INTRAA's Blogs
today has been a very special day for me, one i'm sure will be kept very close to my heart for a long time to come. about two and a half years ago when my transition began i found myself without a church. the church i'd been attending for the past five years or so asked me to leave. the reasoning given to me was that i would be a distraction. these were people i'd worked and worshiped very closely with. attended bible studies and seminars, did missionary work with, socialized with away from church. it was a horrible shock then when i was kicked out of the fold. and since that day not one member of the old congregation has bothered to make any contact with me at all.
ok, nick, here we go again. trans 101 talk. i've just spent a couple of days online talking with a girl who is thinking hard about transitioning. she has told me about how she just swoons over the idea of presenting female. during the course of this extended conversation hrt came up. i advised her as to the limitations of the feminizing effect of hrt, that it's no panasea. i told her that the pyhsical changes while substantial in ways often fall short of expectations in girls who want alot of change. she told me that the physical changes were were not the primary motivation for her desiring hrt, she really wanted to quash the masculine feelings she keeps having.
For the past four days, I have participated in The Breast Cancer 3-Day, which is a 60-mile walk over three days with benefits going to breast cancer research. This is my second year working the event as a crew member.
as evidence of the geriatric ability to learn i submit the following: Since it's inception i have never been quite able to get my arms wrapped around the term "compassionate conservative". I understood conservative, i thought, but the only adjectives i could connect with the term were, fiscal, social and the good old barry goldwater form, libertarian. i always sort of liked that one. anyway, i think this past friday our president's talk on tv presented me with an epiphany, i think i get it now. compassion from the conservative movement means adjusting themselves in communication to the more liberal understanding of language.
I wrote about a month ago about the advocacy work I started doing in my town. This situation has blown up somewhat, and there is a lot that is and will happen with it, and I am caught right in the middle.
...that someday we will all be measured not by the color of our dress but by the content of our character...
Last night, I participated in an INTRAA Speakers Bureau panel for an LGBTQA youth group in my town. The impetus for the panel was my increased participation in local political organizations and overall visibility. I think that I have made something of an impression as a vocal and accessible trans person here, at least in the progressive communities, and the youth group approached me because of this.
The Children's National Medical Center through their Outreach Program for Children with Gender-Variant Behaviors and their Families has published a booklet.
Even though this booklet is primarily geared to parents with young children, several of the issues it addresses pertain to older children as well. Every parent, teacher, social worker... anyone who works with children should read it.
Some pearls of wisdom inside:
Question traditional assumptions.
Do not automatically accept traditional
assumptions about social gender roles and sexual orientation. Learn to separate society’s judgments from the love you have for your child. Do not let other people’s critical opinions of what is right and wrong come between you and your child.
Examine your feelings and learn to accept your child.
You and other family members may feel uncomfortable and ashamed of your child’s interests and behaviors. This is common early on. Take time to figure out where your feelings are coming from. You may have to adjust your dreams of how you expected parenting and your family to be.
