More Visability

Perhaps you have heard (or have seen) Boston has named a transgender model Ava Glasscott as a co-parade Marshall for this year's Pride Parade. Here is more background on Ava:

 "Ava represented the State of Massachusetts in the Miss Trans USA Pageant 2018. She is the first post-op transgender contestant from New England to represent her Community in a National Pageant. The story of Ava’s journey as a trans model has been featured by NBC Boston and the WCVB-TV show “Chronicle.”  Ava made a cameo in Amy Schumer’s 2018 movie “I Feel Pretty,” which was filmed in Boston. She also appeared in the documentary film “All Stars: The Changing Face of Drag (2016)”, which she promoted at RuPaul’s DragCon in Los Angeles."

What a great  choice for a huge event.

Girls Day Out

It turns out, our yard sale was a very relaxing experience.  I was there with my partner Liz and two other women part of the day Saturday and the whole day Sunday. The weather turned out to be excellent.

Being in the company of women has always felt more comfortable to me, so it was no real surprise this would be any different.

As you can see in the picture, that is me lounging out to the far right.

Even the red neck village was sort of well behaved. I only saw three Confederate flags on the back of pick up trucks and motorcycles.

My only personal challenge was leaving with Liz for a bit on Sunday. We went down the street to a convenience store for snacks and a rest room break. As it turned out, the place was nearly empty and we got in and out with out even a glance from the cashier.

As the day went on, I did have a chance to sit back and reflect on my past. I wondered to myself the differences in hanging out with women rather than men. To me, for the most part women are more laid back when dealing with each other and change when men come around. An example was when a man was waited on versus a woman. The man always received more attention. I guess that is human nature but it's interesting to see when you have walked both sides of the gender frontier.

The weekend turned out to be fun.

The Power of the Dollar

Long ago when I first started down the long feminine path to living full time, I learned many of the retail clerks I interacted with didn't care I was cross dressed, only that I had money.

Little did I know, way back then, I was touching the basics of an up and coming LGBTQ economic force.

Yesterday, I received an email from Elouise alerting me to an article called "The SMB Guide to Success in the LGBTQ Market.

I call it the "Anti" Chick fil a/Hobby Lobby post. Two decidedly anti LGBTQ companies. Here is the beginning of the article from  Website Planet:

"If you own or manage a small or medium-sized business (SMB), this article is for you. With less resources to play around with, SMBs must pull on all available resources to effectively work with and market to a wide customer base focused on interests, not social demographics.

That’s why SMBs must begin building strategies to effectively market to and work in an LGBTQ-affirming world.

The LGBTQ market is one of the fastest-growing sectors out there, and it’s becoming an increasingly valuable customer base across all industries. In fact, according to GayStar News, a conservative estimate on the size of the global LGBTQ market is $3.7 trillion – that’s a huge market that could be left out of your customer base unless you take the right steps. This community is also particularly sensitive to social issues."

This is a very good in depth piece,  if you would like to read it follow the link above!

Booth Girl

Wrapped around a visit to my daughter's picnic/party this weekend, is a nearby village wide yard sale our group is setting up at . We are using it to raise funds for this year's annual Cincinnati Witches Ball. The big Halloween Party we host every October. This summer we are selling home-made canned and baked goods.

Any sort of affair my daughter puts on is very inclusive all the way to having another transgender person there. One of my ex wife's in laws is a trans man. I don't anticipate anything other than a good time.

The village where we are having the garage sale is much different. Very small and very redneck are the best descriptors I can come up with.  We are only supposed to be there about four hours on Saturday and Sunday, so I figure I can provide a helping hand without being too conspicuous. 

One way or another, it should be interesting.

Top 20 LGBTQ

"Out Magazine" has published an article I thought you may be interested in...the 20 LGBTQ+ People Who Changed the World. Quite a few of them perhaps you have heard of, others not so much.

Each one though, shares a top spot and a thank you for helping our lives along to be just a little bit better. They also provide banners of inspiration to help us along in the difficult years to come. 

It's not a surprise, but the "uber" talented "Laverne Cox"leads the list.

Laverne Cox

Follow the link above for more!