and loving me, allowed me to learn to love myself.

A special thanks to Jacob Breslow and Michael Angelo, who sat with me on my fire escape in New York City typing away over coffee and many cigarettes (don't worry, I've since quit smoking them) during the summer of 2010, or as we called it, 20-femme.

Of course, I would never have even thought of writing this story if it weren't for the encouragement of my editor Amy Scholder, so if you don't like it please blame her not me!

This book is dedicated to the memory of my grandparents Ralph and Irene Thayer, and J.P. and Idella Mose. Blessed be.

Vx, 2011

Published in 2011 by the Feminist Press
at the City University of New York
The Graduate Center
365 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5406
New York, NY 10016

 

Text copyright © 2011 by Justin Vivian Bond Preface copyright © 2011 by Hilton Als

 

All rights reserved.

 

No part of this book may be reproduced, used, or stored in any information retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the Feminist Press at the City University of New York, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

 

First printing September 2011

 

 

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bond, Justin.

Tango : my childhood, backwards and in high heels / by Justin Vivian Bond.

p. cm.

eISBN : 978-1-558-61754-4

1. Bond, Justin. 2. Singers—United States—Biography. I. Title. ML420.B6846A3 2011

792.7092—dc22

[B]

2011011372