Blackouts

Nene asks Juan to impart some information from Sex Variants. Juan agrees, but calls him impatient.

A heavily redacted page from Sex Variants with the header “REWORD” offers a single sentence about the founding of the Committee for the Study of Sex Variants, followed by single-word descriptors including “embracing,” “punitive,” and “inadequate.” It concludes the “monograph has been […] embodied […] by a group of sex variants” (76).

Using the pronoun “they” (implied to be the subjects of Sex Variants), a passage discusses subjects’ reasons for participating in the study. Their memories, both tender and violent, are recounted—how their bodies were examined before being “anonymized” and “labeled.”

An image, stylized as if from a textbook or report, shows photographs of eight figures, faces blurred out, seven of whom are naked. The eighth figure wears underwear and shoes; the figure is masculine, and their underwear is feminine. Six of the figures are labeled “Figure” with an accompanying number; two of these labels have been redacted.

Though Sex Variants is attributed to Dr. George W. Henry, the novel cites Jan Gay as its true instigator. Gay gathered most of the initial volunteers through personal connections and visits to “the usual bars and haunts” (79). The New York-based study began in 1935 and was published in 1941, and included primarily middle-class and lower-class participants of various ethnicities.