Transgender Athletes?

Incoming junior Chloe Anderson is a different person today than she was five years ago.

Relentlessly bullied as a youngster, Anderson squeaked through high school with the bare minimum she needed to pass. She spent most of her teen years doing everything she could to not get noticed.

                                                              Image by Paul Rodriquez.                                                                     Today, the Orange County native is an accomplished scholar who is majoring in Russian history, with plans to go on to a Ph.D. and, ultimately, a position on a college faculty.

She’s also breaking barriers in college athletics, joining the UC Santa Cruz women’s volleyball team as an opposite and an outside hitter.

At 19, Anderson transitioned from male to female. The 24-year-old transfer from Santa Ana community college is one of the first transgender athletes to participate in the sport at the NCAA Division III level.
For more, go here.

The Most Important Item to Pack

As our trip to Maine draws ever closer, memories of previous trips across the country (particularly the deep South) come to mind.

This time I hope I don't have to be so paranoiac about the simple task of using the bathroom as I was then. I was fairly sure I was going to be pulled off our bus on the Alabama/Mississippi line and thrown in jail by a cop.

We will be traveling through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York before we get to Maine so I think we will be traveling through more transgender friendly territory before getting to Maine,

My restroom paranoia has been the most difficult part of my Mtf transition to shake. Probably due to three or four very ugly encounters years ago. I had the cops called on me twice, screamed at once and kicked out of a couple places.

And, even though I am smart enough to use the right restroom (women's) I still am trying not to pack my paranoia.

Ms. Ying and Mr. Yang

In all the transgender flurry about who is more trans or trans at all-many times the fact that very few humans fit neatly into a binary gender package is discussed,

Here is an example from Malaysia:

Cosmetics millionaire Sofea Ilias has gone back to being a transwoman after a brief stint living in her biological male identity.

The 22-year-old said on top of the insults she had still received while trying to live as a man with the name Safiey, she missed her life as a transgender where she felt empowered.

“I am actually quite tired of trying to be good and to come back to the right path. Whatever I do, there will still be people who are dissatisfied and who’ll question me.
Before you correct me, I see a couple errors with what I just wrote. The first being- Sofea has incredible "passing priviledge" and the second is - why would she want to cross genders? Here is more:

"Sofea added that she has gotten fed up of dealing with her critics and said going back to her transgender lifestyle would give her peace of mind.

“I am tired of entertaining all the accusations and allegations. When I tried to be good, still people went around talking.

“I’d rather be myself and make myself happy in my own way,” she stressed.

Sofea, who owns a cosmetic company, reportedly tried to go back to being a man at the end of last year.

Entertainment daily Kosmo! reported Sofea as getting rid of her breast implants last April after she went for breast surgery at age 19."

- See more here.

And, oh yes-by the way very few humans fit into the 100 percent male or female category, but don't tell men that.