Buy "Pure Romance"

If you are not familiar, "Pure Romance" features a line of feminine "romantic" products which are mainly sold at home parties and on line.

The company just happens to be headquartered here in Cincinnati, and the CEO's daughter is transgender. Cincinnati also has a ground breaking program within it's Children's Hospital for trans kids.

It turns out the CEO is stepping up to help other transgender families. From Cincinnati.Com:

"Chris and Jessica Cicchinelli never thought they'd find themselves at the transgender clinic at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.

It was scary, but they found it a place that was safe and helpful as they accepted their child was a girl.

So the CEO of Pure Romance and his wife are putting their personal money, love and his business savvy into a new endeavor to make sure every family like them has the help they need.

This weekend the Cicchinellis are launching Living with Change: The LC Foundation, a foundation that will train teachers and other educators and provide financial support to the Adolescent and Transition Medicine Clinic at Children's".

"As a family we've gone through it," Chris Cicchinelli said. "We didn't have a lot of information. We needed answers, and there was no book. Now we can give people a guide."

Isn't that great! For more on Pure Romance, follow the link above.

The "Ripple Effect"

Unfortunately I drive past the exact spot Leelah Alcorn's life came to an end (and a truck driver's undoubtedly changed forever) - at least once a week and sometimes at night.  To say the least, it is a dark, desolate and busy stretch of road at night.  If it is possible though, the setting makes the whole story seem even more tragic and surreal.  But on the bright side, many are not forgetting the world's loss - as you will read in this article from Cincinnati.Com. It which recaps the events since Leelah's suicide:

The suicide nearly two months ago of Warren County (near Cincinnati) teenager Leelah Alcorn triggered a national soul-searching about gender identity, suicide, parent-child relationships and social progress.

Global attention to Alcorn's death came amid growing awareness of the transgender experience, particularly in the past three years with the shot to stardom of actress Laverne Cox. Less than a week before Alcorn's death, movie stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie announced that their 8-year-old child, a girl named Shiloh at birth, preferred to be called John and to wear boy's clothes. Olympic gold medalist and reality-TV star Bruce Jenner isreportedly transitioning, at 65, from male to female.

The Internet ignited and fueled the conversation about Alcorn. She posted a wrenching suicide note on the social media site Tumblr that flashed across the world. (The Tumblr posting has since been taken down.) A friend also posted Alcorn's selfie posing in a dress, a photograph that artists adapted around the world. That was only the beginning:

• The #leelahalcorn Twitter hashtag continues to generate rolling traffic. A petition drew thousands of signatures urging Congress to ban therapy that aims to dissuade people with questions about gender identity or sexual expression.

• Vigils were held in Cincinnati, across Ohio and the nation in Alcorn's memory; demonstrations were held as far away as New Zealand.

And there is more.  Go here to check it out!!!