Monday, December 10, 2007

Gender around the world. . .Miss Gay Brazil

When did you stop worrying about passing?

Susan's Place Transgender Forums

Heterosexual Questionnaire

Created by Martin Rochlin, Ph.D., January 1977, and adapted for use here.

Please answer the following questions as honestly as possible.

  1. What do you think caused your heterosexuality?
  2. When and how did you first decide you were heterosexual?
  3. Is it possible that your heterosexuality is just a phase you may grow out of?
  4. Is it possible that your heterosexuality stems from a fear of others of the same sex?
  5. If you have never slept with a member of your own sex, is it possible that you might be gay if you tried it?
  6. If heterosexuality is normal, why are so many mental patients heterosexual? . . .

Trans Candidate Would Be First In Nation In State Office

by Kilian Melloy

EDGE Boston Contributor
Friday Dec 7, 2007

Md. Candidate Dana Beyer

Md. Candidate Dana Beyer (Source:DanaBeyer.com)
A transgender candidate has submitted her name for consideration to an appointment to the Md. House of Delegates to replace a late state lawmaker.

The Washington Blade (www.washingtonblade.com/2007/12-7/news/localnews/11685.cfm) reported today that Dana Beyer has announced her candidacy to fill the position in the Md. state house left vacant Jane Lawton, a Democrat who died suddenly at the end of last month.

Lawton was 63. She had been a member of the Md. House of Delegates since 2005, reported the Blade.

Members of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee will gather for a special meeting on Dec. 11 to choose Lawton’s replacement. There will not be a public vote, the Blade article said.

Said Beyer, "I always wanted to serve with Jane."

Added the candidate, "I didn’t want to replace her."

This is not Beyer’s first attempt to gain political office. Last year, Beyer ran for state delegate, but lost.

The blade article quoted Beyer as saying, "It’s not how I wanted to become a delegate, but it is what it is and you make the best of what you have and you move forward."

Continued Beyer, "And that’s how you honor the memory of those past."

If Beyer is selected to succeed Lawton, she would become the first transgender state lawmaker in America.

The article said that the Central Committee would be accepting applications for the seat though Monday, Dec. 10.

Applicants so far include a Central Committee member and a precinct vice chair.

Central Committee treasurer Simon Atlas thought that between five and 10 candidates would apply for the seat.

Beyer was optimistic about her chances, saying, "I’d like to think the Central Committee will replace a strong woman with another strong woman." . . .

Insider: Hot topic, unusual scene during meeting

by Lesley Wright

7 December 2007


SCOTTSDALE - Scottsdale City Council members finally got something politically juicy to chew on just nine months before voters go to the polls.

It was a happily diverse crowd that sat and (mostly) stood in Scottsdale City Hall for three hours Tuesday.

There was a row of pre- and post-op transgender women.

There were gay couples with arms around each other.

There were politicians and pastors from far away towns, urging the council to pass anti-discrimination ordinances.

The scene departed from the usual city hearings, where sets of neighbors come out to do warfare over the ultimate Scottsdale sin - diminished property values.

Mayor Mary Manross and Councilman Jim Lane, her all-but-announced opponent in next year's Sept. 2 mayoral election, came down on opposite sides.

But Manross managed to have the best of both worlds. . . .

Jonni and Angela Pettit: From husband to wife

December 9, 2007


Is it simply too simple to say that successful relationships are based on the ability to support and celebrate change? Read on ...

It was on one of their first dates in 1966 that Jonni Pettit, now 61, opened a fortune cookie to read what she thought was an impossible prediction: You and Your Wife Will Be Very Happy. She and her date, Air Force officer David Pettit, now 65, both laughed. Living in Roswell, N.M., David was training to be a navigator-bombardier under the tutelage of Jonni's father, a military man, who urged him to date his daughter. The two married after only six months, and soon David left for Vietnam, where he flew more than 260 missions.

As a military wife, Jonni moved often, and in 1970 she gave birth to their only child, Audra. Their marriage meandered onward until 1984, when David retired as a major, and the couple set sail for the Bahamas. . . .

'Anything' is really quite something

Romance may lead to salvation in the lively new play staged by Elephant Theatre Company.

by Kathleen Foley

December 7, 2007


An offbeat love story with humor and heart, "Anything," a new play by Tim McNeil, kicks off the Elephant Theatre Company's ambitious season of world premieres in high style.

Set designer Matt Maenpaa, working with set consultant Joel Daavid, has crafted a fittingly funky East Hollywood apartment building that affords a fly-on-the-wall glimpse into battered lives. Recently widowed Early Landry (McNeil) has just been relocated from Mississippi to Los Angeles by his uptight development executive sister, Laurette (Mim Drew), who intends to keep an eye on her brother after several suicide scares.

For Early, the apartment is just a layover until his next attempt. But Early's plans are interrupted when Freda Von Rhenburg (Louis Jacobs), the drug-addicted transvestite prostitute next door, explodes into his life like an illegal fireworks display. Both bruised and desperate, Freda and Early find purpose -- and ultimately salvation -- in their unlikely new romance. . . .

Stanton tells her story and discusses ENDA in Oak Park

By Gary Barlow
December 5, 2007


Susan Ashley Stanton, whose transition from male to female attracted national attention but got her fired last February from her 17-year job as city manager in Largo, Fla., spoke to a small audience at Unity Temple in Oak Park Dec. 2 about her experiences.

“Like many of you, I always felt there was something different about me, from an early age,” Stanton said. “I kind of denied what I was feeling for most of my life.”

Stanton described how for years she worked as a highly respected city leader in Largo, but would “pack for two”—transitioning into her identity as Susan—whenever she traveled out of town.

She decided finally that she wanted to live fulltime as a woman but was unprepared last February when a local newspaper reporter went to her office and told her that the newspaper had learned of her plans and intended to publish a story about her the next day.

“Somehow my eight-page transition report had been given to them,” Stanton said. “I’d shared it with just five people. …You can’t tell somebody you’re a transsexual and say, ‘If you could, just keep it to yourself.’ It just doesn’t work.”

At a hastily called news conference, Stanton said, she wasn’t as prepared as she probably should have been for some of the questions.

“I created some of my own problems in the interest of being open and authentic,” she said. . . .