Mortakai Diamond is not someone that you forget in a hurry. A veteran of San Francisco's transgender/art underground scene now living in NYC, he's built a niche for himself as a pornographer, writer, DJ, photographer, and musician. But things are about to change with the launch of a new project, entitled My Year In Pink. This living arts piece will see Diamond wearing nothing but pink for an entire year. Part witty experiment, part social commentary, part art statement and part endurance test, Diamond checked in to tell us more about the project.

But that's not all! Inbetween making tranny porn films and wearing nothing but pink, he's edited a brilliant new anthology about Female to Male (FTM) transgender issues, From the Inside Out. Let's not waste any more time explaining why, here's Morty to tell you about it himself:

Is this pink thing a joke?
No, not at all! This is a living arts piece that I decided to do one day after getting harassed on the street for wearing a pink scarf.

I am inspired by artists like Linda Montano who wore one colour a year for seven years. I believe as an artist your work does not have to end when you are doing daily things like going to work and shopping for food, these things can also become apart of the work itself.

Why pink?
Pink, for many people, is a gender coded colour. Many people still do consider pink to be a feminine colour best left for women to wear. As a transman, a man given a female gender identity at birth, I believe it is still important to deconstruct gender (and sexuality) assumptions to colours that we like to wear.

From what I have seen on the streets pink is gradually becoming accepted as a colour men can wear without the fear of not looking masculine enough. On the other hand I have also been attacked on the street for looking too gay for wearing a pink scarf.

What are you most looking forwards to about your Year in Pink?
I want to focus on the energy and light that the colour pink gives me, and then focus that energy outward. I am hoping this meditation on colour, gender, and art will push my boundaries and open me up to new ways of communicating with myself and others.

How will we know if you cheat and wear, say, blue one day?
I have a website myyearinpink.com where I will post a photo of everyday of the year, but really you will just have to take my word for it, I guess.

Have you ever done anything like this before?
No, so I am very intrigued as to how this is going to affect my daily life. Since the public is going to be very involved with this work I am going to be making cards that explain why they are encountering a person in head to toe pink.

What's next for you?
A whole year of pink! I am planning pink parties, live performances, and pink clothes swaps for the coming year.

How did you come to author From the Inside Out?
I decided to begin looking for writers that would become From the Inside Out when I began to transition and was in need of reading a book filled with stories from others going through the experience of changing their gender expression and finding very little out there. From the Inside Out is the only anthology in existence that is written from trans and gender variant writers who all were given a female gender at birth and their experience of making this radical change in their lives.

You mentioned in your introduction about being an FTM who never wanted to become a man. Could you say a little bit more about this please?
I don’t believe in the binary gender system in any way. In the beginning of my transition I did know that I was not interested in a female body and more interested in looking masculine, but had second thoughts about taking testosterone because I did not know if passing in the world as male was going to be any better for me mentally or physically. I started taking hormones on a very low dose, and began to realise that even though I was looking and passing as male I also felt I wanted to keep some feminine qualities. That is why I have never taken more than the lowest dose of testosterone, so I still get my period, and yet still pass in the world as male. I understand that strangers see me as male and yet I feel comfortable outing myself as trans to most people if they meet me. What I am trying to do is join my feminine and masculine qualities and I feel this is the best I can ask for in a world that is so bent keeping gender so rigid.

What are the pieces that you are particularly proud of including in the collection?
Well to be honest all of the writing in this book is some of the most moving writing on gender identity I have ever read but with that said a few pieces I really love are Cooper Lee Bombardiers piece The Conversation, Wyatt Swindler’s piece Whose Masculinity Is It Anyway? And Disclosure by Daniel Ray Soltis.

Who are the radical gender queers and trans people that you love the most?
Well I have big love going out to Dean Spade, a trans lawyer in New York, artists and activists like Kate Bornstein, Del LaGrace, Loren Cameron, and James Green who just came out with an amazing book 'Becoming A Visible Man'. Also, Annie Sprinkle though not trans is a real inspiration for me. Trans artists that also happen to be friends Lee Krist, Oakie Cronenwett are inspirations as well.

How come there aren't more non-USA voices in the book?
Mostly because the bulk of submissions that I received were from American writers, and I worked on making the book diverse in other aspects such as age, class, gender identity, and sexual orientation. There are a few Canadian writers and an Australian writer, but yes the book could have had a much broader range of international voices.

Could you tell us a bit about your trans porn project?
Making trans porn came out of the same need that the book filled, with so little out there I felt it necessary to try my hand at pornography. I really enjoyed making 'Trannyfags' and I am anxious to direct my next video, which will have transmen having sex with women this time.

What's next for you?
I am six months into my Year In Pink, a performance in which I wear pink for a whole year. I am filming my next porn hopefully as soon as this summer and I am also working on a photography book titled Our Gendered Lens, which is a book of self portraits from all trans and gender variant identified photographers. I am looking to make this photography book as internationally broad as possible so if anyone is reading this, lives outside the USA and is trans please contact me for the info.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?
Just thanks for all those who support my work and to all who maybe don’t know about my work, please check it out!

Morty Diamond