More Transgender Power?

From the Washington Blade, these are the sort of transgender stories I love to share!

"When Danica Roem takes the oath of office in Virginia’s statehouse on Jan. 10, the country will finally have an LGBT legislative caucus where the “T” isn’t simply aspirational. For her historic accomplishment, Roem deserves the acclaim and unmitigated respect of the entire LGBT community. Not only did she demonstrate great courage in running as an openly trans candidate against a 13-term incumbent, but in defeating Robert Marshall she banished from public office a man who had brazenly styled himself “chief homophobe” of the Old Dominion.

From across the Potomac, we Marylanders who have long hoped to put the “T” in our own caucus, will find the day to be bittersweet as well. On Jan. 10, the Maryland General Assembly will commence yet another session without a trans lawmaker.

If we choose to do so, however, we can make it the last.

At the end of session, Sen. Rich Madaleno – in his pursuit of the governorship – will be vacating the Senate seat representing Montgomery County’s 18th Legislative District. Longtime trans activist and local political operative, Dr. Dana Beyer, has announced that she will run to succeed him."

For more, follow the link above!

Another Halloween

Well, another Halloween has come and gone, and I hope yours was enjoyable.

Maybe this was the year you decided to throw caution to the wind and wear that "Wonder Woman" costume you have been fantasizing about, or just dressed feminine business casual for work. If it was the first time, maybe you discovered more about your femininity than you ever thought possible, or you found out how bad heels can feel if you wear them for extended periods of time.

If you were like me during my early cross dressing days, Halloween left me thirsting for more time dressed in public. Even to the point of considering coming up with some sort of Christmas Elf costume and looking for Santa's lap during the holidays.

Whatever the case, I ended up passing out candy during our local "Trick or Treat" time by myself until Liz got home from work. Even though we did fairly well with the number of kids who came by, I was not able to discern any cross dressing kids.

Now it's off to the barrage of Christmas movies and ad's on television and elsewhere.

Dana Beyer

In other transgender related news, we now have at least two trans women running for political office! Dana Beyer is running in Maryland for Senate, joining Danica Roem in Virginia. (House of Delegates.)

So, if you are fortunate enough to be able to lend your support this election day, don't forget our candidates!

Plus, sooner more than later one of the transgender candidates is going to break through for a victory.

Also, as you may already read, a federal court judge has temporarily blocked the Cheeto's transgender troop ban.  I am sure he is so busy circling the wagons lately,with his other huge problems,  he has barely noticed.

Trans Politico's?

As we know, the quickest way to true change is to not run and hide as a portion of transgender or transsexual women and men do.

Around the country, more and more political candidates are doing just that.

In Oklahoma City, A transgender candidate who is a former Oklahoma City police officer has advanced to a runoff for a state House seat.

Democrat Paula Sophia will face businessman and former pastor Jason Dunnington in the Aug. 26 runoff. The winner will take a seat at the Legislature as there is no Republican in the race.

House District 88 includes trendy neighborhoods such as Heritage Hills and the Midtown, Plaza and Paseo districts.

Sophia used to patrol the district she seeks to represent and retired this year to run for the Legislature. She was engaged in a brief legal battle with the city after becoming a woman in 2001, but ultimately returned to the force.

She is also a transgender vet who fought in Dessert Storm.

Also, in Montgomery County Maryland, a historic battle of a gay politician running against a transgender woman is taking place. (or has) as openly gay state Sen. Richard Madaleno is trying to fend off a challenge by openly transgender woman Dana Beyer.

I guess it's tough to tell me times aren't "a changin'!

Defining "Transgender"

Imagine my surprise when I saw the story about the military gay pride march in San Diego. Sure, there a plenty of gay pride march stories which have absolutely no bearing on my life as a transgender woman. The surprise came when Yahoo News ran a supporting story on new transgender diagnostic terms.
I don't pretend to be any sort of an expert in psychiatric terminology- unlike a person such as Sherri Lynn but this article got my attention.
It seems to me the new diagnostic terms being debated could take the transgender community out from under the mental illness tag we have lived with. (That's was my first stop at the Veteran's Administration.)
Before I pass along a few excerpts from the article, I need to mention the nation's psychiatric establishment is  working to overhaul its diagnostic manual for the first time in almost two decades. This process just doesn't happen very often.
Being labeled mentally deficient is bad enough and that is only the beginning.  Read on:

"The most symbolic change under consideration so far for the manual's fifth edition, known as the DSM-V for short, is a new name for Gender Identity Disorder, the diagnosis now given to adults, adolescents and children with "a strong and persistent cross-gender identification." In the manual's next incarnation, individuals displaying "a marked incongruence between one's experienced/expressed gender and assigned gender" would be diagnosed instead with "Gender Dysphoria," a term that comes from the Greek word for emotional distress.

While the shift may seem purely semantic, switching the emphasis from a disorder that by definition all transgender people possess to a temporary mental state that only some might possess marks real progress, according to Dana Beyer, a retired eye surgeon who helped the Washington Psychiatric Society make recommendations for the chapter on "Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders."

"A right-winger can't go out and say all trans people are mentally ill because if you are not dysphoric, that can't be diagnosed from afar," Beyer said. "It no longer matters what your body looks like, what you want to do to it, all of that is irrelevant as far as the APA goes."

Historically, what is happening does resemble what the gay community went through years ago:

" But while there are parallels, achieving what the APA did for gays four decades ago is more complicated for people who identity as transgender, an umbrella term that encompasses transsexuals, cross-dressers and others whose self-concepts otherwise do not align with the male or female label they were given at birth. Unlike sexual orientation, the accepted protocols for treating many patients expressing profound discomfort with their given gender call for medical intervention."

I have taken you as far as I can on this extremely important and complex subject. For more go here.

One final comment.  A huge debt of gratitude to Dana Beyer and so many other transgender and transsexual men and women who did not go stealth and decided to make a difference!