SFBayTimes.com – By Jacob Anderson-Minshall
?Perception,? trans man Aaron Raz Link remarks, ?is in the eye of the beholder. It legitimately belongs to them,? he says of his new book What Becomes You, an unusual trans memoir, which offers both Link?s perspective and the perspective of his mother, renown feminist scholar and poet Hilda Raz. ?We?re all unreliable narrators,? Link argues. ?Which is, ultimately, what the book is about. Both art and family teach a larger vision, a shared vision, of identity.?
A Nebraska native currently directing Portland?s Museum of Nature, Link has been a lot of things in his life: a professional clown, museum preparator, writer, HIV tester, theatre teacher, butterfly wrangler, social service worker, jeweler, mask maker, teacher, forensic entomologist?s assistant, object puppeteer, sex educator and performance artist.
The gay man also co-founded Portland?s Transgender/ Identity Resource Center (TiRC), which provides gender-related services and resources. TiRC offers a reference library, peer counseling, referrals, support groups and ResourcesPDX (www.resourcespdx.org) The latter, provides listings of professionals and service providers educated about and supportive of unique challenges facing trans and genderqueer individuals.