It’s only words. But words can break apart a community that needs to stand together against ignorance. Divisions over who gets to use the word “transgender” as a gender identity descriptor are still around in the transgender community. Do crossdressers get to call themselves “transgender”? That’s the question Angela Gardner comments on in this op-ed.
Do you know what a “trap” is? It’s a biological male who takes photos dressed as a female and posts them on social networking photo sites. The idea is to fool men into believing they are females. Who knew? Dina Amberle knew and she tells you about that today along with news about former Playboy Bunnies, harnesses, and a runner-up in Brazil’s Miss Bum Bum contest who paid a price for her vanity. Find it all in Dina’s Diner!
The recent suicide of a young trans woman who was faced with total rejection of her gender from her parents has caused a stir across the world. No one should have to believe that only ending it all will give them peace. While many call for more education and more support for trans teens The Artist D says it’s not that simple and other things will be required to stop people from ending their lives.
Sophie Lynne has been living as a woman full time for nine months. Today she pauses to reflect on what, after facing several challenges in the past year, she can expect in the new year. What will 2015 hold for her? Learn what she imagines things will be like in this essay titled “Now What?”
Before you can choose flattering femme attire you must first learn your body type. A dress that looks fabulous on a slim hipped body can look disastrous on a pear shaped body. Today Victoria Williams talks about how to figure out your body type so you can choose the best fashions to flatter your figure.
For those that read my columns, you’ll know that I advocate some rules and guidelines to help us look our best as we don’t go through the fashion experimentation stage that most young girls do. Many of us come to dressing late in life and our fashion sense is, well, lacking to be frank. I’ve […]
When she’s looking for the ingredients to cook up a good Dina’s Diner column our Dina Amberle visits many media outlets on the Web and digs out the tastiest bits. She adds her own special spices and sauce and mixes, kneads, bakes and broils it to create the final delight. Today she has menu choices that include; What do S&M practitioners think of CIA torture? Inappropriate prom dresses, the erotic power of a leather mini, and a guy who wants to look like Kim Kardashian. Bon appetite!
In the 1960s scientists launched a quest to contact other intelligent life in the universe. (Some would say we have yet to discover intelligent life on Earth, but that’s another article entirely.) The scientists were hopeful that not only would extra-terrestrials be discovered but that we might communicate with them and one day meet them. To that end a binary code was created that contained information about us. In light of how humans can’t seem to get along with humans (Oh no Madge, it’s a man in a dress!) Graham Holmes has devised a more appropriate message for E.T.
You can always count on The Artist D to provide a counter viewpoint to almost anything in life. Today she lines up opposite the cheery, happy and bright universe to praise rainy days and dreary nights. But don’t assume it’s just doom and gloom. There’s a little gleam of light poking out a bit from behind the dark clouds. Give it and read and learn just what it is.
Recent changes in the military have given some hope that the estimated 15,000 plus trans soldiers will be able to serve openly in the near future. Is it reasonable to assume that since a few signs of progress have been seen that the services will quickly change their transgender policy? Babs Casbar Siperstein takes a look at the progress made.
As a trans woman coming to femininity later in life there are plenty of things that Cate O’Malley is finding frustrating about her new femme lifestyle. Shoe shopping for male feet was simple. Not so with shoe shopping as a lady. And why can you try on two dresses, both the same size, and have one that hangs off your body and one so tight you can’t zip it up? Cate has other things too that make her say “I don’t get it!”
Too often people on this Earth who claim to be religious and pious are instead intolerant and show bias. The worst of the religious right don’t just condemn LGBT people to Hell for being who they are. They want to put LGBT in Hell by having them executed. This is not just a trait of radical Islamists, or of Christian sects in Africa. Today Meggan Sommerville points to two “ministers” who preach hate.
(Bala Cynwyd, PA) Dr. Sherman Leis, founder of The Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery, one of the leading resources for transgender surgery and medical support in the United States, has identified 10 important trends that will affect America and its transgender community in 2015. “Although society has made a great deal of progress for the […]
Sophie Lynne welcomes the holiday season with this post. She discusses greed and giving. While the greed part makes it hard to stay on a positive note Sophie manages to veer away from greed and the materialism that seems to plague the season. She suggests an excellent way to give to your brothers and sisters that is special at this time of year. And she manages to work in a shameless plug for Angela’s Laptop Lounge. Now that’s the spirit of giving.
Dina Amberle has been working on a pot of stew to serve at Dina’s Diner and here it is for your edification and enjoyment. Today she mixed in several ingredients including how boys are discouraged from wearing feminine Halloween costumes; powerful women are relaxing about dressing more femme; high heels are sexy, and a dash of corsetry for spice. Stop into the Diner and get your fill.
A recent interaction with a group of ladyboys got Christine Burr thinking about transgenderism. The women were modeling wedding dresses at an event promoting various wedding salons to prospective brides. Christine started talking to them about what it means to be a ladyboy in Thailand. After listening to them and ruminating on transgenderism in general she has come to some conclusions.
The Transgender Day of Remembrance is this coming Thursday and Babs Casbar Siperstein blogs about the event and the its significance to the transgender community as a whole. It’s not just about hate crimes against trans people. The violence we suffer is indicative of a pervasive atmosphere of discrimination against trans people in employment, housing and civil rights. Read what Babs has to say about the progress we’ve made and the progress that is still needed.
Can trans people really go home for the holidays? They can but do they then limit themselves to the role their family insists on seeing them in? Even if they are “out” to their family do they still have to “tone it down” or be more demure? The holidays always bring stress and if a trans person’s family is just “putting up” with their trans relative can we really expect to have happy holidays? The Artist D has some advice for the approaching holiday season.
November 20 is the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Every year when November rolls around Linda Jensen thinks of a trans woman she met while on vacation in California. She was an aerospace technician and she told Linda she was on the road to living full-time in her chosen gender role. They stayed in touch now and then but after no communication for awhile Linda saw her friend’s name in the newspaper.
We welcome Sirena Rivera as a TGForum Contributor. Sirena was at Fantasia Fair 2014 last month and she promised to write something for us about her experience there. It took her s few weeks to get settled down from the feelings of liberation and peace that she found there so it’s taken till now for her to share her report with us.
In the movie, The Matrix, Morpheus offers Neo two pills. If he takes the Blue Pill, he goes back to his former life, never knowing anything other than what life was like before. Taking the Red Pill, however, will show him the truth about the world he lives in and he will forever be changed. […]
Ooooo kids, it’s almost Halloween! That’s scary enough but Dina Amberle finds going out for the first time in drag to an event with your family or co-workers to be really, really scary. She what advice she has on what to do for Halloween, along with her thoughts on an opera singer who gave up her career, Jimmy Choo going public and big butts. It’s all part of the delicious mix that can only be found at Dina’s Diner.
If you have had something for ever and it’s just a fact that you will always have it does it sometimes seem the thing you have loses its value over the years? Does something that is taken for granted and assumed to be an entitlement just become part of the background of life and nothing special? It seems that way to The Artist D who had to go to the marriage license office and found that the concept of marriage may be in the taken for granted category for straight people but gays and lesbians are giving it a shot in the arm.
Our young CD contributor has been experimenting with online dating. (Sorry fellas, she’s looking for a lady to love.) For the past three months she has been trying to find the right woman to share her life with. Today she shares some of the things she has learned about looking for love on the World Wide Web. And we have a slideshow of Chanelle giving her impression of a typical “girl next door.”
You may have heard the phrase “less is more.” It means that sometimes the less you work on something trying to perfect it the more effective your efforts can be. Too many notes can ruin a piece of music. Too much color can destroy a painting. Sometimes too much makeup and tight sexy clothing can make you the focus of attention but a bit less artifice can make you be seen as another woman in the room. Victoria Williams talks about how less artifice can be more effective.
Are you happy that The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders–5 changed “gender identity disorders” to “gender dysphoria”? If you feel that that is a big win for trans people you should read this post from Dana Bevan. It seems that the DSM is in Bevan’s words “a sham.” It’s not HIPAA compliant and it has become irrelevant to the mental health professions. What we need to change is the ICD. What’s the ICD? Let Dana explain it to you.
