Commitments mean something. Before we make them — and promise the world to a “significant other” — we need a clear head and complete readiness to open our minds, reveal our strengths and weaknesses, and be 100% willing to do everything we can for a happy future and a fulfilling life. If we fall short […]
That was quite a discussion on TGForum a couple of weeks ago. Sparked by a mention of the controversy stirred up by RuPaul in distinguishing between drag queens and she-males it highlighted to me that even among the TG community there is not a common understanding of the terms used to describe various members of […]
Are you more ‘T’ than me? Let me ask it this way, are you more of a trans* person than I am? What started this question was a phone call I had with another transwoman who had completed her SRS ten years ago. She is well known in the local community as a resource, guide […]
It’s July already and that means that the longest running, longest duration transgender event is rapidly approaching. It’s Fantasia Fair on Cape Cod and while it doesn’t happen till mid October you know you have to plan ahead, picking out every outfit for each day’s many activities. And then you’ll need to buy more suitcases. Read a review of last year’s event and think ahead to October on Cape Cod.
“What are words for?” That’s a lyric by the L.A. band Missing Persons and it’s also the theme that Christine Burrows examines in her Dispatch From Thailand. Where to the words used to identify the TG community come from? How do they vary from culture to culture and what makes a specific term pejorative? Learn what Christine believes in “Katoey — and Other Dirty Words.”
My last article, By The Numbers … (12th May) discussed a real-life scenario in which 150 men were all wearing exactly the same outfit at their school’s annual dinner in accordance with the stipulated dress code. Dress codes are a curious contradiction. In the animal world, male pack members vie to become the “alpha” by […]
Last month our fashion guru Tasi Zuriack railed against those who love to wear women’s fashions but just buy what they see on the mannequin rather than developing their own fashion sense and style. They see it in the store, find the items the mannequin is showing and make their purchase. This month Tasi has rethought her admonition to never be a mannequin shopper. There are times when it is helpful to see what goes with what and online stores especially off ways to see what works. Today Tasi focuses on putting yourself together.
How cool is that? Isn’t really cool? We use the term “cool” an awful lot and Nikki Nicole wonders if something gets too cool does it become “cold”? And isn’t being frozen a bad thing? Yes, she can get carried away but she wonders about things. See where her thoughts on coolness lead her in “How Cool is Cold?”
How were you formed? Whatever you had to endure as a transgendered child it made you what you are today. Do you hide in the closet still? Are you out and proud? Your childhood experience influenced who you became. Today The Artist D talks about her childhood and how, after a long time, she can accept her history while now making adult choices.
Today Dee Levy offers a reality check on the nature of the controversy over drag queens using the t-word and other “objectionable” words. We thought that thing was over like last year’s hot dance track but Dee offers a good reason why the fight should not just be over — but why it’s muy importante for the drag community and the trans community to work together.
Serena Harris reviews a YouTube video of a male television reporter’s transformation is a foxy lady at a New York transformation service. Read about all the steps that take reporter Jay Miller from bearded dude to sexy red haired babe. Then watch the YouTube video right here on TGForum.
Our Babs had, as you might expect, a negative reaction to The Wall Street Journal publishing Paul McHugh’s op-ed in which he said being trans is a mental disorder. She quickly sat down and dashed off a letter to the editor of the WSJ to give them a piece of her mind but for some reason they did not chose to print her letter, so we bring it to you here.
Why do right wing conservatives express so much fear and condemnation at GLBT people? What is it that makes them think we somehow threaten them and their clean and shiny little lives? Why do they constantly equate sexual preference and non-standard gender identities with immorality and degeneracy? Today Angela Gardner takes a look at how conservatives see us.
Paul McHugh is a former Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins who denies the existence of trans as a real condition. He claims it is a disorder that is all in the mind and that transgendered people don’t deserve to have their civil rights guaranteed. He believes SRS is a waste of money and doesn’t resolve gender dysphoria. McHugh can believe what he wants but when he publishes his beliefs in a major newspaper as fact he does major harm to trans people. Dana Bevan tells us why.
Angela Gardner produces parties for trans people in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania suburbs. The party is called Angela’s Laptop Lounge. While she was covering the Trans-Health Conference at the beginning of this month Angela ran into some ladies who commented that support groups seemed to be going out of fashion as many TGs preferred to go out to bars, clubs and parties to drink. In this Op-Ed Angela examines if it’s okay to be a TG party girl.
SF writer Robert Heinlein once wrote “TANSTAAFL.” That’s an acronym that means “Theres ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.” Even if the bar you are going to has a sign up saying that you get a free lunch with your drinks, you’re still paying for the lunch. Most things in life have to be paid for sometime, by somebody. Today Sophie tells you what she has paid for what she has gained by going full-time in her true gender.
It’s summertime, summertime and Lorraine Anderson, proprietor of The Occasional Woman, has some tips for your summer attire. Follow her guidelines put forth in this post and spend your summer in fashionable comfort. Ignore her words and be prepared for the consequences. Lorraine says “If it doesn’t fit, you must toss it.” Read on for more words of fashion wisdom from The Occasional Woman.
Dallas Denny has allowed us to republish a piece she posted on her Chrysalis website. While she has not read the book she has skimmed it and found evidence that “Gender Hurts” is not an actual scholarly work on transgender issues but instead a book with an anti-trans agenda. It is very similar, but better written, to another work published over 30 years ago that claimed transsexuals were a plot to replace biological women.
Our correspondent in Thailand has filed another report. In this one Christine Burr says that because generally speaking the Thai people have liberal attitudes toward trans people you will find ladyboys all over the place. They work in hair salons, shops and restaurants, and of course in cabaret shows aimed at the tourists. Does it indicate that ladyboys are movin’ on up?
Many crossdressers fear once their wives (70% of them) find out that you are under-dressing or dressing en femme secretly, their marriages will fail. If you want her trust in you or in your marriage — know that the TRUTH is essential and it will take time for her to even begin to make sense out […]
Everyone should learn to read. That’s a given. But in The Artist D’s world it’s what you read that helps you learn who you are. How many of us struggled through the books we were supposed to read in school? The books that didn’t speak to us about things that were important to us, not to educators attempting to provide a well rounded education? That’s why The Artist D thinks the Reading Rainbow program should add some more colors. See if you concur.
In Part One, I noted that to “pass” as a woman is both artful and propitious: propitious and artful in that with the right face and body, combined with skill in “doing” one’s face and taste in picking the best wigs and feminine attire/acessories, many CDs look more attractive, feminine, ladylike, sexy, pretty, lovely, stylish, […]
Our Sophie Lynne has taken the big step and begun living full time as a woman. Today she tells us what it is that helped her make it through the tough, dark moments and got her to where she’s at today — living as who she is, not who others want her to be. What is it that sustains her and keep her moving forward on her gender journey? There’s a clue in the title of her post.
The new play by Harvey Fierstein, “Casa Valentina,” as most everyone knows, is based on the real Casa Susanna. In the 1960s Virginia Prince attended a weekend gathering there to promote her idea for the Society for the Second Self. The play is a fascinating look into the transgender experience of the early ’60s and it is based on a book of photographs taken at Casa Susanna. In this article Dallas Denny reveals who took most of those photographs and how they ended up inspiring Harvey Fierstein to write “Casa Valentina.”
Nothing is quite as sexy as a sheer see-through blouse, but pulling it off so you look sophisticated too is another trick, and one rarely easy for the average crossdresser. Yet the sheer blouse can be the key element for a perfect feminine and elegant outfit. Wearing the blouse on Girls Night Out is easy, […]
The waters of controversy, we all know about water, and about controversy. They are both irrefutable. One we can see — the water; the other one — the controversy we swear we can see but it’s not physical, not like a statue or a chair. We feel it; controversy — it invades our psyche, quickens […]
