A Big Transgendered Leap In India

From "India Today" this is Nikkiey Chawla is a transgender model who has walked the ramp for some leading jewelry brands.     


She is yet another trans woman who has forsaken the "stealth" tag to make lives better for other transgendered women and men in India.
Now:
"Last week Channel V's chat show, My Big Decision, left viewers with food for thought about an issue that wouldn't have been aired at another time, that of sex reassignment surgery. The show featured young transsexuals and transgenders from middle class families who were quite vocal about their issues and open about their identities. In fact, the faces of transsexuals and transgenders appear regularly on reality TV: While Bobby Darling and Lakshmi stunned the audiences in the last two seasons of Bigg Boss, Sylvie has made her mark in recent Survivor India.
While some call it nothing but a TRP stunt, experts say this reflects a subtle change that's bringing the gender debate from closed-door film festivals to living rooms of ordinary Indians. "It's a welcome change," says Anjali Gopalan, executive director and founder, Naz Foundation (India) Trust. "Unlike earlier when transgenders were mostly portrayed as caricatures to be ridiculed at, the media is now presenting them as 'normal' human beings with intelligence, mannerisms and thinking ability," says Gopalan who has worked with sexual minorities for many years.
"For years we have been mocked at as uneducated fools doing either commercial sex work or dancing at weddings. Thankfully reality shows are breaking such stereotypes now," points out 25-year-old transsexual, Namrata. "This image is changing since members of our community have begun modelling, doing social work and writing books and blogs ," she adds."

Read more at: http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/transsexual-transgenders-media-nikkiey-chawla-maria-mehra/1/174906.html

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!