“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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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? […]
No, we are not talking about Top Gun or 12 O’clock High, we are talking about the tendency of transgender people to join the military. It is well documented that transgender people join the military at about twice the rate of the United States general population. Understanding of why transgender people are attracted to the […]
Our Sophie Lynne has taken the big step and begun living full time as a woman. Today she tells us what it is that helped her make it through the tough, dark moments and got her to where she’s at today — living as who she is, not who others want her to be. What is it that sustains her and keep her moving forward on her gender journey? There’s a clue in the title of her post.
A film maker in Britain has launched a Kickstarter campaign to finance his film about a trans sex worker who begins her journey to self acceptance after she intervenes to save a homeless child from a dangerous situation on the streets of London. Award winning freelance writer and director Paul Frankl has written Roxanne, a […]
How do you live day in and out, year after year, decade after decade as a closeted crossdresser, or a transgender? Your minds must be consumed of being continuously ‘on guard,’ making sure your wife or significant other does not find out what you have CHOSEN to hide from her. Though you did not choose […]
In my last blog post I expressed concern about actual and perceived transphobia in the State of New Hampshire, a state with all sorts of gay and lesbian rights including Marriage Equality, but without codified basic protections for transgender people. I received an update this week from former New Hampshire state legislator Mo Baxley — […]
A lot has been written in the clinical literature showing that transgender males grow up to be gay. This has been echoed in the popular literature as well. Many parents panic and take their children into the clinic if they see signs of transgender behavior in their children. Ethical therapists will provide supportive counseling for […]
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 — […]
As the transgender world is dug into like an Alaskan snow drift it’s revealing all sorts of things to the world. The community is opening up to a world of questions from the media. With every positive outing there is always a negative shadow lurking somewhere in some other article. I see so much negativity […]
The Keystone Conference in Harrisburg, Pa. is recent history. Our Sophie Lynne was there, with a new hair-do, and she has filed a report on the much anticipated weekend. She couldn’t be everywhere at once so she missed some of the goings on but what she does manage to do very well is give a feeling of the event.
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.
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.
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.
(Bala Cynwyd, PA USA) – Acclaimed transgender surgeon and founder of The Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery, Dr. Sherman Leis, has recently returned from the WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Surgery) Symposium in Bangkok, Thailand. While in attendance at the Symposium, themed Transgender Health from Global Perspectives, Dr. Leis was able to share thoughts […]
Humans are born into a world and taught by label. A is for apple and B is for Butterfly. We grow up identifying things by which they were taught to us. O is for orange, P is for penis and Q is for queer. There are compartments for everyone and everything. The society created by […]
Dee Levy feels that there are transgendered women who don’t tell their wives the “whole truth” when they start to open up about their true nature but opt to ease into it by identifying as a crossdresser. Then the wives are confused when their husband starts to look more and more feminine. Then Dee has to break the news when they visit The Cross Dressers’ Wives Forum.
In her last post on TGF Linda told readers about a life-long CD named Mary who put her femme stuff away to host her grandson for a few weeks to help him get his life on track. Imagine Mary’s surprise when her grandson started asking questions about crossdressing, then reveals that he would like to dress up. Mary decides to help and today we learn what transpires.
Do prenatal testosterone levels cause transgender behavior? Is MTF transgenderism caused by low prenatal testosterone levels and FTM transgenderism caused by levels that are too high. The Prenatal Testosterone Theory of Transgenderism was developed by some East German scientists in an effort to please their socialist and Soviet masters during the 1960’s that recommended that […]
