JJ's Guest Quote of the Day

On turning 65:  Finally old enough to know better. Too Old to do anything about it! 

Connie Malone

Memorial Day Invite

If your memory is better than mine, perhaps you will remember the post I wrote about a woman coming up to me in the Hall at the VA and alerting/inviting me to a Memorial Day event, they call "Patriot Days." She also gave me her phone number to call for questions. (The Dayton, Ohio VA.)

About a week or so again, I called the number and got an answering machine. I left all my pertinent info and didn't expect much else.

Then, all of the sudden, yesterday she called me back and asked if I was coming. I thought sure, how could I back out now?

My only real problems are I can't find anyone to go with me since Liz has to work, because I need to be there. Even for the ones who have called me a "fu-king queer- in fact especially for them. 

Check out these numbers:

 15,500

Transgender individuals who are currently on active duty or in the Guard or Reserve forces

150,000
Transgender individuals who have served, or currently serve, in the U.S. armed forces

1.6
Times more likely that transgender women will serve than all adult men

3
Times more likely that transgender men will serve than all adult women

*Figures per a 2014 Williams Institute report on transgender military service in the U.S.

So Sunday it will be!!!

Transgender Israel Co-existence Contest

From Tel Aviv and the "Times of Israel" 12 finalists are aiming to become Israel’s first “Miss Trans Israel.” They have spent long hours this week practicing their routines, strutting in stiletto heels and modeling evening gowns and swim wear.

The competition is more than a show of beauty and pride.

It also is a display of coexistence and tolerance, bringing together contestants from Israel’s Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities. The contestants describe themselves as a family of sorts, saying they find strength in one another.

“I’m happy that the competition is bringing together all of the ethnic groups, and together they are a model of coexistence,” said Israela Stephanie Lev, the pageant’s organizer. “I hope this model can be an example for our society, for the Middle East and the world.