220:, at one of the F2M Fraternity meetings in 1989 and decided to film a pornographic documentary about a sexual experience between the two of them called "Linda/Les and Annie: the First Female-to-Male Transsexual Love Story." Under the name Johnny Armstrong, Science wrote and sang music for the film and had some involvement in directing and editing the film as well. The film was released in 1990 and had a very mixed reaction from some in the transgender community due to some of the outdated language and attitudes Sprinkle displayed regarding Nichols' body and pre-transition life. "Linda/Les and Annie: the First Female-to-Male Transsexual Love Story" was the first sexually explicit transmasculine film ever made.
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limited-run newsletter called "Rites of
Passage" and regularly distributed information about medical transition, advertised local drag king events, and hosted video nights highlighting how trans men were being portrayed on television. "Rites of Passage" was published out of Tenafly, New Jersey. The events were initially hosted in Kit Rachlin's apartment but moved to Annie Sprinkle's apartment not long after F2M Fraternity's inception. Science's activism frequently was financially burdensome; in one piece of advertising from September 1990 he wrote, "I have been without a phone for
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that this would be reported on extensively on by the New York press. He hosted a second event that
November at the Enterprise Theater but could not drum up the same interest from the press a second time. After this, Johnny became a less active member of the scene. According to Kit Rachlin, "If Johnny had stayed in the scene, I think that it would have become a legendary event. Instead it kind of just got erased." By the mid-90s, Dianne Torr was running the Drag King Workshops on her own.
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Science taught these workshops all across
America, and taught several internationally as well. According to Diane Torr, "We were then both determined to get the phrase “drag king” and the concept behind that - the idea of male impersonation by a female - included in common parlance." Science insisted he had come up with the term drag king during his lifetime.
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prior to his transition. In the mid 1980s, Science began engaging in performance art at local sex dungeons like the Belle de Jour and swinger's clubs like Plato's
Retreat. These shows often included him dressing up in hypermasculine archetypes (such as a biker) and using prosthetics to have sex with
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attended one of these workshops and noticed that there seemed to be no movement or vocal training. They began collaborating on the workshops together, which often included taking their participants out into spaces like parks and strip clubs to see if they "passed" as male to the people around them.
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Science began teaching drag king workshops in 1989, which consisted of teaching people assigned female at birth how to present themselves as male via makeup and clothing. He also provided information about phalloplasty in early meetings. These were hosted in Annie
Sprinkle's apartment, later dubbed
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Johnny
Science began to seek medical gender transition in 1986. However, he claimed in 1989 that he had "lived totally as a man for far longer than that. At this point in time, there were no community resource groups for trans men in New York City. He began corresponding with other trans men in the
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Some time in the late 1990s or early 2000s, Johnny
Science chose to go "stealth" - that is, to pull away from FTM activism and blend in with the cisgender gay male community. His friends regularly told him of the goings-on in the trans community, and he expressed sadness over feeling like he could
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In May 1988, Science went on Howard Stern's television show to attempt to get the word out about transsexual men's issues. One year later, in March 1989, Science formed a meetup group for "FTM transsexuals, crossdressers, and their friends" called F2M Fraternity. F2M Fraternity had an accompanying
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In May 1992, Johnny
Science organized a Drag King Ball at the Crow Bar, which included a drag king contest. Any type of drag was permitted, including drag that did not emphasize passing as male. The drag king contest was the first of its kind outside of the ballroom culture scene. Science ensured
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in order to promote visibility for trans men, drag kings, and female to male cross dressers. In the late 90s he founded The Drag King Club, which was a social group for women who cross-dressed. Science also briefly aired a weekly cable television show "That Show! With Johnny
Science" (also called
281:
Johnny
Science was in ill health for the last ten years of his life. He died of heart failure in 2007 and was given an extensive obituary in issue #114 of Transgender Tapestry. The ephemera he preserved were donated to New York University after he died. In 2019, some ephemera collected by Johnny
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community access television. This show interviewed all of the leading drag kings of the day, talked about art and culture, and showed makeup transformations onscreen. According to Kit Rachlin in Science's obituary, the show ran until 1998 but an article in the New York Times from January 2000
135:. He was assigned female at birth and began using cork makeup to playact in male drag when he was three or four years old. His parents were generally supportive of these artistic pursuits. He found inspiration in the work of makeup artist and actor
271:
not both participate and be accepted as a man by wider society. Science found a new home in gay kink communities, becoming both a member of the Gay Male S&M Activists and the Metro NY Chapter president of the National Leather Association.
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and studied gender and transsexuality. In the early 1980s, prior to his transition, Johnny Science played as "Suzy Science" in the band Science. Science was one of the house bands at the famed punk venue,
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In the mid-1990s, Science founded The Jovian Gentlemen, a social club for older men and younger men who wanted to date each other. Many events hosted by The Jovian Gentlemen were kinky
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known for his work on behalf of drag kings, kink, trans men, and gay men. Through the 1980s and 90s, Science hosted drag king workshops and formed what is believed to be the first
278:. Science preserved hundreds of documents, videos, sound files, and other ephemera pertaining to his and other peoples' LGBT activism in both print and digital form in his home.
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his partner at the time. He also at times employed dramatic elements such as chain saws and fake blood. Science's song "Twistco" was featured on the album
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as a child. Some of his early drag efforts involved attempts to look like an older man so that he could go places that children couldn't typically go.
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200:. He adopted the name Johnny Science, though at various points in his life he also answered to Johnny Armstrong, Daniel Austen, and John Grant.
196:, founder of Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Transsexuals. Around this time, Science also befriended the porn star and sex educator
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meetup group in New York City, F2M Fraternity. He has been called "the unsung hero of female-to-male consciousness raising" in New York City.
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the "Annie Sprinkle Transformation Salon." During this time, Science sometimes went by John Grant and Johnny Armstrong. In 1990,
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Department of Anthropology, Columbia University in the City of New York, February 1999. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
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738:"Linda/Les & Annie by Annie Sprinkle, Al Jaccomo, Johnny Armstrong, Les Nichols on Left Bank Books, LLC"
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159:. Johnny Science also art directed for Max's Kansas City at this time. He was involved in the lesbian
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in an exhibition entitled "Violet Holdings: LGBTQ+ Highlights from the NYU Special Collections."
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after running up huge bills, calling T/S's, C/D's, and professionals all over the world!"
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Sprinkle met Les Nichols, a trans man on testosterone who had recently had
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668:"F2M Fraternity Presents: Video Night - Digital Transgender Archive"
402:. Critical performances. Ann Arbor, Mich: Univ. of Michigan Press.
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Sex, drag, and male roles: investigating gender as performance
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American activist, make-up artist, musician and drag king
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Kroker, Arthur & Kroker, Marilouise (eds.) (1993).
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Throughout the 90s, Johnny Science made appearances on
103:(January 13, 1955 – December 14, 2007) was an American
858:. 1999-02-03. Archived from the original on 1999-02-03
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Digital Transgender Archive - Creator: John Armstrong
188:, author of one of the first autobiographies on the
948:"25 Art Exhibitions to View in N.Y.C. This Weekend"
258:reported that it was still airing on channel 57.
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875:: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (
170:Max's Kansas City - 1976 & Beyond (Expanded)
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337:A Gender Variance Who's Who - Johnny Science
841:. Collaboration with Đ– and Carla Lombardo.
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63:John Grant, Johnny Armstrong, Daniel Austen
499:Gender Pretenders: A Drag King Ethnography
398:Torr, Diane; Bottoms, Stephen J. (2010).
819:The Last sex: feminism and outlaw bodies
463:"Johnny Science: FTM Pioneer Remembered"
142:Between 1977 and 1980, Science attended
926:. Cambridge Medford, MA: Polity Press.
253:Drag King Club with Johnny Science) on
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630:"F2M FRATERNITY PRESENTS: VIDEO NIGHT"
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332:Drag King History - Johnny Science
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550:"Johnny Science Papers 1948-2000"
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924:Trans America: a counter-history
895:Hedges, Chris (8 January 2000).
789:"Diane Torr with Sonya Sobieski"
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821:. New York: St. Martin's Press.
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720:"WHAT!? I MISSED ALL OF THAT!?"
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163:scene, and was a leader in the
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151:and also regularly played at
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581:"1984 - 1997 Johnny Science"
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469:. 2008. pp. 19–22
736:www.bibliopolis.com.
238:The Phil Donahue Show
133:Englewood, New Jersey
922:Reay, Barry (2020).
742:Left Bank Books, LLC
699:www.georgepetros.com
467:Transgender Tapestry
234:The Joan Rivers Show
94:Transgender activism
981:American drag kings
839:Art Reveal Magazine
131:Science grew up in
952:The New York Times
901:The New York Times
506:2010-07-18 at the
933:978-1-5095-1182-2
793:The Brooklyn Rail
718:Science, Johnny.
628:Science, Johnny.
585:Drag King History
409:978-0-472-05102-1
347:Twistco - Science
300:FTM International
182:FTM International
180:, the founder of
165:Lesbian Sex Mafia
149:Max's Kansas City
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677:2023-08-20
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614:2023-09-09
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559:2023-08-18
473:August 17,
353:References
310:Diane Torr
226:Diane Torr
194:Rupert Raj
190:trans male
137:Lon Chaney
127:Early life
35:1955-01-13
909:431343570
117:drag king
83:drag king
905:ProQuest
871:cite web
837:english
504:Archived
294:See also
211:6 months
113:musician
105:activist
80:musician
77:activist
250:Geraldo
161:S&M
155:in the
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