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?”
It’s all about the music! The TG music that is. Today Pamela DeGroff brings you music from the California drag band Pepperspray. Three tracks from their last EP are available on Soundcloud and Pamela reviews them and embeds them for your listening pleasure. Then she interviews genderqueer musician and songwriter Angela Bucky Motter and provides a mini-review of a band you may be listening to on the radio soon, Rixton. And you can watch Rixton’s music video, too. Perpetual Change — it’s all about the music!
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.
Occasionally our Linda likes to go away on vacation to be Linda full time. She enjoys doing the same thing her male ego would do ( golf, hiking and sunbathing) with one exception. She enjoys dating men. Today she conducts and in-depth interview with herself to find out what happened on her latest vacation.
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.
You are packing for a long weekend en femme and you realize that you’re going to need a whole separate suitcase to carry all the shoes you simply must bring to go with every perfect outfit. It’s been an unavoidable fashion burden for years. Now there’s a solution to this fashion burden. They’re called High Pheels and they offer women, and other devoted wearers of women’s fashions, a simple way to change their shoes by just changing the covering using High Pheels “skins.” Read on and learn more.
The best kept secret TG conference in the country happened last week in Philadelphia, Pa. The 13th Annual Trans-Health Conference brought a diverse mix of trans people together at the Pennsylvania Convention Center for workshops, seminars and keynote addresses from Harper Jean Tobin and Janet Mock. You’ve never hear of the Trans-Health Conference? Read on and learn about it so you’ll be ready next year.
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.
Christine-Jane has been commenting on the crossdressing lifestyle for years. First appearing in trans-magazines and newsletters before there was an Internet, she now comes to TGForum to skewer crossdresser foibles and fears with her pens and pencils. If the ladies in her cartoons seem familiar it’s because they are. We’ve all either met them or been them. Today CJ presents another of those situations we only wish we’d been in when we were young.
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.
It’s Pride Month and in honor of that Coco Peru has made her first music video for a song entitled Show Me Your Pride. Long time fans and followers of Coco know that she has spent years perfecting the stage persona and comedic character of Coco. A music video is new territory for her, but you’d never know […]
If you’ve done any research into transgender history you know that there were other people who changed their gender prior to the sensation caused when Christine Jorgensen did it in 1952. Today we present part one of a two part article on Christine Jorgensen’s impact on the world written by Kristina Mayhem. Ms. Mayhem feels that Jorgensen was the most important TG ever. Give her article a read and see if you agree.
David de Alba not only impersonates Judy Garland (as he will be doing on June 22 at The Oynx Theatre in Las Vegas), he collects her, too. David’s Judy Garland collection is extensive and shows his devotion to Miss Garland. He has memorabilia from all portions of Garland’s career, including a pair of her pumps. […]
From the plays of Shakespeare to Charlie’s Aunt, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Kinky Boots and Casa Valentina, drag has a grand tradition in the theater. This year that was quite apparent at The 68th Annual Tony Awards. There were several actors playing women or crossdressers/TGs and one woman who won for her portrayal of a drag king.
Today Tasi Zuriack asks if you’re a “mannequin shopper.” What’s that? It’s someone who goes into a store and shops by reacting to what she sees on the mannequins. If it looks good on the plastic female form at the store then they think it will look good on them and they do the impulse buy. Tasi has some tips on how to avoid being a reaction shopper, and a word about scary mannequins that may be watching your every move. Shades of Dr. Who!
It’s been one of those periods. Allow a correction, it’s been another one of those periods. Maybe you’ve experienced it; uncertainty followed by questioning followed by another layer of uncertainty. Yes, you know about it? You’re a charter member of the club? Or no, what are you Nikki some kind of crazy twilight zone citizen? […]
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.
