Chrissy Gann devotes today’s Butterfly Chronicle to her own progress in transition and then goes on to acknowledge the contributions to transgender visibility and and rights by those who came before. For a short course on the progress of trans people in modern times be sure to take a look. You may find validation and inspiration in what Chrissy has written.
Our social correspondent Lynda Martini is back with us today. Since no one has a social life now, at least in the real world, she has submitted a blog that reports on her recent gender confirmation surgery. She has some “interesting facts” about what to expect when you have your GCS, and lays them out in nine points.
Today a reader asks Amanita how to handle coming out as transgender to a longtime friend. The friend has made transphobic statements from time to time and the reader is afraid that when they come out they will be rejected. See what Amanita counsels in this edition of Ask Amanita.
Claire Hall is a county commissioner in Lincoln County, Oregon. She was first elected to that position in 2004. She transitioned on the job about two years ago. Now she is faced with a campaign to keep her job for a fifth term. Two people with no government experience have decided to run against her, and while she is confident that her record will assure her of a win she is noticing a rise in the amount of people on social media who are starting to say nasty things about her.
Welcome our new Contributor Jaelle Terrell. Jaelle has submitted some trans fiction for your entertainment. It’s the story of a trans woman who had given up on romance. She was content with her life after transition but thought that no one would be interested in a woman like her. That all changed starting on the day she was late to meet a friend and ran into, literally, Mr. Johnson.
As a woman who has been around for awhile Sophie has seen it all before. Today she writes about history repeating itself in the case of a married crossdresser who hides her “hobby” from her wife and family. This person only gets to express her feminine side when her wife and kids are away, or she is somewhere out of town. Sophie sees this person becoming more and more frustrated about the lack of time she has to express herself, but she worries that if her wife ever learned about what she does that would be an instant divorce.
Lynda Martini is caught up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. She has parties to attend, including a gala event at the Curtis Center where she wore a gown, Christmas cards to write and, old friends to inform about the big change in her life. Lynda is scheduled to undergo gender confirmation surgery in February so this will be her last column till after she has recovered. Today she writes about those old friends, what she plans to tell them and, on another topic, why she didn’t win the ugly sweater contest at work.
Meet Philadelphia attorney Kristine Holt. She is our newest contributor and will be writing about transgender legal issues. Today she expounds further on the subject of how to change your legal name. Future columns will cover other legal matters of interest to the transgender community.
Lynda writes a lot today covering her plans for the holiday season, the effects of taking hormones, how she feels about her scheduled gender confirmation surgery, what sort of life partner she is drawn toward, and what it’s like being an older lady at a younger queer women’s event. It’s pure Lynda Martini seasoned with some good old ‘80s rock. Check in today and see where Lynda is at on her gender journey.
Since her transition Claire Hall’s life has been good. But she also looks back on the years she kept her true self suppressed and mourns for the little girl who didn’t have the chance to grow to a teen and then become a confident young woman. Those past selves only existed inside her head. Read her thoughts in this post.
Our lady out and about, Lynda Martini, files a report on her latest adventures. From meeting a guy who she clicks with and going on dates with him, to attending a lesbian happy hour mixer with her bestie, Lynda is on the move in the Philly social scene. Give her latest report a read for insights into what life is like for a trans lady on the move.
As the summer winds down some of Lynda Martini’s social whirl slows and she takes time in this post to look back over how she started her transgender journey. As in many tales of the transgendered Lynda’s begins when her marriage ends. Then, on her own, she began to dress up at home. After doing that for awhile she realized she needed to go further. As in out the door and into the world.
Like many in the trans community, when Sophie’s need to express her feminine nature finally pushed her to begin exploration of her desires she found that the box in the basement labelled “boxed games” was no longer going to hold the things related to becoming Sophie. For one thing she felt a constant concern that the box would, for some unexplained reason, be opened by someone she didn’t want learning what was inside, and for another thing her latest purchase, a large pair of silicone breast forms, would not even fit inside the box. So she took the next step — renting a storage space. Today she writes about bidding that space goodbye, as she moves on in life.
Claire Hall counts herself as lucky as she was able to transition from male to female, keep her job and most of her friends and associates. But she realizes that it’s not that easy for many people and while transition might be the difference between living and dying, transition might also be a death sentence for some. For others it could at least lead to a more miserable existence. It all leads her to ask is being transgender a blessing or a curse?
Lynda goes to a mainstream charity gala, reports on her online dating experiment, and updates us on what she’s reading. She also tells you what her favorite new sport is. Hint: It’s one that allows the wearing of a very short skirt. She also wears a beautiful gown. What has she been up to? Dig into Lynda’s adventures for the past few weeks in The Secret Diary of a Transgender Woman.
Today Claire wonders how other people who have transitioned remember or thing about their former gender-selves. Do they never want to think about that missing person? Are they willing to talk to friends they have maintained through the change about the person they used to be? Claire knows how she answers those questions. Give her blog a read to see how she deals with the missing man.
It’s been seventeen months since Claire started her transition. In that time she has lost two hundred pounds, had over 150 hours of electrolysis, slowly ramped up hormone therapy, and had a little filler and Botox in her face. It’s been expensive and painful at times but she is pleased, and more than slightly amazed at the results she has achieved. Her friends say she looks twenty years younger. Read all about Claire’s changes during the past seventeen months in today’s blog post.
Thoughts of mortality begin to appear the older one gets. Your mind can wander down paths where you begin to think about what your lasting impression on the universe will be, or just wonderwhat will happen to all your “stuff.” We accumulate a great deal of “things in the course of a lifetime. What will happen to those thins, our stuff, when we’ve left? And, for transgender people, “who” will be remembered by those left behind? Will it be the person who expressed their true gender for part of their life or will it be the old persona the closed the door on? Sophie muses on all that in today’s blog, Momento Mori.
Dana Bevan follows up on a couple of stories she previously reported on in her blog. One is the fallout from the paper by Dr. Lisa Littman purporting to prove that Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria is a thing, and is being caused by kids following trends and experiencing peer pressure to claim they are transgender. The second is the rise in stories about “transgender regret” or “detransitioning.” The conservative media latches onto any story about a transgender person transitioning and then having regrets and going back to their birth gender. Dana has facts to refute those claims.
Within the past decade or so the transgender community has moved out of the shadows to take a place in the spotlight. Thirty years ago men who wore women’s clothing were thought to be gay. Women who dressed as men were viewed as butch lesbians. And all of us were thought of as perverts and possibly child molesters by the majority of the nation. But thanks to concerted efforts by trans activist the real truth about transgender people began to emerge. From weekend support group meetings to the legislatures of several states the transgender journey has marched on. Today Claire Hall asks herself the question, Why Wait? She waited for many years to fully express her true self. Of course there is still resistance to acceptance of trans people and there are haters out there for sure. What kept Claire in her closet till just this past year?
Amanda wasn’t fitting in in California. She had anxiety and depression almost every day. She missed the East Coast and her family. It was particularly hard during the holidays. At the urging of her online friends she decided to finally take another big step in her life and head back east. Now she is living in Baltimore, thinking about looking for a job and beginning to think that her life is just a dream. A bad dream, and she can’t wake up.
It’s been nine months since Claire Hall came out to the world as a woman. In that time she has learned a lot about her gender and about being a woman. Today she wonders if maybe her joy at the simple things like hairdos, makeup, clothes and all the other “feminine” accoutrements might seem shallow, and perhaps taking pleasure from compliments on those things might be a mistake. But then, maybe she’s just overthinking.
Lynda Martini has gone through round one of feminization surgery and is now a “silicone sistah”as she puts it. Just a few weeks ago she had facial feminization and breast implants. Today she discusses why she went that route and considers whether she will take the next step on her path — getting a vagina. She wonders about her future when that happens and postulates several ways things that things could turn.
Lynda Martini has been getting out and about a lot in the past several months. From Halloween parties to out of town visits, and going to a football game, Lynda likes to have fun. But another event is looming. One that she longs for but won’t necessarily be fun. In just a few days Lynda will be going into the hospital for her gender confirmation surgery. All the while she has been having fun she has also been preparing for surgery and recovery. And while she had things all planned out and the date set, there was a glitch.
When you reach the point in your life that demands a decision on how you need to spend the rest of your life. When you have to come out in the open and claim your true gender identity, that’s when the thing many fear is sure to happen. People who don’t know you, don’t understand why you must change gender, they will attack you. This is more true than ever in the social media years. Today Claire Hall writes about her experience with Facebook haters.
Today our Page Pundit reviews a collection of cartoons about transition titles Super Late Bloomer: My Early Days in Transition. An Up and Out Collection by Julia Kaye. Julia Kaye is an American artist and illustrator.
