Film explores death of transgendered Colo. teen

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Veteran Times sportswriter Mike Penner dead

November 28, 2009 | 9:42 am
Mike Penner, the veteran Los Angeles Times sportswriter who made international headlines in 2007 when he announced he was transsexual and began working under the byline "Christine Daniels," has died.
Colleagues said today that Penner was found dead at his Los Angeles home and that suicide was the suspected cause of death. He was 52.

"He was one of the most talented writers I've ever worked with," said Times Sports Editor Mike James, adding that Penner covered numerous beats including the National Football League and sports media during his more than two-decade-long career at the paper.

"He was a gentle man, a kind man," James said. "It's just a tragedy."

Penner garnered much support and some criticism when he announced he was a "transsexual sportswriter."

"During my 23 years with The Times' sports department, I have held a wide variety of roles and titles. Tennis writer. Angels beat reporter. Olympics writer. Essayist. Sports media critic. NFL columnist. Recent keeper of the Morning Briefing flame. Today I leave for a few weeks' vacation, and when I return, I will come back in yet another incarnation. As Christine," he wrote. "I am a transsexual sportswriter. It has taken more than 40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me to work up the courage to type those words. I realize many readers and colleagues and friends will be shocked to read them."

Penner ended up blogging about his transition and later wrote a Times sports blog. In 2008, he began using the "Mike Penner" byline again.

The Times will have a full obituary soon.

The Mike Penner story:

When someone is trapped inside the wrong body
A writer's transformation makes the personal public
NPR interviews Christine Daniels (audio)
Old Mike, new Christine
Recent sports stories by Penner
Archive of Penner's Totally Random column

Let me have sex change treatment NOW,

Let me have sex change treatment NOW,
says schoolboy age 14

A BOY was last night backed by his mum as he begged to begin sex change treatment on the NHS - at the age of just FOURTEEN.
Georgie Smith, who dresses as a girl and wears make-up, insisted: "I'm old enough to know what I want. What I want is to be a girl."

Mum Carole, 41, blasted health chiefs for slapping a ban on youngsters taking sex change drugs until after puberty.

She said it meant that by the time her son is old enough to have an op he will never really look like a woman.

Carole wants Georgie to be given hormone blockers now to stop him turning into a man.

She said: "With his puberty suspended, he wouldn't grow to six foot or have big hands."

The mum-of-three said her boy had wanted to be a girl since the age of two - and had twice attempted suicide after realising he was in the "wrong" body.

School bullies began targeting him at age eight - branding him a "freak".

Georgie - not his real name because The Sun has agreed to protect his identity - asked his Dorset secondary school to let him wear girls' uniform. But he was barred - so he now wears make-up and bangles with the boys' version of the uniform.


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Carole, who lives near Bournemouth, told how they were cuddled up on the sofa watching his favourite kids' programme - Tracy Beaker - when he blurted out: "I want to be a girl like her."

He was eight at the time - but Carole already knew how he felt.

She explained: "Even when he was into Thomas the Tank Engine, he only liked the girl engine." She looked into sending her son, whose dad left when he was two, to the US where kids can begin the sex change process earlier, but didn't have the £16,000 needed.

She said: "It should be available on the NHS." The Department of Health has said it is reviewing the age at which youngsters can begin taking hormone blockers.



Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2741447/Lad-aged-14-in-NHS-sex-change-plea.html#ixzz0Xi0b0gIw

Transsexuals to be deported after prostitute's death

Rome, 23 Nov. (AKI) - Italian authorities are moving to deport 10 Brazilian transsexuals who were reportedly friends of Brenda, the prostitute at the centre of a sex and drugs extortion scandal found dead in Rome on Friday. According to Italian media, nine of the transsexuals were living illegally in Italy.

They are expected to be deported from Italy within a week and return to Brazil.

"They are people who engage in prostitution and are thus checked just like any other prostitutes," said Maurizio Improta, head of the immigration office.

On Friday, the transsexuals said they feared for their lives after the death of the Brazilian prostitute Brenda, which some have claimed was murdered and may have been 'silenced'.

Brenda was found dead after a fire broke out at her apartment in northern Rome early Friday.

She made headlines after allegedly having more than one sexual encounter with the former governor of the Lazio region Piero Marrazzo in an extortion, sex and drugs scandal, which led to the governor's resignation in October.

One of the transsexual prostitutes, Natalie, has been granted a permit of stay because she is considered a witness in the case involving Marrazzo, who resigned as governor, when news of his relationship with Brenda and Natalie broke in October.

Rome's public prosecutor said that the case would be investigated as a homicide after an autopsy showed that Brenda had suffocated from the smoke during the fire.

Further questions have been raised about the quantity of alcohol she drank before the fire occurred and whether she had consumed drugs that night.

A Rare Sighting!

A Rare Sighting!
Larry Wachowski: Transgendered Matrix Director Rare Appearance

We see you!


Hollywood transgendered director and recluse Larry Wachowski was spotted heading out of LAX airport Wednesday afternoon.

Larry has spent the last few years transitioning into a woman and now asks to be known as Lana.

We think someone has to start thinking about transitioning her hair! We're all about adding a little flavor to your hair, but that is a BIT much - even for us!

[Image via www.XposurePhotos.com.]

Gay Mayor Elected in Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Global Cocktail - Gay and Lesbian Travel Blog - Passport Magazine

Gay Mayor Elected in Fort Lauderdale, Florida - Global Cocktail - Gay and Lesbian Travel Blog - Passport Magazine

Journeys through Transition

by Lindsey Barber, staff writer
November 19, 2009

This is an article from [X]press Magazine.

Marissa Martinez felt out of place most of her life because she was born in a man's body. Her discomfort did not stem from some sexual attraction to males. Instead, she truly felt she was meant to be a woman. Growing up in the Santa Cruz Mountains, she first identified with femininity during puberty when the changes her body went through, as a boy, did not seem to fit. She had fantasies about being a woman, would wear her mom's clothes, and shaved only her upper thighs so she would not get teased during gym class.
Despite the intensity of her need to be female, Martinez never told anyone. For almost thirty years, she naively held the common opinion that "whatever genitalia a person is born with determines their sex."

The most misunderstood aspect of gender transition is the motivation, because the catalyst is not defined by want. On the contrary, the feeling, absent of casual desire, is a need to correct a mistake. "It's something you can't escape and no matter how hard you try to suppress it, it won't go away," explains Martinez, who completed her surgical transition from male to female three months ago.

Prior to transition, Martinez suppressed her femininity and assumed an "ultimate expression" of masculinity by immersing herself in the grindcore metal scene. "I loved how extreme it was. That it didn't hold back and was like the ultimate in speed and aggression and over the top lyrics." She had problems with other kids bullying her in school, until she became a "burly, death metal dude."





"I would literally walk down the middle of the halls in my black leather jacket, with long black hair in my face, looking like the proverbial, Satan worshiping, metal maniac, and crowds of people would part to get out of my way. That was a big deal to me at the time. I was dedicated to the idea that I had to be a man."

Martinez attended the Heald Institute of Technology, obtaining an Associate of Sciences in software technologies. "I went there because I really wanted to be able to provide for my girlfriend, who eventually became my wife."

"She had a lot of strong opinions about how men and women were and some of them seemed stereotypical," says John von Eichhorn, who has worked with Martinez in software development for ten years at Lucasfilm, producer of Star Wars. "We worked long hours together and were each other's confidants about work and marriage." But Martinez' never discussed her gender identity issues. "There was just a general dissatisfaction with life that she had when she was a man. And that was something that fed into her music."

Unlike Martinez, Dean Bonilla, never suppressed his male identity or assumed a generic gender role. As a child, he expected to endure male puberty, but became androgynous once he experienced feminine changes instead. "I felt really confused and didn't know what to call myself. But I knew I did not like being called a girl. I was playing football in the mud and not brushing my hair."

Bonilla could not relate to the female concern about body image or why his single mother thought she needed a man to raise him properly. Identifying with men was difficult because he could not understand the misogyny, emotional suppression or the concern over maintaining a tough persona that he saw in many of the men around him. "I always felt like I had to act tough to get any kind of respect, but eventually I decided this was dumb." Bonilla has lived as a man for over three years and is comfortable expressing his emotions. "I'm okay with whatever feminine qualities I have because I am comfortable with my masculinity," he says. "Why does there have to be some type of gender role?"

Bonilla grew up in the southern Baptist city of Jacksonville, Florida, where coming out, even as gay, was intimidating. He did not know about trans men until he met two at a queer youth center when he was sixteen. "I watched them both transition from female to male physically and it all just came together," he remembers. Three years later he asked his grandmother if he could assume his middle name, Dean, simply to see how she would react. She had no qualms, so Bonilla explained everything in a letter. "She told me she always knew I'd come out to her."

During this time, Bonilla was living with a lesbian couple. One of the women wished he could be a stronger female, but his transition had nothing to do with his sexual orientation or a dislike of women. "Just because I transitioned as male doesn't mean I'm not a feminist," he says. Bonilla's mother is still trying to accept his male identity because she was not close to him when he first came out. "It seems like she's trying to have a mother-daughter relationship that we never really had," he says.

Martinez' suppression of her true self made her road to transition much longer. For ten years she sought satisfaction in helping her wife pick out sexy outfits and attempted to incorporate her female identity into their sexual relations. But her partner was completely heterosexual and did not enjoy this approach, which Martinez would "explain away" as simply an unbridled fantasy she could forget.

"No matter how hard I tried to be like my father when I was younger, be a good husband or just a cool dude, I could never escape these feelings telling me, 'This isn't right. You should be a girl.'"

Explaining this to her wife was unnerving. "I knew this was going to put the nail in the coffin of our relationship." But to Martinez' surprise her wife wanted to maintain the relationship because she believed the core person with whom she fell in love would always remain the same. She tried to adjust to having a wife and Martinez began cross dressing, but these efforts remained futile in that they only allowed Martinez to skim the surface of who she truly needed to be. While sharing a cigarette after a game of pool one night, her wife admitted she had to leave her, because otherwise Martinez would always hold back.

Within the next year they sold their town house in Pacifica, her ex-wife found a new boyfriend, and Martinez moved to the city and began hormone replacement therapy. She would use her half of the money from the house to pay for various surgeries that would finally give her a body that matched her mentality.

Some transgender people do not need or want Gender Confirmation Surgery, explains Martinez, because they are comfortable with genitals that do not match their gender identity. Bonilla would like to have his breast tissue removed, but he does not need bottom surgery to be comfortable as a male. "I don't feel like I have any dysphoria," he says.

He has no problem with the surgery, understands the feeling of "missing something," and admits he may want it some day, but he thinks many people - gay, straight, and transgender - wrongly categorize people based solely on their genitals. Bonilla has dated women and is also attracted to gay men, but fears he will never have the opportunity to date a man "because there is so much emphasis on having a penis to be a man in the first place." He thinks surgery is pushed on trans women for the same reason and disagrees with the law requiring "bottom" GCS for a legal change of gender. "Gender and sex are totally different from each other and if you're intersex -why does that matter?"

In Jacksonville, Bonilla was concerned about conforming to a masculine role because he dealt with constant harassment from his peers. He wore his hair short and often made a point of looking angry so people would not approach him. "I know it sounds crazy, but everyday I got stared down mostly by jock guys," he says. "Seeing this female-bodied person being masculine messed with their whole world."

Bonilla immersed himself in activism to compensate for the harassment. In high school, he lead class discussions about safe sex and sexual and gender orientation issues, lobbied for anti-bullying laws, and worked at the LGBT center while studying sociology at the University of Northern Florida.

Depressed by the prevalent harassment, he realized he needed to help himself before he could continue to help others. "Out of desperation," Bonilla moved to San Francisco in January, one month after his best friend, Charles Thomy, who is also transgendered. "I just decided to pack two bags and leave everything because I knew this would be the best for me and it has been so far." He left with little money, but he saw no career opportunities in Jacksonville aside from the LGBT center. "It made me annoyed to know that was the only option and that any other place would look down on me just for being me."

After living with friends for a few months he obtained an apartment through the Castro Youth Housing Initiative, which aids low-income or unemployed youth. He is still trying to get settled financially, but hopes to return to college and work for a nonprofit.

Since he began taking testosterone four months ago, his voice has lowered and he has more facial hair, but he does not notice any significant changes in his mood, because he says he always felt masculine. Making documentaries, learning how to skateboard, and watching films are some favorite pastimes that he shares with Thomy. He always wanted to skate, but gave it up at a young age, because the pubescent boys he wanted to skate with were unwilling to play with a girl. Bonilla considers his relationship with Thomy a "'bromance' - we can be emotional with each other, but not have to be in a relationship," he says, noting that, unlike other guys, their relationship has no tension related to proving their masculinity to each other.

Martinez understands Bonilla's viewpoint on gender confirmation surgery, but she knew she could never feel comfortable with her male genitalia or the odd looks and comments such as, "That's a dude," from insolent passersby. "I never wanted to be a Tranny. I always needed to be a girl."

After eight months of transitioning, Martinez was androgynous in her daily life and spending weekends as a woman. After one such weekend she was hanging out with a friend from work. "He said, 'It's going to be really weird not seeing you at work like this tomorrow.' And it just sorta hit me," she remembers. "I went to work the next day and saw my reflection in the glass (as a man) and said, 'Oh my god, I can't do this!'" She explained her situation to human relations and began living as a woman full time. Everyone has been completely supportive, including her coworkers, parents, and the members of her metal band, Cretin.

Martinez is currently working on the second album and says she sings the same as she did prior to her transition - in a loud, growling voice filled with angst. "You can't change the vocalist. It kills the band," she says, while eating lamb chops, using her fork and knife to gracefully remove the last slivers of meat from the bones.

Aside from these vocals, her demeanor is feminine. She taught herself how to walk, talk, and eat like a woman and even changed her handwriting. The estrogen injections softened her skin and made her more emotional, but to truly feel like a woman she needed surgery.

First, she underwent eleven hours of Facial Feminization Surgery, performed by world-renowned craniofacial surgeon Doctor Douglas Ousterhout. "For women, no matter the size of our bone structure, we still have certain curvature that indicates a female face," explains Mira Coluccio, Dr. Ousterhout's office manager who has extensive knowledge of his surgical procedures. Compared to females the male skull is much larger with deep-set eyes and bossing above the socket, a flat forehead and a square jaw. To make a face female Dr. Ousterhout removes and reshapes portions of the skull.

Prior to surgery, both Martinez' friends and people she had just met would tell her she was already beautiful and did not need the procedure. "We are not talking about beauty. It's the bone structure," says Coluccio, pointing to numerous before and after photos on her computer. "As an outsider looking in (at these pictures) you see a brother and sister." Coluccio says surgery gives people confidence, but transition involves self-exploration, which consumes many genetic women for most of their lives. "Every girl I know is still learning how to be a girl."

Before facial feminization surgery, von Eichhorn continued to slip up on Martinez' name and the proper pronouns, but the surgery removed the remnants of her formal self and he no longer saw her as a man. Martinez still had insecurities about "passing," but her female face and the breast augmentation that followed energized her self-esteem and social life. She even entertained her dream to become a latex fetish model and won a casting call for a photo shoot with Marquis Magazine after they hosted a fetish ball in July. "It's my opinion that latex is to clothing as chocolate is to food - pure decadent sex!"

"I'm way more social and outgoing than I used to be. Plus, I think differently because of the hormones," she says. "Man or woman we're all made out of the same goop, so if you swap the hormones we produce naturally then you're going to get similar results." Martinez was never attracted to men, until she began taking female hormones, which made her feel vulnerable - an emotion that she says is well served by men who innately have a protective disposition.

As a woman she is bisexual, but dating a guy requires less thought. "When I am with a woman I am very concerned about what my role is because that can either validate or invalidate my confidence in being a woman. Whereas when I am with a guy, it is very validating that I am his girl. That said I'm more attracted to women."

One month after the fetish ball, Martinez travelled to New Hope, Pennsylvania, where her genitals would be transformed from male to female, through a surgical technique known as penile inversion. When she awoke after surgery, she thought the procedure was not complete. Once the doctors assured her the operation was finished, she began feeling the area with her mind. "I started crying because I was really happy. It felt very correct." Initially, she thought her penis was still there, but then realized it was now inside her, aside from a small portion of the head used to form the clitoris.

Two months later she was still sore, but back to work, going out and having fun. Dilation is a big part of her day - every three hours she must insert a stint into her vagina and apply constant pressure for thirty minutes to increase its width and depth, and to avoid atrophy. She began this maintenance process immediately after surgery when she was still too swollen to walk. The tenderness remains three months later, but being content with her body was worth all the pain.

A noticeable weight has been lifted from her shoulders, says von Eichhorn. Martinez as a guy was "quiet and shy - in a lot of ways introspective and subdued. Now she'll just strike up a conversation with strangers and puts herself at the epicenter of attention." Prior to her transition, Martinez and von Eichhorn discussed the protective roles they assumed in their relationships with women. Now that dynamic is present between them, says von Eichhorn, who worries about Martinez walking home alone at night in attractive outfits. "I see her as my little sister at this point."

Martinez has only lived as a woman for two years and even after the surgery does not consider her transition complete. "Honestly, one part of me is like "Phew! OK! The big scary unknown is over with." But, there's still a huge amount of healing and rediscovery left to go," she says. "I think my big stuff to deal with is reconciling that I didn't have a girl's upbringing, and finding peace with the past I did live."

She overcame several uncertainties throughout her transition, including doubting she was transgendered in any sense and worrying that her friends and family would not love her if she transitioned. Now her main concerns are passing as a woman and exploring her roles in relationships. "Even now, after all of the therapy, surgery, and retraining of my movements, mannerisms, and voice, I constantly think that people are recognizing me as something other than a natural woman." She continues to tell people she is transsexual when they appear interested in dating her and, as a "realist," concludes this discussion will always be necessary due to her male upbringing.

"Despite the challenges having a vagina feels amazing. I can't really explain it, but it has really calmed some big anxieties that I've had. It just makes sense to me - to look down and not see a penis there. There's no other way to put it."

Bonilla also sees transition as an ongoing process. "There may be a point when I know I can completely pass as male, but I do not think there is going to be an end to (my transition) because I will constantly have to take testosterone in order to stay male-bodied."

He no longer worries about passing, but hopes the public will become more educated on transgender issues. "If I wasn't trans, instead of staring them down or making up my own ideas about how they are, I'd want to ask questions and make friends with them."


» E-mail Lindsey Barber @ lmbarber@sfsu.edu

Trans-activist Kate Bornstein will make you question your gender

By Carolyn Szczepanski in Art, Do It, EntertainmentThu.,
Nov. 19 2009

Kate Bornstein leans back in her chair, legs spread, teal-painted fingernails and tattooed hand partially covering the girly design on her baby-tee top. A black and white wrist cuff with anarchy symbols and a gigantic, silver watch peek out under a sheer white sleeves. The 61-year-old, male-to-female transsexual writer and performance artist is surrounded by framed photographs of local leaders in the still-empty Alumni Room at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. But she's grinning about a different set of trailblazers.




Kate Bornstein (left) with a TransFest organizer, Wick Thomas






​"I was just at a drag king extravaganza in Tucson and I had my mind blown," she says, eyes sparkling behind glasses with pink, plastic frames, her lip piercing shifting as she chuckles.
Not that Bornstein hasn't blown some minds herself. Her 1994 book, Gender Outlaw -- a witty retelling of her own journey from man to woman and wry attack on the binary that shackles us all to male or female -- has become required reading in many college classes. In the intervening 15 years, she's appeared on talks shows and stages around the world, making people question the construct of gender. And this week, Bornstein is in Kansas City, adding some spice to UMKC's TransFest, a series of events put on by the college's Queer Alliance.

Honestly, I arrived at UMKC yesterday with a neat set of questions for a Q&A. But, I should have known better. Bornstein isn't the type of gal who answers inquiries in a few sentences. She slides backwards, hands on her head, and answers in a deliberate but mischievous tone, like she's sensuously sucking on a piece of candy. Talking to Kate Bornstein, I discovered, is like an intellectual strip-tease you don't want to cut off.

So, I said to start the conversation, you ended Gender Outlaw with a tone of optimism, the sense that trans folks were starting to use their voices and coalesce into a movement. Has that progressed like you expected over the past 15 years?

"The most heartening development since Gender Outlaw was the stuff I never dreamed of," she said. "Like 'gender queer.' I had no idea about that. That's an amazing identity and so much more than what I would consider the 101 style of Gender Outlaw. People have taken it much, much further."

And the folks at the front of the pack are changing, she added.

"The face of transgender to the public used to be a middle-aged male-to-female -- a guy in a dress," she explained. "The new face of transgender is the young f to m [female-to-male]. It's been such a wild cultural evolution in a short period of 15 years and a lot of it has to do with the plague [AIDS] years, when so many of the fabulous queens died in the '80s and '90s and the torch was passed on to the drag kings and the 'f-to-m's. And they're carrying it in a whole different way than the queens did. The drag queens were all about the fabulous and all about the beauty. They were never much about the politics. But the drag king shows I've seen are healthy doses of fabulous and performance art and politics. That's heartening."

What about the other side of the coin, I asked. What's been disappointing?

"What's disheartening is how the battle cry of Stonewall became 'We're just like you,'" she said. "And it got applied to transgender people, too. 'We're just like you'? Um, no, we're not. ... What you've got now is second-wave LGBT [activists], who, for the most part, are straight people -- straight lesbians, straight trans people -- who want to be just like everybody else. That's self-defeating."

So where does the "T" fit into LGBT, I asked. Because, plenty of trans folks aren't gay and plenty of gay people are offended by the blanket term "queer."

"Well, I think the problem is we haven't finished naming all our family members," she said. "We can't stop our family at LGBTQ -- I can count close to 30 initials for people who define themselves primarily in performance or life by sexuality and gender. But we've not found an umbrella term that works for everybody. I know 'queer' doesn't. And, out of those many letters, we haven't really figured out the common thread to this family we're putting together. I think the common thread is that we're all people who are sex positive and, to some degree, gender anarchists. But the first line of battle of any sex- and gender-based movement has to be stop the violence against women. That would unite a movement, a sex- and gender-based movement."

Sadly, by this time, students and activists were starting to file into the room for an afternoon round-table with the trans-activist, so I had to let Bornstein go. But she's performing a one-woman show tonight at UMKC. Catch "Dangerous Dreams and Damned Desires" in Royall Hall room 104 at 7 p.m. (Seriously.)

Tags: f-to-m, Kansas City, Kate Bornstein, straight lesbians, UMKC Queer Alliance

Skin Deep

Canada's most celebrated transsexual peels back the layers. Photo by David Hawe.

The Silicone Diaries, the new one-woman show written and performed by self-proclaimed "most celebrated transsexual in Canada" Nina Arsenault currently being performed at Buddies' cabaret space, is already a hit.
The theatre announced an added performance before the show had even opened, tickets have been selling like hotcakes, and there's already rumours of the Diaries coming back next season, this time in the more spacious "Chamber" section of the venue. That last tidbit is very welcome news for audience members; when we attended the jam-packed opening, "seating" choices were limited to standing room at the back, or cramming ourselves onto the room's grand staircase. We opted for the latter, an experience so uncomfortable we couldn't help but imagine, while Arsenault waxed poetic about the various illegal silicone injections into her ass and hips she had scored in Mexico, the more practical appeal of having a little extra cushion back there.

Arsenault aficionados will of course be aware that this is the second solo(ish) show the self-made woman has performed on the subject of herself. Last year's Fringe featured the Sky Gilbert-penned Ladylike, a fictionalized version of Arsenault's life. This time, the script is drawn from a column Arsenault used to have at fab Magazine detailing her transitioning process, meaning she's stripped away the fictional element and committed to telling her own story, all of which sounds like a step in the right direction. And yet, although we seem to be promised a personal and provocative exploration of her life, persona, and sixty cosmetic surgeries, we couldn't help leaving the theatre feeling like we'd only scrapped the surface of Ms. Arsenault.

In terms of structure and content, Diaries has loads in common with Buddies' last show, Neon Nightz. Both were directed by the Buddies' Artistic Director of the moment, Nightz by outgoing David Oiye, Diaries by incoming Brendan Healy. Both are written and performed by former sex workers/local columnists (Nightz scribe Sasha Von Bon Bon's "Love Bites" column was recently axed by Eye Weekly). Both illustrate their subject matter through a series of semi-related episodes and vignettes. And both, unfortunately, feature performances that you can't help be reminded aren't coming from professional actors. Like Von Bon Bon, Arsenault lacks the level of ease on the stage necessary for a great performance. Her physicality is often awkward and unnatural, she is prone to staring off into space, and she has a really hard time with her lines. And it's a shame, because she's a better writer than Gilbert, and when the show is coming from such a personal place, there's every reason it should blow the uneven Ladylike out of the water. But it doesn't. There are moments when she gets confident, and her ability to charm and tell a damn good story transcends the rest of the production and you feel like you're being allowed to witness something special. Most of the time, however, the Diaries feels meandering, repetitive, and surprisingly superficial. One of the lengthiest sequences in the show describes Arsenault's somewhat notorious encounter with well-endowed rocker and Pam's ex-hubbie Tommy Lee. In Arsenault's version of the story, the incident becomes a personal monument of her trans-validation and "realness,"—she gave Tommy Lee a boner! She's as hot as a bio-woman!—but we couldn't help finding the tale, well... sad and shallow. If a biological woman had plastic surgeried herself into Barbie doll and macked all over an aging, dubiously talented has-been rockstar, would she receive standing ovations at one of the city's most respected theatres? Or, would she just be a contestant on Rock of Love Bus?

The Silicone Diaries runs until November 22.

Transgender Day of Remembrance

November 21: Transgender Day of Remembrance

New Book Offers Fresh Perspective on Transgender Life

Joanne Herman Shares Experiences in "Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not"
BOSTON, Nov. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- "Transgender people have been around since the beginning of time, and there are more of us than you think," writes Joanne Herman in her new book, "Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not "(published by AuthorHouse). "Transgender people are very varied and diverse -- some transition genders as I did, some have an opposite gender presentation only part of the time, and some have a unique gender presentation all of the time. Contrary to common belief, few transgender people have surgery."

Herman makes a good point: Although it is commonly assumed that those who identify as transgender undergo surgery, most do not. Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines transgender as, "of, relating to, or being a person ... who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that differs from the one which corresponds to the person's sex at birth." The definition does not mention surgical reassignment and it does not speak to a person's sexual orientation -- some transgender people are gay while others are straight.

Ideal for parents, relatives, colleagues, friends, allies and anyone seeking information about what it means to be transgender, "Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not" offers a much-needed resource, which is organized by topic into short, easy-to-read chapters. Herman tackles myriad subjects, evident in chapter titles including "Sub-Groups Under the Transgender Umbrella," "Prevalence: There Are More of Us Than You Think" and "Political Correctness: 'Please Don't Call Me Tranny.'"

Combining her personal story with thorough research, statistics and analysis, Herman gives a voice to the thousands of people living in similar situations. Today, as 2009 draws to a close, acceptance and tolerance have become increasingly important, and knowledge is the first step to achieving this. Gain a new perspective on what it's like to be transgender in the informative pages of "Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not."

Joanne Herman has a bachelor's degree in government and economics from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Northeastern University. She is the first transgender person elected to the board of directors of Point Foundation, a national Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender scholarship fund; Fenway Health, the largest LGBT-focused health center in the world; and GLAD, the New England-based LGBT legal rights organization. Herman is also the first openly transgender member of the congregation of Old South Church in Boston. She currently resides in Boston.

AuthorHouse is the premier book publisher for emerging, self-published authors. For more information, please visit http://www.authorhouse.com.

EDITORS: For review copies or interview requests, contact:
Promotional Services Department
Tel: 888-728-8467
Fax: 812-961-3133
Email: pressreleases@authorhouse.com
(When requesting a review copy, please provide a street address.)

Here's some news footage of Miss Gay Brazil 2009 being interviewed after the pageant. Right in the middle of the interview some angry contestant ran right up to her and snatched her wig and crown right off her head! Miguel at Dlisted said: "this hot bitch is making wig snatching look like an Olympic Sport." I totally agree.

It looks like it made the evening news in Rio. Why isn't American evening news this entertaining? Hello Anderson Cooper, can you hear me? Rachel Maddow? What's the point of having queer people anchor our news if we don't get to see this kind of stuff on the air?

I bet a lot of queens wanted to snatch Carrie Prejean's weave off her head too. Could this be the start of a new trend?

Or it a rehashing of an old goody from Valley of the Dolls? I love this scene!

"You Brought This on Yourself"

by: "Cyndi Richards" tgcyndi@yahoo.com
Thu Nov 19, 2009




For some of us who are gifted with the ability and the willingness to "say it loud and say it proud" on behalf of ALL of our sisters and brothers in the collective trans community, miracles DO happen.

A few months ago, I participated in an LGBT outreach event at a local junior college. My purpose at this gathering was not a speaking engagement on behalf of Illinois Gender Advocates, which is the most typical reason I am invited to such events.

On this particular night I ventured forth to see, as opposed to being seen. Such was my "miracle, and rare good fortune indeed.

Noticing that there were only a couple of familiar faces present to mingle with, I introduced myself to the organizers, grabbed a cold bottle of water generously provided by the LGBT group ('G.L.O.W." - Gay, Lesbian, Or Whatever: I love that name!) that had sponsored the event, and then receded to "the shadows" in order to observe the interaction of the rest of the room.

Before too many minutes had elapsed, one of the young student organizers stepped up to the mike, made a few perfunctory announcements, and then introduced a somewhat more "mature" gentleman named George Miller who began to speak with a fire in his eyes and an intense energy uncommon to such gatherings.

The brief but impassioned anecdote he proceeded to relate to the room first brought back some disturbing memories from decades ago that I had long since tried to erase, and then struck me between the eyes like a velvet sledgehammer.

Before he was finished, there were tears welling up in those big blue eyes, making a complete mess of what little make-up I do wear when going out in public.

After he concluded this amazing stream of consciousness, I stood silently in the dark corner for a moment in order to regain my composure, and then approached him in order to let him know how deeply I had been moved by his words. Even though he was surrounded by many others who were similarly impressed, he graciously spoke with me for several minutes.

During those moments, we seemed to connect, so I offered him my Illinois Gender Advocates business card and expressed the desire to keep in touch. He reciprocated with a CD, which I felt was unusual, to say the least. What kind of response was this?

It was only then that I realized that this extraordinary display of heartfelt emotion he had just shared with this gathering of presumably kindred spirits was in fact one small example of his chosen media - he was not only a spoken-word performance artist, but also a highly respected academic, in fact, a learned professor of philosophy at another local college.

As fate would have it, fortunately we did manage to stay in touch, despite the distinct challenges of geography and conflicting schedules.

Dr. Miller invited me to give a trans-awareness presentation to his class, which I believe went over well, based on feedback from his students.

I then invited him to be a guest on the IGA television, which is broadcast once a month to a potential 3 million viewers on the Chicago cable-access network. I specifically requested that he share that amazingly moving piece that brought tears to my eyes during our first encounter with our substantial audience "out there in television land". He graciously granted that request.

Thanks to my close personal friend Kimberly (who is, in fact, a "TV pro" in her own right ), Dr. Miller's brief but powerful performance piece, titled "You Brought This on Yourself" is now "in the air" on Youtube, and is linked below for the consideration of any of you who might be interested.

If you are as impressed by George's impassioned message as much as I was, please feel free to PASS IT ON. I know he'd be pleased to share.

http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=xSAUFX00P5g

Vintage Chorus Line of Female Impersonators

Another wonderful find about which I know absolutely nothing at all. I so love finding mysterious old photographs, and wondering how they came to be made, and what stories these people could have told. This chorus line of female impersonators dates from the 1920s.

Asked and Answered | Miss J of ‘Top Model’

By CATOR SPARKS

Courtesy of Miss J

The divine Miss J. Alexander.
J. Alexander, better known as Miss J on “America’s Next Top Model,” is a well-loved figure. We were in Savannah, Ga., together a few months ago for the SCAD graduation fashion show, and when we sat down at a quaint little ice cream parlor at least 10 people came up to our table, fumbling for cellphones to get a picture with the modeling coach diva. (He does not allow pictures taken with phones, only with cameras, thank you.) With the debut of his first book, “Follow the Model,” we are sure all those fans will be eager to learn a bit more about the man who modeled in drag in Japan, loves cake and hates the word “fierce.”

Q.I saw you on 14th Street the other day and called out, “Miss J!” and you sashayed away. Are you over people calling your name?

A.If you yell my name, I may keep on walking! Because if I stop and look for who is calling me I may see someone hanging out a car window asking to be on the show. Sorry, I was probably just in my zone and running my errands.

What is your opposition to using the word “fierce”?

“Fierce” can be fiercely miss-used! And Christian Siriano took it as his and now it’s associated with him. “Fierce” has been used for years in the gay community and not in the same context as Christian is using it. That’s my little white sister’s word, so let’s move on.

I know you have never dabbled in drinks or drugs. Why?

Because I was too damn poor to buy them! I’ve not even sniffed a glue bottle or crushed up a thing. I wish I could think the same way about sugar. I love a good cake. But I do get high over an amazing ball gown.

You grew up with some tough love in your family. Do you apply the same tough love to the models you work with?

Yes I do! We don’t know everything, even if some of these models think they do. I will never forget when I was at a fitting at Frank Sorbier’s and I was telling the seamstress Madame Jacqueline that I was embarrassed I didn’t know something. She looked up at me from the floor, where she was hemming my gown, and said, “You are not here to know, you are here to learn.” She read me!

You had a comp card at Elite that had a shot of you as a man on one side and in drag on the other. Do you think that would be possible for a male model these days?

I think it would be a full-on tranny who lives her life that way. I never wanted to be a woman, but the Japanese loved my drag look. When I was out at the clubs in New York, Monique Pilar from Elite saw me and suggested I go to Japan. Boom! I was there and the Japanese ate it up.

What is one of your favorite fashion moments?

I would have to say one of the top faves was when I was working for Lars Nilsson at Bill Blass and André Leon Talley came over to the studio with Elizabeth Taylor’s epic movie “Boom!” which Karl Lagerfeld did the costuming for. We got down on some fried chicken, corn bread and popcorn shrimp and were in fits of hysterics well into the night. We went from working with models who don’t eat all day to watching all of us get down on some soul food!

But I have so many highlights. From working with Alexander McQueen on a fashion show to working with Galliano on makeup or just spending time with two of my oldest friends, Marc Jacobs and Robert Duffy. It’s hard to narrow it down.

You mention in the book that writers and producers wanted you to say things like, “Oooh child, girl! Nuh-uh, honey child!” and your response was, “I. AM. NOT. THAT. GIRL.” Explain.

I’m not that gay boy. I don’t scream, “Chiiiiilde!” You can’t script me to act like that. I don’t speak like that. I don’t pop my fingers or screech. For me, I figured the person who was writing this must be straight because he had no idea about who I am. Because of my background I like to give constructive criticism and help make something work, not belt out, “Gurl, you look like a cow!”

What advice do you have for the young Miss J’s out there?

Do your thing! Don’t stop. Don’t put time on it. Keep doing what you’re doing. Sometimes you are more advanced than they are and they just have to catch up. Sticks and stones may break your bones, but fabulous gets you most places!

Science and Sexuality: The Biology of Sexual Identity, Sexual Orientation, and Intersexuality.

The Biblical Adam and Eve story is BAD BIOLOGY! The binary sexual system is unnatural. Here you can learn the scientific story of sexuality from a physiologist's perspective. What can science tell us about sexuality? How many sexes are there? What exactly is a female? A male? Is intersexuality natural? What is known about the biology of sexual identity? What is known about the biology of sexual orientation?




Tuesday, November 3, 2009
"Science and Sexuality" Presentation at the LGBT Center of SE Wisconsin


I am honored to be the final speaker of the year in the LGBT Distinguished Speaker Series at the The LGBT Center of SE Wisconsin where I will present an updated version of my presentation on "Science and Sexuality."



Event: "Science and Sexuality" Presentation

Date: Sunday, November 15th

Time: 2-5 pm

Location: The LGBT Center of SE Wisconsin

1456 Junction Avenue

Racine, WI 53403
ph: 262.664.4100
fax: 262.664.4104
info@lgbtsewisc.org

The LGBT Center of SE Wisconsin is relatively new and I am glad to be a part of their activities. Please visit the Center and attend my presentation if you are in the area.
Posted by Veronica Drantz, PhD at 8:49 AM

HBO to explore female-to-male transition in new series

Bay Windows - New England's largest GLBT newspaper

Indian eunuchs given separate IDs

Eunuchs are feared and reviled in equal measure
India's Election Commission has given eunuchs an independent identity by letting them choose their gender as "other" on ballot forms.
The commission said it had received representation from various individuals and interest groups on the subject.

So far, eunuchs were forced to put down their gender as either male or female.

There are about 500,000 eunuchs in India. Known as hijras, they comprise the hermaphrodite, transvestite and transsexual communities.

Eunuchs are feared and reviled in many parts of India, where some believe they have supernatural powers.

The BBC's Geeta Pandey in Delhi says the election commission's recognition of eunuchs as an independent group is a first step towards an official recognition of the community which has so far remained on the margins of society.

'Readily agreed'

"The commission has duly considered the request and has decided to allow eunuchs and transsexuals to indicate their sex as 'Other' where they do not want to be described as male or female," the Election Commission said in a press release.

"Necessary instructions have been issued to all electoral registration officers through the chief electoral officers of all states and union territories (areas directly administered by the central government in Delhi) to give effect to the above decision of the commission."

The commission said it had received several representations from individuals and groups to include eunuchs in the electoral rolls with a separate identity.

"When the representations came, we readily agreed," Times of India newspaper quoted Election Commissioner SY Qureishi as saying.

"Why should a section of the population be left out? The decision will help in mainstreaming a section of the population," he said.

Most eunuchs earn a living by collecting cash gifts from people during marriages and child births.

But in recent times, with the decline in their traditional roles, many have been forced to work as commercial sex workers.

However some have contested elections and entered the public arena.

But correspondents say these success stories are rare.

Vintage "Boy Dance"

Posted: 12 Nov 2009 01:00 PM PST

I'm guessing that this image was captured in the late 19th/early 20th century. Also guessing this may have been a mining or logging camp where the hordes of bachelors had to make do. If any readers know more, your information would be greatly appreciated.

Bostonian author of ’Transgender Explained’ to hold book signing

Bostonian author of ’Transgender Explained’ to hold book signing
by Hannah Clay Wareham
Tuesday Nov 10, 2009




Joanne Herman will hold a reading and book signing Nov. 17 for ’Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not.’ (Source: Marilyn Humphries )


Boston local Joanne Herman, author of the new book Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not, will hold a reading and book signing Nov. 17 at Fenway Health (1340 Boylston St.) from 7 to 9 p.m.

The 148-page book explains in unpretentious language what it means -- and how it feels -- to be transgender. The text is aimed at just about anyone who wishes to better their understanding of transgender issues.

"Transgender issues are increasingly being discussed in boardrooms and at breakfast tables, as part of policy initiatives and in workplace diversity trainings," Herman said. "I wrote this book to give our friends, allies, colleagues, and neighbors insight into the transgender community, as a way to smooth the way for those who come after me. I have been privileged to play a role in the LGBT community, and this book is my way of giving back to my own community and the larger culture."
A staple on bookshelves of LGBT activists and writers, the volume is designed to inform and educate anyone who picks it up.

"Whether in the classroom, boardroom, or dining hall, Joanne Herman is met with excitement, enthusiasm, and gratitude for her keen ability to take us through the rich complexities of gender with skill, patience, wit, and wisdom," Pamela Misener, M.Ed., said. Misener is the Assistant Dean in the Office of Pluralism and Leadership at Dartmouth College.

Herman has served as the first transgender woman on the boards of directors for the Point Foundation and Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), and is currently a board member at Fenway Health.

The Pain of Being Born in the Wrong Body

"A transsexual's life is very hard. The difficulty is there from the moment we are born. When we start growing up and learning about things it starts to get tricky. Ever since I was a kid, I thought I was a girl. I had this sensation and it was a natural thing to have. Maybe there is a reason, because I am the youngest of three women. Some people used to believe that it was because of that. Thing is, when I grew up, and became a teenager, I started to notice my sexuality.” Vivian Proença




“It’s troublesome. Everyone goes through prejudice, the lessening of their condition. It was only through inner struggling that I was able to find out who I really was. In the beginning, you are born and you get that doubt: who am I? What am I? What am I doing here? When you start to understand you begin the search. When I started to see myself as a transsexual, when I got the chance, I looked for the ideal treatment which was surgery. I had to wait for three years. Up until January 2002 when I underwent surgery…” Fernanda Rodrigues

“I am a post-op transsexual. Ever since I was a child I dreamed of becoming a woman, not only in essence but in body as well, to be one. I grew up with cravings and feelings of a woman, but with something that did not get in the way of my relationships… I had always been frustrated because of something that bothered me a lot. It was shameful to have something I did not like. I would never go to the swimming-pool. I was very repressed.” Roberta Sampaio

The testimonies above are the gist of the suffering those born with Gender Identity Disorder, also known as transsexualism, go through. People born with this condition will only find peace of mind only after undergoing a difficult, painful and risky surgery to reassign their gender. The biggest challenge is to turn a penis into a working vagina and one that looks like a real one.

According to Psychiatrist Maria Inês Lobato, member of the multidisciplinary team of the Programa de Atendimento dos Transtornos de Identidade de Gênero (PROTIG) – Office for the Care of Gender Identity Disorders (OCGID) at the Hospital de Clínicas in Porto Alegre, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil: “The alteration of male genitalia, which is irrevocable, cannot be made under the slightest sign of discomfort. The request for the surgery by the patient must be shown to be genuine and surgeons have to make sure they are not just dealing with the erotic imaginations of an immature personality, but with a long-thought-of conviction that this is a real gender disorder."

That’s why a psychiatric evaluation has to come before such surgeries to preclude the existence of a psychosis – which may be a contraindication to surgery, but also a reasonable degree of intelligence and emotional stability must be present if the person is to be illegible for surgery. “It’s the psychiatrist who has the final say and there is no other way of helping the patient to find acceptance," the psychiatrist says.

Science says that transsexualism is a gender identity disorder that begins in infancy and is characterized by non-acceptance and distress towards the gender individuals are born with, occurring more often in males than in females. Frequently, transsexuals wish to change their sex and live with a permanent search for games, clothing, and patterns of relationship and occupation with people of the opposite sex.

Transsexualism must be set apart from other disorders of sexual identity such as travestism or homosexuality: transvestites wear clothes of the opposite sex, associated with either bisexual or homosexual behavior without the wish to change their sex; however, homosexuality involves sexual attraction to same sex individuals, without the wish to dress or become the opposite sex.

Both transsexuals and their families experience great difficulties within their family as in society at large due to the prejudice and disinformation about transsexualism. “Patients usually find it difficult to adapt in the social milieu, schools and the workplace for example”, says psychologist Jaqueline Salvador also a member of the team at the Hospital de Clínicas in Porto Alegre.

“The transsexual person believes he or she is a victim of a biological accident, cruelly trapped in the wrong body, incompatible with their sexual orientation. Many ask for sex-reassignment surgery despite the difficulties these imply. Surgery will only be justified in very motivated individuals with a stable social and professional life,” continues the psychologist.

Jaqueline Salvador says that there is an ever increasing demand for sex-reassignment surgery due to a decision by the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) from September 1997, in Brazil, which authorizes transgenitalization, or sex change, in transsexuals on an experimental basis. The Hospital de Clínicas of Porto Alegre is in charge of about 200 patients with gender identity disorder of both sexes.

According to the psychologist, “the requirement for the candidates for surgery is that the patients have to undergo a strict evaluation by the multidisciplinary team which includes behavioral, social, clinical and existential issues performed by psychiatrists, plastic surgeons, psychologist, endocrinologists, ear, nose and throat specialists, speech therapists and social workers".

Multidisciplinarity is especially necessary in the way surgery for sex-reassignment is performed. The main requirements are at least two years of therapy, and more: proof of age, older than 21, formal consent, absence of mental disorders and inappropriate physical features that may impact the surgery. The psychologist evaluates the transsexual candidate to make sure he or she is not just a homosexual or a transvestite.

Patients are expected to undergo therapy for two years and are made aware of the pre and post-op processes and resocialized within psychological, professional and sexual criteria. The diagnosis has to be precise, thus defining the interventions which are suitable to the patient’s personal characteristics with the sole aim of adapting the biological sex to the psychological one.

“The transsexual patient undergoes a great deal of distress before the sex-reassignment surgery. He or she will only get over their misery after the conversion and the taking on of either female or male identity, be that in name, behavior or social acceptance. It’s not only the frustrated sexuality, but the gnawing pain of being gender-discordant which makes, especially males, prone to self-mutilation, suicide attempt or outright suicide.

The false relief that comes from alcohol and drugs is a frequent complication”, writes Harry Benjamin in his book the The Transsexual Phenomenon, available on the internet: “Self-mutilations are not rare in at least four of my patients out of a 112 male transsexuals. Two of them tried to castrate themselves out of a total of 152 males. Two of them tried to castrate themselves but had to give up and call a doctor. One of them did with the help of a friend. One of them mutilated his penis and had several stitches to repair the damage.

"Many incidents like this may be out there,” Harry Benjamin writes. That, in the United States. It may be happening all over the world, as it did in Brazil, with the case of a young transsexual who mutilated himself in a hotel room in a small town then dying as a consequence.

Dr. Carlos Abib Cury, chief-coordinator of the Surgical Specialties Department at the São José do Rio Preto Medical School in São Paulo, writes in an-e-mail interview that there is nothing proven about the cause of transsexualism: “Just like other anxiety states, despite the great breakthroughs, medicine is still falling behind in many areas. There is a lot of controversy as to the real number of genes in the human body." he says, and then "It used to be thought they were around 1 million in the beginning, then they thought it would be around 30 thousand. Today it is speculated that it is around 21 thousand."

Further in the interview, he says that “when they find out the real number of genes, they will study the link each gene has for organic diseases and see whether there is a link with genetics." He mentions still that "Only then will they study behavioral diseases. Until that is clear, everything is a question of hypotheses, theories, suppositions without scientific evidence. Therefore for every 40 thousandth birth, one transsexual male is born and for every 1 millionth woman, one is born transsexual.”

In Transsexual Phenomenon, Harry Benjamin writes that “the cause of transsexualism and the possible sources from which the wish to change one’s sexuality comes from are probably controversial” there is a trend in scientific investigation that takes into account more than merely psychological aspects.

The possible origin of transsexualism is not discussed in medical literature very frequently or in detail. Most times, it is affirmed that it has an unknown cause. Invariably, it is linked with travestism and sometimes to homosexuality, both opening doors to controversy. Both the main theories, to date, are concerned with organic causes, that is, biological - not necessarily inherited. Or more frequently, with the purely psychological ones.”

Obviously, transsexuals are not able to serve in the Church, Catholic that is, the Vatican demands the expulsion from their orders of those who have undergone sex change. Cardinal Eduardo Martinez Somalo, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life, has signed a document eliminating any possibility of transsexuals having religious jobs in ecclesiastical orders. Still, according to the text, priests are not allowed to alter Certificates of Baptism to accommodate them to the sex change.

The position of the Holy See about the subject means that the Church has already experienced cases of transsexuality amongst its ranks. “Due to the complexity of the matter, everyone is asked to keep this letter and the Note of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under strict secrecy and that it should be used exclusively within its institute or religious society, with the proper aim in mind", emphasizes the document which goes on with yet more instructions for the various societies of the Church.

Because the Brazilian Penal Code is from the 1940's and the studies and techniques used in medicine are very recent, there has not been a change in legislation. There is not a law or ruling for the legalization of the surgery from a legal view point, which is detrimental to the transsexual when trying to sort out their papers. There is, however, in the legal profession, people who are specialized in the matter and who have earned preliminary verdicts favorable to post-op transsexuals.

Once all the legal procedures are surpassed, society has the final say. Cases of transsexuals who are fully integrated are very rare. Most times, the contradiction of the physical appearance and the name registered officially closes doors professionally. That is why, for many men and women who have managed to change their appearance "stolen by nature", the only way out is prostitution or, in the best of cases, the entertainment world.

Only a minority will get a satisfactory job and have a love life. Dr. Carlos Abib Cury notices that “most of the post-op cases display euphoria, elation, which we consider harmful, once life’s difficulties go on despite the sex change. No Prince Charming will turn up and change the life of a transsexual. On the contrary, free from the shackles, he or she will have to work just as hard as the next person," he concludes.

What about the women from the beginning of the story?

“I was in hospital for 8 days when I got the operation. It was painful and the time to recuperate was slow. The sense of freedom you have after the surgery is difficult to explain. The dream of a female transsexual is to be operated on. Medicine and science are advanced and they managed to make a dream come true. I feel complete physically. I am proud of being a post-op transsexual because I know how much I struggled to bring awareness to people. The surgery was a great victory. I accept myself. Despite undergoing two other repair surgeries, I do not feel sad. I believe that when I get my papers in order I am going to be more complete and live life better and better." Vivian Proença

“After the surgery, I did not have to hide. The anticipation is better than before. Life changes. I was full of prejudice. There were things I would not do. Then I got that and everything gets easier. I got to change my life 360 degrees. Of course you will never reach perfection. I used to say that before the surgery I was on parole, after it, I got freedom. I used to live in a cocoon. Now I am a butterfly. Words cannot Express what I feel.” Fernanda Rodrigues

“Today, seven years after the surgery , I'm the happiest person in the world because I'm the body, the soul and the mind of a woman. My biggest pleasure was to feel orgasm and be penetrated. Reaching orgasm is very good. I can say I am very happy.” Amanda Sampaio

Update: Jaqueline Salvador, psychologist at the Hospital de Clinicas updates the numbers by saying "80 out of 243 patients have undergone sex-reassignment surgery." September 2009.

Cher's son gives television interview about sex change

Cher's son gives television interview about sex change
By Staff Writer, PinkNews.co.uk • October 30, 2009 - 12:24





Cher is an outspoken LGBT rights activist






Chaz Bono, son of international star Cher, has spoken candidly for the first time about his sex change, which he started in March this year.

Speaking on the US television show 'Entertainment Tonight,' the forty year old, who's name was formerly Chastity, said:

"I always felt like the male from the time I was a child. There wasn't much feminine about me,

"I believe that gender is something between your ears, not between your legs. That is something I discovered in the early '90s."

"It lowered my voice," he added, "fat redistributes, muscle growth, hair growth, sex drive increases."

"It was just a long process of being comfortable enough to do something about it."

Bono came out to both parents as lesbian at age eighteen. In autobiography 'Family Outing', Bono wrote:

"As a child, I always felt there was something different about me. I’d look at other girls my age and feel perplexed by their obvious interest in the latest fashion, which boy in class was the cutest, and who looked the most like cover girl Christie Brinkley.

"When I was 13, I finally found a name for exactly how I was different. I realized I was gay."

Last month, it was revealed that Bono signed a six-figure publishing deal for a memoir tentatively titled 'Coming Clean'.

It is scheduled to hit shelves in 2011.

The 40-year-old is Cher's only child with late husband Sonny Bono. He is a gay rights activist but also works as a musician, writer and actor.

Prodigal sons: a film so surprising, it has to be real

Prodigal sons: a film so surprising, it has to be real


Prodigal Sons, an award-winning doc coming to the Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival.
Rendezvous with Madness fest questions identities


.Some documentaries delve so deeply into characters' lives, they defy a quick synopsis. Case in point: Prodigal Sons , an award-winning film coming to Toronto's Rendezvous With Madness Film Festival.

The film focuses on a series of family reunions in Montana involving Kimberley Reed, a transgender woman dealing with an emotionally disturbed brother. Both are not only coping with the memory of who they once were, but also their family, which might be described as all-American.
Prodigal Sons is directed by Reed, who turns the camera on herself as she tries to gather up all the pieces of who she is: Old photos, old memories, her new life, her new career.

Like some of the other mental-health documentaries in the festival – from Unlisted: A Story of Schizophrenia , about a doctor helping her mentally ill father and which makes its world premiere at the festival, to Devil Plays Hardball , about a mentoring program in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside – Prodigal Sons is a personal journey constructed from myriad bits and pieces.

For Reed, the journey chronicles meeting her violence-prone brother again, his medication schedules, and desperate phone calls to social-assistance programs. All the while, she is also coping with her own identity, as she returns home for her high-school reunion as Kimberley – seeing people who knew her 20 years ago as Paul, the school's star quarterback.

In the end, Reed is a thoroughly engaging, intelligent woman, who would captivate audiences even if she didn't have such a complicated back story. But Prodigal Sons also has the kind of drama Hollywood could never match.

“If you wrote this as a novel or a fiction film, no one would buy it. They'd say, ‘This is too incredible.' But because this is a documentary, we know it's real,” says the festival's program manager Matthew Hogue.

And “real” has extra importance for a festival like Rendezvous With Madness. Among the films being shown, the documentaries will be seen in a different light by health-care professionals than by lay people in the audience.

Originally started 17 years ago to broaden public discussion of mental health issues, the screenings have also created a kind of “level playing field between clients and mental health professionals,” Hogue says. Often, the films, and particularly the panel discussions after movie showings – which typically include the filmmaker, a mental health professional and someone who has experienced mental illness or addiction – raise surprising insights.

“As they are having their discussion, we'll get the sense of the professional perspective from a psychiatrist, and often it's very different from [views] of the person with the lived experience,” says Hogue. “For the mental-health professionals it's great, because it gives them a real insight that they wouldn't have otherwise. Not only are they engaging [patients] in an equal way in a panel discussion, but the films present the issues in a way that maybe hasn't been thought of before.”

For instance, a patient participating in a panel on psychosis last year said to a psychiatrist, “I'm really glad you're not my psychiatrist.” “And she went off to give an entirely different way on how she thought this person [in the film] should be treated successfully based on her own personal experiences,” Hogue says. “That kind of stuff happens all the time.”

He cited another example following a film about drugs and addiction in Toronto. A psychiatrist in the discussion was saying that the film blows the problem out of proportion, that it's not so simple to get drugs. But a former addict on the panel chimed in: “I don't know what you're talking about, but I can literally have drugs in five minutes, and I've bought drugs outside here a thousand times.”

Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival runs in Toronto from Nov. 5-14. Prodigal Sons screens on Nov. 6 at 9:15 p.m. More information: www.rendezvouswithmadness.com.

Pam's House Blend:: Helen Boyd: Law And The Objects Of Hate

Pam's House Blend:: Helen Boyd: Law And The Objects Of Hate

Update: Statement on Gender Identity Disorder and Transvestic Fetishism in the DSM-V « GID Reform Weblog by Kelley Winters

Update: Statement on Gender Identity Disorder and Transvestic Fetishism in the DSM-V « GID Reform Weblog by Kelley Winters

Cross-dressing kids and gender identity - Time Out New York Kids

Cross-dressing kids and gender identity - Time Out New York Kids

Chaz Bono & Media Representation of Trans People

Chaz Bono & Media Representation of Trans People
by Antonia "Toni" D'orsay. Toni is an advocate and sociologist based out of Phoenix Arizona working for several organizations in an advisory capacity, where she works on issues of empowerment, education, and language within and without the LGBT community under the pen name of Dyssonance.



Chaz Bono, the child of Sonny of Cher, paraded before the nation in the frilliest dresses as a child, separated from parents after coming out as gay, losing a father in a tragic accident, and finally reconciling with his mother as he battled his way through addiction and denial before finally starting his transition at 40, is an interesting case.

Anyone who doubts that his presence and involvement in Hollywood was and is significant forgets that he has access to some of the most powerful people in the media, for Hollywood is absolutely part of the media, and these people, entertainers, inform the world in ways that people generally don't even want to know about, let alone think on.

His work with GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has helped them to have a reach that might have been difficult otherwise, and his background involvement with projects is often rumored to be somewhat critical.

It doesn't hurt that his mother is somewhat more than revered by many gay and trans folk across the world, either.

In coming out as Trans, he gives us a outstanding case to look at how far the media, and those who get involved with the media, has come, and how far it has to go.

One example is the recent piece selected by the local press here for their story on him. Rather than have a local person write it from several different stories, as the Arizona Republic usually does with what they perceive to be controversial stories, they chose (an active action on their part) to go with the stringer version from "BANG Showbiz", a London based entertainment news agency who's "clients include all the major British tabloid newspapers, European magazines, commercial British radio stations and a galaxy of top entertainment outlets".

This article is quite surprising from a trans point of view. It starts off with "Cher's Daughter" - something that Chaz can probably expect to hear for the rest of his life, and one example of why the relationship that transfolk have with their families can often be complex - the fame and visual remainders will haunt him as reminders of privilege lost - cissexual privilege.

They respect, however, his name - which is notable. He is not called Chastity throughout it. This may have something to do with the Gender Recognition Act in the UK - I don't know, but that is about as far as the respect goes.

So why, one might wonder, does a Gannet owned, Phoenix, Arizona based newspaper go to a story from outside the country? Perhaps because other American sources for Chaz aren't as insulting in their somewhat more respective use of the proper pronouns? Or maybe its because this BANG Showbiz group is cheaper, or possibly even could it be that there aren't any local US stories about?

Hmmm.

TV Guide seems to have found someone to write its stringer story - Adam Bryant. It was picked up by the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

The Gannet flagship - USA Today - found a reporter with staff contributions who managed to get the pronouns right.

And used a flattering ET-linked image for the article as well.

So it's not that they didn't have a cheaper source or that there weren't any US sources.

Its that even in the media, we have people who actively seek to misrepresent us and essentially be rude on purpose.

This was one of the areas that Chaz worked in, and when I point this out, on occasion people make comments like "well, he might be transitioning to do that!". This very statement, itself, is deeply problematic - transfolk don't do things for reasons like that, and its insulting that people would think that - its essentially saying one chooses to be trans.

The media reports the last couple of days, as he's begun to step forward, have been fairly evenly split in their portrayal of him in terms of pronouns, and its not always along the conservative/liberal lines one would expect.

But there are other things that factor into the coverage as well.

The aforementioned TV Guide article headlines itself with "Chaz Bono Happy Being a Man". USA Today leans in with the less than exciting "Chaz Bono gives gender re-assignment update". The Republic - the largest circulated newspaper in the state - proclaims "From Chastity to Chaz: Bono speaks out" for a headline.

People takes an interesting tack in a "sidebar" style story that doesn't even talk to Jennifer Elia titled "Chaz Bono Girlfriend Completely Supports Sex Change" which gives me pause since it essentially removes her agency in the matter and hands it to the man to speak for her. Oh, and for those who think that transfolk are secondary creatures, he did indeed disclose to her beforehand.

The ET interview - a big deal, actually - says he is in a "modeled" heterosexual relationship (because a trans het relationship really isn't a het relationship, of course, which, as a het woman who is trans, I find particularly annoying, and my boyfriend probably isn't real happy with). This is important, because that's not how Chaz portrayed it - the quotes are around modeled only, when Chaz was talking about how from his and Jennifer's experience, it was always working in that manner.

Even more annoying still is the focus on prurient stuff. For trans women, there is a certain kind of scene that we always roll our eyes at - and drag queens do it as well. That's the makeup scene. In written stories, that translates into the long, drawn out descriptions of our fashion sense (because, hey, trans women can't have fashion sense, since, well, you know - they aren't really women). For guys, who are, for the most part, still invisible in general media. It becomes all about shaving.

Which leads us to take away from this that women are all about fashion sense and men are all about shaving, and no one could possibly have both.

Even Towleroad gets into that one. Possibly excusable given the perception of it as a bastion of pure guyness. (guy, guy! Not gay!)

The flip side of this, of course, is the interest from the second string, forum and blog locales that simple marvel at his girlfriend, who is a hottie (I'll leave the objectification aside for now).

They can't understand how he can possibly have a girlfriend as pretty as she is.

I find this somewhat fitting, actually, in a slightly devilish way - in het society, there is a long standing joke about the heavyset schlub with the hot girl, because women, of course, are only interested in good looking men with the brains of peanuts and the egos of elephants. Or money.

And in all of these stories, you *never* want to read the comments.

I have, of course, since your darling Dyssonance here is the sort that does the things you never want to do ;)

And there it is interesting. There are not a lot of transfolk. So we can't be everywhere (though many of us give that illusion, lol, and Zoe Brain is among the best at it), and in reading through a lot of the article comments, you see an interesting thing - instead of transfolk defending Chaz, you see cisfolk doing it.

Or, more accurately, what they do is chide, gently, hesitatingly, the 15 on up to 30 to 1 others for the hash things they say.

Stuff like the usual hesheit, the annoyingly juvenile addadicktome Limbaugh idiotism, and the ever present fat/ugly stuff. All right alongside the seemingly common "I threw up a little in my mouth" admittance of transphobia, the ignorant "well its born x so its always x", and the ever popular "that's not a man, that's a woman" argument that is used of gay men.

Which is strikingly odd, since not too long ago most of these people were calling him a guy anyway since he was so butch as an out lesbian.

Hypocrisy is not foreign to them.

Nor is it to our own community of LGBT folks, where such put downs are used just as routinely - and often laughed off as "humor between friends".

But all of it shows that we are changing things, and Chaz is helping Trans folks in a way similar to what he did for the broader community already. One of his first appearances in public will be November 5th, at a VIP reception for the Transgender Law Center, run at present by Masen Davis - one of the best guys I've met.

All of this, and, ultimately, Chaz is still *very early* in his transition. Transition is not something that handles this kind of exposure very well - it is an intensely personal thing, and it takes effort to learn more about that many transfolk don't do. As a result, you get people who make "blunders" in public speaking and gain the ire of transfolk everywhere - take Susan Stanton, for example.

Or it drives one into a sense of pressure to finish - transfolk are hard on all their leaders - we tend to glom onto people we see as strong and overwhelm them - as has been said (by an eaten leader who upset folks), we eat our own. Not so much in terms of malice or foul things said (although there is much of that, and Susan Stanton is an example), but in our sheer hunger for positive role models. While there's no certain knowledge why Christine Daniels returned to being Mike Penner, its fairly certain that the sheer weight of attention had something to do with it, because of the pressure that was placed on him. In his case, that may have been a good thing, in someone else's, not so much.

Wanna be a rock star? Have a camera, something halfway decent for a life, and start transitioning.

But Transition takes a long time, and there is a HUGE amount of information out there to absorb and take in and there is a great deal of internalized prejudice to deal with as well - all compounded by the sheer weight of the baggage late transitioners often carry to a higher degree than young ones - living as trans in this world, and growing up in it is hard, and it can be very damaging.

Many of the more vocal transfolk point out things like this at sites like here at Bilerico and Pam's House Blend and HuffPost and more often. We get a little angry about it, as well, because of the erasure and the lack of willingness to learn and embrace and come to understand that while transfolk are different on one way, we are all the same in another, and we want to be included.

It will take time for Chaz to learn those things himself, and he's newish to it, still. With much to learn.

Maybe, just maybe, he'll take the rest of us on that journey with him.

Michele de Lafreniere has passed away.

Michele de Lafreniere has passed away.

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Michele de Lafreniere has passed away.
by: dyssonance
Sat Oct 31, 2009 at 01:34:29 AM EDT

I know many who read PHB don't know her, or of her, or what she's done.

Or why her passing, today, just a few hours ago, is something for me to write about.

But tonight I am sitting here, teary eyed, upset, that we here in Phoenix have lost her.

Trans folks don't get large writeups and glossy obituaries, you see. In our deaths, we are are all too often mistreated, from the moment the flesh is empty, by society once again; and we have to go to extra efforts that are frequently denied us even after all the effort to preserve our sense of self, once the self has left.

So I am going to tell you just a few things about her. Just a few. Because she deserves it.

You can google her, of course -- these days its easy, though so few avail themselves of it. When you do, you find that she took a moment in time and challenged power and modesty and prejudice and money.

And in doing so, she energized something that, ultimately, leads to something larger than herself.

dyssonance :: Michele de Lafreniere has passed away.


On Saturday, November 25th, 2006, Michele and several other gals gathered at a local club they'd been going to for a long time.

All were partying sorts -- Michele herself was involved in many areas of the wider community, including the leather community.

The Bar was called "Anderson's 5th Estate" and it was a popular bar in Scottsdale, which is a suburb of Phoenix to which the moneyed elite ourney to play and party, and it was in an area where freedom was more the norm than not.

A patron of the bar complained, however, that a man was using the restroom next to her, and as a result, the transgals were ejected.

And told never come back.

I won't get into all the details, but it basically became something big. Michele filed a lawsuit. The local media had a field day with it (with the local "village voice" rag, the Phoenix New Times -- once a liberal rag that has become unabashedly anything but -- misgendering and insulting her on purpose, literally picking her as a target of derision and defaming.).

She spoke to the press, to the public, and, mostly, to those of us in the trans community.

At that time, there was really only one "big" group in the valley. It was TG Harmony. Founded several years before, meeting every two weeks or so, run by the same people, featurig the same stuff in cyclic habits, it was the sort of place that many transsexuals come to dislike, staid and stale and static and she tried to get them into standing up for themselves.

For a year the fight waged on. The Attorney General for the state picked up the case. He issued a preliminary finding that there was no law in Arizona regarding bathroom use.

Which we already knew.

I agreed about the fight, coming into the whole thing early on, but concerned that the presentation often given was join this fight or you aren’t worth a damn – the demand that one *had* to be out, and willing to risk things.

I came out to myself in October – only a couple days before the event, I had started hormone treatment. And, just as I do here, I stepped into a fray and reminded people about *others*.

A year later, through a series of private meetings, and public aggravation that was amplified through nasty reporting in the media, Tom Anderson, the owner of A5E, agreed to allow transfolk into the bar and we won.

There is a great feal of interpersonal politics surrounding that, but if you talk to Tom or Erica, who were there, you’ll fid that it was Michele herself who kept things fired up in that long year, and who never gave in and who won Tom over – not merely as willing to allow us to enter, but as a supporter of the community.

And not just the trans community.

He also became one of her close friends, and he even went to her hospital room last week, before she moved into the hospice. He was among the people personally notified.

She won him over not only with her will, but with her wits, and her knowledge of business – A couple months later, A5E closed, and a new bar opened in its place: Forbidden. An upscale LGBT bar, one of only 2 in all of Scottsdale.

During that year, there was a schism in the trans community in Phoenix. TG Harmony had a public ad often nasty split, as they did not wish to be publicly allied (nor privately involved) in this fight. IT led to a lot of hurt feelings, and from much of that, a new group was formed: Arizona TransAlliance.

Michele founded it with Erica K. It became the first political organization on behalf of transfolks in Phoenix, and even today we fight for recognition and an end to erasure in Phoenix. We organize rallies and protests and letter campaigns and we are not quiet, not silent and we are the product of Michele, who has passed today.

She served on the Scottsdale Human Rights Commission, and tried hard to get the Scottsdale city council to pass an accommodations ordinance – we lost that one, but it was the first big fight here.

She became ill. It sapped her strength physically, but not her spirit and drive, and she kept on pushing until finally she could not move forward any longer.

She served with me on the Board of This Is H.O.W., invited at my strong suggestion, and she became as tireless in supporting the involvement of communities of color as I am. She came to understand the importance of counseling not just for us, but for our families, and how substance abuse is both rampant and devastating in our LGBT community.

She supported a move to send our own representatives to Washington DC for fighting for hate crimes and ENDA, and even donated what she could, despite unemployment and difficulties.

Erica and I went. For three weeks, I stomped through those halls, first one building and then the other and I was fighting hard.

I fought then, and I still fight here, because Michele inspired me. She led me – and I take leadership poorly, lol.

As her illness progressed, she asked me, twice, to step into her position at AZTA, and twice I turned it down. I am not Michele. She and I didn’t always agree, but each of us could argue passionately, and she had a charisma that is incredible.

I was asked again by Erica, and I accepted, but even then I wasn’t happy to do so. Michele wasn’t done, and somehow I knew it, and sure enough, she came back and organized the first meeting of major representatives in the Phoenix area and beyond dealing in trans issues.

Michele, almost singlehandedly, beat the Alliance Defense Fund. They aided Tom Anderson (although he didn’t exactly ask for their help, lol).

For those of you who don’t know what that means, she beat the lawyers who argue over and over again in courts you don’t deserve rights. The one’s backed by 40 million dollars a year given to them by all the opponents and hate groups allied against us.

And lest you think this is *just* about trans issues, She considered herself a lesbian for a while, before getting a little broader overall, lol.

She worked hard with east valley LGB causes, and encouraged us to become involved in LGB orgs and issues and to maintain visibility, such that these days, they are starting to see locally why we are important to the movement overall.

Arizona has bred a lot of trans leaders. Phoenix is a community that is easy to transition because no one really cares here. Yes, we have our violence and our idiots, but they aren’t the mainstream.

My run for office was supposed to be a tag team. Her and I, running at the same time. We were going to do what hasn’t been done yet, and win, as well.

Now its just me, and I feel alone, and even more determined.

Today, we lost a woman who started something huge. She stands on the shoulders of many others before, and, like all really good leaders has people who disliked her as much as people who liked her.

She never gave up. She was reduced to a point where she couldn’t speak, could barely move, and yet she cried in joy at the passage and signing of the Hate crimes bill.

Something that she *did* help to make happen – make no mistake. She helped to get people there in congress, to lobby for it, to fight for it.

She wasn’t killed by AIDS/HIV.

She wasn’t the victim of violence against her person.

She was killed by melanoma.

And in her passing, she leaves a legacy that will, I Promise you, change the way that Phoenix, and, ultimately, Arizona, treats all LGBT folks.

And so long as I live, I will make sure she is remembered for it.