I was fortunate to get a seat at a private screening of an upcoming CNN movie called Lady Valor. It’s the story of Kristin Beck who was a 20 yr. Navy SEAL/veteran and is now a transgender champion for lots of different things. The screening was held in the Time Warner Building on 58th St. […]
Fiction writer and “girl on the holidays” Amanda Holiday was working on her next book when she had a revelation. Here heroine was not a girly girl, but rather a person who blended feminine and masculine aspects. After Amanda did some research she concluded that she, and her heroine, were two-spirit people. And then she began to consider the possibilities that could be explored if all humans were considered two-spirit.
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 […]
Pet Townsend wrote a song in which he claimed his wife wouldn’t wear a slit skirt. Pity poor Pete because there’s nothing sexier than a skirt that parts to show a little — or a lot — of leg. Today Tasi Zuraick writes about slit skirts. Long ones. Knee length ones, and short ones. Her advice is — get a slit skirt. Since the feeling is that most crossdressers have great legs here’s a way to show at least one of them off while maintaining a demure feeling. Check out Tasi’s take on slit skirts.
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 summertime, for those of us in the northern hemisphere, and as they say, “the livin’ is easy.” Fish are…. Sorry! Today Lorraine Anderson, proprietress of The Occasional Woman gives advice on the proper footwear for summer fashion fun. And she also has advice on foot care and what not to wear, if you’re not capable of wearing them.
“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.”
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?”
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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 […]
A few weeks ago the 2014 Trans 100 List was published. Dallas Denny looked over the List and posted an op-ed about it on her Chrysalis Quarterly website. She has graciously allowed us to re-publish it here. In their work, Brevard is GRATEFUL for the accomplishments of other activists. They ASPIRE to be the best […]
A new contributor joins us today with her perspective on what it takes to successfully transform into an acceptable, or even outstanding woman. Serena Harris is talking about transformation via makeup, hair styling and flattering attire. She feels that while many men are just to manly to dress up, those with the proper attributes can do quite well en femme.
Today Nikki Nicole asks if you think TGs are weak or strong. She asks because she’s noticed that some of the community seem to embrace the word “sissy.” Are you a sissy if you have male parts but dress up like a woman? Doesn’t it make you a strong person to face the trials that crossdressing can submit you to and isn’t it being a sissy to hide in your closet? See what Nikki thinks and read Weak or Strong?
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 — […]
Our contributor Nikki Nicole reviews a book that has just been released by another of our contributors, Catie Maye. The book is titled “Men Can Wear Dresses Too” and Catie says it “…represents not just my personal journey but a journey taken by everyone who in some way does not conform to the society definition of ‘normal.”
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.
Nikki Nicole makes a case today for members of the transgender community to not just talk the talk, but walk the walk. Or as she abbreviates it, “walk the talk.” What is her basic thesis? If you’re going to go out in public en femme then don’t dress like a hooker. Check out Nikki’s reasoning and let us know what you think of her thesis in the comment area.
As Victoria Williams says in this Video Fashion Tip, “Spring is in the air.” Soon it will be time for spring dresses, little sweaters and light jackets, before the summer heat descends and mandates cooler attire. Victoria talks about preparing for the spring season. For what you need to know don’t miss this Video Fashion Tip.
Here at TGF we use “transgender” as an umbrella term to cover a spectrum of gender variant activity and expression. The terms used are seen by some (like The Artist D!) as “labels” that aren’t helpful. Maybe concern over labels is “in the air” since Christine Burr’s latest post turns out to be about labels used in the TG world and the myths surrounding them.
Dina’s Diner 3/17/14
Dina’s Diner is serving up a heaping helping of Dina Amberle’s thoughts and rumination on items she sees in the ordinary press of this great land. She carefully plucks the items out, washes them and adds her own spices and secret sauces, transforming them into nutritious dishes for the Diner menu. See what she’s serving up today.
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