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30/10/2017 0 Comments ReadershipWow! I don’t know why, but recently my readership has started to increase. That’s kinda cool! I should post more often! This weekend was my 54th birthday! I am amazed about that! I feel wonderful. Saturday evening was a Minnesota Transgender Alliance meeting and we had cake! I love this group so much. Such wonderful people! Sunday morning I had a delightful breakfast with a woman that I recently met. I am so surprised that we hadn’t met much earlier, but my fear of transgender people may have prevented that. On on the way home I picked up yarn for a skirt a wanted to make. It is going to be lovely. My wife and I went to the sake brew pub for dinner. We were initially going to go out for sushi, but decided to be a bit more thrifty. I did get a couple pieces though. They were wonderful. And I think the progesterone is starting to work already. The girls seem to be rounding out. I nice end to my birthday celebrations.
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20/10/2017 0 Comments Transgender Oral History ProjectLast night my friend Cate and I attended the opening of In Their Own Words, The Tretter Transgender Oral History Project. We decided to meet for a beer before the event at Headflyer Brewing. I had been there before and liked it, but Cate hadn't. After our beer, we used Lyft to get to the University of Minnesota. It was way easier than trying to find parking. We arrived right on time and the room was filled with lots of cool people. The exhibit was filled with lots of artifacts from trans history. At a certain point, we all grabbed seats in a room where the formal presentations took place. The Oral History Project was put together by Andrea Jenkins. She has done a wonderful job interview nearly 200 trans people for this project. You can see some of them here. https://www.lib.umn.edu/tretter/transgender-oral-history-project Andrea is also running for Minneapolis City Council, and I know I will be voting for her! We also had entertainment! Venus Demars performed a couple numbers for us. Her band, All the Pretty Horses has been around for quite a long time and has a good underground following. The only time I had ever met her prior to last night was in the early 1990s. At the time I didn't know she was trans, but she apparently came out 29 years ago, although I have no idea when she may have started her transition. The songs were all lovely and moving. I had also talked quite a bit with a cartoonist last night. As it turns out, we know a lot of the same people. She was very sweet. We talked a bit about when we first got into the local fandom scene, which turned out to be about the same year. She told me she was very closeted at the time. When I told her that I was only 11 months on HRT, she was stunned. I left the exhibit with a very warm feeling.
Cate and I then made our way back to the brewery to have one last beer before heading home. It was such a wonderful evening! 19/10/2017 0 Comments Privilege and TransitionI have been thinking about privilege a lot lately and how it has affected my transition. Here are some of my thought.
I am white. That wasn’t a choice that was mine to make, much like being transgender wasn’t a choice. For better or worse, that has gotten me a lot of privilege that I have never really had to think about. I find it strange that we have these boundaries based on the colors of our skins. It has never made much sense to me. Maybe it’s because I have always known on some level that I was in a minority too, or maybe I was just brought up “right”. I don’t know. I have an amazing relationship with my wife, my family and my friends. I feel that I am extremely fortunate in that. So many of my transgender brothers and sisters lose everything and have to find a support structure. I had that from day one. It is a privilege that I am more than happy to have. I hope having that has helped me be a supportive friend for those that need it. I also seem to have a fair amount of "passing" privilege. I have a full head of hair, my skeletal structure is very thin and oddly I think my large head also helps me pass. Because of the size on my head, my neck looks fairly thin. I will take it. I was pretty much able to pass from day one. In the last year, I have only been mis-gendered twice by strangers. It has also been pretty easy for me to tweak my voice to sound more feminine. Having a good job and exceptional health care is a privilege that I am also grateful for. My insurance covers pretty much any service I want or need. Far to many of my friends are stuck paying for their care out of pocket. I wish that everyone was as lucky as me. Living in Minneapolis, MN is one of the biggest privileges I think I have. We have so many trans services available to us. It is also extremely progressive as far as transgender laws go too. I would recommend living here to anyone. I hope this doesn't sound like I am bragging about all of these privileges. I feel so exceptionally lucky to have them. I wish I could grant everyone the same opportunities I have had. 16/10/2017 0 Comments I Need Thishttps://broadly.vice.com/en_us/article/59dxw3/a-guide-to-muffing-the-hidden-way-to-finger-trans-women?utm_source=vicefbus
13/10/2017 0 Comments The Good and the..Well, I changed my mind the other day and decided to start taking progesterone too! I took my first dose this morning! I got a call from my therapists office yesterday and we had to reschedule my next appointment. It will be the end of November now. Not a big deal, but I was hoping to get the ball rolling on my orchiectomy before then.
11/10/2017 0 Comments Wedding RingI forgot to post this on the day, so here is a little catch up.
On our anniversary this year, my wife gave me a new wedding set! She even got down on her knees when she gave it to me! She makes me so happy. 11/10/2017 0 Comments What A Difference A Year MakesThese two pictures were taken almost exactly a year apart. A was already full time but wouldn’t start HRT for another month. I can really see a difference in my face. I love it!
11/10/2017 0 Comments National Coming Out DaySo, today is National Coming Out Day! At this point I think I am pretty much out to the world. There may be some strays out there that don't know that I am a transgender woman, but that is only because our paths cross so rarely.
Thinking back to last year, I was out to my wife, youngest brother and SIL, friends I see regularly and the management at work. What an amazing year it has been! I absolutely feel coming out was the best thing I could have done, and I am very proud of what I have accomplished this past year! |
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