For trans people who come out later in life it is hard from them to explain to friends and family why, after all the years, they now feel the need to express another gender. Since people who are totally comfortable in their birth gender feel no unease or have any problems related to their gender they often put it down to someone’s mid-life crisis. And then they may suggest….
“And the seasons they go ’round and ’round, and the painted ponies go up and down.” Today Sophie Lynne muses on the way the world works, and in particular what the season we are approaching swiftly means. Sophie has a birthday this month and birthdays do have a way of making a person think about the past, the future, and the seasons.
Last month Chris Burr met a young lady named Jira who told her about her life as a ladyboy. This month Jira is excited because she has gotten a new job. She will be working in a ladyboy cabaret with some of her friends. Today Christine introduced you to them and talks with them and Jira about Jira’s new show business careers.
Some time in the early nineties when I was living a stealth female life and exploring my true gender with my late wife, and with other middle age middle class couples in which the husband was transgender, I became aware of a controversy that was occurring in the summer wilds and woods of Michigan. The Michigan […]
“Coming out” has become a big deal. Every day some athlete, actor or model “comes out” as this or that. You knew the trend was, well, trending, when they created a magazine about “coming out.” Today The Artist D asks what’s the big deal about coming out? D has been out since she picked up a dolly at age 3 instead of going for the bulldozer. You can’t have a deep dark secret if everyone knows. Give her post a read and see what The Artist D thinks about “coming out.”
Transgender children now have new opportunities to express their biological gender predisposition. Both social transition and puberty delay are now recognized as appropriate options for some transgender children. This represents a change in the guidelines set by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), which sets standards for medical and mental health treatment of […]
It’s all about the process. Sophie’s column today, that is. She begins with an exposition of how she writes (throwing in some deserved praise for her editor) and then applies that process to the process of becoming ones true self. See how she does it by reading her article. And be impressed by the outstanding cleavage photo she chose to illustrate the article.
“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.”
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.
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? […]
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?
If you have been following Linda Jensen’s column you know young Jason revealed to his grandfather, Martin, that he knew about Martin’s past dallying in transvestism and rather than being shocked he had actually copied grand dad and enjoyed the stimulation of feminine lingerie. After having a full makeover Martin left Jazzy at the Parliament House night club where admirer Steve took an immediate interest in her. Find out what happened next.
Full time work is increasingly hard to find as corporations send American jobs overseas tax free without caring about the fallout this does to their country, just so their stockholders can make an extra dollar or two. This outrage was supported by… What? Oh. Sorry Angela. You meant Full Time as a WOMAN. *puts away […]
Continuing on from my last column, where I looked at some of the (many) labels often attached to people from within our community, let’s now look at some of the key myths we are plagued with. Coupling labels and myths together, it’s no wonder that we are grossly misunderstood by the public at large — […]
Dr. Dana Bevan has a confession to make. For fifty years she identified as a non-transsexual transgendered person. And as such she kept her TG feelings and desires hidden. She concentrated on service to her country and things stayed that way until the end of the cold war. That’s when her identity had to change and she realized she was a transsexual person. That’s when she also came to feel that no TS should put down non-TS TGs.
In 2001 David de Alba reconnected with former Finocchio’s star impersonator Holly White. After leaving that premier San Francisco nightclub Holly had gender reassignment surgery, continued to perform in venues in Europe and the USA and has settled down in her hometown state, Hawaii. David talks to her about her history from Finocchio’s to now.
Today we say farewell to someone we first got to know several years ago. But we are not sad because his departure has opened the door for the full time existence of Sophie Lynne. Today is the last day the departing male will be around. On Tuesday Sophie begins her new life, full time, with no net. How did she get to this point? She tells all in her post today.
Grayson Perry, also known as “The Transvestite Potter,” has been in the UK news recently after being invited to Buckingham Palace to receive a CBE from Prince Charles. He wore a blue Italian “Mother of the Bride” outfit for the occasion, with a hat so large that the Prince couldn’t get the medal over his […]
Many people in the transgender community view their lives as journeys on a road that leads to another life in a different gender. Others reach a mile marker that feels like home and there they stay. Some go so far but then head back to just a little farther along than where they started. Sophie Lynne is a long way down the road. In Metaphor Fair she tells you how she feels, in blank verse.
Just when the mainstream media is getting used to the term “transgender” and we’re able to start issuing fewer TWIT Awards to newspapers and websites for their misuse or non-use of the word The Artist D let’s us know that there’s a new word they’ll need to become familiar with. It’s lurking in the shadows now. It can be heard on college campuses and other places where nuanced reasoning crops up. What’s the word? Genderqueer.
Since no one has any idea of why transgendered people exist, other than we are born that way, there are theories that circulate. One of them is that while in the womb a fetus is subjected to “baths” of hormones and too much of one or too little of another gives the child masculine or feminine gender mapping in their brain. The hormone theory is based on research that you may find shocking, and Dr. Dana Bevan says it is just plain wrong.
Many moons ago, I wrote a column about Labels in the TG Community. Crossdresser, Full time, post op, all the different divisions that comprise the wide TG tapestry. Back then, I railed against these artificial divisions. Back then, I said we should all be one community and not undermine each other. Back then, I didn’t […]
Many of us live in fear. Everything from fear of missing a bus to fear of being mugged; fear of paying too much for something or fear of being outed as a crossdresser or TG. All of these fears exist and sometimes, like the one about being outed, the fears can repress us and dominate us. They can keep us from being who we really are. Sophie Lynne has been facing her fears. Today she tells us about them and tells us a secret about fighting fear.
Our correspondent in Thailand had an opportunity to get together with old friends and talk about this, that and the other thing. The “other thing” that came up was how they were all living parallel lives, being successful males in one life and secretly (or mostly secretly) expressing their feminine sides. Meet Marc, Trevor and Roland and see if they sound like your long lost sisters.
Don’t you find you have a tendency to see transgendered people everywhere? Look at that woman over there. Isn’t she a bit tall? That jawline is a bit heavy, don’t you think? Well, large hand. Do you suppose? It’s an easy practice to fall into and when we spot someone we think is TG we want to somehow let them know that we know and that it’s okay because we’re TG too. But it doesn’t always work out.
Most crossdressers understand that the women they are attracted to may not be interested, or even revolted, by the idea of dating a crossdressing male. So the majority of CDs keep it on the down low and do not tell potential partners that they have an advanced feminine side. This often ends up with the woman they do partner with having an image in her mind of her man. One that does not match the whole man, and that leads to problems. Get a woman’s perspective on this male image, with a bit of help from Tasi.
