Makeup as a Art? Form?

Using makeup most certainly isn't a problem just for transgender or cross dresser women. Just look around for all the makeup counters and commercials you see for us all.

Like so many others, I was convinced until I found a woman to do my makeup, I would struggle forever. While some would argue I still struggle, the first real professional makeup job I had was from a man.

I was a member of one of the early so called hetero cross dresser clubs in Columbus, Ohio in the 1980's and one of the meetings featured free makeovers by a couple of professionals. Most of the members there were too shy to wipe off all the makeup they applied and start over but not me.

Of course back in those days I had far fewer wrinkles to deal with and was blessed with smoother skin and the professional worked wonders. So good I barely knew me!

The true tests were to come later when the so called "A" list cross dressers began to compliment me and even invited me to tag along that evening when they went out after the meeting.

Finally, the evening came to an end with one of those "what if" moments when a real live guy ignored all of them and asked me to stick around for a drink. At the spur of the moment "Cinderella" decided she would leave with them and go back to the hotel.

In the days, weeks and years ahead I tried my darnest to copy all the makeup guy told me to not much avail.

Every now and then I have someone ask for advice and I always say if you have the budget, go to a professional and buy the basics only. If you don't, experiment and don't let the mirror lie to you. Plus you can read tons of tutorials on line which focus on value versus effect.

Rest assured the mystery of makeup does get easier but it takes work and most certainly the whole process is one of the most pleasureable parts of being a woman.

VA Backs Out of Gender Confirmation Surgery

Citing money problems, the Veterans Administration reversed their former stance of approving SRS surgeries.

As with most things with the VA, timing is everything as the announcement came out during Transgender Awareness Week. This is also the government agency which has been routinely in the news for poor care or excessive spending elsewhere. So playing the money card doesn't make sense.

What does make sense is, with the new anti LGBT administration coming into power, we will have to circle our wagons to protect hard earned victories.

Sarah McBride

The Human Rights Campaign is marking Transgender Awareness Week with the launch of a coalition of parent-advocates and new anti-bullying efforts aimed at educators. And in both of these big projects, HRC has put forward its stunning and eloquent National Press Secretary, Sarah McBride.

McBride, 26, was the first out transgender American to address a national political convention earlier this year and as the spokeswoman of the nation’s largest LGBTQ rights group, has become its new face to the public, especially since the election of Donald Trump.

"There’s no question a lot of transgender students and their parents woke up Wednesday morning really scared,” McBride told the Associated Press on Sunday, speaking for HRC. “I’m feeling the way a lot of folks are feeling — worried that the heart of this country isn’t big enough to love us, too.”

On HRCs Facebook page, McBride appears in a video aimed at “combatting bullying and continuing the fight toward equality until we are all treated with the dignity and respect we deserve.”

To find out more about HRC’s new Parents for Transgender Equality Council, click here, and to see the training film addressing bullying of LGBTQ children, click here to watch, “What Can We Do?