The Life Of a Transsexual in 1940′s Australia: “About Vivien” A Must See Documentary
Vivien
This is a must-see film for transgender and allied activists: a fourteen minute documentary of Vivien, neé Walter Lee. Vivien was a transsexual in Sydney Australia in the 1940′s, and faced oppression unlike anything we see today in modern society. The police would arrest her if she was caught in public wearing female undergarments beneath her clothes, the press railed against “perverted revelries” and “nauseating parties” of “naice” boys. Vivien was outed by the Truth newspaper, albeit unwittingly.
The film is available online on YouTube: About Vivien.
A recollection of Kathy Sport, the documentarian film-maker who produced the film is available here.
Why is this a must-see? Because all too often we choose to look how far we all have to go to find acceptance and equality in our society, but perhaps it is a good idea to sometimes turn and look backward and to consider how bad it used to be. Transgender individuals have come far, yet still have far to go…and one thing is certain: we must remain vigil to prevent the past from happening again.
Meet Transgender Music Star Titica, From Angola
Angola is a country well-known for its hard line against homosexuality and by extension, gender variance. That hasn’t stopped Angolan musician Titica from seeing wide success there, however:
Transsexual Artist Titica Takes Angola By Storm
[A]t 25, Titica is the new face of Angola’s unique urban rap-techno fusion music style known as “kuduro”.
By day her songs boom from minibus taxis, by night they fill Luanda’s dance floors and at the weekends she has become the essential soundtrack for children’s parties.
Named best kuduro artist of 2011, she is a regular on television and radio, and has even performed at the annual Divas concert, attended by President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, where she herself was named a diva.
Well done!
Here’s a video of her’s, and you can find many more on YouTube:
Rick Santorum May Have Helped Marriage Equality In NC. Here’s How:
Former Republican candidate for president Rick Santorum may have inadvertently helped the folks here in North Carolina that are opposed to the onerous NC Amendment One’s passage on May 8th. To be certain, he’s no friend of marriage equality, but by dropping out of the presidential race now, he’s defused North Carolina Republicans from feeling as though they have to vote on May 8 in their presidential primary.
Santorum, the evangelical saviour du jour was expected to strongly contend in the ninth largest state for the delegates in the primary, and had he remained in the primary, there would have undoubtedly been a blitz of rallies, speeches and media buys by all of the remaining candidates as they fought it out to win the Republican nomination, but by dropping out, Santorum has all but assured his former rival Mitt Romney will carry the GOP standard into November. That said, and coupled with the fact that the Republican nomination for governor is also all but wrapped up as well, there’s not going to be a pressing urgency for registered Republicans to get out to the polls in May…and while they are there, to vote in favor of Amendment 1 since Republican are largely for the measure.
For those who don’t know what Amendment One is:
The North Carolina Same-Sex Marriage Amendment will appear on the May 8, 2012 ballot in the state of North Carolina as a legislatively-referred constitutional amendment.
The measure would define marriage in the state as between one man and one woman.[1][2]
Same-sex marriage is already banned in the state of North Carolina. The proposed measure, however, would add the ban to the state constitution. (wikepedia.org)
While voting for Amendment 1 won‘t ban Same-Sex marriage since it is already banned by statute in NC, it would create a standard where it would be difficult to challenge the statute in state courts as well as cause numerous other problems.
Depending on the poll you believe, the amendment will pass or will fail when it is voted on next month. To my thinking that says that the side gets their vote out will win this battle. With Santorum out, there will obviously be a smaller Republican turnout and thus fewer automatic anti-equality votes. That doesn’t mean that anti-Amendment 1 forces can rest easy — they can’t — but it does give them a fighting chance.
If you live in NC, I cannot urge you strongly enough to get to the polls and to make your voice heard on the ballot.
Also take the time to visit Equality NC and get some more information.
It’s Time…Time For You To Be YOU.
What exactly is time? Precisely speaking it is right now. There is only NOW – the past is gone, and there’s no promise that you will be a part of the future that’s to come. That leaves you the present, no more, no less.
As long as you have life, anyway.
The thing about life is that IS time. When life is gone, you’ve run out of time…so as long as there is life there is time and as long as there is time there is hope.
You cannot make time, save it or keep it, not in your pocket anyway. Try to keep time in your hands and no matter how tightly you try to grasp it, it will slip away just as quickly. You may have time to do something, or maybe you don’t. But you are always doing SOMETHING. You spend time constantly, and often you waste it, and many of us take it for granted. “Oh, I’ll have time tomorrow,” you may tell yourself. But will you? Are you sure?
One thing that we should all do is to remember to use time wisely, because the instant a moment is gone, that moment is gone forever.
What does that have to do with being transgender? Well, many of us live in fear — if we express how we feel, somehow there’s something wrong. That’s just not true. What IS wrong is NOT being YOU. If you live long enough your biggest regrets will be for things you didn’t do when you had the chance.
If you don’t have the chance to be YOU right now, when will you do it? Tonight? Tomorrow? Next week? Are you sure?
The truth is, that until you take the time to be you, you will never be happy. No matter what anyone says, you owe it to yourself to be who you are. It’s not wrong to wear a dress. Damn the rules. Do it. No one ever accomplished anything that matters because they followed the rules. They broke the rules and made new ones. Be like them and discover…your self!
“Those that mind don’t matter, and those that matter don’t mind.”
–Dr. Seuss.
Stop and smell the roses, for you shall never pass this way again. Spend your life wisely, you only are going to get one. Be bold, but be wise, and finish your final lap out of gas and thinking “it was one helluva ride!”
Two Makeup Looks For When You Go Big With The Glamour
Every once in a while, it’s fun to to “go big” and smoulder your sexuality in the limelight of the night…in other words, work it! Usually that means a stylish and flattering dress, some happening heels and perhaps some high-key makeup.
Here are two awesome eyeshadow looks that will definitely grab some attention in your direction. It’s hard to say which one is my favorite, but I will say I keep coming back to the robin’s egg blue because it’s such a unique look.
Back Online After An Unpleasant Month
After doing some thinking, I’ve decided that the positives of running this site far outweigh the negatives…so I brought it back online. Et voila, and here we are!
Everything should be back where it was, at least to the last known good backup day in mid-January.
So why did I take this site down for a while?
In short, I was being harassed by a stalker. He was one of those misguided people who doesn’t take a kind no for an answer, and in fact, he didn’t take an unkind “NO!” to heart either. At first anyway. A friend explained it to him and left with the understanding that this was unacceptable behavior that would have unpleasant consequences if it continued and that was that. And yeah, it was all above board and legal.
That said, it’s kind of creepy to not be able to read your email when you’ve got a hundred or more messages in your mailbox every day. They came from different addresses but were all from one guy intent on giving me a hard time because I wouldn’t give him a good time.
So I lowered my profile online and let it all go away. Now it has and now I can just be me again.
And here I am, back as good as ever.
Renault Debuts Commercial Supporting Gay Marriage
Via the awesome Copyranter, a commercial by French carmaker Renault that supports marriage equality:
Genital Herpes: 1 in 6 People Have It, Most Don’t Even Know
The Herpes Virus
Next time you are in a nightclub, take a look around and choose any six people. Chances are, one of them has genital herpes. Can you pick which one you think is the most likely to be infected? Probably not. It could be anyone.
According to the CDC, about 1 in 6 American adults is infected with genital herpes. The CDC says that herpes ”can cause recurrent painful genital sores in many adults, and herpes infection can be severe in people with suppressed immune systems.” Then, this: “Regardless of severity of symptoms, genital herpes frequently causes psychological distress in people who know they are infected.” Most people don’t know. Herpes has some serious physical side effects—it can sometimes be painful, may help facilitate the spread of HIV, and can (in very rare cases) pass an infection to a newborn through a newly infected mother. But mostly, it’s awkward. In 2007, a survey of 2,000 people listed herpes as the second most-stigmatized STD (the first was HIV), and the most taboo one.
According to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, “Most HSV-2 infections are acquired from persons without a clinical history of genital herpes,” wrote the study’s authors.
Yikes. Even worse, numbers from that study show that those unknowing carriers are spreading the disease about 10% of the time.
Fortunately, progress is being made towards a vaccine, but currently none exists that can prevent Herpes Simplex Virus Type 2, which causes genital herpes. In fact, recently, a promising vaccine was studied and found to be completely ineffective at stopping HSV-2. Clearly, much more research needs to be done. So how does one protect themselves? Condom usage.
Ten Guiding Principles To Bring Change for the Good
Click Here for a Printable Version of the Poster!
Transgendered persons often exclaim that they want to change the world, and with good reason — there are few collective groups that are more discriminated against for less reason than are the transgendered.
Thing is, many folks overlook that the best way to start changing the world is by changing themselves. Mahatma Gandhi, a man who inspired quite a number of civil rights and freedom movements around the world during and after his lifetime, lived by a simple philosophy: truth in all situations, non-violence and indeed, acceptance of even those who disagreed with him while maintaining his own beliefs all the while.
Gandhi left behind some very useful thoughts to anyone who aspires to equality and freedom, and there is truly no better guidance to transgendered leaders today. From the very aptly named Positivity Blog (I recommend that you take a look at it sometime, you’ll be uplifted), here are ten of Gandhi’s guiding principles that you can apply to your own life and be the agent of change that lends aid to our cause:
“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.”
“The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.”
“If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide.”
Mahatma Gandhi needs no long introduction. Everyone knows about the man who lead the Indian people to independence from British rule in 1947.
So let’s just move on to some of my favourite tips from Mahatma Gandhi.
1. Change yourself.
“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”
“As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.”
If you change yourself you will change your world. If you change how you think then you will change how you feel and what actions you take. And so the world around you will change. Not only because you are now viewing your environment through new lenses of thoughts and emotions but also because the change within can allow you to take action in ways you wouldn’t have – or maybe even have thought about – while stuck in your old thought patterns.
2. You are in control.
“Nobody can hurt me without my permission.”
What you feel and how you react to something is always up to you. There may be a “normal” or a common way to react to different things. But that’s mostly just all it is.
3. Forgive and let it go.
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”
“An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind.”
Fighting evil with evil won’t help anyone. And as said in the previous tip, you always choose how to react to something. When you can incorporate such a thought habit more and more into your life then you can react in a way that is more useful to you and others.
4. Without action you aren’t going anywhere.
“An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching.”
Without taking action very little will be done. However, taking action can be hard and difficult. There can be much inner resistance.
5. Take care of this moment.
“I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following.”
The best way that I have found to overcome the inner resistance that often stops us from taking action is to stay in the present as much as possible and to be accepting.
Why? Well, when you are in the present moment you don’t worry about the next moment that you can’t control anyway. And the resistance to action that comes from you imagining negative future consequences – or reflecting on past failures – of your actions loses its power. And so it becomes easier to both take action and to keep your focus on this moment and perform better.
6. Everyone is human.
“I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.”
“It is unwise to be too sure of one’s own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.”
When you start to make myths out of people – even though they may have produced extraordinary results – you run the risk of becoming disconnected from them. You can start to feel like you could never achieve similar things that they did because they are so very different. So it’s important to keep in mind that everyone is just a human being no matter who they are.
7. Persist.
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
Be persistent. In time the opposition around you will fade and fall away. And your inner resistance and self-sabotaging tendencies that want to hold you back and keep you like you have always been will grow weaker.
8. See the good in people and help them.
“I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won’t presume to probe into the faults of others.”
“Man becomes great exactly in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow-men.”
“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people.”
9. Be congruent, be authentic, be your true self.
“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
“Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well.”
I think that one of the best tips for improving your social skills is to behave in a congruent manner and communicate in an authentic way. People seem to really like authentic communication. And there is much inner enjoyment to be found when your thoughts, words and actions are aligned. You feel powerful and good about yourself.
10. Continue to grow and evolve.
”Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”
You can pretty much always improve your skills, habits or re-evaluate your evaluations. You can gain deeper understanding of yourself and the world.
What Women REALLY Mean When They Say…
Adapted from an email I got this morning, here’s a list of what a woman actually means when she says certain things. Aimed mainly at men who don’t speak female fluently, it’s also a good gauge for just how female your own language and euphemisms are. Me, I say several of these on a regular basis.
Hon: a one-size-fits-all non-specific substitute for anyone’s name. For example, “thanks, hon” to the guy at McDonald’s who just handed you a drink. Don’t mistake for a term of endearment.
Oh, I’ll do it! — Because your lazy ass won’t. It also means do not ask for any sexual favors for a few days.
What Did You Say? : Usually stated in a questioning/incredulous tone. It means that we heard exactly what you said the first time and are daring you to say it again knowing with certainty you have our full attention and that what you are about to say will anger us greatly.
Are you sure?: Means we know you’re wrong and are giving you one last chance to change your mind.
Fine: This is the word we use at the end of any argument that we feel we are right about but need to shut you up. (NEVER use Fine to describe how a woman looks. This will cause you to have one of those arguments.)
Five minutes: This is half an hour. It is equivalent to the five minutes that your football game is going to last before it’s over, so it’s an even trade.
Fox TV’s Glee: LGB Friendly, But Trans Unfriendly
Cleaning up some old posts that lingered in drafts and never were finished. This one from late April of 2011:
From the Department of Big LGB, Little “t”:
Frank N Furter: Not on Glee you don't.
Fox TV’s show Glee is a show well known for its tolerance and overt positive views to lesbian, gay or bisexual characters, but as far as transgendered characters go, not so much. In fact, it’s quite obvious that the producers and/or the network are consciously working to neuter any transgender references from the show.
Consider:
Glee has no transgendered characters, but they do have LGB characters.
- In the Glee ‘Lady Gaga’ episode, “Born This Way” was performed, four lines were cut: “No matter gay, straight or bi,/lesbian, transgendered life/I’m on the right track baby/I was born to survive.” You might think, well, the entire LGBT reference was cut but the singer is wearing a t-shirt that says “LIKES BOYS.” You can make the case that it wasn’t the producers but the network that forced that change instead, because on the YouTube/Vevo version of the song, the four lines are there.
- The ‘Rocky Horror’ episode featured the central song to the soundtrack, “Sweet Transvestite.” The producers changed the lyrics from “I’m just a sweet transvestite from transsexual Transylvania” to “I’m just a sweet transvestite from sensational Transylvania.”
- The same episode had no boys dressed as Frank N. Furter — which is odd, considering that Frank N. Furter is one of the three main characters if not the main character of the play/movie. They added insult to injury by actually going out of the way to justify it in the dialogue, with one of the mail characters saying “My mom doesn’t want me to look like a tranny.”
Odd. Supposedly a culturally sensitive show, flinging out “tranny” as a pejorative is unacceptable – especially when it went unchallenged by any other character.
Really, no show has to cater to any particular group, but truthfully, it’s a little disconcerting that when a show that preaches acceptance, inclusion and tolerance, it does so to 3/4 of the LGBT spectrum while completely ignoring the most displaced of that collective community…except to toss in gratuitously insulting reference that was not integral to the plot. In other words, they didn’t need to do that, but probably did it anyway. That’s trans unfriendly, period.
Compare and contrast to another show, Degrassi — it has a transgendered character. In my view, Glee is either gutless or transphobic. You make the call.
Key West Has The Best “Drop” For New Years
Eleven years ago, bar owner Jimmy Gilleran came up with a crazy idea for female impersonator Gary Marion who portrays “Sushi.”
“I had this vision to put ‘Sushi’ in a huge facsimile of a woman’s high heel and lower her to Duval Street as the clock strikes midnight,” Gilleran said. “Only in Key West could you do something like this.”
Each year the crowds get larger and the media attention grows. New Year’s Eve 2008 featured the fifth consecutive time that Sushi has appeared on the 90-minute CNN New Year’s Eve show anchored by Anderson Cooper. And the photos we shoot and release immediately after the drop are well received by various news wire services and other media venues.
“In Times Square, they drop the ball,” Sushi quipped. “In Key West, they drop the shoe, with Sushi in it.”
What If Comic Book Superheroes Had Transgendered Alter-Egos?
In comic book lore, by definition, a superhero is usually the alter-ego of a seemingly regular person. Superman has a day job as photojournalist, for example. Peter Parker also works in newspapers — as a reporter — until Spiderman is needed. Batman is millionaire Bruce Wayne.
Other mythologies aren’t so clear cut, as it is in the case of Aquaman. According to that lore, he is Arthur Curry, and he gained his powers through his father’s work, “by training and a hundred scientific secrets, I became what you see — a human being who lives and thrives under the water.” Despite the nuance, the idea remains the same: that from seemingly normal people, someone with extraordinary powers lay hidden.
That sounds a lot like a pre-transition transgendered person, if you ask me. For many of them, when they are at work, they are what they are: ordinary people, but away from the office, it is almost as though they are someone else entirely, yet they are the same person all the same. And like superheroes, people in that state go to great lengths to keep their alter-egos separate from one another.
But…what if a comic superhero was also transgendered, and expressed that at the same time? A pretty interesting idea, and one I wish I had thought of, because in retrospect is seems so perfectly obvious.
Via Completenerdom.com, below is a gallery of that idea expressed by various artists, and to great effect.
continue on to meet Batwoman, Spiderwoman and my favorite: She-Man.
Don’t Get Stuck In Your Stockings
Seriously, one of the most unsexy things to me are stubbly legs. While this ad is way-over-the-top for comedy, it does prove something I tell all the girls: nothing good ever comes from not keeping your gams smooth.
A Grandparent’s Christmas Card for Their “Granddaughter”
Sometimes it is the little details that ruin the whole thing, and this is one of those items. The quotation marks are demeaning in my opinion…but that’s just me. Click through the gallery to see the inside of the card.
