Essays on trans, intersex, cis and other persons and topics from a trans perspective.......All human life is here.
This site is the most comprehensive on the web devoted to trans history and biography. Well over 1400 persons worthy of note, both famous and obscure, are discussed in detail, and many more are mentioned in passing.)
There is a detailedIndexarranged by vocation, doctor, activist group etc.
In addition to this most articles have one or more labels at the bottom. Click one to go to similar persons. There is a full list of labels at the bottom of the page. There is also a search box at the top left. Enjoy exploring!
Jacqueline is the first known Brazilian to have transgender surgery, which she had from Dr Burou in Casablanca in 1969. This was two years before the first surgery in Brazil, that on Waldirene Nogueir by Dr Robero Farina.
She requested the addition of 'Jacqueline' in the margin of her birth registration. The Magistrate authorized both this and the registration of her female sex.
Adriano Fernandes Ferreira. Transexual como sujeito passivo de crime contra a liberdade: sexual: estupro ou atentado violento ao pudor. http://www.diritto.it/archivio/1/20258.pdf, 7.
Lessenich, from Remagen, was educated in graphic design in Cologne. After a failed marriage and a period as a prostitute, she completed transition in 1973 with surgery from Dr Burou in Casablanca.
This was at a time when advertising was trendy and sexy and Jean obtained work as art director for advertising agencies in Dusseldorf and Frankfurt, and later as a freelance illustrator for magazines in Hamburg and Munich.
Through friends she was able to make extended trips to Japan and to visit Native Americans. In 1985 she returned to living as a man so that she could marry her Japanese lover and obtain for her permanent residency in West Germany. Her lover died in 1996.
Jean returned to being female. Now in her seventies, she continues to participate in art exhibits.
She does not identify with the idea of a female soul in a male body, or say that she always was a woman, although she did want to be a girl when young. She chose Jean as a name in that it is male in French and female in English.
Jean Lessenich. Nun bin ich die ewig junge Hirschkuh oder der Ajilee Mann. Edition Suhrkamp 1988.
Jean Lessenich. Mit den Zähnen am Zweig. Selbstverlag 200.
Jean Lessenich.Die transzendierte Frau. Eine Autobiografie. Gießen 2012, Psychosozial-Verlag.
I Am a Woman Now. Michiel van Erp (dir) with April Ashley, Marie-Pierre Pruvot, Colette Berends, Jean Lessenich, Corinne van Tongerloo. Netherlands 80 mins 2011.
Satoh, from Aichi, Japan, started on female hormones at age 15. She ran away after high school.
She found work in a women's clothing retailer, where she was discovered by a fashion scout. She did modelling work in Nagoya, and became an exclusive model for Tokai Spy Girl magazine.
She became more famous when on 31 August 2010 she mentioned on Nippon Television's Majotachi no 22ji that she had been born male, after online rumours.
In 2011 she exhibited semi-nude for the first time, and was featured in a photography book. She has been in two films: Tekken: Blood Vengeance, 2011 and Detective 2 Susukino, 2013.
She is a keen player of the video game Street Fighter.
Torres was raised in São Paulo. He graduated in Chemical Engineering in 1972 from the Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo. He married twice and had children in both marriages. He lectured at universities and was a consultant to the petrochemical and fertilizer industries.
After a second divorce, Torres made a spiritual retreat before deciding to transition. She was then in her mid-40s. At first Torres sought advice from other transsexuals, but turned instead to the 'experts'. She was treated at the Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo, and had surgery in 1997 from Dr Jalma Jurado at Faculdade de Medicina de Jundiaí.
She made her own study of gender identity and gained a masters degree in sexology from University Gama Filho in Rio de Janeiro. In 1998 she published Meu sexo real using her then name Martha Freitas. A English translation of this book was sent by the publisher to the Frankfurt Book Fair of that year where it was discovered and endorsed by Günter Dörner of Berlin's Humboldt-Universität.
Martha became the leader of Transgender Brazil, which had come together that year, and appeared on several Brazilian television programs, of which the most important was a debate on Ede Viva between Jalma Jurado and Martha Freitas on one hand and representatives of the Catholic Church. However Martha found most television show far too sensational, and declined further invitations.
In 2000 she changed her name to Waleria Torres. She became the only Latin American member of HBIGDA in 2002 and the Organization Intersex International (OII) spokesperson for Lusophonic countries. She edited GID Journal and runs an online gender diagnosis and counselling service for those able and willing to pay. She blogged as Martha Freitas until 2009.
She has proposed the term Neurodiscord for transsexuals. She stresses that
"due to its complexity, the evolution of gender identity for each individual is 'a priori' unpredictable, irrespect of which are the genitals, the chromosomes, and so on. The lack of predictability is for each individual. For the species, for the human colectivity, there are patterns of development, and these patterns may be recognized - through its dynamic signatures."
"the Gender Identity self-perception is something unpredictable 'a priori', even when there is a typical sexual development - when society considers someone 'normal' man or woman - we said also that was a characteristic of a Chaotic System. In chaotic systems, the unpredictability means there are more probable and less probable states for any development inside the system. The lack of previsibility is not related to random noise - external noise - but to inner fractality - a characteristic of the system."
Martha C. Freitas. Meu sexo real: a origem somática, neurobiológica e inata da transexualidade e suas conseqüências na reconceituação da sexualidade humana. Petrópolis: Editora Vozes, 1998. English translation: Sex, the Invisible Reality: Inner Real Sex in Discord with Genital Shape : the Innate, Somatic and Neural Defection Named Transsexuality. Editora Vozes, 1998.
Martha C. Freitas. O Mito Genital. Belaspalavras, 1998.
Astrid Bodstein. "Brazilian Transsexual Odyssey". Transgender Tapestry, 99, Fall 2002. Online at: Online.
Diane Arbus is famous for her photographs of transvestites, although she didn't really take that many such photographs. Her transvestites are rarely given names, and only a few of them look as if they could pass on the street or go shopping without drawing attention.
The major exception is Catherine Bruce, also referred to as Bruce Catherine. Presumably her two first names. Diane photographed Catherine on a park bench, then in her underwear as home, then as a naked man, and then as Bruce on a bench:
Princton was an all-male university in 1916 and for decades afterwards. F. Scott Fitzgerald was in the Triangle Club which put on plays.
He posed for a publicity photo
for a production of The Evil Eye, which he co-wrote, which was printed in The New York Times on January 2, 1916. The newspaper called
him "the most beautiful" show girl in the production. However having failed his exams he was not allowed to perform.
There is a type of are some trans woman who have lots of surgeries as part of their transitions. Some examples are Allanah Star (60+ surgeries), Gia Darling (45+), Fulvia Siguas Sandoval (64+ and in Guinness Book of World Records for most cosmetic surgeries); Nina Arsenault ($150,000+ of surgery); Amanda Lepore. For some of these the surgeries did not include vaginoplasty.
They are hardly typical of trans women, but they do attract press attention, and in so doing can give out the mistaken impression that trans women in general are fakes and freaks.
Are such women autogynephilic? Apart from ‘autogynephilia’ being a badly thought out concept that should be dismissed unless and until some future author is able to do something much better with the idea, several of those I have just mentioned were early transitioners.
The point that I am getting around to is that is that having lots of cosmetic surgeries to achieve an idealized body is not peculiar to trans women. An equally small percentage of cis men and women do it also. Some examples:
Luciana Malgeri, Princess Pignatelli, Mrs Avedon. A classic in this field. She had a nose job as a teenager and married an Italian Prince. After divorce she had silicone facial injections and other cosmetic surgeries. She opened her first book with: “A few times every century, a great beauty is born. I am not one of them. But what nature skipped, I supplied—so much so that sometimes I cannot remember what is real and what is fake.” Camille Paglia’s discussion of transsexuality on p368 ofSexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson segues into a discussion of Luciana (perhaps showing that Paglia has no idea about transsexuality).
Cindy Jackson, in Guiness Book of Records for most (50+) cosmetic surgeries (is Fulvia Siguas Sandoval now forgetten?).
Jocelyn Wildenstein is said to have spent over $4 million on facial plastic surgeries.
One of the psychiatrist’s terms for such surgical makeovers is Body Dysmorphic Disorder. However I think that there is a more neutral, and therefore better term. I have previously discussed Hom(e)ovestity – dressing UP as your birth sex. What we have been discussing here is surgical homeovestity. Nobody seems to have coined a term for this behaviour. On the model transvestity –> transsexuality we would get homosexuality, but that term is well established with a different meaning. I therefore propose Homeogender Surgery.
Lee Cavazos, Jr was born in San Antonio, Texas. As a child Lee was prescribed male hormones in an attempt to 'cure' gender dysphoria.
From the age of 17 Lee was searching for a physician who would help her change into a woman. At age 23 she was accepted by the University of Texas Health Science Center. Supervised by psychiatrist Paul Mohl and surgeon Donald Greer, she legally changed her name to Christie Lee Cavazos in 1977 and started female hormones. Between November 1979 and February 1980 she underwent three sessions of genital and breast surgery. She changed her Texas birth certificate.
Ten years later she travelled to Kentucky for bladder surgery after a car accident, and met Jonathan Littleton (born 1961) in a motel lobby. She told him of her past and they married in Pikeville, Kentucky. They moved back to San Antonio where she opened a beauty salon and he was a high-rise window washer.
After seven years of marriage, her husband died while under medical care after a series of injuries and blood clots. In 1999, in Littleton vs. Prang she sued the doctor who, she contended, negligently allowed her husband to die. The doctors’ defense lawyers argued that she was never married to her late husband since her Texas birth certificate, although amended to read female, originally read male, and thus could not be the widow as Texas law does not allow “same sex marriage”. The issue of medical malpractice was not addressed.
Her appeal to a higher court also failed on the same grounds. She appealed to the US Supreme Court, with attorney Phyllis Frye, but it declined to hear the case. She also lost her right to her husband’s Social Security and retirement benefits.
This case was cited as a precedent in the J’Noel Gardner case in Kansas, and the Nikki Araguz case in Texas.
Christie married a second time and became Mrs Van De Putte.
Christie died aged 61, predeceased by her second husband. She had a Catholic funeral.
*Not the UCLA law professor.
Adolfo Pesquera. "Appeals court rules against transsexual". San Antonio Express-News, Oct 27, 1999. Online at: www.secondtype.info/marriage.htm.
I have a social science degree. I spent several years in the 70s doing Gay Lib counselling, and moved on to organizing trans groups. I was rejected by the Clarke Institute (now CAMH) in the mid 1980s, probably because I do not match either of their stereotypes, but was accepted by Russel Reid on our first meeting in late 1987, and had surgery from James Dalrymple some months later. I have mainly worked as an IT consultant. I have been with the same husband for 45 years.
Who Are We?
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*I heard a newscaster ask one day “Just who are crossdressers we hear about
from time to time?” It started me thinking about that very question and the
mo...
Packing
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If there ever is a time when changing genders becomes a little more
intense, it's when you start to pack for even a short time away as a
transgender woman....
NY Times: Adventures in Trans Fertility
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The issue of trans fertility is something that has been very underreported.
Kudos to the NY Times for publishing this op-ed.
"Over the last several month...
Three Pieces for Thursday
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*Book Report Dept.*
A lot of water has gone under the bridge since Susan Stryker wrote Transgender
History: The Roots of Today's Revolution in 2008, so sh...
my line in the sand
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I spent many years telling myself that a gender transition would be an
absolute last resort and only happen if my mental health were being
severely threate...
“You can ride on my lap.”
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*Added a Postscript at 8:00 p.m. PDT on April 25, 2018*
Five years ago I spent a week in Fort Lauderdale to attend a trans-related
medical symposium. One o...
Buddy: the specialist bird
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Buddy & me, August 2017*I usually don’t post personal stuff here, but my
dear friend Buddy recently passed away on March 6, 2018. If you’ve enjoyed
anythi...
An incredibly busy year
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There’s a reason why there was no blogging for the rest of 2017…or for the
beginning of 2018, and I think it’s a good one: I’ve been on book tour, on
album...
Free Ebook Download
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“All The Stars Are Suns” Special Promotion – This weekend only – Free ebook
download March 31st – April 2nd 2018 Also available in paperback and
KindleUnli...
tilting at windmills
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My previous post was inspired by concern over a proposed amendment to the
Bristol Labour Party’s Motion on Women’s Representation, to remove
self-definitio...
testosterone and smoking cigarettes
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im in northern ireland and i had an appointment with the gender identity
clinic for under 18's 3 days ago about medically transitioning.
they told me whe...
10 år med testosteron
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I år feirer jeg 10 år på testosteron. For meg har det vært den viktigste
antidepressive medisinen, selv om jeg har trengt andre i tillegg. Da jeg
begynte p...
4 weeks ago
The Sandra Bem Sex Role Inventory
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Currently, the 1970s-era Bem Sex Role Inventory (BSRI) is about as useful
as a Buzzfeed gender quiz in that it can only offer the slightest peek at
[…]
EMDR
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Here we are in March then, after a weekend during which we had
unseasonal snowfall over the British Isles, today had a real air of spring.
I even saw s...
On the part of Trans folks right now.
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So, let’s talk about Trans rights. That is, the human rights of trans
people. They are under assault right now in a more organized, targeted way
than ever ...
A Stranger Among My Own
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This post could be subtitled "When the World Doesn't Care." For those who
have become accustomed to upbeat articles from me, this will be an
exception.
F...
Television Awards will be in mid 2018 TBA
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We will be making the awards a biennial event now. The reasons for this are
quite simply two fold. We do not want to give awards for just being on
televisi...
Another Round @ The Crow Bar #10 – October 2017
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Hello there, friends and fans! Here's my newsletter for October! :)
Another Round @ The Crow Bar #10 – October 2017
Featuring: Regular updates, new releases,...
The light is in us: Writings of Susan Griffin
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One of the unpleasant things about coming out as transgender is that you
have to wonder if your old friends will still like you. I've never met
Susan Griff...
ABC TV Cancels Downward Dog Show
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“Every Day my dog looks at me exactly the same way, like I’m the most
beautiful thing he’s ever seen. And, I just thought, what if we could see
ourselve...
Somos todos mulheres, na origem
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O Confissões Agridoces havia sido encerrado. Porém, como nada é para
sempre, decidi voltar (muito raramente, pois tenho uma vida agora cheia de
outras pr...
The Labour's Manifesto of my Dreams.
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I haven't written for the last 18 months - illness, then post referendum
blues and a real loss of vision about what it means to be a modern Briton.
I have ...
Video: Relaunching Practical Androgyny
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Nat returns to relaunch Practical Androgyny, with a four-and-a-half minute
video (and full transcript with additional links) explaining why they've
been aw...
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*Por variadas razões, as notícias que usualmente eram publicadas aqui,
passaram a sê-lo unicamente no Twitter e no grupo do FB Notícias
Trans/Transgender N...
The Mystery That Is Trans History
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*Where have transgender people ‘suddenly’ come from?*
I’m willing to bet that’s a question asked increasingly often, with trans
people suddenly on the te...
New Landscaping & Trees
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With spring coming, it is time to think about new landscaping. This is the
time of year where you need to think about a new landscaping for your yard.
We d...
Orgasm after Vaginoplasty
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Orgasm and sexual pleasure are important goals of gender reassignment
surgery (GRS). Most trans women report being able to orgasm after
penile-inversion va...
The Bond That is Trans
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I have felt, for years, that here is a certain, nearly indestructible,
unspoken bond that exists between anyone who is trans. With me, this is
especially...
Come Up to the Lab: My Gender Workshop
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Ever since Time Magazine proclaimed a “Transgender Tipping Point” a year
and a half ago, I’ve been exploring trans identities and expressions that
aren’t i...
Bad Romance: Dragon Age’s Celene and Briala
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I’ve said it until I’m blue in the face, but writing women characters well
in videogames does not mean making them pure paragons of perfect morality.
Indee...
So it’s goodbye to all this….
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…and welcome to the new blog. Why? Well, if you have been following me for
any length of time, you will be aware that this is my second personal blog.
The ...
CAAN condemns BBFC irresponsibility over 50 Shades
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The British Board of Film Classification was today condemned as
irresponsible, ill-informed and hypocritical for apparently endorsing the
use of cable ties...
I is for Identity Politics
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Hello all. For my first post of 2015, I am going back to blogging through
ye old alphabet. Today I is for identity politics. Identity politics are
how i...
Planet Transgender has moved!
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I haven't figured out how get our links redirected to our new awesome site
so if you are looking for a recent or old post here's a link to our new
site ...
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*PLAYING FOR THE OTHER TEAM* -- From *the Economist*
"The next generation of transgender schoolchildren may have a better time.
Under a law passed this we...
What the words trans and transgender really mean
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There is a new movement of transsexual separatists over at tumblr who
claims total ownership of the term "transgender". They call themselves
"truscum" (a...
Tranifesto Celebrates Five Years
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In April 2014, Tranifesto celebrates five years as a blog. After a couple
of shaky experimental posts, my first real blog post was Angie Zapata: A
Historic...
Harga Samsung Galaxy Core Duos
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Harga Samsung Galaxy Core Duos:
Samsung merilis produk baru dengan nama Samsung Galaxy Core Duos I8262.
Harga dan Spesifikasinya lumayan bagus dengan soko...
Update – 21 September 2013
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Some little while ago, the server on which birdofparadox.net was hosted
suffered a massive hardware failure; in addition the domain registration
has expire...
INTERVIEW WITH FILMMAKER CARY CRONENWETT
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[image: image]
(Cary Cronenwett)
Morty: Hi Cary, it is so great to hear your voice! It’s been a long time.
Cary: I know it has. It’s great to be here wi...
Join me on Twitter now
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You can find me on Twitter Tweets by @malikachatterji!function(d,s,id){var
js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if...
Rip Van Winkle’s blog
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Holy cow. I cannot believe how many nice questions and comments I have
received. And yes, I took a break from blogging. I kind of took a break
from life, d...
Trans 101
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This is the final post. -N The circumstances under which I first began
blogging were very different than the circumstances under which I’m now
leaving. I b...
Trans 100 Launch Event
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The 2013 Trans 100 is an inaugural overview of the breadth and diversity of
work being done in, by, and for the transgender community across the United
S...
With apologies to Dr Seuss
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Oh, dear. School children in Philadelphia are not after all to enjoy Dr
Seuss performed by drag cabaret star Martha Graham Cracker. Is it because
he is gay...
The Female Brain – Part Two
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Start quoting- In 2000 Kruijver published a study into BTSc neurons in 7
transsexuals and 1 gender dysphoric man. The study does not provide any
evidence o...
A piece of my past.
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When I moved to California, I left my past behind. Many people in early
adulthood move on and leave their families for many reasons. I can't tell
you how m...
How Radical Feminism Gets Trans Wrong
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A couple of utterances from a well known RadFeminist thinker came to light
today that I think deserve to be addressed:
First is the following interview: S...
Making a move
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I am moving my blog. Wanting my own domain for a while, I finally got one
registered and installed Wordpress this morning. With Google's new "privacy
rules...
Eccentric Crafts
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FREE CRAFT DAY WITH YEAR TWO CARDIFF ILLUSTRATORS!
Saturday 4th Feb, 1.30pm
Come one come all, get sticky fingers and get creative with Illustration
stude...
So, I'm a Kindle Slut, too
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So...like everyone else in the first world, I got a Kindle for Christmas.
Not the fancy Fire, but a stripped down model.
I love it. For those of you not ...
Trigger warning; transhating hate crimes : TDoR
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It’s TDoR today. Transgender Day of Remembrance. A day specifically devoted
to the memories of our siblings who aren’t still here today because of the
hate...
Overzicht Travestie-notities
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152 Veel meer m-v transgenders dan homo's!
Bij opnieuw nalezen van het Rutgers/Nisso bevolkingsonderzoek naar seksuele
gezondheid uit 2006, blijkt uit de ve...
New Standards of Care
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For Immediate Release April 1, 2011 World Professional Association for
Transgender Health Welcomes IOM Report The World Professional Association
for Transg...
Fatal Stabbing
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From the “Star Tribune” The fatal stabbing of a Minneapolis bar patron
followed gay-bashing comments made by the victim, witness says. A witness
said Monda...
Lady Gaga’s Google Interview
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Lady Gaga’s Interviews I freak out everytime I see an interview of her
online for any reason. Admittedly, I am sort of obsessed with how amazing
she is, e...
Passing Priviledge & The "Gold Star" Transsexual
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The "classic" or "gold star" transsexual camp is becoming increasingly
vocal about their desire to not be included in the transgender rubric. I
have read t...
Novo Endereço do Blog
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Querid@s Leitores e Seguidores,
Nosso e-mail que dá acesso ao nosso Blog entre outras coisas da ASTRA RIO
foi INVADIDO , nos obrigando então a mudarmos de...
Closing
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since I have been a lousy blogger, I’ve decided to merge this blog with my
Norwegian blog. I hope that will encourage me to blog in English more
often. I a...
Bigoted Housepaint!
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*Taubmans Paints responds, Update at bottom of article!*Crossposted from
equallovearmidale
I was in a Bunnings store in Sydney the other day looking at pa...
the old and the new
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So I haven’t written in a while … okay, a LONG while. A lot has been
changing in my life, not always for the better, but if I’m going to be
honest, mostly ...
Coming out! Who do you trust?
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The coming out process is one of the most personal things to a lot of
people. For me it was a process that took years for me to even find someone
to trust....
Transgender non-logic #4739
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Which is quite a peculiar stance for a supposedly mentally stable
individual, but there's more; and if you as a transperson take away nothing
else after re...