We Got Mail!

I grabbed my hammer and screw driver and went down to out fancy high tech Cyrsti's Condo mailbox and found several quality comments- including one that said a post was "a load of crap".  That's cool, the bathroom here in the Condo is down the hallway on the left.

The others though were more informative and covered a couple different topics.

The first was on a subject near and dear to many of us, Halloween from Michellewhois:


"Ah Halloween that time of the year that so many look forward to. I for one used to look forward to it when I was younger. My first attempt to dress on Halloween was when I was 9 and dressed as the Fairy from the show Rocky and Bullwinkle -Fractured Fairy tales (talk about dating myself). The second years was as a princess. It was my female friend that helped me that year and she showed me how beautiful I was. Talk about memory lane."

Michelle, rumor has it I might remember Rocky and Bullwinkle! What a great costume idea and memory! Thanks!

Michelle also is a transgender veteran and weighed in on the Bradley Manning debacle:

"I spent 24 years in the military and lived with my Gender Dysphoria and not once ever felt the need to expose military secrets that I was aware of. I lived with fear of discovery, several beatings that I could never report and being ostracized by my "supposed" compatriots. I just recently read a news article, written by a a reporter who transitioned in the 90's. The article, brought out a very valid point of how Manning's declaration of being trans may hurt trans-folks that are still serving. Many of us were starting to see a glimmer of hope but now it may be the smoldering fire that will consume us. He (and I for one will never acknowledge HIM as anything but a HIM) has done more harm than just the release of classified information. He has solidified the trans community as something to be feared. The latest name is "TRANS-TRAITOR". It's hard enough for a trans-vets to get help while serving. Let alone having the military to use HIM as an excuse to further persecute trans on To "She" or not to "She" Chelsea"

As did Hailey:
"In all honesty, I think this story is doing much more harm than good to the trans community. The sooner it fades from the headlines, the better."

As you ladies know, I agree and I can think of nothing recently which has infuriated me more. I would suppose separating the gender issue completely out of the process, the scariest part of this to me was "back in the day" I encountered troops who were intellectually or emotionally unable to even cover me on a live practice range.  Now for one of those people to turn up and be a Bradley Manning was just too much.

He tried to take down TWO cultures, the military and now the transgender nation. Tragic.

Transgender Self Help

On too many occasions, I hear from transgender women who are painfully stuck in the closet.
There are ways out of your dark room and every once in a while someone steps forward with a great idea.
This one comes from Toni D'Orsay and her Dyssonance blog.
(Disclaimer. Sometimes Toni gets a little "wordy" for my tastes but she does incredible with this!)


"Idea: for the month of March, volunteer for 20 hours with an organization or project that specifically deals with trans folk, or solve a local problem. Without getting involved in politics. When I say without getting involved in politics, I mean without becoming embroiled in the online arguments we see, without lobbying for a law to change, without going to see a politician and getting them to vote for something. Kinda different for a request, isn't it? It is a suggestion to you in order to get you to help yourself. The difficulty is that the way that it helps you is indirect -- far more so than working on some change in law. It is going to affect other trans people, and that, in turn, is going to affect your life and make it richer, make it better. You might wonder why I am doing this now, as February comes calling, but the reason is that I want you to take a month a research the organizations in your area that do things for Trans people other than the political. You will have to research them. You will have to hunt for them. Well, that is unless you live in New York or Boston or San Francisco or Los Angeles. Some of the organizations will be doing political work as well, and that's ok. Just say you want to spend 20 hours in an entire month doing whatever it is that they need done. I haven't talked about this idea with any other organization. This isn't part of some secret trans activist effort carefully coordinated behind the scenes. Yes, those things happen. They have to if we are going to get some things to change. No, this is just me, by myself, asking you, personally, to stop for 20 hours in March and volunteer your time to help trans people. And I am asking you to start looking for that trans organization now."

For more on the post and Dyssonance go here:

The Common Trans Folk

I'm as guilty as the next person of getting caught up in the glamour and glitz of all the knock down gorgeous transgender and transsexual women.

"Picture from a meeting in East Aurora, Ill concerning establishing new  gender standards"

On occasion I do look past all the bright lights and beauty to the trans folks in the trenches-women and men. The ones that say "hey! to hell with it I'm going to live life as I see fit." I lump myself largely into that category because most of the time I marginally present totally as a woman.  On the other hand, I present totally well as a person...
As do just two of the many trans women I have chosen pictures of to emphasize my point. To the left is "Dessert Storm Vet" Gabrielle Ludwig who is now playing college basketball at the age of 50. Certainly their stories are viewed with some sensationalism by some of the public but more importantly all of those we encounter as transgender humans make the effort worth while!