Every week we make more progress in acceptance of trans people and more and more localities amend their human rights anti-discrimination laws to add protections for trans people. But while this goes on in the legislative bodies and the courts are charged with enforcement we still hear of incidents of violence and discrimination against us. What can we do to change that? Dana Bevan believes we need to work harder at changing our culture. Today she tells you how.
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!
“I wanted to be like my mom. I admired her when she was doing all her woman’s things and I admired her woman’s paraphernalia equally. Until this point, nothing to be surprised about, I guess pretty common for every little girl. I might have been four years old and she ignored it. She didn’t want […]
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.
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.
A good dress is a dress that flatters your figure. No one wants to wear a dress that makes them appear bigger in the middle but the wrong choice of fabric can do that. What might otherwise be a charming frock becomes an infernal device that adds the illusion of extra poundage where it’s definitely not needed. Today Lorraine Anderson talks about using fabric in the correct manner to enhance your glamor, not your waistline or shoulders.
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.
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.
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.
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. […]
Halloween can be a major turning point for trans people. Whether you fall on the crossdressing end of the spectrum or are more toward the transsexual end often times a TG person’s first time out of their closet in feminine attire, or masculine attire for FtMs, is Halloween. It’s the perfect time to try out the identity you’ve been longing to express. This month Sophie Lynne does some wondering about Halloween.
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.
There is the fashion faux pas, the mistake, or the wrong choice but then there is the fashion disaster. These often occur when people listen to fashion “experts” and try to make something work that will not work with their particular body type. Or size. Our professional costumer Lorraine Anderson of The Occasional Woman discusses a few fashion “tips” and trends that can make you look like a fashion disaster.
While it’s great to have fun when you’re out and about crossdressed it’s important to be careful. There’s the obvious factor that you’re dressed as a woman and being perceived as female. That opens you to problems from predatory males. Then there’s the worry that you’re not “passing” and someone will get out of line. But the threat our anonymous contributor writes about is one you can easily fix. It’s okay to party but know when to switch from alcohol to soda. Let her experience be your guide.
Pattaya, the beach resort in Thailand, has its share of ladyboys. Most of them are trying to better themselves and get legitimate jobs but there are only so many spots in show biz. Other’s are hoping to meet that wealthy foreign gentleman and move out of Thailand live as his wife. While that does happen from time to time the more likely ending is one of prostitution and crime. Christine Burr takes you on a visit to Pattaya today.
Graham Holmes’ post in which he advocated being totally out about crossdressing as the only way that CDs will ever get their rights inspired our Canadian correspondent to investigate why people choose to “stay in the closet.” It can be a bit cramped in the closet but to some hiding their crossdressing is a lifestyle they’ve perfected over years. Can you actually come to enjoy hiding a major part of your essential nature? See what Linda and a friend named Donna have to say.
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….
(Philadelphia, PA) – The transgender community celebrated the groundbreaking U.S. Government’s recognition of gender dysphoria and its coverage of transgender surgery under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). However, as the law begins to be implemented and real transgender people attempt to use its coverage, they are starting to discover its acute limitations, even to the […]
Fifteen years ago Graham Holmes put aside his femme persona and came out to everyone, including his employer, that he was just a bloke who needed to wear feminine clothing. In his mind attempts to “pass” as a woman or “blend in” as a woman by employing wigs, padding and makeup were misguided and crossdressers would never be accepted unless they came out in the open. TG support groups in England opposed Graham’s ideas. Where have their ideas gotten CDs?
