Transgender News – Page 6

Transgender Acceptance in the Classroom

The Vancouver school board just recently proposed a law that would allow transgender students to be accommodated in the classroom more easily. Some of the regulations that the school board hopes to implement include the installment of transgender washrooms and the freedom for the student to choose between sex-education curriculums geared towards their biological sex, or their gender identity. For the most part these changes sound like they will be beneficial, but you could criticize the school-board’s desire for separate washrooms. The regulations do at least prohibit faculty from encouraging the transgender individuals to question their identity, which should help assuage some of the alienation that the separate facilities could lead to. Bathroom access has created controversy in LouisevilleKY, recently leading the adjustments in the wording of non-discrimination policies to explicitly include transgender individuals. Frankly it seems like bathroom stalls already do enough to separate people in the bathroom, and maybe policy changes such as the Louiseville one would be more effective in helping transgender students integrate at school.

The policy adjustments so far are small, but they are a step in the right direction for transgender people who are often regarded as confused or desperate for attention. The essential next step in integrating transgender individuals is school-wide awareness. Efforts need to be made to quell harassing remarks, and the issue of violence against transgender students should not be relegated to the shadows. Services that assist transgender students in cultivating a sense of self-acceptance and a feeling of belonging also need to be incorporated into school systems in order for these integration difficulties to be combatted.

Dr. M. Mirza, LGBT Health Wellness – 2014

Is Sex Conversion Therapy Ever Ethical?

Sex conversion therapy, or reparative therapy as it is also known, has been a source of ire and controversy in the LGBT community for years.

Everyone has days where there are things that they wish they could change about themselves. Certainly it comes as no surprise that there are people that would like to profit from offering the opportunity to LGBT folks to stop having homosexual thoughts. In a world where therapy has become a cornerstone of our lives from our pre-school years on it was inevitable that there would be therapists that provide counseling to eliminate homosexual thoughts. But sex conversion therapy is no small matter… it is not just a field comprised of a few greedy therapists armed with self-help books and gimmicky promises. In the 90’s when sex conversion therapy first gained notoriety it was mainly through Christian counselors. The Christian organizations behind these counselors would often rely on help from the secular group National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) to support their actions. The justification for their work was easy at the time because the World Health Organization still considered homosexuality a mental disorder. A large part of their efforts were geared towards converting self-identified gay or bisexual teenagers to heterosexuality through the use of electro-shock therapy and other unpleasant stimuli paired with homoerotic images.

Laws that ban conversion therapy have been added to state legislature now in California, New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts.

Accounts from LGBT individuals that received sex conversion therapy as minors frequently blame the therapy for worsening their anxiety and self-hatred. Clearly some of the methods that sex conversion therapy uses are out of the dark ages of psychology, but is it fair to sex that all counseling like this should be outlawed even if it is practiced only by licensed therapists? The therapy is defined as being meant to help with unwanted homosexual thoughts, so maybe it is unfair to immediately dismiss the therapy as unethical. But the mere question of whether or not conversion therapy is ethical implies that some LGB individuals aren’t really homosexual. The World Health Organization no longer considers homosexuality a mental disorder, so it hardly makes sense that there are people that would still like to treat it as one. If the LGB individual were having too many homosexual thoughts–well that is another problem entirely and not one that most LGB people have any need to address in therapy.

The other problem here is that the majority of sex conversion therapy is directed at minors.

When a teenager isn’t sure what kind of person he or she is in an intimate sense, that’s normal. Trying to suppress changes in sexuality and self-perspective in teenagers should never go beyond the normal do’s and don’ts of that age category. If you aren’t convinced that sex conversion therapy is too extreme then maybe it helps to imagine what you would think of a parent that sought electro-shock therapy to for their 16 year old daughter for ideating about inviting her school’s field hockey team over for a wild night. Sometimes teenagers have thoughts that are a little beyond them, and sometimes parents have difficulty accepting the people their teenagers are becoming, but shock therapy is rather severe. It just doesn’t sound like something that fits with our ideals as a culture.

Dr. M. Mirza, LGBT Health Wellness – 2014

Transgender woman murdered

Tyler’s friends believe she was a victim of a hate crime.

“This has to be a hate crime, this has to be a hate crime, nothing else because that was an upstanding person with a good heart,” Underwood’s roommate, Coy Simmons told KYTX.

“She was lovely, just a lovely person.”

Tyler’s friends say she was well-liked and had no enemies. “She’s a fan favourite,” Kenya Darks told local news station, KLTV.

Police suggested that Tyler was shot before trying to flee from her attacker in her car. Police are still searching for a suspect. and have appealed to the public to come forward if they have any information.

A Transvestite Encounter in Post-Roman Gaul

One day in the summer of the year 590, the experienced and wry divine Gregory — Metropolitan bishop of Tours in the barbarian kingdom of Frankish Neustria — sat to hear a sensational case. With his fellow bishops, Gregory was to judge upon a scandal during the year of the revolt of the nuns in Poitiers against their abbess. This was in reality part of the vicious feminine war festering within the Frankish royal house.

Royal women were not normally subject to the lynch law prevailing outside the walls of their protected establishments, and could not by custom be routinely killed by their male relatives. Women beware was the rule in the palaces and high-status religious houses. This is the era of Queen Fredegund, spymistress, controller of assassins and, murderess.

The extraordinary position of top-ranking Frankish women, and the savage energy of the times, bathes the calm testimony of the political churchman in the atmosphere of the Nibelunglied.

Rome has fallen and deranged warlords feast amid the ruins, drunk and dangerous. Nominally Christian, they are addicted to war, vendetta, and extortion on a massive scale.

Partially controlling these sacred monsters is a pack of the old Roman aristocracy dressed up as men of God, and protected by the magic powers of which they have convinced the magnates. All public services, apart from those controlled by the church, have perished with the Empire; the population at large is prey to every kind of violence and misfortune.

An obsessive faith in a better life hereafter, and raging superstitions are understandable reactions to this post-apocalyptic world, crisscrossed by plundering hordes.

Gregory is as credulous as his flock, sharp observer though he is. Miracles are as common as plagues, signs and wonder a daily occurrence. Without these visible evidences of divine mercy, life is unendurable. Worshipping God and pleasing him was paramount: a primary objective of the churchmen and theoretically of the ignorant barbarian sovereigns they served and manipulated.

The kings thought that promotion of Christianity brought them success in battle and at the council table; the bishops thought it the only guarantee of a very fragile existence. This makes what occurred in the cathedral of Poitiers that summer day so extraordinary. One rubs one’s eyes to read Gregory’s account.

After dealing with a siege situation at the Poitiers Nunnery, and putting down the revolt with a little bloodshed here and there, the bishops assemble. Gregory says:’Tunc resedentes sacerdotes……..”

Then were present the priests sitting down again on the tribunal of the church…..

“Adfuit Chrodieldis..”

Was present Clotild,

“Multa in abbatissa iactans convitia cum criminibus…”

Hurling many accusations of crime against the abbess…”

“Adserens,eam virum habere in monasterium…..”

Asserting she had a man in the nunnery….

“Qui indutus vestimenta muliebria pro femina haberetur…”

Who was dressed in female clothing so one would take him to be a woman….

“Cum esset vir manifestissime declaratus”

Though he was most manifestly clearly a man.

“Atque ipsi abbatissa famularetur assiduae..”

And that the abbess regularly had sex with him

This is clearly not in the normal run of canon law cases. A princess of the blood, ostensibly a religious, is appearing in person to accuse her superior, also a princess, of extreme sexual irregularity. With bells on. But then…….sensation! Clotild continues:

“Indicans eum digito,”En ipsum”

“There he is!” — pointing him out with her finger

Now whatever mental picture one has of people and events in the heroic age, I am sure that it does not include the moments following this dramatic pronouncement. If it were not for the fact that this is the testimony of an eyewitness, one would discount it as an invention.

From the dais Gregory beholds something rather out of the ordinary for 6th century Gaul:

“Qui cum in veste,ut diximus,muliebri,coram omnibus adstetisset..”

Whereupon a man in women’s clothing, as we have said, stood forward in the sight of everyone

“Dixit,se nihil opus posse virile agere, ideoque sibi hoc indumentum mutasse”.

Who said, that he was in no way able to operate as a man, and so transformed himself by dressing.

One wonders what the reaction was. The general impression given by Gregory’s account may be summed up in the only possible cliché – stunned silence. Succeeded by anticlimax:

“Abbatissam vero nonnisi tantum nomine nossit..”.

He stated that he knew nothing of the Abbess but her name…”

“Seque eam nunquam vidisse ..”

And he had never seen her..

“Neque cum eadem colloquium habuisse, professus est”.

Nor with the same had had any conversation,

If this was an intended coup de theatre by Clotild, she has obviously failed miserably, or her co-conspirator has been made an offer that he/she cannot refuse.

Our transgender person concludes:

“Praesertim cum hic amplius quam quadraginta ab urbe Pectava milibus degeret”

As well as this he lived more than forty miles from Poitiers

There is clearly something gravely wrong with all this. One thing is indisputable: there is at least one full-time MtoF transgender person living unmolested in the Barbarian West. One gets a whiff of country cottages and a decent kitchen garden, with a mustachioed husband in the background. Somewhere off the beaten track for armies; somewhere quiet.

And yet this person is known. Clotild knows her, she pointed him out, and Clotild is the daughter of the late great (if psychotic) king Charibert. Has Clotild had him/her transported, as if by evil fairies, those forty impossible miles to the cathedral of Poitiers?. And if so, why has her leading actress fluffed her lines? If Clotild’s royal antagonists are responsible for this apparition, how does any of Gregory’s carefully self-censored narrative work?

The saintly bishop of Tours had no desire to linger on the sordid details of this distressing case, and still less did he wish to enlarge upon what might lie behind the bizarre transvestite moment in the cathedral of Poitiers. Blandly he informs us that as a result of the transgender testimony, it was obviously out of the question to convict the pious abbess of criminal conversation. We should, therefore, all move on, and there’s nothing to see around here, folks.

Clotild, however, was not finished yet:

“Quae enim sanctitas in hac abbatissa versatur….”

For what holiness is poured out on this abbess..”

Quae viros eunuchus facit,et secum habitare imperiale ordini praecipit..”

Who has men made eunuchs, and has them around her after the manner of the imperial court.

More dirty washing from St Radegund’s Nunnery and for a while things look a bit dodgy for the noble abbess Leubovera.

“Imterrogata abbatissa,se de hac ratione nihil scire respondit…”

The abbess being questioned, she replied that she knew absolutely nothing about it..”

“Interea,cum haec nomen pueri eunuchi protulisset…”

Meanwhile, the name of the eunuch serving-boy was produced…

And then, a deus ,or rather medicus, ex machina appears:

“Adfuit Reovalis archiater…”

The leading doctor Reovalis presented himself..

Where did HE come from? The learned surgeon explains:

“Dicens,puer iste,parvolus cum esset et infirmaretur in femore..”

Saying, this boy being very young was having pains in the loins..”

Disperatus coepit habere, mater quoque eius sanctam Ragegundam adivit..”

Having been given up as hopeless, his mother also went to Saint Radegund herself.

“Ut ei aliquod studium iubiret inpendi..”

To see if she could have this case looked into somehow.

Saint Radegund knows just the man for the job:

At illa,me vocato,iussit,si possim,aliquid iuvarem..”

And she, having summoned me, commanded me, if I could, to do something to help.

Doctor Reovalis is not afraid to take drastic measures:

“Tunc ego,sicut quondam apud urbem Constantinopolitam medicos agere conspexeram..”

Then I, having once upon a time observed what the doctors did at Constantinople…

“Incisis testicolis..”

Cut off his bollocks

One imagines some uncomfortable shifting about on the tribunal. But all is well:

“Puerum sanum genetrici maestae restitui..”

I restored the boy to his mother improved in health…

“Nam nihil de hac causa abbatissa scire cognovi..”

And I know for a fact that the present abbess knew nothing about this thing.

So that’s alright then. Clotild has alleged the presence of a transvestite, and one is there present in the cathedral. She also claims that there are eunuchs about, and one is also found in the cathedral. But it is all perfectly alright, because there is a simple and innocent explanation for all this stuff. The tranny says he is impotent, and the castrated boy’s mum is happy, so what is the problem? Well, everything really.

This is Merovingian Gaul, not New York in the 1970’s. What is a full-time crossdresser doing in the Dark Ages? Are we supposed to believe that there is a castration expert just hanging about in 6th century Poitiers?

A genius to boot, as the learned doctor claims to have performed this tricky bit of work with no training, but simply as a result of having sat in on an operation way back in the day.

No doubt doctor Reovalis was a brilliant wound surgeon. Lord knows there was ample scope for his talents in the Frankish kingdoms. But it is quite evident that he has performed castrations before, and that he was trained to do so at the East Roman court.

These people stand before us for a few brief moments, caught in the light that a great historian unwittingly throws upon his times. The full court judgment quoted by Gregory makes absolutely no mention of transvestism or of castrated boys, or of any but the most anodyne accusations against the saintly abbess Leubovera. As a writer however, he could not resist the drama of the occasion, and we hear the very words of the protagonists.

The nasty business at St Radegund’s nunnery, which had involved gang warfare, numerous homicides, and an unfortunate outbreak of pregnancy among the unguarded nuns, was smoothed over. The Frankish sovereigns had for once united to draw a veil over this most unedifying spectacle, and the pious judges knew very well what the outcome was to be before the enquiry began.

Nobody important was punished for anything. Clotild and her unwilling accomplice princess Basina were giving a few days penance and told not to cause trouble again.

And the man who dressed as a woman, what happened to him/her? Did she perhaps have a quiet word with the gifted doctor?. Two of the unlikeliest figures of the age fade away, revealed by accident, and lost in time.

Written by: Michelle Quartermain

tglife.com – 2014

Standing Feminine in 9 Easy Steps

I am most often asked by those who have studied my Vol 1 DVD—to please explain again– how to stand and sit in an S-Curve. Review Vol 1 but herewith a short review. Most men stand linear, and they generally do not use much hand movement (except shaking hands, waving or crossing their arms) so we want to break out of the linear by using what I created called the S-Curve to look casual, sensual, sexy, or really sensual.

Lets begin with how to STAND in a feminine sensual way.

Day 1 Study yourself while in guy mode when you can see your reflection in a mirror or large window. You will probably be like most men, which is prettyinpinkstanding with both feet flat on the ground and your hands down to your side (and often not swinging them while walking or swinging from the shoulders). This creates the straight l shape.

Day 2 Begin to take the weight off one of your feet, you can do this while in guy mode….the magic comes when your makeup is done and dressed. In the beginning this will be difficult to remember, so don’t beat yourself up, just make the correction. Again, you can do this while in guy mode as it will not “look feminine”. until your dressed. This is the foundation for your footwork when creating the Sensual S curve. Place one foot forward slightly while the other foot stays in the back – and be certain no weight it on the FRONT FOOT, EVER. Next, you will only begin walking on your front foot, which does NOT have any weight on it. I tell my clients to repeat FFF. Free Front Foot.

Day 3 Please break these up into days, as I do not want you to go on to the next step until you have the previous day down; otherwise everything will fall apart – as much as you would like to tell yourself “Oh, I will remember to do that, its easy”. Wrong. I have seen this in my 12 years of my private coaching for TG women, habit will be hard to break. However, once you feel the difference, you will be on your way to your first curve. Most men will step off on their BACK foot, (again men generally stand with their weight on both feet).

Day 4 After learning to place one foot slightly forward with the back foot solid on the ground – Lift the heel off the ground of the FFF. In the beginning think of it, like a clock. Your back base foot will be at 11:00 while your front, feminine foot will be at 1:00 or a slight 2:00. You can also learn by placing the heel of your front foot into the arch of your base, back foot. Later, we will open this slightly.

Day 5 After lifting the heel up (which a man would never do) slightly tilt your FFF knee inward. BAM you have a major curve, which is the foundation of your S Curve. Try this with no shoes on, then in a heel. Practice this way of standing (it is called a hesitation in modeling) in the shoes with the heel height you most often wear when you’re out dressed. Get ready, lets create another curve.

Day 6 Always, always begin to walk with your front free feminine foot. Why? Try stepping off with the back foot which has the weight on it. You will be stuck in cement, it never moves. It is your base foot which holds you up really well, in heels when standing. Try it. When stepping off on your base back foot did you feel how your entire body came forward, showing larger shoulders, arms and hands? This will be a difficult habit to break…..at first.

Day 7 Now, back to standing. You have your heel up and knee in which closes up any OPEN SPACE. You do not want any open space between your knees and your feet. Once you’re standing with your feet in your hesitation, with your heel up and sexy knee pointed inward, I want you to lift up your diaphram and roll your shoulders up, back, and down which will bring attention to your breast! Now, twist at the waist. You have another curve.

When your shoulders go DOWN, they will not look as large, however your breast will — Remember roll them up, back, and down…feel your breast come forward and making your shorter.

Day 8 Next your shoulders. Tilt your shoulders one direction or the other, while you’re in your hesitation. You now have your next curve! You can use either shoulder, so practice tilting your left shoulder forward and then your right shoulder. You will need a mirror to see this. Remember to keep the heel up and the knee in, up at the waist, shoulders up, back and down and one shoulder pointed to the side. This is a really great tilt for photo taking, as only one shoulder will show and your breasts will look larger, oh yes and your stomach will be lifted! Remember the hesitation or this all falls apart later when we begin stairs, cars. Now, try tilting your head to the opposite side, than the shoulder you use. This is another curve. Not so hard, right?There is no right or wrong, just don’t stand in your guy stance.

Day 9 If you want to feel “more casual” take your FFF and slide it over and open away from the base foot below the same shoulder. This is called an “open hesitation” You simply slide your FFF over onto your big toe, bend that knee in a little more. This is great when you’re wearing jeans for a casual stance. Your closed hesitation is more for a sophisticated look. And, I use it as a way of teachhing everything we do, we start with a closed hesitation.

Summary: You will find one foot more comfortable than the other– for your front foot and the other for your base foot. Your base foot needs to be your stronger foot, as it holds you up. As in Karate…they stand with one foot forward, right? Why? Balance. By placing your FFF forward you can use it to support yourself or to “prop” yourself up. This is very important for girls who are just learning to stand and walk in heels.Plus is gives you a much more feminine appearance than standing with your feet apart with weight on both feet, right?

20 July 2014 – Written by Denae Doyle @tglife.com

2014-07-20 03:43:00

The Perfect Handbag

The prefect handbag for a transgender woman can be mystifying. How do you know which will be best?

I was asked today during a consult, about which style of handbag to use.

Since most TG women are about 5′ 8′ up, you do want to consider the handbag which is best for a tall to very tall woman. Avoid long skinny-style bags with long straps.

Counterbalance your figure with something broad, slouchy or unstructured such as a HoBo type. Often, I see clients with small bags, and I feel it makes her look taller!

I would purchase a medium size bag.

When buying a purse, look in the stores mirror to see how each purse size and shape looks on your figure type!

It is best to get a purse which matches your shoe or boot color. With Winter here, think of the black purse, black boots, and a long dark coat, and put a scarf with lots of color wrapped around your neck. If you can wear a hat, I always put on a Winter cap, as it is very girlish!

Handbag Tips

It is always better to purchase a purse which zips closed so nothing can be taken out of your purse (or fall out). Another tip is when shopping, use the baby strap in the “cart” to secure your bag, allowing you to walk away from the basket for a moment.

Black is probably your best color. I have several colors in my closet, and my “Go To” seems to be my medium to large black zip with a bottom which has “support brackets on the bottom. This holds your purse up off the floor and it does not pick up dirt or sticky items on the floor.

If I know I will be walking most of the day or visiting someone’s house (not in a store), I carry my black Hobo, which has no bottom brackets. So I hang it on the arm of my chair.

09 January 2013 – Written by Denae Doyle @tglife.com

2013-01-09 05:34:00

Makeup School

It doesn’t matter how old you are, we should keep learning something new every day. I enjoy going to seminars and learning new things in my job and at play.

Over the years I have established relationships with various cosmetic providers and have learned so much along the way. I try not to promote one over the other because all have strengths in what they offer. I buy products from 4 different brands. Each offer that one thing(s) that I have found works best for me. Some have great eye shadow colors (seasonal must have colors), Foundation that works with my skin type, texture (sealers), Natural looks, problem areas (concealer) and we can’t forget skin care products(moisturizers, deep line correction serums). Our favorites may change over time as better products become available in particular anti-aging serums, and skin repair regiments.

I was invited to attend a seminar with Trish McEvoy cosmetics. I would never pass up the idea of a cofounder offering lessons in my newest favorite products. This wasn’t just a makeover with some marketing hype it was more than that.

This was a Master class. It is taught once a year for models and woman with gorgeous skin in New York, LA and all over the country. Can you imagine what was going through my head at the thought?

To add to the excitement, “please come with little or no makeup”. I don’t know about you but for me that would be hard. I applied aTriangle_of_Light little foundation, lip color and a neutral eye shadow and that was it. I have to admit you have to rely on some self-confidence here recognizing others would be the same.

When we arrived I felt like I was completely exposed. Fortunately I had only a few encounters with other people before meeting our representative. Immediately after meeting Emily We were put at ease joining some 24 woman in a similar way. My fantasy faded when I gazed around to find mostly middle aged woman and older all seeking to improve their look. It was a fun crowd and I felt at ease as just one of the ladies. We were taken to an area of Saks Fifth Avenue which was set aside for the event, beverages, fruit, pastries were plenty.

For the next three hours I was brought into the world of professional makeup. Facial preparation begins with clean skin. We started by removing all makeup and exfoliation. Next nourish the skin with Serums, moisturizers, and primers.

I was happy to hear why it is important to take the time with proper skin preparation. Healthy nourished, and moisturized skin form the base to build. Primers seal the moisture in while allowing the makeup something to adhere to. The best part is lesser product is needed and it results in a more even covering and a natural look.

With my skin prepped, it was time to watch, listen and learn. The first thing I realized is I didn’t know the tools as much as I thought and they would be so many. The tools of course are the brushes, the eye brushes, Cheek brushes, Foundation brushes and Face brushes all have a purpose and in many cases there can be up to thirteen brushes just for the eyes! Wow, how do you know which one to use…by playing and feel. Don’t get me wrong I have a wonderful set of Sable hair brushes, but only a couple of each type.

This is what you don’t get with a makeover. We had one artist for two girls, the artist would do a little on one side and the student would do the other.

Always starting with the eyes and working your way down. We were shown how to lighten and brighten the eyes with eye base and how to blend for a natural look. We were shown how to highlight or work with our facial features and differing skin tones, very cool!

We were introduced to the triangle of light, the area directly below the eye. If you make a “v” with two fingers one on the inside and outside edges of the eye this frames the area to be lightened. Many may know this technique in other terms but this was simple enough even for me to grasp. You can learn more about the concept at the web link; trishmcevoy.com

The rest was all about finishing the foundation coloring and blending. The completed look finished with bronzing, a kiss of blush on the cheekbone and of course lip color.

Makeup_CaseI really learned a lot of subtle techniques for eye liner application, blending colors to match skin tone, the “cat” eye look and best of all making my skin natural and bright. I always seem to be in a hurry when doing my makeup. Using the right techniques saves you time. During the whole event we didn’t have to do any repairs at all. More importantly I could feel the softness of the brushes caressing my skin completing the process to look and feel beautiful with the final touch of finishing powder!

After the completion of the finishing touches it was time to go over notes. The artist is always good at taking notes on what you liked and didn’t have in your collection. We all want to re create that heavenly experience time and time again.

When attending events such as this, be prepared to buy a few products in exchange for what you have gained. In my case I purchased a beautiful planner with a spring collection not available yet in stores and a few exquisite brushes.

So now I think of the beauty of Taylor swift while using my soft finishing brushes and LOL with a smile knowing those days are long gone but I at least know I’m at my best.

28 January 2013 – Written by Denae Doyle @tglife.com

Transgender Networking

Networking is important, whether its for work, social, or just fun and play. Before we get into networking yourself as a trans woman, let’s ask some important questions.

What are your goals and background?

For the sake of discussion, let’s say you have been cross dressing for years but never thought simply putting on the clothes was enough.

Maybe you have ventured out into gay venues and you don’t quite fit that venue either. Now what?

More than likely it’s time to reach down into the “label” bin and pull out the “transgender” one. You feel the need to express yourself as a female in everyday society. If this is you, read on.

The first lesson to be learned in the bright lights of the world is the need to communicate. As I have said many times, I couldn’t believe how many people felt the need to talk to me. Here I was scared to death and they wanted to chat? Really?

I learned quickly the worst course was not to respond. If I was going to walk the walk, I needed to talk the talk. Turned out it was a scary but wise choice.

Like many of you, I was very unsure where I was going in this whole process, but very quickly I was finding out. Very simply I learned the great majority of the public was fine with the fact I was a trans woman, and slowly but surely I started networking my new life. I discovered a new inner peace I had never known. I was home.

Now, your network possibilities are as diverse as you are, so some thing that worked for me may or may not work for you, or you might find options I haven’t even explored yet.

I happened to be a huge sports fan and put simply started to go to a couple upscale sports bar in my jeans, boots and sometimes even a jersey-as a girl. Hell, genetic women did it why couldn’t I? As luck would have it, within a couple months I actually became accepted as a regular and struck up conversations with the bar tenders and other patrons… mostly women.

Two years later, I’m fortunate to have remained in contact with most of them. Moreover I have also become friends with some of their friends.

My advice would be to be to take one of your favorite interests as a male and transfer them to your female side. Think about it. It’s not that hard. Almost all pursuits today have a male and female following. Mine happened to be sports.

Ironically the other networking tool I used was the most foreign one for one of my generation: computer dating.

Actually my participation was more of computer contacting, rather than dating. I won’t bore you with the extreme number of contacts I went through on several different sites by both sides of the gender spectrum. I will tell you that I found two dear friends from the process and I am a believer in it if you are careful and patient.

So, good luck on your quest. The bottom line is to follow your soul. She will show you the path. If she doesn’t, that’s OK too. Maybe she or you aren’t ready. Just wait until you are!

This is one of the times that life isn’t too short to find your way through a very complex gender process.

Cyrsti Hart

23 June 2012 – @tglife.com

2012-06-23 01:23:00

Review of Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India

This book makes important contributions to the study of gender variance, sexuality, and South Asian cultures. It was awarded the Ruth Benedict Prize, given by the Society of Lesbian and Gay Anthropologists, and contains a forward written by the sexologist John Money. Nanda’s focus is the hijras, effeminate or androgynous males who do not fulfill a standard man’s role. She bases her book on several years of fieldwork in an unnamed city in southern India, where she studied a hijra community of about two hundred persons. She also worked in Bombay, which is a center of hijra culture.

Nanda defines hijras as occupying an alternative gender role, distinct from either men or women. She draws comparisons with the American Indian berdache, the xanith of Oman, and the mahu in Tahiti. In contrast, she points out, the transsexual role in Western culture is not accepted as a fully recognized gender. This non-acceptance, she argues, is due to a lack of religious sanction and an “unyielding Western commitment to a dichotomous gender system” (p. 137), which expects all “normal” persons to conform to one of only two gender roles. Western ideology, uncomfortable with ambiguity, strives to resolve in-between categories.

Hindu ideology not only accomodates the reality of ambiguity anddiversity among different personality types, but also conceptionalizes androgynous persons as special sacred beings. Hindu mythology makes frequent reference to combined man/woman beings. The cognition of hijras as religious figures, as neither men nor women, provides them with social respect and an institutional character. They are seen as representatives of the Hindu goddess Bahuchara Mata, which gives them ritual power. Not just tolerating contradiction, but actively embracing it, Hindus believe that hijras have powers to bless heterosexual marriages so that they will be fertile, and infant males so that they will grow up to become masculine men.

Nanda, a professor at John Jay College, corrects many inaccuracies that anthropologists have written about hijras. First, she points out, they are not morphological hermaphrodites, but were androgynous in character from early childhood and voluntarily joined a hijra community during their adolescence. Second, they are not forced to undergo a surgical operation to remove their penis and testicles, though many of them do this by their own wish. Third, most hijras are sexually active with men, being the insertee in anal intercourse.

Some gain their livelihood through prostituting themselves to masculine males, while others marry a man and live together as husband and wife. Indian society traditionally did not see such pairings as “homosexual,” since hijras were not considered to be the same gender as their masculine partners. Hijras are not defined as “men,” because they have no desire to engage in masculine labor and activities, they do not wish to have sex with women, and they do not want to father children. Conversely, hijras are not seen as “women,” because even though they may engage in women’s occupations, they do not menstruate and cannot give birth. The book’s striking photographs show hijras dressed in women’s clothing, and wearing feminine hairstyles and jewelry. Yet, at the same time, Indian people recognize that hijras are not actually women. They are not-men/not-women.

Due to the Western colonial influence, which condemns gender variance and homosexuality, the status of hijras in modern Indian society has declined. Among Westernized Indians, hijras’ presence at weddings and baptismal ceremonials is only barely tolerated. Hijras’ temples are not given adequate financial support, and many hijras suffer employment discrimination. As a result, prostitution is often the only occupation open to them. Nanda’s study unfortunately does not address the impact of the spread of the AIDS epidemic. Recent reports indicate that AIDS infection is quite prevalent among both male and female prostitutes in India. The fact that vaginal or anal intercourse is now considered the only proper form of sexual interaction in India is unfortunate, especially considering the popularity of oral sex, interfemoral sex, and other less dangerous forms of erotic interaction in pre-colonial Asia. For many, the imposition of Western notions of “normal” sexuality will literally lead to death.

Though her psychoanalytic interpretation is problematic, Nanda’s study is an important addition to the growing literature of life histories. The book includes four hijras’ detailed personal narratives, which contribute to recent trends in feminist anthropology emphasizing life stories. Nanda rightly recognizes the need for scholars to acknowledge individual variation, to understand the gendered perspectives of non-Western peoples in their own words. This book avoids the pitfall of many ethnographies which present only a generalized “culture” while lacking a presentation of real peoples’ lives.

Nanda agrees with this reviewer’s thesis, presented in The Spirit and the Flesh: Sexual Diversity in American Indian Culture (Beacon 1986), that religion is the crucial factor in the acceptance of homosexuality and gender variance. Nanda concludes that alternative gender roles will be socially accepted when the religious ideology of that culture offers (1) a specific explanation for such difference, (2) formalized traditions in ritual, (3) a recognition that there are many different paths to personal fulfillment, enlightenment or salvation, and (4) the idea that gender-variant persons cannot resist following their own true nature, and are fated to be the way they are. The implications here are important for a cross-cultural understanding of homophobia, and what must be done for it to be overcome. It is not enough for a religion to be “tolerant” of gender diversity and sexual variation; it must also provide specific recognition for such diversity. By showing the social advantages to be gained by an appreciation for diversity, Nanda’s study deserves a wide reading.

Review of Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of India. By Serena Nanda.
Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1990.
Reviewed by Walter L. Williams, in American Ethnologist 1992.
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The Spirit & The Flesh: Sexual Diversity In American Indian Culture

American Historical Review 93 (February 1988):218-219

By skillfully integrating historical and anthropological literature with the results of his own unique cross-cultural fieldwork among contemporary berdaches, Williams provides an extraordinarily perceptive study of the berdache and the most comprehensive treatment of this controversial topic to date. One of the goals of this work is to “allow Indian people to speak for themselves” (p.7). The most effective use of quotations occurs in part 1, which explores the character of the berdache… Particularly valuable insights are conveyed by various traditionalists…. This is a provocative book that will undoubtedly rattle a number of cages. It will also prove to be an essential tool for scholars engaged in gender studies and an extremely useful source for ethnologists, historians and others interested in the human condition. There is a wealth of information in the book.

American Anthropologist 89 (December 1987): 978-979.

Walter Williams produced a detailed study of the sexual diversity among American Indians in six years, 1980-1986. “The Spirit and the Flesh” achieves an important place in anthropological literature regarding berdaches or transvestites and homosexual behavior among American Indians by means of finding and interviewing berdaches.

The recent general sexual revolution in the United States and the gay liberation movement contributed greatly to the production of Williams’s wide-ranging and fully documented book. It will surprise some, shock some, but almost everyone can learn something new from it.

Journal of the American Academy of Religion 57 (Autumn 1989): 607-615.

Walter Williams explores both the extensive literature and the berdache phenomena in considerable depth in a volume that is a decided contribution to the discussion and understanding of complex issues. It becomes essential reading for all of us who would engage in an ongoing study, as well as for those busy academicians who would hope for at least some knowledge of the subject. They will find Williams’ style eminently readable and at the same time well documented….

Williams would push us to move beyond a commonly cited definition to think of berdachism as representing a third, distinctive gender, a ‘mixing’ of the two biologically obvious genders…. Williams perfers ‘gender mixing’ as a more appropriate description of berdaches as an in-between gender…. Williams does a good job of surveying a great variety of ethnographic, anthropological and historical reports… Williams does put the ethnographic evidence into a new interpretive framework. This much alone insures that his work will be in the center of academic discussion about berdache traditions. It should be added that he has also done rather broad field work assessing the state of the issue in contemporary tribal situations….

The analysis of the shifts in contemporary Indian cultures, as we have noted, is one of Williams’ intended contributions…. He advances far beyond other interpreters, although there are certain problems. The strength of Williams’ interpretation of the contemporary context and also the problematic is in the reporting of his field work, namely his broad based conversations with a variety of modern berdaches / gay Indians from very differing tribal traditions. While his treatment is not and probably could not yet be thoroughly systemic, he attempts to move beyond treatment of berdaches as merely a historical phenomenon…. At the very least, evidence from Native America will emphasize that it is simply not the case that the despising of homosexual individuals is a human universal.

Ethnohistory 37 (Autumn 1990):449-451.

Already a classic, this prodigal, prizewinning ethnography about cross-cultural sexual variation remedies serious empirical deficiencies even as it contains important interpretive problems of its own. The many and overwhelming data it presents confirm not only the presence of sanctioned homosexuality but its diverse institutionalization in indigenous and contemporary Native American cultures. Focused largely on male homosexuality, this book draws on Williams’ fieldwork in North America, Central America, and Hawaii and on his exhaustive excavation of the ethnographic and historical literature….

Most of the evidence for the berdache’s social legitimacy is strikingly convincing… yet at times the book’s argument does not seem to register the contradictory evidence which, to its credit, it actually cites…. The narrative and theoretical voice is stronger in the second, historical section of the book, which uses a dialectical model of colonial domination to examine the transformation of the berdache tradition since European contact…. [It] illustrates very powerfully how domination, by contradictorily facing in as well as out, generates resistance: the recent gay liberation movement among whites, having drawn symbolic nurturance from the surviving berdache tradition, has in turn helped to energize that tradition as a symbol and catalyst of its own culture’s revitalization….

The last chapter surveys data that suggest a wide cross-cultural range of sexual diversity. The concluding paragraphs rightly chastise social constructionists like Foucault and Weeks for their ethnocentric ignorance of emics, which prevents them from fully comprehending variant models of sexuality and gender or imagining truly revolutionary ones. While the book’s own use of etics is a bit random (the first section’s grab-bag functionalism posits now reproductive survival, now social leveling, now biopsychological need, as the telos of social custom), its description and evocation of emic categories admirably begin the task for whose continuation it calls.

Journal of American History 77 (June 1990): 308.

For decades anthropologists and historians have mentioned or provided brief discussions of the role of the berdache within traditional native American cultures, but this volume by Walter L. Williams, a professor of ethnohistory in the Program for the Study of Women and Men in Society at the University of Southern California, provides the first in-depth, systematic examination of this institution and its relationship to both Native American and Euro-American cultures. Combining extensive research in travel accounts, personal narratives, and anthropological reports with his own field research, Williams argues that the institution was prevalent throughout most of the western tribes, and that berdaches played prominent social, economic, and spiritual roles within tribal societies….

This is a well-researched, well-written study. Williams admirably blends his fieldwork with more traditional historical research, and the volume will unquestionably remain the standard reference work on this subject for the forseeable future. Unfortunately, however, Williams’s arguments for the legitimacy of the berdaches and his condemnation of Euro-American attitudes toward gay and lesbian sexual behavior occasionally border upon advocacy. In addition, his chapter arguing for the prevalence of clandestine homosexual behavior among such socio-economic groups as pirates or cowboys detract from his primary thesis. These shortcomings aside, this volume should be welcomed by historians and anthropologists studying Native Americans. It should also be well received by historians of sexuality.

by Walter L. Williams. Boston: Beacon Press, 1986 and revised edition 1992.

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