Not Trans Enough?

As I said in my last Crysti's Condo post, this paragraph explains why the transgender elitists of the world would not agree with the following "two spirit" Native American concept:

Rather than the physical body, Native Americans emphasised a person's "spirit", or character, as being most important. Instead of seeing two-spirit persons as transsexuals who try to make themselves into "the opposite sex", it is more accurate to understand them as individuals who take on a gender status that is different from both men and women. This alternative gender status offers a range of possibilities, from slightly effeminate males or masculine females, to androgynous or transgender persons, to those who completely cross-dress and act as the other gender. The emphasis of Native Americans is not to force every person into one box, but to allow for the reality of diversity in gender and sexual identities.


Read more here from the Guardian.

The Future is Now?

For a transgender person of my age demographic, stories such as this from Yahoo News  simply are amazing.  It seems, groups of younger people are working to broaden or eliminate the whole idea of the gender spectrum.  All of the sudden, the old transexual, transgender and crossdresser hierarchy, is becoming irrevelant according to Genny Beemyn, director of the Stonewall Center at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst who recently wrote:  " the vast majority of students who identify under the trans umbrella identify in some way outside the binary, and that's really causing a shift on college campuses" .  Of course there is much more to the story from Yahoo:

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — The weekly meetings of Mouthing Off!, (left) a group for students at Mills College in Oakland, Calif., who identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender, always start the same way. Members take turns going around the room saying their names and the personal pronouns they want others to use when referring to them — she, he or something else.

 It's an exercise that might seem superfluous given that Mills, a small and leafy liberal arts school historically referred to as the Vassar of the West, only admits women as undergraduates. Yet increasingly, the "shes" and "hers" that dominate the introductions are keeping third-person company with "they," ''ze" and other neutral alternatives meant to convey a more generous notion of gender. "Because I go to an all-women's college, a lot of people are like, 'If you don't identify as a woman, how did you get in?'" said sophomore Skylar Crownover, 19, who is president of Mouthing Off! and prefers to be mentioned as a singular they, but also answers to he. "I just tell them the application asks you to mark your sex and I did. It didn't ask me for my gender." 

Of course the transgender topic was involved too:

The nods to novel pronouns and nonconformity are an outgrowth of campaigns for gender-neutral bathrooms and housing that were aimed at making campuses more welcoming for transgender students moving from one side of the gender spectrum to the other. But as fewer young people choose to undergo sex reassignment surgery, such students are slowly being outnumbered by peers who refuse to be limited.


What's the world coming too??? A MUCH better place!   And just when you think this pronoun/language issue is getting to be a bit too complex:

Mel Goodwin, youth program director at the gay and lesbian community center in Las Vegas, said getting the hang of alternative pronouns can be tricky in conversation. Goodwin, 28, claimed they as a preferred pronoun four years ago and it took time "to unlearn what I had been taught about gender." Yet when people object to they as being grammatically incorrect, Goodwin counters that modern English is to blame and that scholars, writers and linguists have spent more than a century trying to come up with gender-neutral pronouns that stick. In public presentations, Goodwin also refers to a map that shows historic and contemporary cultures around the world that have recognized more than two genders. "This is not about young people in the U.S. over the last 20 years kind of coming out of the woodwork and making up labels that aren't real," Goodwin said. "This is a real variation among humans, period."

Well, it's time for old dinosaurs such as me to head off for my nap- feeling good about the future!

HorrorScope

Wow! I think I'm a couple days late on this Cyrsti's Condo "HorrorScope"!
Better late than never with this one:

Libra (September 23-October 22): You know how bullshit sounds, and it’s never very pretty, unless it’s coming out of your mouth. Yes, you know how to make even the worst predicament sound enticing. It’s your talent and this is your week to exploit that skill. However, stay conscious of your lies now, because you sometimes are so good that you wind up believing in them too.

Really? Well if I said anything right now, you wouldn't believe me anyhow?
As always this is a "scope" for all of us Libra's. For the rest of you unfortunates go here to
theFrisky.

Plus, while you are there check out "Becoming Diana: One Transgender Woman's Journey to Self Acceptance" or "Girl Talk: I transitioned from female to male."

I have mentioned theFrisky before- they on occasion pass along really in depth transition transgender stories!

Plastic Surgery and Gender Reassignment and Beyond

This is the second time recently Behold-The Photo Blog has featured several transgender or cross dresser photos.  Here is the latest:

"Michelle Sank is interested in young people and the issues they face. One of her early projects, called "Bye Bye-Baby," explores the way boys and girls interpret their understanding of masculinity and femininity. Following suit, her more recent series, “In My Skin,” deals with the pressure young people feel from media and pop culture to achieve a specific physical standard."

And of course a couple of the featured photos. The first on the right is MtF transgender Cambell.

The second is John  transgender FtM (below) and now identifies gender neutral.

Here are a couple links for more. The first is Michelle Sank's and the second is The Photo Blog.