Laughter is the best medicine but what if it’s laughter provoked by a joke that targets trans people? Is it still medicine or is it a toxic injection of pain? The Artist D knows that people tend to laugh at what they don’t understand. Remember how people laughed when someone claimed the Earth was round? So of course trans people can be the butt of “humor.” The Artist D has a way to cope.
A new cartoonist joins us today. In her TGF debut Sabrina Bria Symington tackles two topics that have been big news in the USA. One for quite some time and the other one that just seemed to pop up within the past few months. Sabrina is a Canadian and she is able to peer over the USA’s northern border to comment on things those south of the border may be too close to see objectively. Give her debut 3-panel toon a look and see what you think.
Is it nature or nurture? That’s the question many in the trans community ask themselves at one point or another. Our Correspondent from Thailand has a theory about it and today she eschews a report on the transgender scene in that country to present her take on why we do what we do. Is it possible that we’re Wired That Way?
Today Emyli Evyrling takes a look at just what it is that keeps humans from living together in harmony. That’s a big topic and while Emyli doesn’t have a solution to the problem of people making fear based decisions about how they will interact with others who are different she does think that it will be possible at some point in the future for humans to accept the diversity of life. It’s just going to take awhile.
Cate O’Malley has gotten her dander up. What has her riled? She lives in Florida in an area where there are human rights ordinances that protect her from discrimination. But she works just across the county line in an area that offers no such protections to LGBT people. What has her angry and proposing civil disobedience is the lack of protections for every citizen, everywhere.
The current hype over restroom and locker room rights for trans people is just that, hype, intended to arouse Republican conservative voters so they will come out in large numbers in the fall and re-elect their legislators, replace some Democrats, and install a Republican president. When we look at the kerfuffle from our side, the […]
Sophie Lynne has been feeling the burden of living authentically. It’s hard for many to be who they are when there are elements of our society that use trans people as a political hockey puck without caring what happens to that puck as long as giving people something to hit with a stick serves their political agenda. Being hit by conservatives was wearing Sophie down but the support for trans people announced by the Obama administration, and an incident at her pharmacy, served to revive her and get her back in the good fight.
Today Amanda wrestles with the conservative’s biggest attack line against the trans community. “You people are delusional.” Amanda’s answer to that is that she doesn’t feel delusional, but she is willing to examine their charge and try to discern if it has any merit. What do you think she arrives at in her conclusion?
This Retro Rerun bobbed to the surface of the TGForum Archices and shows that using the lady’s room has always been an issue for members of the trans community. Particularly for crossdressers who would definitely attract more attention in a men’s room. This article by Leslee M. Anthony was included in the Passing Tips category of TGF content in the 1990s. Find out how CDs approached the restroom issue in the carefree days before conservatives started making it illegal to use the lady’s room. Some of the tips are still good and others, maybe not so much.
Dina’s Diner is open for business and the cook has just whipped up a new batch of tasty dishes. Dina is serving her thoughts on the appearance of more young people crossing the gender border. Then she has some savory grits. No, hold it. “Grit,” on how, while young CDs don’t need to work at it, older CDs with “grit” can still deliver the glamor. Then it’s on to servings of a comparison of 1st and 3rd world problems, and Prince’s penchant for wearing high heels and ruffles. Take a seat at the Diner and let Dina feed your brain.
Emily Ott has been observing the Restroom Wars and she was moved to write down some of her thoughts. One of her observations was about a “Christian” group that promised to send its cisgender male members into the lady’s rooms at Target stores to “test” the trans restroom policy. Emily has a strong belief that doing that is not only unethical but creates a situation in which the “testers” are sinning to expose “sin.”
When The Artist D was a little lad he was happy to follow mommy into the lady’s room since it had nice private booths where you could do your business in private. Then came the awkward grade school and high school years and restrooms defined awkward. Now as an adult The Artist D has some observations on sociological interactions in the men’s room. And a question or two for those fighting for their rest room rights.
With all the negative news about anti-trans laws keeping us out of public restrooms of our choice it’s important to know that we have big guns on our side — from major corporations to rock stars — many powerful people have got our backs. Babs Casbar Siperstein today presents an in-depth look at the blow back North Carolina is experiencing since they passed HB 2, and she looks at Target’s restroom policy. Babs believes that the Jedi Nights will win.
TGF reader Alvaro Hrgic was so upset with the recent spate of restroom laws that he decided to apply some philosophy to refuting the need for these laws. In this opinion piece he uses thr Harm Principle to evaluate the restrictive restroom laws. The Harm Principle says that the only legitimate restraint of someone’s rights is to limit their rights in order to protect others from harm. Read his argument and see if these laws violate the Harm Principle.
Lovely Chanelle Nirok is a student who is studying to enter the construction industry. When she is not taking classes she works, as her male self, at internships in the construction business. While we feel she could land that high paying job and get promoted if she let Chanelle go to the job interviews, for some reason she doesn’t see it that way. Today, instead of her usual makeup or relationship advice, she has tips on how to hold on to your job.
Recently President Obama admonished Black Lives Matter protesters that they need to be doing more than shouting if they want to move their agenda forward. Protest is often necessary but there needs to be another step beyond protest which leads to real change. Too much shouting can actually hurt the cause. There is real science that can be applied to creating change in a culture. Dana Bevan reveals some of it today and urges its use in the fight for trans rights.
Are you a male who reads TGForum, sees photos of the lovely ladies and wishes you could crossdress? What’s stopping you? Sure, if you’re in a relationship there are issues that must be dealt with. But, if you are single the only thing stopping you from having crossdressed fun is you. We start a series of articles today that offer tips to the novice CD who is just starting out. You’re not getting any younger, and the younger you start wearing dresses and heels the more fun you’ll have. More sophisticated TGF CDs may wish to add their tips using the comment area.
Are we prisoners of the gender binary? Must we try to firmly stuff ourselves into only two boxes, male or female? The Artist D, as you may know from reading her blog, is inclined to protest that humans are much to concerned with fitting into one of those two options when life should be bigger, more transcendent than what flesh suit we wear. To illustrate her point today she examines controversial statements made by Richard O’Brien concerning trans women.
Our Correspondent from Thailand joins us with a blog about ladyboys and the meaning of transgender. Is all the media attention transgender issues have been getting helping people to understand what being trans is all about? Or, is it simply giving people labels they can apply to people and not give them any clue about those people’s lives, needs and desires? Labels can be handy but Christine Burr thinks that it’s the contents that really matter.
TGF member Emily Ott was questioned about “what drives these (specific) transgender people to want to drastically alter/damage their bodies?” Her response was so strong that she decided to become the newest Contributor to TGForum and offered her reply for publication. She calls her answer “Sehnsucht.” Is it another word for “dysphoria”? Give it a read and decide.
Our political reporter, Babs Casbar Siperstein, has the latest on the legislation being used as ammunition by the conservative right in the Restroom Wars. She has tales of victories and defeats, and offers some tactics that the trans community should implement in order to achieve the right to go to the restroom whenever we need to, wherever we need to.
Last week our Sophie Lynne turned two. It has been two years since she came out to the world about her true gender. On her second birthday Sophie responds to a friend’s question, “And looking back on it all, would you do it the same?” Sophie admits to being happy with her decision to transition, and she credits it with keeping her alive, but would she handle it the same way? Read on and find out.
You can tell a lot about a woman by looking at her purse. Some carry small bags with everything they need organized smartly. Others have gigantic shoulder bags with other bags stuffed inside. Some women always carry the same bag with every outfit, while others coordinate their bag’s style and color to the color scheme of their attire. Today Cate O’Malley takes on the topic of bags and puts forth the criteria she has arrived at after conducting exhaustive research on what constitutes a good purse. See if you agree.
Welcome to Dina’s Diner, the down-home little place that has the nutritious and delicious dish you need to energize you through the day. Today Dina Amberle serves up a few house specials. She talks about the trans people you don’t read about everyday in the news. She harks back to the golden days of yesteryear when crossdressers kept Kodak in the film business. Then she brings out a side order of info on the makeup artist who wins Oscars for her work on screen but looks pretty drab herself. Girls in glasses do seem to get passes as we learn that there are fetishists who are turned on by trans women wearing glasses. It’s all served with Dina’s Diner secret sauce and her 5 original spices.
It’s an election year and in November the nation decides who will replace Barack Obama in the White House. There are also many congressional races up for grabs. Republicans want to put the Obama years behind them and get busy repealing everything he has done. Democrats want to elect someone who will maintain the progress and make greater headway on improving the country. Diane Hutchinson is an Independent who has voted for candidates from either party in the past. This year she is voting Democratic. Find out why.
