JONI MEETS AND RECONNECTS WITH ROBYN GIGL!

"Who is Robyn Gigl?", one may ask. . . For the benefit of those who may be unfamiliar with her, Robyn Gigl happens to be a very special woman, and one of Joni's heroes. First and foremost, Robyn is an activist transwoman and a licensed attorney in the State of New Jersey, where she has practiced law for more than 40 years. She has been an active litigator, representing clients in both the state and federal courts. Robyn has been honored by the ACLU of New Jersey as well as the New Jersey Pride Network for her work on behalf of the LGBTQ community. Robyn has been an active member of the New Jersey State Bar Association, where among other things, she is a member of its Diversity Committee and served as a Past Chair of the State Bar's LGBTQ Rights Section. She was also appointed by the New Jersey Supreme Court to the Court's Committee on Diversity Inclusion and Community Engagement. Additionally, she is also a member of the Board of Directors of Garden State Equality, New Jersey's largest LGBTQ+ Civil Rights Organization, and a frequent lecturer in academic and corporate circles on diversity issues.

 

However, Robyn is much more than an influential civil rights attorney. She is also an acclaimed author of four novels in which she chronicles the challenges and adventures of her protagonist, a New Jersey criminal defense attorney who happens to be a transwoman, just like Robyn, although the books are not autobiographical in nature. Her first book, entitled "BY WAY OF SORROW" is a page-turning legal thriller revolving around murders and a corrupt political system. It was well received by the New York Times Book Review, which called it, "An emotionally resonant debut . . . and quietly groundbreaking." Joni has read the book as well and awards it five stars, as it transcends the usual transgender genres.

 

Robyn has since published three more novels in the series with the same transgender defense attorney as her protagonist: "SURVIVOR'S GUILT", "REMAIN SILENT", and "NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH". Her protagonist, "Erin McCabe", is destined to become one of the most famous fictional transgender characters in literature, if she isn't already!

 

So one might be wondering how a flirty T-Girl like Joni wound up connecting with an influential Transwoman of considerable gravitas like Robyn? Well, Joni must at the outset credit her friend Emily Jo Donatello, who is also a good friend of Robyn and served as an intermediary. Emily Jo had posted a couple of items on her photostream touting Ms. Gigl's books, and the name "Gigl" rang a bell in Joni's memory bank. Joni's curiosity was piqued and after conducting some research, Joni advised Ms. Donatello that she believed she was acquainted with Robyn from her distant past; a belief which Emily Jo confirmed, and who facilitated their subsequent meeting by providing Joni with Robyn's email address. Thereafter, Joni contacted Robyn and arranged to meet her over dinner on one of Joni's recent trips back to New Jersey where they reconnected.

 

It turns out that Robyn and Joni graduated from the same high school one year apart, where they were actually teammates running on the track team, Although they were teammates, they ran in different circles, so to speak. Robyn was a short, but swift-footed sprinter and Joni was a skinny cross-country/distance runner and as such, they had minimal contact with each other, even though they trained on the same track and rode on the same team bus to meets. Ironically, Robyn returned to running and the former sprinter has since run in several marathons! Joni, on the other hand, hung up her spikes after after high school and has remained retired, especially with a pair of hip replacements.

 

Nevertheless, they had much in common, not only as fellow high school alumni and teammates, but professionally as well, and of course as transgender women. It all made for interesting conversation and a very enjoyable dinner. Needless to say Joni is very proud to know Robyn and is in awe of everything she has accomplished.

 

One other thing about Robyn that Joni found to be fascinating is the fact that Robyn is the first transgender woman that Joni knew from the past before she became transgender. Joni knows nothing about the background of any of the various transgender women she is friendly with on Flickr, or whom she has met in person, other than what those individuals have revealed about themselves to Joni. There was simply no prior context for any TG woman that Joni knows or has ever met, until Joni met Robyn. Joni has often wondered how many others she has known from high school, college, grammar school, or from her neighborhood growing up, etc., who might have evolved to become transgender women. She has known a number who became gay or lesbians, (including a former high school girlfriend!) but she had never known anyone other than herself who became transgender, until she reconnected with Robyn. It should be noted that there was nothing about Robyn in high school that would have led Joni to suspect that she might one day become transgender or gay for that matter, not that Joni knew anything about transgenders at that time. It's not as if Robyn acted effeminate or anything like that, although Robyn says she knew from an early age that she wanted to be a woman. Like many of us, Robyn was happily married and helped to raise three kids while remaining in the closet for many years . . . untl she wasn't in the closet anymore. . . . .

 

One other thing about Robyn Gigl - She's very sweet!

 

For those who are interested in learning more about Robyn, especially other transgender individuals, as well as those who are trying to learn and understand what makes transgenders

tick (and really who shouldn't be?) one can simply Google her name and additional information about her, including a Wikipedia page, will appear. . . . . Robyn is truly an amazing woman and Joni is happy to have had the opportunity to meet up wth her and reconnnect, and she is honored to have Robyn as a friend!

 

 

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