Just When You Thought There Was No News

Just when I thought things were getting boring in the transgendered press along comes the UK and the "Daily Mail Online"
According to their story:

"These are the two faces of a transgender fraudster who made thousands of pounds in scams by posing as both male and female friends to take out loans and credit cards.
Con artist Frances Harris, 71, of Brighton, Sussex, was born as Frederick but now lives as a woman.
She admitted three counts of deception over a three-year period, but was only handed a suspended 15-month sentence after her lawyer said she would not be safe in a male prison because she has had breast augmentation."

OK, I can't resist.
Way to go UK! Long live the queen!
Come on now-where's your sense of humor!

A Day in a Transgendered Life.

It's days like today when I sit here and say hmmmm wasssup girl?
Well I said to self, not much actually.  Ordered another month's supply of hormones today which means unbelievably I will have completed three months when this supply runs out.
I did get my order together for girl scout cookies which I consider a real neccessity this year because of all the idiotic right wing attacks on the scouts for their transgender and birth control stances. I am going to pass along the "Femulate" link to "Stana's" post about the scouts and a petition you can sign.
 Also, I have a friend who is researching bits and pieces of the "Two or Dual Spirit" beliefs of a few of the Native American Indian Tribes.
Here are a couple very interesting excerpts from what Don has sent me:

'The first step on the path to a two-spirit life was taken during

childhood. The Papago ritual is representative of this early

integration: If parents noticed that a son was disinterested in

boyish play or manly work they would set up a ceremony to determine

which way the boy would be brought up. They would make an enclosure

of brush, and place in the center both a man’s bow and a woman’s

basket. The boy was told to go inside the circle of brush and to

bring something out, and as he entered the brush would be set on

fire. “They watched what he took with him as he ran out, and if it

was the basketry materials they reconciled [sic] themselves to his

being a berdache or female in male's body.

 

 

The Mohave ritual, usually carried out when the child is between

the ages of nine and twelve, has a different form, but keeps the

central element of allowing the child’s nature to manifest itself:

A singing circle is prepared, unbeknownst to the boy, involving the

whole community as well as distant friends and relatives. On the

day of the ceremony everyone gathers round and the boy is led into

the middle of the circle. If he remains there, the singer, hidden

in the crowd, begins to sing the ritual songs and the boy, if he is

destined to follow the two-spirit road, starts to dance in the

fashion of a woman. “He cannot help it,” say the Mohave. After the

fourth song the boy is declared to be a two-spirit person and is

raised from then on in the appropriate manner."

 

I will be passing along more from his research later!

So I guess the bottom line is today was an example of the more things change, the more they stay the same.

As my body slowly starts to feminize itself, society begins to view me different of course. All in all though, I still view society as the same and probably always have.

My I guess I would have picked up the baskets from the burning circle!

 

 

Revisiting Danielle Berry

Following my post called "Another Transgendered Pioneer" I received two very compelling comments from Anne here on the blog.

"Some food for thought...

by Danielle Berry
[1949-1998]

[Compiled from a number of emails I sent in response to requests for input from those considering their own change.]

"Don't do it! That's my advice. This is the most awful, most expensive, most painful, most disruptive thing you could ever do. Don't do it unless there is no other alternative. You may think your life is tough but unless it's a choice between suicide and a sex-change it will only get worse. And the costs keep coming. You lose control over most aspects of your life, become a second class citizen and all so you can wear women's clothes and feel cuter than you do now. Don't do it is all I've got to say.


http://anna-es-asi.blogspot.com/2011/05/high-price-of-tg-borg-hive-think.html

AnneFeb 20, 2012 08:19 PM

More fro the late Ms. Berry.....

"That's advice I wish someone had given me. I had the sex change, I "pass" fine, my career is good but you can't imagine the number of times I've wished I could go back and see if there was another way. Despite following the rules and being as honest as I could with the medical folks at each stage, nobody stopped me and said "Are you honest to God absolutely sure this is the ONLY path for you?!" To the contrary, the voices were all cheerfully supportive of my decision. I was fortunate that the web didn't exist then - there are too damn many cheerleaders ready to reassure themselves of their own decision by parading their "successful" surgeries and encouraging others."

"I can speak the transgender party line that I was a female trapped in a male body and I remember feeling this way since I was 4. But, it's never that easy if you look at it sincerely and without preconception. There's little question that a mid-life crisis, a divorce and a cancer scare were involved in at least the timing of my sex-change decision. To be completely honest at this point (3 yrs post-op) is not easy, however, I'm not sure I would do it again. I'm now concerned that much of what I took as a gender dysfunction might have been nothing more than a neurotic sexual obsession. I was a cross-dresser for all of my sexual life and had always fantasized going fem as an ultimate turn-on. Ironically, when I began hormone treatment my libido went away. However, I mistook that relief from sexual obsession for validation of my gender change. Then in the final bit of irony, after surgery my new genitals were non-orgasmic (like 80% of my TG sisters)."

First of all I would like to thank Anne for wonderful insight into a situation so many of us sacrifice our lives and families to accomplish
At the risk of becoming too controversial again I have a couple thoughts on Anne's.
Are there more than just a few "fully operational" transsexual women who wished they had not gone all the way? Have I just been unlucky in the number of really bitter trans women I have known? (NOT Anne!) Are they bitter because they wish they had not went through the change?
I was lucky. In my formative transgendered years. I knew a person who I felt was a very unhappy individual after "going the distance".
From her I learned to be careful what you wish for. I also learned try to be very introspective into my transgender status.
NONE of that makes me a better person. For some reason, my gender identity problems were always centered mentally and not so much genitally. So I don't have a pedestal to climb up on.
At any rate I can't thank Anne enough for adding her very valuable comments.
Every time I think we have covered nearly all of the many facets of our transgendered world-we uncover another!