From India

"In a highly unusual move, a designer in the southern Indian state of Kerala has launched her new collection of saris, featuring two transgender models, writes the BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi.

Sharmila Nair's collection is called Mazhavil - or, the rainbow - and it's "dedicated to transgender people because globally they are represented by rainbow flags".

In India, where transgender people are looked down upon by the larger society and are considered as the in-between people who are to be ridiculed and shunned, Ms Nair's choice of models is attracting a lot of attention."

The models - Maya Menon and Gowri Savitri - have no previous experience in modelling and Ms Nair says she found them through Queerala, an organisation that works with the LGBT (lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender) people in Kerala.

"I was thinking about how I was going to showcase this collection of handloom saris and I saw a Facebook post about the state government's new policy to better the lives of transgender people.

"I thought since the government was doing so much for the LGBT people, I should also do something," Ms Nair told the BBC on phone from Cochin."

Follow the link for more.

Strut!

Comedian and actress Whoopi Goldberg will serve as executive producer on an upcoming show called Strut.

Strut will follow the day-to-day lives of a group of trans fashion models.

Focusing on Slay Model Management, the show will tell the story of the world’s first exclusively transgender modelling agency, People reports.

“This show is important right now, because for all of the positive advances the community has made and continues to make, transgender is still a hot-button word that gets people hysterical,” Goldberg in a statement.

“People tend to focus on the stereotype instead of the person,” she added.

“This series will give viewers a unique opportunity to spend time with real people who are struggling with the same challenges we all face as we make our way through the world.

“You may even be surprised to discover that you have been seeing and interacting with transgender men and women in ways you didn’t even realiSe!”

Strut will premiere later this year on the Oxygen network.

Muse-ings

Just a couple more Ideas I ran across recently.

Our CBS affiliate here in Cincinnati last Sunday, ran a segment on a gender-less society. The basic premise was, all the transgender bathroom ruckus will be a thing of the past as more and more millennials just don't see the problem, and it's true.

I call them dinosaurs. The radicals running through Target screaming with a bible all the way down to the "average Joe" on the street. Many have gray hair and are fighting the losing battle against much of corporate America who realizes the impact of LGBT spending. Plus consider this:
Companies are beginning to approve insurance coverage for genital reassignment surgery and I read the average cis woman today is equal in size to the average cis man in the 1960's.

I don't know how long it took for the dinosaurs to go extinct and I am sure ours today will never go away completely, but you can sure feel the winds of change.

Plus, I read we should be on the outlook for a Democratic party resurgence on the local and state levels soon. If you know what a "Log Cabin Republican" is, there is also middle point between both parties. Check them out on the link.


Finally, if you really want to help the cause this year, get registered to vote and check what the candidates stand for on the "social level".

You Are Not the Boss of Me

Yesterday was my once monthly trip to my therapist. Interestingly enough, we talk rarely concerning me being transgender and lean more into my bi-polar and other life issues.

Somehow, my Mom keeps being brought up in the conversations. She was guilty of pushing too hard. If I got three A's and a B-what was up with that B type person. By osmosis (or a broom) I carry that attitude too and have to ignore it. Examples:

If I have what I think is the sharpest new outfit I have ever owned, well...

Back in the day, if I bought a new wig and thought it looked great, well...it did for a month.

Don't get me wrong, Mom has been gone for a long time and I wish I could talk to her now about all that has happened to me, but I am afraid I would have to quote Tom Selleck  in his Jesse Stone role:

"You can fire me, but you can't tell me what to do."

I would put that on my tombstone if I was going to have one!

Also in many ways, the quote describes the emerging transgender community.

JJ's SUNDAY EDITION

KER PLUNK! Another Sunday Edition is hitting your virtual front porch! First the weather:
We are seeing sunshine and mild temps for the first time in a while today, a welcome change!
Excellent for a iced cup o Joe (coffee) or tea. Let's get started:

Page One: The Week that Was or Wasn't: As the battle rages on over the bigoted stupid transgender rest room laws, my email was jammed packed every morning with news of at least 25 or 30 different municipalities, school districts and of course states debating the issue with mixed results. The whole affair is at once so tragic and tedious because once we are out, we are out and it's refreshing to note the big corporations agree. Plus, as more and more people come to know a transgender person, they will find how they were swindled by the simplistic false idea of a "man in the woman's room" hate mongering.

Last week we also wrote about the Veterans Administration withholding coverage for any sort of plastic/surgery/genital realignment surgeries, which as you think about it, is not a huge surprise...for trans vets.



Page Two: Yesterday's Coffee: Opinion: Last night, Liz and I got together with a group of friends and one dear one asked me about my take on the transgender restroom situation and which restroom do I use. I said, the women's and have for years. She asked if I had any negative feedback and I said yes, but not for a while. "Back in the day" I had two or three run in's with police who were called on me to no avail and realistically, I face much more danger if I used a restroom which corresponded to my birth gender. She is an ally and agree with me totally the whole mess was an unneeded deal. We need more like her and others which mean so much to me from the same circle of friends!

Page Three: The Back Page: Hey kids, it's time to go and try out some of this new weather (sun) with Liz and the dogs. Thanks for being part of JJ's and remember, I love you!!!

JJ

What's Next?

Now that I have read again that Medicare will cover some or all aspects of genital reassignment surgery, I am sort of stuck between the rock and the bucket place. 

As I have always said, my genitals don't define me to the world and I am not interested in such a major, painful operation at my age. If most of my life was ahead of me, I am sure I would think different.


What I have written about here is my desire for a breast augmentation operation, and it's finally time to stop into a plastic surgeons office to find out if I can do it partially on Medicare's tab.

If you read Michelle Hart's (no relation) comment in my last Veterans Administration post, waiting for the VA at my age could be a death sentence. It seems our country has a penchant for getting into wars it doesn't want to pay for later. 

At any rate, all of this leads me to another point. If I was to put together a "girl" bucket list for myself, I would have to put swimming on it. I never was a huge fan of the water, even though I know how to swim plus in the old days, swimming in wigs was tough. So I never did.

So who knows, and if you do have any input into any of this, please let me know!

Still No Real Movement at the VA

From The Advocate and Autumn Sandeen:
It will likely take a lawsuit  to end the Veterans Affairs policy of denying coverage for gender-confirmation surgery — a procedure currently covered by Medicare. 
Here is an excerpt: "A lawsuit was filed recently that made little news, lost to the headlines of HB 2 and the Department of Education telling America's 13,000-plus school districts that they must accommodate transgender students in accordance with Title IX. This little-heard-of lawsuit was filed by the Transgender Law Center and Lambda Legal, with co-counsel WilmerHale, and in it they've petitioned the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to change the rule that categorically excludes transition-related surgery for transgender veterans.

For a bit of background, in June of 2011, many of us transgender veterans were pretty excited when the VA announced a standardized policy of respectful and affirming delivery of health care for transgender and intersex veterans. The policy required equal access to affirmative basic health care for transgender veterans across every VA facility — which surprisingly wasn't uniform across the country — and that all medically necessary health care for transgender veterans was and still is to be provided by the VA.

Well, almost all medically necessary health care. Under existing VA regulations, transition-related surgeries — also referred to as gender-affirmation surgeries — aren't performed by or paid for by the VA. In fact, VHA Directive 2013-003 (Providing Health Care For Transgender And Intersex Veterans) states under line item 2.b. "[The] VA does not provide sex reassignment surgery or plastic reconstructive surgery for strictly cosmetic purposes."

Being a transgender veteran myself, I'm not holding my breath waiting for change, but who knows?

Transgender Migration (Archive Post)

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Transsexual Migrations

"Kristina was born 33 years ago as a boy, but in her teens she realized she was at odds with her body. She has been thinking of sex change since 16, but not until four years ago, after moving to Germany, did she start doing something about it. In Lithuania, sex change operations are impossible because there are no laws governing them. “I was told I needed therapy, they suggested I had my head examined. There was so much mockery before... About locking me in a mental hospital, testing and curing like a lab rat. But it is not a disease, a person is simply born in a wrong body,” she explains."

For more on Kristina and Lithuanian transgender law, go here.

Just What The Hell Should They Know?

Liz and I went to the first planning session for the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Transgender Day of Remembrance.

I didn't attend last year's because of reasons I don't actually remember, but later I got the sense there were two separate competing events? Partially, I guess, the problem was a cis gender woman was running one and it was way too religious in scope.

It was about that time, I began to tally my own unofficial count in the room and came up with an almost even break down of cis versus trans people. The count included an even break between transgender men and trans women. The HUGE problem I immediately saw was there was only one transgender woman of color in the room and she said she had to be talked into coming after last years event.

I grew quickly bored as the meeting turned into what I call "circular" the same peeps bringing up the same subject endlessly. Plus it was religion. 

Which brings me back to my original question, When does an "ally's" help cease to be help no matter how well intention-ed it is?