Sophie Lynne takes a trip to a cemetery to indulge her appreciation for headstones and funereal monuments. There, while walking among the worn away sandstone grave markers, she has some thoughts about the impermanence of the flesh and how even memories carved in stone will over time fade away.
In this time of masking to protect ourselves and others from a deadly virus Sophie muses on how it was that she had been deploying masks for protection her whole life. The mask of shyness in grade school to avoid the attention of bullies. The mask of a cheerful worker wearing a mandated uniform. The mask of manliness she put on every day before the pressure to take it off became too great. All of Sophie masks shielded her from having to be open and visible to the world.
It’s late and Sophie is trying to get to sleep. Through the thoughts buzzing around in her brain she hears a voice. The voice denies her reality and the conversation is not anywhere close to a delightful session of witty banter. The voice is downright nasty at times. Will Sophie silence that mean voice and get the rest she needs? Read “Insomnia” and find out.
Rebecca Lohr former Renaissance Transgender Association Chapter Leader, of what was the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of Renaissance, passed away last week of complications from leukemia. Rebecca was a musician, writer, editor of vintage science fiction, a major fan of Star Wars and a friend to many members of the Philadelphia region’s transgender community. Sophie Lynne has written a tribute to Rebecca.
The Keystone Conference has been cancelled. To some that means that an annual transgender event won’t be happening this year to to the COVID-19 epidemic the nation is struggling with. To some the cancellation won’t mean much. Just another event that was shut down out in a effort to check the spread of the virus. But to Sophie and the near 1000 people who were planning on attending the conference is not just another event. For some it’s a refuge from the stress of living a life in which they can’t express what they feel inside everyday.
Penn State University grad student and TGForum contributor Sophie Lynne goes in search of her transgender brothers and sisters at the university’s main campus in Happy Valley. Looking at the number of students enrolled in both the undergrad and graduate programs at Penn State Sophie extrapolates that there should be over 250. Where do they hang out? What do they do for fun? Sophie lets you know what she found out about the transgender community at Penn State in today’s post.
As a woman who has been around for awhile Sophie has seen it all before. Today she writes about history repeating itself in the case of a married crossdresser who hides her “hobby” from her wife and family. This person only gets to express her feminine side when her wife and kids are away, or she is somewhere out of town. Sophie sees this person becoming more and more frustrated about the lack of time she has to express herself, but she worries that if her wife ever learned about what she does that would be an instant divorce.
The holiday season can be hard for most people. All the running around shopping for gifts, putting up with crazy drivers around any mall, preparing holiday treats to take to parties — deciding what to wear for those parties. All in all it’s a busy, sometimes frustrating time. Then there is the trans community and its members who can find themselves not given to Christmas cheer when they have been cast out by their families, not invited to the holiday feast. Just because of what they are. Sophie Lynne is not a fan of the December holiday. So rather than write about it she hands off that task to a deceased friend for the last word of the decade.
Of course the title of Sophie Lynne’s post today is a bait and switch. Sorry, not sorry. (Stole that from Reese’s.) It was just a ploy to get you to read her thoughts on being the last girl on campus for the holiday season. Give her post a read and send her your holiday greetings in the comment area. Show the lady some love! And, she does at least mention bras at one point.
Many times people find a place where they can go. Where everybody knows your name. No, not Cheers. The LGBTQ establishments where those who society looks upon with a biased eye can relax, have a drink or two and be among others who know what it’s like to not fit in to the straight world. For Sophie Lynne such a place was The Raven in New Hope, Pennsylvania. The place recently closed and Sophie writes about what it meant to her.
The only constant in our universe is constant change. Sophie Lynne has moved to central Pennsylvania to attend graduate school at the Pennsylvania State University. Now she is near to her beloved Nittany Lion and attending classes with people much younger than her. Moving back after so many years away has shown her how the place has changed. The Old College Diner is gone. High rise apartment buildings have sprouted everywhere, and many of the businesses that were there 30 years ago are long gone. Come along on Sophie’s journey to an old place from her past life that is now shiny and new.
She called this post “Movin’ on Up” but she hasn’t gone to the east side. Our long-time contributor Sophie Lynne has moved to the center of Pennsylvania to become a schoolgirl, again. She is enrolled at Penn State University in the graduate program. Today she shares her first dispatch from the hallowed halls of academe. Don’t miss the first of her PSU blogs.
Like many in the trans community, when Sophie’s need to express her feminine nature finally pushed her to begin exploration of her desires she found that the box in the basement labelled “boxed games” was no longer going to hold the things related to becoming Sophie. For one thing she felt a constant concern that the box would, for some unexplained reason, be opened by someone she didn’t want learning what was inside, and for another thing her latest purchase, a large pair of silicone breast forms, would not even fit inside the box. So she took the next step — renting a storage space. Today she writes about bidding that space goodbye, as she moves on in life.
The only constant in life is constant change. Our Sophie Lynne had one idea for this blog and then in a moment that idea got pared down to only one part of her blog. Another section was necessary due to news she got about the passing of a friend in the community. Then she ends her blog today with some good news. You may want to read it all the way to the end and use the comment area to congratulate her.
Often members of the transgender community stay defensive when they are out and about with the general public. That’s one reason support groups and trans specific parties and events are popular. It’s a chance to be among others who are living the same reality and relax without fear that someone will attack them for being who they are. Our blogger Sophie Lynne is an amateur actress who has appeared in a few of her local theatrical troupe’s productions. Just last week she made her debut as a character in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. After the play premier she and the cast did what actors do and went out for a celebratory drink. Then a funny thing happened in the bar. At first Sophie was playing defense but then understanding stepped onto the stage.
Thoughts of mortality begin to appear the older one gets. Your mind can wander down paths where you begin to think about what your lasting impression on the universe will be, or just wonderwhat will happen to all your “stuff.” We accumulate a great deal of “things in the course of a lifetime. What will happen to those thins, our stuff, when we’ve left? And, for transgender people, “who” will be remembered by those left behind? Will it be the person who expressed their true gender for part of their life or will it be the old persona the closed the door on? Sophie muses on all that in today’s blog, Momento Mori.
Today Sophie Lynne tells you what it’s like to grow your own breasts through hormone therapy. She fills you in on the details of what it feels like when they are growing, what it’s like to hide them because you’re not out yet as a trans woman, and what it’s like to live with them everyday. She shares all from the point at which they got bouncy to what it feels like when they’re squeezed too hard. For insight into what it’s like to grow your own don’t miss Sophie’s blog today!
Sophie Lynne looks back at some people in her life who made a good impression on her but are no longer there. She has felt enriched by them as she feels sad that they have passed away. Today her blog is about raising a glass to the people who she has cherished in the past as she proceeds on her path into the future.
Sophie Lynne has been our Page Pundit since 2017. Her job as the Pundit has been to review books by trans writers and books about transgender subjects. When she took on this task she was employed at a bookstore so getting material was easy. She is no longer working there and Sophie has decided to doff her Page Pundit hat and return to delivering her personal blog every four weeks. She ends her run as the Pundit with a final post that reviews a website which publishes transgender fiction.
Sophie Lynne has been out of work for over a year. He unemployment has run out and the rent is going to be due. But to add a twist to her story, she has been accepted into the Ph.D. program at Penn State in the middle of Pennsylvania. If everything works out Sophie will move to “Happy Valley” to start classes in August. Will her roommate move with her? Will she be able to pay the rent and find a new place in State College? Time will tell. Read her post about the twists her life has taken.
Sophie Lynne, our Book Pundit, reviews Brynn Tannehill’s book “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Trans (But were afraid to ask.” Ms. Tannehill is a writer and transgender advocate who has written for OutServe magazine, The New Civil Rights Movement, and The Bilerico Project as a blogger and featured columnist. Read on and see what Sophie thinks of Ms. Tannehill’s book about transgender issues in 2019.
The play’s the thing! At least is has been for a few weeks while Sophie Lynne has trod the boards in a local production of Dracula. Sophie portrayed a maid onstage, made some props for the show, and pitched in to move the scenery between scenes. While she was at it she also acted as an ambassador for the trans community — with the audience as well as her fellow performers.
In the past few years a lot has been said about “missing emails.” Today we have a Page Pundit Review by Sophie Lynn about a book that has been made out of the decidedly not missing emails of Merissa Cheryl Lynn. Ms. Lynn was one of the pioneers in the trans movement back in the late ’80s and ’90s. She passed away in 2017. She founded the “Tiffany Club” near Boston, and eventually formed the International Foundation for Gender Education. Around 2008 and 2009 she wrote a lot of emails to a friend about her history in the movement. That friend has compiled those emails into the book Sophie reviews today.
Sophie Lynne says “bah, humbug” to the Christmas holiday. She’s not a big fan, due to many not fun experiences. Today she writes about one experience when she was the last wait staff member left on duty on Christmas Eve.
Today our Page Pundit reviews a collection of cartoons about transition titles Super Late Bloomer: My Early Days in Transition. An Up and Out Collection by Julia Kaye. Julia Kaye is an American artist and illustrator.
