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Arizona, IFGE, Love and My Two Sons

April 12th, 2008

Going back to Arizona has always been one of adventure and pain for me. I lived there most of my life, graduating high school there, I joined the Navy from there, I was married there, my two sons were born there, I was divorced there, I started my life as Monica there, and my father is buried there. All of my family, with the exception of my oldest son lives in Arizona. To say that Arizona holds an important place in my life would be like saying that air is important in my life. I can’t quit Arizona.

Most of the time when I go back to visit family in Arizona, it is near the end of the year, for either Thanksgiving or Christmas. This time, I was able to visit in March and April, when the temperatures were in the 80s and 90s. That’s tank top weather! I love being a girl.

Early in my trip, I got the chance to spend a little time with Serena Freewomyn, a writer for the popular blog, The Bilerico Project. I was always impressed with Serena’s viewpoint and her writing style. The Friday we got together was a fun evening. She brought two of her friends with her and they were a blast.

The most interesting part of the trip to Arizona started on Wednesday when I arrived at the Double Tree Hotel in Tucson. I actually got to go swimming at the hotel pool. No one could tell I was a pre-op in the suit I wore, and it didn’t even have one of those cute little skirts. (As I said, I love being a girl.) But, that was nothing compared to what Fate had in stored for me later that evening. . . .Read More

SAN MARCOS: CSUSM opens gay, lesbian pride center

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students can find support, resources at CSUSM

By ANDREA MOSS

April 12, 2008


SAN MARCOS ---- Josh Lovelace knows firsthand why some Cal State San Marcos students might need a refuge on campus.

"Walking through the hallways, sometimes you'll hear people make homophobic comments," the 29-year-old graduate student and openly gay man said last week. "I'll say, 'Hey, did you know that I'm one of them?' And they say, 'Oh, no, I didn't.' "

Lovelace said he's confident enough with his own sexual identity that homophobic comments typically don't faze him. Even so, he said he welcomed last week's opening of a gay and lesbian center on campus because of the support it will provide to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, as well as to students questioning their sexual identity. . . .Read More

POV, Critique, Opinion: Pregnant, yes - but not a man

By Jeff Jacoby
Globe Columnist

April 13, 2008

TRACY LaGONDINO is pregnant, and that news has drawn a fair amount of attention. It's been in People magazine, on "Oprah," all over the Internet. Tracy's baby, due in July, is doing well. But Tracy has a serious problem, and the rest of us do, too.

A 34-year-old who grew up in Hawaii and used to compete in beauty contests - she was once a finalist in the Miss Hawaii Teen USA pageant - Tracy, who now calls herself Thomas Beatie, apparently suffers from Gender Identity Disorder, syndrome 302.85 in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. According to news accounts, she has felt uncomfortable with her female identity since adolescence. When she was in her 20s, the Telegraph of London reported, "she became more masculine," began a lesbian relationship, "and researched what it meant to be a transgender male." There followed breast-removal surgery and testosterone injections. Tracy/Thomas grew a beard, changed her legal identity to male, and married her partner, Nancy.

But it takes more than a mastectomy and hormone treatments to overturn biology. Thomas may be a man in the eyes of the law, but she remains physically a woman, with a woman's reproductive system, a woman's genitals, and a woman's chromosomes. So when she and Nancy decided to have a baby, she had little trouble conceiving through artificial insemination. The result is the spectacle that has drawn so much attention: a bearded pregnant woman named Thomas, who identifies herself as a man, and has a lawfully wedded wife. . . .Read More

GENDER IDENTITY AND PHANTOM GENITALIA

Sandra Blakeslee

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Some people know, with absolute certainty, that they were born the wrong gender.

A girl sees that she has no phallus, yet she feels deeply, unambiguously male. A boy is equipped with a penis, yet he feels fundamentally, unarguably female.

Such discord often gets chalked up to the physical - prenatal hormone exposures, abnormal brain structures, gay genes. Or to the psychological - repressed homosexuality, absent dads, overbearing moms, parents who wanted a baby of the opposite sex.

But there is a new explanation: Some transgender men claim to possess phantom penises. From the time they were little girls, they say they had vivid sensations of a penis between their legs. Others develop such a phantom when they begin taking testosterone therapy.

Similarly, transgender women who are born male and later undergo sex reassignment surgery generally do not report having a phantom. They say that their penis was never part of their body image. . . .Read More

Mountie disciplined after looking for transsexual love in uniform

Matthew Ramsey,Canwest News Service

April 12, 2008

VANCOUVER - A B.C. Mountie has received informal discipline for posting a dating profile online using a picture of himself in his red serge uniform to find transgendered and transsexual mates.

"I am looking to meet mature Thai women who are interested in a sincere friendship that can develop into a LTR (long-term relationship) and possible marriage," wrote "Dave" on the thaikisses.com site.

"Special interest towards TS (transsexual), TG (transgendered) women. Any nice Katoey women looking for a serious LTR." . . . .Read More