Researching to Help Others

Jennifer Braly

I really had no idea what to write for this week’s article. Originally I was going to continue our conversation from the last time, but I have been through a lot in the past month that made me change my mind. I have been working with this transsexual MtF on how to come out of the closet to her family. She lives in Africa and has a very conservative Christian family. Well good news for her is that she came to the right person. People come in and out of our lives for various reasons, and some are just put in our path by destiny that we might help them.

I have been researching transsexualism for over 3 years now. I’ve got bookmark folders where I keep different links and I have folders on my hard drive with downloaded PDF files. When she got enough courage to ask me for help; I was ready to help her. I went through my biological and medical research on transsexualism so she would have some good solid medical evidence to present to her mom. Then I looked for anything I had on coming out stories and sent those PDF files. Then she said all this stuff is good but it doesn’t help me because my family is conservative Christian. Ding, ding, ding! She came to the right person! I have extensively researched this as I also come from a Christian family. For spiritual peace a transsexual sometimes has to reconcile their faith with their spiritual background.

I was ready and eager to send her stuff. I sent research on the early Eunuch Churches, which were castrated males. This was essentially the earliest form of transsexualism. Some eunuchs were gay, some were lesbians and dressed as women and lived with women in the women harems. They didn’t have the technology we have today to fashion a vagina out of a penis. Full castration leaving only a pee hole was as close as they could get. I sent her everything I had on eunuchs in the early church. The Catholic Church used to castrate boys before puberty just so the boys would end up with a more angelic voice for their choirs. They were known as the Castrati. There even used to be a ritual for same sex marriage in the early church. I sent this to her as well. All in all I think I sent her a total of 30 documents and/or links to sites to help her.

My advice is if you want to be a good activist; It’s not only knowing what you’re talking about, as I discussed in the last article, but also keeping up your research on various transgender or transsexual topics with organized folders. That will benefit you greatly. On every question my African friend asked I had already researched it for my own benefit and saved the research. I was able to find the resources she needed very quickly. The research was already done. All I had to do was weed out what wouldn’t really help her and send what would be most beneficial.

So if you’re going to be an activist — whether it’s TG/TS/TV or just LGBTQ in general — having a bunch of resources on hand gives you an advantage. A warrior doesn’t go into battle without armor, a weapon, and some type of shield. An activist needs the same thing — research is your weapon, and sometimes your shield. Your armor is your strength and determination not to back down. If someone throws you a curve ball and you’re not quite sure how to respond then say “give me a day or two and I’ll have an answer for you.” Then go research and don’t stop till you find an answer cause the answers are out there — you just have to look for them the right way. With Google you may need to reword your search to get what you want. Search with synonyms or ask a completely different question. For example I was doing research on the Biological Theory of transgenderism. That was my first search then I switched transgenderism for transsexualism. After that I switched Genetic out for Biological, and after that I switched Medical out for Genetic. Every time I changed just one word different links came up in the search. I was able to get exactly the information I needed to make a good Biological Theory case if I had too, and hwhile elping my friend in Africa all this research came in very handy.

Till next time I wish you all happy researching and may it make you a stronger and wiser activist!

Peace Out!
TransJen

Tags: Activist, featured, Transgender, Transsexual

Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender Politics