Happy Fourth!

It's the Fourth of July and time to forget the divides we suffer in Washington and remember all which is still good with our nation.

Sadly at a time when our government seems to be so out of touch with the people, so much good is happening at the grass roots level, especially within the LGBTQ community. Like no time in the past, we are preparing for the fight ahead.

In the meantime, let's remember Woody Guthrie's immortal song, This Land is Your Land:




I would like to thank the "Tony Burgess Blog" I follow for this inspiration!

Passing Privilege?

I saw a post somewhere the other day about the importance of a person's "passing privilege."

First of all, I am not a big fan of the passing comment at all and always like to refer back to Stana's Femulate comment referring to how she always passed with care, by using her horn, flashing her lights etc.

Long HRT Hair

As far as I am concerned, I go back to what a transgender woman friend told me years ago. She said, I passed out of sheer will power. So many years later, I still do. If people don't like me, it's their problem.

I was never blessed with being a "natural." It took me a long time to realize the compliment "You make a great looking woman," was missing the rest of the comment...for a man. Even though I grew up desperately wanting to be a girl, I lived in a male dominated world and had precious little time to express my "feminine side."

My real inclusion into having any passing privilege at all came after I made the decision to go on HRT. All the good things happened like hair, breasts, soft skin and a rounder face. However, I do believe sometime in the future I will get a health pay back in return for messing around with my body's hormonal basic's.

In the mean time though, I will continue to put my best feminine foot forward to the world the best I can. Out of sheer will power.

Hopefully I won't wear my horn out when I get the chance to pass.   

Pooya!

If you haven't seen or heard, Pantene is starring a 41 year old transgender woman as one of it's models:

"When Pooya Mohseni was 19 years old, she was walking around a park in her hometown of Tehran, Iran, wearing a simple black T-shirt and white jeans, when a group of policemen approached her.

The officers took issue with how Mohseni, a transgender woman who was presenting as masculine at the time, wore her hair. To them, it was too long.

Pooya Mohseni

"My hair was down to the middle of my ears," Mohseni, now 41, tells Refinery29. "Not very long at all. If I pulled it all to the front of my face, it would come down to the middle of my nose." 

According to Mohseni, the officers' real problem wasn't her hair. It was what her hair signified.  Almost two decades later, that very same head of hair is making its debut in a new Pantene campaign called "Don’t Hate Me Because I’m #BeautifuLGBTQ," which was born out of the brand's new partnership with GLAAD in honor of Pride Month. In a video for the campaign that can be seen on both YouTube and social media, Mohseni recounts her arrest and declares that "hair is the most visibly transformative part of your body."

I agree and still feel so fortunate I was able to grow my own hair. It forced me into going all out to adopt a stable feminine persona. The drawback of course is making sure I keep up with it at my stylist!

Bored

After every up moment such as this weekend, there naturally comes a period of "what now?"

I have nothing going on this week until Friday when we have our monthly transgender-cross dresser social at the Mexican Restaurant we go to quite a bit.

It's still too early to decide, but since we are still baking in our mini heat wave, I probably will wear my other maxi dress.

Other than that, I will be riding along with Liz to her doctor's appointments, which require no special preparation to speak of. Just the normal jeans and minimal make up.

All the Prides in the area are now done, so it's a let down too. Most of the euphoria of Pride can be tempered with all the tragic violence against transgender women around the country and the world. Pride is a powerful example of what is possible...if we all stick together and make it happen.

A Reminder

Last night we went out to dinner at one of our fave spots.

It was a warm, even hot summer evening here in Ohio, an ideal night I thought to wear one of my long slinky maxi dresses.

It was fun to take my shower in anticipation of the evening and washing my hair and letting it dry naturally, bringing out all the curls.

All too quickly it was time to slip into my dress, attach my favorite earrings and slide into my black flats. Even though I spend my whole life in a feminine world, I had an inkling of a thought...all of this was fun and I loved it.

The feeling continued into the evening.  The restaurant wasn't very busy for a change so we didn't have a problem finding the rest of our party.

As I walked in, I was distinctly aware of the changes to my body thanks to HRT. I could feel everything from my hair on my neck all the way to the shoes on my feet. Now I thought, this was what I went through all the changes for.

Ironically, a woman in a black pants suit (and obviously nothing under it) sat down close to us. For a second my mind flashed back to an earlier time when I would have been intensely envious of her. But last night, I didn't have to be.

I was free to finally be myself and it felt great.

The picture on the left is actually the same dress taken last summer.