(Bala Cynwyd, PA) Dr. Sherman Leis, founder of The Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery, one of the leading resources for transgender surgery and medical support in the United States, has identified 10 important trends that will affect America and its transgender community in 2015. “Although society has made a great deal of progress for the […]
(Philadelphia, PA) Recently, there has been much controversy in the news surrounding the issue of, “how young is too young for transgender teens to undergo sex change operations?” As more and more transgender people, including teenagers and children are becoming more comfortable outing themselves in today’s society, this question often arises once they begin to […]
We offer a profile of Rachel Crandall, a trans woman who turned away from thought of suicide when she had hit rock bottom, and went on to start the transgender support group Transgender Michigan. The article was written by sometime contributor Kristina Mayhem and talks about Crandall’s life before and after she started Transgender Michigan.
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 […]
Popeye said, I yam what I yam and that’s all what I yam.” But what made Popeye what he is? In his case it’s simple. A cartoonist drew him that way. How else would you get forearms like that? But what about TGs? Sophie Lynne muses on the nature of the “nature vs. nurture” debate and concludes that we are the result of a combination of the two, so they should just stop opposing each other. Spy Vs. Spy can keep fighting it out but N vs. N should kiss and makeup.
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 […]
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 […]
Last month we brought you Part 1 of Kristina Mayhem’s research article on Christine Jorgensen. Today we bring you Part 2 of this look into the life of a woman who is arguably the world’s most famous transsexual. Kristina picks up Jorgensen’s story on the day in 1953 when she stepped off the plane at New York’s airport. As a bonus we also have video of Jorgensen’s appearance on a local TV show in the early ’80s.
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.
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.
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.
(Bala Cynwyd, PA) One of the main reasons female-to-male (F2M) bottom surgery has lagged behind male-to-female (M2F) bottom surgery has been that the technology had not yet been developed to surgically create a penis that performed as realistically as it looked, according to Dr. Sherman Leis at the Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery and an […]
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.
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.
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.
A college student enrolls in a history course at his local community college. Little does he know that in a short time he will move in with his professor, discover that she is a transsexual, learn of her fascinating history and pass it on to the world in a book about her. Gina Vizavi reviews Babette, The Many Lives, Two Deaths and Double Kidnapping of Dr. Ellsworth.
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.
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.
The New Jersey Legislature has passed a bill that allows transgendered individuals to change the gender on their birth certificates with only a doctor’s statement that they have undergone treatment for gender transition. They no longer have to have reassignment surgery once the governor signs the bill. Babs Casbar Siperstein looks at this development and some other legal advances TGs have made recently.
Those new to the transgender community may not have a grasp of what it was like for transgendered people before the advent of the Internet. Information about crossdressing, transsexualism, gender identity and all of the many issues and conditions under the transgender umbrella was hard to find. It was out there in pamphlets, books printed on mimeograph machines and office copiers. Some tomes were published by actual publishers with hard covers but copies could not be found at your local library. Much of what was printed by and about TGs from those days would be lost without the establishment of transgender archives. Dallas Denny tells of one such effort.
TGs often find themselves sexually aroused when they first begin to experiment with dressing up. While some claim they were never aroused by their crossdressing others in the community seem to be turned on at the drop of a high heeled pump. What does the science behind sexual arousal say about the erotic pull of femme attire for MtFs? Doctor Dana Bevan tells us in today’s post.
The katoey, or ladyboys, of Thailand, like most TGs, have a hard life. While there is a place in the Thai culture for the katoey it’s not necessarily something that is welcomed or treated with respect. As too often happens around the world the ladyboys get involved in criminal activities since they are denied a way to legitimately support themselves. Our correspondent in Thailand has filed another report on misbehavior by katoey.
Dr. Sherman Leis talks about treating TG teens. Because transgender teens are in the middle of experiencing puberty, transitioning strategy for them is not the same as for adult TGs. Special protocols are necessary for teens to delay normal early pubertal changes, and then to add hormones appropriate to their true mental and emotional gender in order for them to experience a puberty congruent with their desired gender.
