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Category: Transgender Body & Soul
There is an awful lot of talk theses days about the benefits and drawbacks of a wall. In ancient times when your enemies had to run at your town and attack you with clubs and swords a wall around your home was pretty useful. Pauline Estelle writes about walls that are not useful. The walls we put up around ourselves out of fear that someone will “read” us as trans, or as a man in a dress. Building those walls can lead to behavior that actually draws more attention our way. Learn what Pauline has to say about Walls.
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Dallas Denny met Alison Laing at a gender conference in 1991. That meeting turned into the decades long friendship of two transgender activists. In this post Dallas brings you some photos of Alison at work and play and she writes about her memories of those times.
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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.
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Our former California correspondent is now safe and sound at the end of her journey in Baltimore. Today she blogs about the last half of the trip and picks up the story in Denver. From there it’s on to Nebraska, Iowa, South Dakota and Wisconsin. Then Chicago at Christmas time before heading onward to visit her family in Pittsburgh and finally to “Charm City.” And she has a gallery of photos to document the trip.
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Lynda Martini has been getting out and about a lot in the past several months. From Halloween parties to out of town visits, and going to a football game, Lynda likes to have fun. But another event is looming. One that she longs for but won’t necessarily be fun. In just a few days Lynda will be going into the hospital for her gender confirmation surgery. All the while she has been having fun she has also been preparing for surgery and recovery. And while she had things all planned out and the date set, there was a glitch.
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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.
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Many trans people are also people of faith. They often find that their transgender nature keeps them from worshipping as part of the church they were raised in. While the Catholic Pope has made positive statements about how the clergy should deal with transgender people, he has also made statements that indicate the Catholic Church is not a friend to transgender people. On November 29 our contributor Christine Zuba was invited to dinner with Cardinal Joseph Tobin in Newark, New Jersey. This invitation was extended to members of the LGBT community and was an effort by the Cardinal to get advice about how to move the conversation about the Church and LGBT people forward. Christine reports on how that dinner went.
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Aunt Dana wants you! To participate in research on why transgender people are transgender. She feels that more and more researchers are looking into what makes us tick. If we don’t participate in their research studies how will the results of those studies stand up? And Dana realizes that many trans people will be reluctant to share any information about themselves with researchers. Dana shares the guideline followed by researchers and one of those guidelines is about confidentiality. She comments on all the guidelines and gives you good reasons why you should consider being a part of the research into why we are who we are.
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For months Amanda has been having anxiety attacks while living on the West Coast near San Francisco. She has wanted to leave California and head back to her hometown or another place where she know she has friends waiting to lend her a hand. This week she finally got everything packed and much of it shipped back east. On December 15 she got into her car accompanied by her loyal kitty cat and started the journey to a new home. This blog documents the first half of her trip.
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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.
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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.
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On resident science contributor Dana Bevan recently attended the World Professional Association for Transgender Health Symposium in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She filed a report on her arrival and the preliminary social activities on November 5 and now that the symposium is concluded she has a full report on what was discussed at the event. From recognition that some people only need vulvoplasty and adjustment of the body mass index requirements for genital surgery, to the need for “communications therapy” and the debunking of a connection between the transgender condition and autism, Dana fills you in on what came out of this important meeting.
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We are joined today by new Contributor Lynda Martini! Lynda is a trans woman from New Jersey who is currently going through her transition. She is a girl who loves to go out and about and have fun. She brings a fresh voice to TGForum and writes about the good things she has found by coming out of the closet. One of those things is the joy of dancing. Her inaugural post, after she introduces herself to you, is all about dancing and how she has come to enjoy the activity after she became Lynda.
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Amanda F. Steele has been in California for some time. Her hope when she drove there was that she could find a place in San Francisco and possibly take advantage of the state and city’s transgender positive attitudes. Instead she soon learned that living in the city was too expensive so she had to go further east for anything in the way of housing that was almost affordable. She has a retail job and a roommate who is needy. She suffers from anxiety and want to leave but the prospect of leaving adds to her anxiety. Today she files her latest report on her state of mind.
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Katherine Diaz is our correspondent in Bogota, Columbia. She has reported in the past on the crossdressing and drag scene in that city. Today she writes about a sort of training academy for drag performance artists that she has aligned herself with. She also has a video showing her participation. This post is also a first in that we present her text translated from the Spanish. Enjoy your excursion deeper into the drag scene in Bogota!
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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.
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Our youth correspondent M is now in college and they are taking a psychology class. As a class assignment students were tasked with doing a 10 to 20 minute presentation on anything personal relating to psychology. M chose to talk about gender dysphoria, and they chose to close the presentation by coming out to the class. Find out how that went and read today’s Youth View.
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Cheryl Ann “Cassie” Sanders writes today about her theory of reincarnation. To her it is very personal and possibly “not safe for work” since it involves the evocation of one certain man during her self pleasuring fantasies. He seems to be familiar and loving, not just a fantasy creation the enable the activity. Cassie feels a connection to him that she thinks goes back into a past life.
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Kimberly Hirschel offers four resources for those exploring their feminine side that help crossdressers of trans women become more confident and able to mix with the general population. These things have worked well for her and she shares them today. Read on and see what the advantages of each resource is and how they could help your feminine presentation.
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in September our contributor Pauline Estelle reached the age of 83. She has been dressing up for many, many years and enjoys being a girl as much today as she did way back when. Today Pauline has assembled a random collection of thoughts and opinions she has gathered over the years. She likes the term “bi-gendered” instead of “crossdresser.” Likes having a large bosom, and bemoans the loss of the ability to wear high heels. See what other thoughts and opinions she expresses and read her post.
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Our resident scientist Dana Bevan has explored the phenomena of Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists and their attacks on trans women, characterizing them as not women. Today she delves deeper into feminism to find the basis of the arguments used by TERFs to make their case that someone born with a penis can never be a woman, even when that individual’s spirit is feminine from birth. This research introduces Dana to the concept of “kyriarchy” which is the oppression of all women and minorities by a thing greater than the patriarchy. See how it all comes together as Dana gives you her research.
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Our Retro Rerun today is from 1998. Regular TGForum contributor CD Stephanie K. wrote about a crossdressed outing. She and her friend Sharon were wig shopping and then Stephanie planned on taking a big step — getting her ears pierced! After she acquired new hair she found herself having. . . feelings. Feelings that while they emanated from her lower body were not the normal sort of sexual arousal she experienced. Were these feelings “feminine feelings” the way a woman feels when she knows she’s looking good? Or was it something else?
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There is almost always a rush of adrenaline when a biological male goes out in public presenting their feminine side to the world. Our contributor Linda Jensen feels that the thrill of being out dressed comes as much from the possibility of getting caught as it does from wearing the clothes. Sophie Lynne writes about how when she first started to express her true self by going out to support group meeting and the local transgender party she felt that thrill. It contrasts with the adrenaline rush she gets now that she is living as her true self 24/7. It’s less of a thrill now and more like fear of lurking danger.
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Today Amanda F. Steele catches you up on her back story. At the moment she is living in northern California and being beset by anxiety. She wants to leave and come back east but the thought of making the journey sets off her anxiety. How did Amanda first start to explore her femininity, back when the only anxiety she had to deal with was fear of being discovered wearing her mother’s things? Amanda takes you back to when she was 13 and her family was moving back to the mainland from Hawaii.
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Katherine Diza is caught up in the whirl of her new adventure performing onstage with a group of drag performers in Bogota. Today she writes more about the excitement of performance and how good it feels to get praise from her new fans. And of course she has a video to go along with her blog.
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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.
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