Classic Movie Clip

A look at the 2003 Calpernia Addams story as told in the "Soldier's Girl" Movie starring Lee Pace as Calpernia. (below)

No Surprise...

Julie Ross has had the courage, conviction and compassion to step and out to discuss her own transgender child.
Of course she has been vilified as well as praised for the decision. Note the use of the word vilification. Not the criticism word. Big difference-no surprise.
Just take a look at the trans community for examples!
I felt it for the first time on one of the big transgender transsexual social sites when I tried to write about my own experiences. I learned my lesson early but I still am stunned on occasion by comments I get here.
Examples?
I have been trashed for waiting so long in life to transition, having a prom date as a guy all the way to having any fond memories of my male life.  Plus, I left the best for last-I'm not worthy to lead a feminine life at all because I don't have a store bought vagina.
No chance for discussion or questions just bitterness and even almost hate-all right here in our so called trans sisterhood.
So I can sympathize with Julie's thoughts:

"Over the past several months I have been venturesome (or perhaps stupid?) enough to publicly share my interpretation and personal feelings from my front row seat as the parent of a child who has identified as transgender. (You can find them here on HuffPost... they may be helpful in grasping the back story.) I have been equally supported and vilified by readers far and wide. I have been told that I am an "incredible parent" only to be corrected by a different reader that I am actually a horrible parent and that G-d does not make mistakes, just I do. Compliments for my honesty and style of writing are usurped by bashing for "rambling" and being a "horrible writer." I have been called "wonderful" and "self-centered" in the same thread written (sometimes viciously) from the comfort of computers around the world that I will neither find nor seek to find. And it all makes me wonder."

From the comfort of my computer - Julie Ross has done wonders by stepping up and out for present and future transgender transsexual kids everywhere.  Way to GO!!!!!
For more go here.

Transgender Vets and the Veteran

Yes I am a transgender vet and yes I have posted nearly every story I can find on the subject.
My experience with the Veterans Administration (VA) has been overall positive but unfortunately other transgender vets (even in my own state of Ohio) have not fared as well. The VA centers seem to operate on their own agendas, perhaps not to the extent of denying directed care for transgender veterans as much as the respect shown in the process.
The latest story I found is a very positive one from CBS in Minneapolis, Minnesota and involves the story of a trans man who served as a woman in the Marines:


"There is a program available at the VA hospital in Minneapolis that’s serving an often hidden population — transgender veterans. Peter Klicker served in the Marines as a woman, Karin Klicker. Years later, the veteran says he’s finally found the help he’s hoped for. Klicker grew up in a house full of older brothers in the ’60s and ’70s. And, one summer, the then 7-year-old Karin convinced a group of guys she was a boy, so she’d be able to play baseball. “When you’re seven, you don’t really think about that foresight,” Klicker said. “My mother made me wear a dress on the first day of school.” Jan James, a nurse practitioner at the medical center, has taken it a step further. As part of her doctorate program, she had to identify an underserved patient group. As part of her plan, the clinic now offers hormone therapy and counseling services to transgender veterans, so they’re not forced to find black-market alternatives. “My mission is not just to identify that group, but to give them a voice within the VA system,” James said.

 Go here for more!