Our Life in Pink

America’s Next Top Model just announced it’s Cycle 11 girls.  And guess what??  There’s a transgendered woman!  Tyra has finally removed the “woman born woman” clause from the qualifications.  I think it’s interesting to see how this is portrayed, especially considering this show is targeted at a really mainstream audience.

Check out the jezebel article:

http://jezebel.com/5036583/antm-cycle-11-girls-revealed

Beijing officials are testing women athletes competing in the olympics for genetic male-ness.   Is it too intrusive?  Is it fair?  I haven’t heard many stories of trans-athletes, but I’m sure they exist.  Where should they compete?  Where would you want to compete?

Here’s a link to the NYT article:

http://olympics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/lab-ready-for-sex-tests-for-female-athletes/index.html

Check this out!

http://jezebel.com/5026230/gender+benders

Male models in high fashion - high female fashion.

T and I were just on the T (no relation) coming back from a work event I had tonight. We got on at Back Bay and sat across from a trans-woman, reading a book about Genius something or other.  My awareness is always piqued by trans people and I can’t help but staring (sorry if you’re the staree!)  I’m just so overtaken by the courage to be out in public expressing yourself physically as you feel inside.

This particular trans-woman kept giving me and T a very friendly smile and T speculated that she recognized me from the blog.  I thought that highly improbable (since I was in boy mode and I have this preconception that me in boy mode looks nothing like me in girl mode).  But, ma-lady, if you think I’m talking about you, leave a comment.  I mean, you live very close!  Just a stop away!

We didn’t end up going to the Neighborhood this month.  I’ve been working like a mad-person, till midnight and getting up early and doing it again.  This little startup of ours is set to $1 million in revenue this year and it’s looking like our prospects for a third round of funding are quite good.  So, I’ve been busting my hump to make sure our products are top notch.  Doesn’t leave much time on the weekends for having fun thought

Well, it was a last minute trip for us and I’m so glad we went! T and I had a fantastic time. As for the heat, well, it’s always about 15 degrees hotter in our apartment than it is outside, so even the blazing sun feels like a cool breeze!

Anyway, I’ve posted pictures in the 2008 June gallery.

Events of note:

1. The speakers were great. I got to meet one, Jacklyn, at the GLAD cocktail event. She was really friendly.
2. I realized that every transwoman I’ve met works in IT. What is it with computers and mismatched gender/biology?
3. T and I met a wonderful T-/G-girl couple with a bit of experience on us. It was great to see them so happy and in love.
4. We had pizza in a regular pizza joint. At that point that 5 o’clock shadow was pushing out and my face was shining like an apple, but with three beers in me and a wonderful day behind me, I didn’t really care. I just relaxed and chatted.
5. I got hit on. It was 1 part flattering and 99 parts awkward. What I could only describe as a tranny-chaser appeared in the bar around 8pm and started chatting me up. On my third run to the bar, he slid up next to me and asked me for the umpteenth time how I was enjoying the day. He then tried to put his arm around me. At this point, I dropped my voice into its normal bass and told him without ambiguity “Do not put your arm around me”. He was visibly shaken and immediately scurried off. T wanted to beat him up. Blah.

Sorry I’m short on details. I spent all day cleaning and shifting the ginger beer from fermentation to bottle. Yup, I brew beer as a side hobby. This time around I went for a light, summery ginger brew. I’m trying out some new bottles and there’s a good chance they’ll explode. The guy’s I bought them from couldn’t tell me if they’re regulated for pressurized contents and I kinda eye-balled the priming sugar. Both bottles are sitting in bowls that should be sufficient to hold the liquid either one explodes. I’ll let you all know how they turn out in 2 weeks (or sooner, eek)!

Make sure you read Staci’s post about Transpride. It’s got many more details about the events. We were right next to each other in the bar and neither recognized the other! Drats! Next time

T and I are headed to New England Trans Pride in Northampton, MA tomorrow. It’ll be my first time out, in the street, in full daylight. We made an emergency trip to Target last night for cute summer wedge sandals.

My biggest worry? How am I going to deal with 5 o’clock shadow! I’ve never been out for more than a few hours and haven’t had to deal with this. I might just need to pack my Remington.

We’ll be meeting up with some GLAD folks in the afternoon.

I became interested in the idea of hormone replacement a few months ago. I wasn’t considering a full-blown transitional hormone regiment; rather, something in between. A softening if you will, of the T pumping through my veins.

I knew there must be some sort of homeopathic, herbal means to achieve this and indeed, where there is a market, there is a product. I found the Phoenix Project website and started reading their testimonials and product descriptions. Now, I’m no gullible Gertrude. When almost every post on the official message board boasts of extreme breast growth in a matter of weeks, my snake oil alarms are going off like car alarms at 2am. Digging through the hype, I did find some evidence that the herbs in the Evanesce and Feminol products do suppress testosterone. The science is still out on the effectiveness of phyto-estrogens. I found plenty of prominent TS’s and transitioning ladies, including one of my favorites, karmatic1110, Here are her thoughts about herbal estrogens:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=aZ8dgTMgEnc

karmatic1110’s stance is just say no. What to do? Well, I’ve not really seen any changes yet.  T thinks I’m little more empathetic.  I’m going to finish up what I purchased and if no changes occur, I’ll have to conclude the same — herbs won’t make you feminine.

This is a little personal experiment.  That’s all.  Chances are I’ve wasted a bit of money and will see nothing for it.

T and I had a short conversation about going on low levels of professionally administered estrogen, perhaps simply an androgen blocker.  This means I need to do some research about psychological services in Boston.  I’ll have more to say about this option later.

Today is Jess’s birthday!  27 years ago the greatest person ever was born.  I am in full celebration mode!  Last night we had a romantic dinner, this morning I made J some banana cream pancakes, and tonight I’m making a big eggplant parmigiana dinner.

I bought J some very cute panties and a dress for the big birthday.  He’s wearing them now

I promise pictures from last Saturday are on the way as soon as I find time to post them!  The process isn’t completely smoothed out yet.  We had a fantastic time at the Neighborhood party.

Check out this All Things Considered stories on two transgendered children.  It’s really interesting.  The two families deal with their young children very differently.  One family sends their child to a gender therapist who recommends not allowing their son to play with girls or girl toys.  He labels the child as gender “disordered.”  The therapist diagnosed the child with a disorder.  This part of the story was incredible hard for me to listen to.  The poor kid was hiding toys like they were crack!  They even took away the pink crayons :(  The other boy’s family is dealing with this situation very differently.  They now call their son Jonah a daughter.  They take her for dresses and shoes.  They took their child to a gender therapist who deals with transgendered children differently - by encouraging their natural tendencies.  Jonah is now being raised as a girl.  It’s a really sweet story.  Jonah is even going to kindergarten as a girl!  You can obvi tell who I’m siding with…

P.S.  What’s up with all of the gender stories on NPR lately?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90247842