Claire Hall was born and grew up in a large city on the left coast and has spent most of her adult years in a beautiful small coastal community where she's now an elected official in local government after spending many years as a newspaper and radio reporter. In her space time she loves reading, writing fiction (her first novel was published by a regional press a couple of years ago), watching classic Hollywood movies, and walking.
Since her transition Claire Hall’s life has been good. But she also looks back on the years she kept her true self suppressed and mourns for the little girl who didn’t have the chance to grow to a teen and then become a confident young woman. Those past selves only existed inside her head. Read her thoughts in this post.
A clear eyed look at the current political climate in the United States shows that the conservative party is firmly opposed to equal rights for transgender people. While not all of the Democrats are completely cool with the existence of people with trans or other identities, the party has supported the rights of transgender people to exist. Republican controlled legislatures have done nothing to support transgender people. They have gone in the opposite direction. Today Claire Hall outlines why it is in the best interest of transgender voters to choose the party that supports us if we are ever to make progress.
Violence against trans women isn’t just something that happens somewhere else. It can happen anywhere. Claire Hall learned that recently when a newly transitioning woman used the restroom facility at a park in Oregon and was attacked by another woman’s husband. The assailant beat her severely just because she was in the lady’s restroom with his wife. But out of this horrible hate crime came a wave of love that may be helpful in stopping this kind of violence.
Claire Hall writes about what it was like when she came out. Social media wasn’t that much of a factor for her at first. The web helped her find a support group that wasn’t too far from her home and after attending some meetings she got a few Facebook friends in the trans community. Then the government signaled that things were going to get tougher for transgender people in the USA and Claire’s friend requests jumped. And the people who have connected with her all have stories to tell. Some heartbreaking and some inspiring. So has social media been a help on her journey? Read on.
Claire Hall counts herself as lucky as she was able to transition from male to female, keep her job and most of her friends and associates. But she realizes that it’s not that easy for many people and while transition might be the difference between living and dying, transition might also be a death sentence for some. For others it could at least lead to a more miserable existence. It all leads her to ask is being transgender a blessing or a curse?
Today Claire wonders how other people who have transitioned remember or thing about their former gender-selves. Do they never want to think about that missing person? Are they willing to talk to friends they have maintained through the change about the person they used to be? Claire knows how she answers those questions. Give her blog a read to see how she deals with the missing man.
It’s been seventeen months since Claire started her transition. In that time she has lost two hundred pounds, had over 150 hours of electrolysis, slowly ramped up hormone therapy, and had a little filler and Botox in her face. It’s been expensive and painful at times but she is pleased, and more than slightly amazed at the results she has achieved. Her friends say she looks twenty years younger. Read all about Claire’s changes during the past seventeen months in today’s blog post.
Many times transgender people suffer in silence and present their birth gender face to the world because they are afraid of what will happen if their families know about their secret identities. There is the fear of rejection and there is guilt for the continuing deception. Often it is only when the pressure to live as their true self gets so great it cannot be ignored that their secret will be disclosed. How do you deal with family? Claire Hall has not written much about her relations with her own family. Today she gives you a look.
Within the past decade or so the transgender community has moved out of the shadows to take a place in the spotlight. Thirty years ago men who wore women’s clothing were thought to be gay. Women who dressed as men were viewed as butch lesbians. And all of us were thought of as perverts and possibly child molesters by the majority of the nation. But thanks to concerted efforts by trans activist the real truth about transgender people began to emerge. From weekend support group meetings to the legislatures of several states the transgender journey has marched on. Today Claire Hall asks herself the question, Why Wait? She waited for many years to fully express her true self. Of course there is still resistance to acceptance of trans people and there are haters out there for sure. What kept Claire in her closet till just this past year?
It’s been nine months since Claire Hall came out to the world as a woman. In that time she has learned a lot about her gender and about being a woman. Today she wonders if maybe her joy at the simple things like hairdos, makeup, clothes and all the other “feminine” accoutrements might seem shallow, and perhaps taking pleasure from compliments on those things might be a mistake. But then, maybe she’s just overthinking.
One of the big problems for people in gender transition is how to get friends and associates to not just accept them as their true self but to remember to use their new name. “Deadnaming” is what it’s called and while those who don’t accept gender transitions as real will always use a person’s deadname, just because they can, they will do it to delegitimize you. To them you will always be a freak. But what about those who have accepted your transition but have a problem remembering to use your new name? Claire Hall has some thoughts on the situation.
When you reach the point in your life that demands a decision on how you need to spend the rest of your life. When you have to come out in the open and claim your true gender identity, that’s when the thing many fear is sure to happen. People who don’t know you, don’t understand why you must change gender, they will attack you. This is more true than ever in the social media years. Today Claire Hall writes about her experience with Facebook haters.
Claire likes to celebrate not just her birthday but the anniversary of the day she regards as her “rebirthday.” That’s the day when she made the firm decision to abandon her male masquerade and live the rest of my life as who she always knew she was — a woman.
Claire Hall asks if she is a transgender woman? A woman who happens to be transgender? Or simply a woman? After transitioning and beginning her life again as Claire she is still not clear on the answer. For the first weeks and months the joy of being herself after years of frustration kept her feeling a natural high. But then the current political climate that allows anti-transgender messages to seep from our capital brought on a bout of depression. out of that depression Claire found an answer to her question.
If you have a nagging feeling that something is not right it could be anything. Especially with the current situation domestically and across the globe. But if your “feeling” is that there is something wrong between your body and your mind then what you’re feeling is most likely gender dysphoria. Body configuration and the gender of your spirit are not in sync. Today Claire Hall writes about how to cope with this condition, both before and after transition.
Males and females have been assigned different characteristics by our evolving culture. Men are “supposed” to be stoic, unemotional, problem solvers. Women are “supposed” to be more willing to share things and support their female friends. While guys bury their problems and talk about football and cars, women listen to their friend’s and don’t try to immediately solve their problem. Claire Hall’s post talks about how she has experienced a shift from the stereotypically male approach to friendship and embraced the feminine model of friendship.
Claire Hall has only recently transitioned and for her everything has gone pretty smoothly. One problem she has faced is criticism from people who can’t wrap their heads around the fact that trans women are real women. It’s the old complaints — “He looks like a man in a dress.” “All this person is about is clothes and makeup.” “It takes more than a pair of heels and some lipstick to be a woman.” Claire hits back, in a ladylike manner, in today’s post. Does she seem to take delight in feminine attire? Yes. Because for years she denied herself those clothes and the other things that go with her true gender. Read her post for all of her thoughts on what it is that makes you a real woman.
As Claire moves forward into her new life as a woman she is buoyed by support from friends and associates. For the most part her circle has approved of the move she made. But she is also a public official and that means she is open to a wider range of criticism than a private citizen. Her friends said she shouldn’t read the comments on her Facebook page but she did. Was that a good idea? Give her newest blog entry a look.
Claire writes today about meeting a controversial figure in the trans community. Caitlyn Jenner. Ms. Jenner arrived in the community when she came out at 64 with no ties to the community. She didn’t even know any transgender people. Then she made several mistakes that opened her up to attacks from some trans community members. Claire was aware of all that when Ms. Jenner came to her area for a college speech. Knowing some would not approve, Claire managed to meet Ms. Jenner and blogs about it today.
The news is out! Our contributor Claire H. is now officially Claire Hall. She came out publicly in a big way by being featured in an article in The Oregonian. She is out at work and out to family and friends. Today Claire blogs about how it feels to be presenting herself to the world as her authentic self after years of hiding.
In around twenty nine days Claire will “go public” with her new gender presentation. She is excited to cast off the persona that was holding her down and anxious to enter the waters of women world. She has already come out to a few select people in her life and they are for the most part either supportive or indifferent. One of her female friends remarked that as much as Claire enjoyed the trappings of femininity that wasn’t what makes a woman a woman. Claire thought it over and shares her opinion on that in today’s blog post.
Many trans women are reluctant to express their true selves for many reasons. One reason looms over the others for some. While they may be average height for a male they are taller than the average female. This makes them reluctant to go forth into the world expressing their true gender. They feel that being over six feet (1.8288 meter) tall may draw negative attention to them. Today Claire H. talks about how her 6′ 1″ size made her feel she couldn’t ever be herself. Then she started to find other tall women to provide inspiration. One of them is Tula.
Claire just came to terms with her trans nature a short while ago but she has been thinking about it and musing on it and being frustrated by it for many years. Once she made up her mind her road to transition to living as a woman seems to be rushing by under her wheels. Her goal is to say goodbye to her male persona in just a few months. She is preparing her coworkers and her circle of friends and acquaintances that the change is coming. Her blog post today will let you know how it’s going.
It’s only been a few months since Claire H. took her first steps toward living as her true self. She finds that as she moves into the future every barrier she saw ahead would dissolve away as she approached. Today she writes that while she had not been expecting to start hormone therapy till April the advocacy of her therapist got her an early appointment with a nurse practitioner and she can begin hormones this week. Will all of the obstacles be as easily overcome?
Claire H. though that she could move forward in life dabbling in crossdressing in private and taking out-of-town trips for en femme getaways now and then. During her first session with a therapist she realized that wasn’t going to be enough. Now the dam that has held back her feminine nature for many, many years is cracking. The water inside is starting to pour out and Claire is both excited and scared.
Sometimes in our lives certain memories that we haven’t visited in a long while can come to the fore of our mind when we are poked by a smell or taste associated with those memories. That’s what our newest blogger Claire H. writes about today. As you can guess from the title of her blog she has memories associated with the scent of nail polish and polish remover. Read on to learn what she revisits when she smells those things.
