Big Brother Now a Big Sister!

From the UK version of "Big Brother" 2009:

"Rodrigo Before"

"Rodrigo After!"

Transgendered Soldier Comes Home Part II

From Chapel Hill, North Carolina comes a "continuation" story about a transgendered vet.

"On the road from rural North Carolina to the Boston suburbs, Sam Taylor has worn the shoes of a native son, student, soldier, and now, a young woman and religious leader.
“In some ways, I don’t see it as much of a change [but] as a continuation,” said Taylor, who is a transgender woman."
Growing up in a conservative Southern Baptist community didn’t allow much self-expression, Taylor said. Most of her family and friends didn’t learn she planned to come out until she returned with the 1-130th Attack Reconnaissance Battalion from a tour of duty in Iraq.  "
Read the entire story here on the "Chapel Hills News".

It contains an in depth look at one person's coming out process-
Pro and con!

Definition of a Woman

This is a follow up post to "Whose the Fool Now?" I received a thought provoking comment from "Anne" which just happened to fit in with a post I was beginning to write called the "Sexual Universe".
To clear the air first, I am going to pass along my thought that a female is not a woman.  A female for the purpose of my definition is a child bearing person. No matter how much surgery is done or hormones ingested, no transsexual female has ever given birth-yet. A woman is an mental environmental situation and is ultimately achievable by either gender.
Now on to part of "Anne's" comment: "My question is, if you are "presenting" as a woman, what does that mean? Is it that, based on how you act/dress/speak/feel, you wish to be accepted as a woman? And you desire this even though, despite your "self-identification", you know that you are not, in fact, a woman. Is this why you "identify" as "trans", or a "trans-woman", or "transgender woman", because you are not in fact a woman, despite the fact that you wish/"feel" that you were/are?"
Lets toss out what I feel for the time being. Most of  you know where I'm coming from anyhow and a better idea of my thoughts can be read in a a great academic article by Martine Rothblatt called Billions of Sexes on a site called Institute for Emerging Ethics and Technologies  . 
It's an in depth look at  “a continuum of sex types, ranging from very male to very female, with countless variations in between.”
(It comes from "Jillian Page" at the "Montreal Gazette".)
This is a wonderful resource for those of you who responded to my "Transgendered Mid-Life Crisis" post as well as any transgendered age segment.
For my own purposes I seem to settle somewhere in the middle of the sex types, leaning heavily feminine.  Surprisingly to me, the only group which has a problem with this are the "Trans-Nazi's". This term comes from a "Femulate" post which actually resonates with me strongly. I have been trashed much more ruthlessly by "Trans-Nazi's" than any so called straight person. Let me reference the comment I received calling me (I paraphrase) just another old guy starting hormones.

Now, back to Anne who writes:  "I realize that this is a difficult question and drives right to the issue of just what is a woman, as opposed to a trans-woman. However, until you can answer that question, and then meet whatever criteria YOU set to define womanhood, you will not be able to answer your initial question, "Is...presenting as a woman in public, (when in fact you are not)...'fooling' someone...?"
And even then you will have to contend with those that do not accept your particular criteria or definition, which I would suggest would be the vast majority of the 'mainstream', which in my estimation is no more "bigoted" or "hateful", than you or I. They are simply accepting of the "norm"."

I can only reference the increasingly biological evidence that indeed I am just being myself in public and not "fooling" anyone. The most important person to not fool is myself.
Bottom line, for whatever reason I tried to fool myself for most of my life. No matter what the "norm" is supposed to me, the only "norm" that is important is my own.

**Disclaimer: I have a history degree and sometimes get carried away with references I know. Just thought they were important here!
***Also, for some reason several very old comments to me just showed up in my in box and I posted them today!