Justin Bond: New Name and Gender

Performance artist Justin Bond has written an essay to announce a new name -- Mx Justin Vivian Bond -- and gender identity.

Bond, who once portrayed the female half of the Tony award-nominated duo Kiki & Herb, has "chosen to add Vivian to my name because I want a name that provides a balance to the traditionally male name of Justin and because it means 'to be alive.' To really be alive and live my experience of the world as fully as possible I have to give life to the parts of me I feel I was asked to kill off as a child."

Bond discusses plans for hormone treatments, writing, "So I remain on the fence but I am beginning hormone treatments not to become a woman but in order to actualize what I've always known myself to be -- a trans person. I want my body to be a declaration and physical manifestation of my transgendered spirit. When I was younger I used to refer to myself as a 'non-op transexual,' meaning I was a transexual who didn't need to have surgery to assert what I was. But I was wrong because without assertions people can only make assumptions and I no longer wish to indulge or refute the assumptions or labels other people choose to place on me, I simply want to inhabit my very clear vision of myself."

Bond also writes about the use of a new prefix, Mx, saying, "I don't like any of the prefixes currently in common usage as none of them seem to apply ... check one: _Mr. _Mrs. _Ms. _Miss. None of these work so I have adopted Mx because it implies a mix which is the least offensive and most general way I've been able to come up with to find a prefix that clearly states a trans identity without amplifying a binary gender preference, or even acknowledging the gender binary at all."

In a 2009 interview with The Advocate, Bond asked to be described as "trans-fabulous performance-activist."