MTF SRS 1/2

Ｗarning:

This is a clip of male to female sex re-assignment surgery and involves bloody scenes. If you are under your local legal age, please don't watch it.

Part 2: MTF SRS 2/2

How to Understand Transgender Issues

by Nancy Larson

Introduction

Imagine that you had a debilitating birth defect and no one understood or even wanted to hear about it. That’s how many transgender individuals feel--that their body is a mistake. Inside they feel like one gender but the world perceives them as another. It’s a sensitive issue that’s only just being explored in popular discourse.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You'll Need

• Empathy
• Willingness to take in new information

Steps:

Step One

Know that being transgender is a medical condition called gender dysphoria. Transgender persons are not mentally ill, any more than any other segment of the population, though they may struggle more with a lack of support. Being transgender is not something that people “make up.” It is a lifelong disability.

Step Two

Be aware that coming out as transgender is often a gradual process. Hormones are a first step for many transgender persons. Another early move is to begin dressing as their true sex in situations they perceive as safe.

Step Three

Understand that transgender persons can undergo sexual reassignment surgery (SRS), but not everyone does. SRS is a good solution for many people, but it is expensive and usually not covered by insurance. Some male-to-female transgender persons have only the “top surgery,” or removal of their breasts.

Step Four

Know that coming out as a transgender person is risky business. Transgender persons are not protected in the area of employment by federal or most state laws. A boss can fire them for simply being who they are. They are often targeted as victims of abuse and even violence. . . .

Anyone For Some T?

10 January 2008

What does my mum not get? She’s insisting on cutting my hair tomorrow. She said in front of my sister so I couldn’t say “No, don’t cut my hair, I want it long” because my sister would get suspicious. My mum knows I can’t tell my sister and it seems to me like she’s using that against me.

Ok, it may need tidying, but I can just imagine my Mum going crazy on my hair as soon as she got the opportunity, making it look boyish. I don’t trust her in that respect. I wish she would give me more room, more of my own life. Yes family is important, and of course I love then all, but I’m 20 now, I need a life of my own, and a life I want to lead more importantly.

Since telling my parents I’ve thought about the possibility of moving out a lot more. I’ve even thought about moving out the country. It is a good time to move to the US after all with this Dollar to the Pound being so high. But, of course, I have things that still need doing in this country. Not all of my friends know, and neither do any of my family except my parents. Also if I’m going to go through with the SRS and everything, this is certainly the right country to be in, with the ‘free’ treatment. The ‘free’ treatment that seems nigh impossible to get from where I’m standing. I think I’d prefer to earn the money to do it right. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure British doctors are capable, but I’d just feel better in the hands of someone who’s done this sort of thing many times before. I don’t want to look like a freak and not work properly after this! I also don’t want to look like I’ve had any surgery, I want to keep as much of my own body as possible. As much as I hate aspects of it, I have to realise that it’s the body I’ve been issued with and if I don’t respect it, then who will?

I wish my parents understood more, but I knew it would be difficult for them. They are both in their 50’s, so are a little out of touch with the modern mindset. They are also very reserved people generally. They have probably never thought more than a minute about transgendered people simply because they’ve not needed too. There’s not a whole lot of need to know about it if you’ve never come across it before. That could do with changing. Everyone knows about gay people, and everyone has an opinion about gay people, but transgendered people are forgotten about. They are the mysterious misunderstood T of LGBT. . . .

Audrey Conrad: Outside The Box

Those In The Transgender Community Find A Warm Embrace At Real Art Ways

By JOANN KLIMKIEWICZ |Courant Staff Writer

January 10, 2008

The doors have been open for barely half an hour, but a strong crowd has already gathered at Real Art Ways. They stand inside the gallery space of the Arbor Street arts center and cinema with arms crossed, cocktails dangling and noses reaching toward the wall — all the better to inspect the intricacies of the exhibited photographs.

It's the third Thursday evening of the month, which means it's Creative Cocktail Hour, a regular event that melds art, music and mingling — and for the past five years has given people good reason to venture out on a "school night."

"The interesting thing about it is it isn't the same group of people every month," says Audrey Conrad, among the minglers this December evening. She wears a knit mini and black knee-high boots.

"There are some hard-core Creative Cocktail Hour addicts who you'll see every month. But depending on what [art or music] is being featured, you get … a whole different contingent of people," she says.

Conrad is one of the event's "hard-core addicts" — self-proclaimed and such an advocate of Real Art Ways that the folks there had the good sense to ask her to join its board of directors about a year and a half ago.

If you've gone to a cocktail hour, fundraising event or art happening there, you've likely seen her. That's her in the short blond bob, chatting up old faces and welcoming new ones. . . .

TransNation: The Trans Year to Come

by Jacob Anderson-Minshall

2008-01-09


With presidential elections looming, 2008 promises to be a politically contentious year. At least this summer's Olympic Games promise to distract us from American politics, and there's some hope—via trans cyclist Kirsten Worley ( nominated as one of the most influential women in Canadian sports in 2007 ) —of having an openly trans contender. To get through the rest of the year, there's plenty of trans-themed material coming your way in 2008.

Books

When it comes to academic works, Haworth Press may cement its position as the leading publisher of nonfiction addressing trans subjects. Several of their new books address medical professionals, like Principles of Transgender Medicine and Surgery and Guidelines for Transgender Care; the latter written and edited in part by trans activist/health educator Joshua M. Goldberg. For a psychological and sociological perspective Haworth, offers Head Over Heels: Wives Who Stay With Cross-Dressers and Transsexuals and Male Bodies, Women's Souls: Personal Narratives of Thailand's Transgender Youth.

Duke University Press addresses a similar audience with Imagining Transgender: An Ethnography of a Category, which documents the rise and development of ‘transgender' as a category of collective identity and political activism. The Lives of Transgender People, a collaboration between genderqueer college administrator Brett-Genny Beemyn and feminist scholar Sue Rankin will be published by Columbia University Press later this year. . . .