Sunday, August 19, 2007
Singer's cousin in sex-op imbroglio
August 19, 2007
Stefanie Imbruglia: Fears new laws will make overseas travel for a sex-change operation unsafe.
Photo: Jacky Ghossein
A TRANSGENDER cousin of singer Natalie Imbruglia says new federal laws will force Australians seeking sex-change operations overseas to risk humiliating body cavity and strip searches.
Stefanie Imbruglia, first cousin of the actor turned pop star, said that under the new laws, which came into effect last month, she would have to be identified as a man on her passport, even though she had breasts, or she would have to travel on the lesser document of identity, which did not state sex.
Either way, it would attract unwelcome attention from immigration and customs authorities, who could demand the embarrassing searches.
"By asking me to travel on a document of identity, this government is asking me to put a spotlight on myself in a foreign country when it is totally unnecessary and makes me fear for my safety," said Ms Imbruglia, who lives in Sydney.
"The alternative is that I travel on a passport that says I am a man, when I am presenting as a woman with breasts. And on my return I will be forced to travel on a false passport and what if they were to do a body search and I am all swollen, with a vagina? Either way it is unacceptable."
Before July, a person seeking a gender reassignment operation overseas could apply for a limited validity passport that listed their intended sex on return. Making false or misleading statements carries a penalty of up to 10 years' imprisonment or a $110,000 fine under the Australian Passports Act.
Ms Imbruglia said she had hoped to have the $20,000 sex-change operation in Thailand. An estimated 200 to 400 Australians have sex-change operations in Thailand each year. . . .
Freeing Up Deborah
When Dr. Roy Berkowitz-Shelton decided to live as a woman, he gambled that his marriage and medical practice would survive the change. In the conclusion of our two-part series, Dr. Deborah Bershel emerges and confronts her new reality.
Part 1: A Family Doctor's Journey From Man to Woman | PART 2
At age 52, Deborah Bershel made her first trip to the mall. It lasted nine hours. It was July 2006, and there was barely a rack of clothes in the Burlington Mall that she didn't comb through. The next day she headed to the Natick Mall and logged another five hours shopping. She was making up for lost time. In each store, her approach was usually the same. She'd march up to a salesclerk and explain, "I'm a transsexual, so I'm new to this." Then she'd ask her particular question, whether it be which cut of jeans would cover the top of her panties or which type of fabrics wouldn't cling to her arms. "I have questions that no 50-year-old woman should have," she said.
It was behavior so uninhibited it would have been unthinkable in her previous life. As a husband, father, and family physician, Roy Berkowitz-Shelton was many things – compassionate, dutiful, funny. But no one would have called him uninhibited. For years, he had struggled to understand the feelings inside him that made him question whether he really was a man and made him attracted to the clothes that went along with being a woman. Yet that struggle had been almost entirely internal.
A month before the maiden visit to the mall, he had gone public. He told his patients and colleagues what his family had known for some months: that he was a woman and would soon transition to live life that way. He stressed his hope that even after Roy Berkowitz-Shelton, MD, was gone, replaced by Deborah Bershel, MD, his patients, colleagues, and family would naturally become hers. Whether that would actually happen was anybody's guess.
On June 29, 2006, after more than a year and a half of taking female hormones, Roy Berkowitz-Shelton lay on an operating table while a Boston University School of Medicine plastic surgeon smoothed down his forehead, made his nose smaller and more upturned, lifted his brow and upper lip, softened his jaw line, brought his hairline forward, and performed what's called a "tracheal shave," removing the lump on the throat that is so identified with being male that it's named after the original one. Seven and a half hours later, bruised and drained, Deborah Bershel emerged.
She quickly found that more than her appearance had changed. As a man, Roy cared little about clothes, and a trip to the mall held all the appeal of a dental cleaning. As a woman, Deborah was surprised to learn that she genuinely enjoyed shopping. Of course, not everything had changed. She was still compassionate and well informed. And frugal. She blanched at the price tags on the designer outfits she saw at Macy's and ended up making many of her purchases at TJ Maxx. For one brown top, she splurged and plunked down $50, but that was an aberration. More common was her pattern of acquisitions at Payless: nine pairs of shoes for a total of $85.
In the weeks after surgery, everything was building toward her July 24 return to Davis Square Family Practice, the Somerville medical office she had run as Roy for nearly 18 years. Alison, who had married Roy a quarter-century earlier and served as the practice's office manager, had helped care for Deborah in their Newton home during the week immediately following her surgery. But the future of their marriage, like so much else, was uncertain. However supportive she may have been, Alison had made it clear there was a reason she had married a man. Deborah had agreed to move back into the Brighton apartment where Roy had lived during the months leading up to the transition and stay there until their daughter left for college.
The Saturday before her return to the office, Deborah spent hours organizing all her new clothing, by color. It was a move that Roy, who had been infamous for his clutter, would have resisted. It felt good to be packing up all of Roy's clothes, a ho-hum collection of off-the-rack suits, button-down shirts, and khakis. It was only when she came to a favorite colorful tie that she lingered. Roy had taken pride in his many vibrant ties, which were especially popular with his pediatric patients. Holding the tie, she felt a small pang of sadness, the same pang she'd felt at the supermarket when she spotted a young father roughhousing with his son on his shoulders. That scene, that tie, were part of the past now. There was a whole new life to be lived. . . .
Fa'afafine definition still shaky
 Tafi Toleafoa ( ) |
(Published: August 19, 2007)
FA'AFAFINE: (pronounced fah-ah-fuh-fee-nay) means "like a woman" in Samoan, and describes a third gender, with characteristics both male and female.
There's disagreement among anthropologists about the origins of fa'afafine, but there's evidence of their presence in Samoa over at least the last century, though some anthropologists believe they were part of Samoan culture for much longer. Many other Pacific island cultures have similar words for a third-gender person born male but seen as female.
Fa'afafine are generally accepted in Samoa, but their social position has become more complicated with the introduction of Christianity and continuing western influence on the islands.
Fa'afafine aren't like American transgender people. They don't identify themselves as women in men's bodies. They are identified as children by mothers or other females close to their family, a decision influenced by their behavior, and possibly by a lack of girls in a family to do "women's work." Some take on western-sounding female nicknames.
Because they aren't likely to have children of their own, fa'afafine often excel professionally and many become teachers. They commonly live with their extended family and care for their aging parents. They are seen as excellent housekeepers and babysitters.
Sexuality for fa'afafine is complicated. Many see themselves as women and enter into clandestine, short-term relationships with men who see themselves as straight. Some fa'afafine, motivated by social pressure and the wish for children, leave their feminine identity behind and marry women, but many others don't. Occasionally they live openly with male partners.
Depending on where they live and the expectations of their family, they express their gender differently. In cities, some fa'afafine live more openly, dressing flamboyantly, performing in American-style drag shows, having public relationships. In more remote places, and in Christian families, fa'afafine are generally expected to be more discreet, maintaining at least a public image of celibacy.
Some among the most recent generation of fa'afafine, which has been most influenced by Western culture, have begun experimenting with physically changing their sex, taking hormones obtained from doctors or on the black market, and in rare cases, traveling to the U.S. or Asia for gender reassignment surgery.
Sources: Assistant Professor Ann Jache, University of Alaska Anchorage; "Paradise Lost? Social Change and Fa'afafine in Samoa," by Dr. Johanna Schmidt; "Male Transvestism and Cultural Change in Samoa," by Jeannette Mageo; Tafi Toleafoa.
Friday, August 17, 2007
New Zealand: Gender inquiry loses plot
The signs are not hopeful for the country's first major inquiry into the rights of "transgender" New Zealanders, writes JOANNE PROCTOR.
In March, the Human Rights Commission released a summary of submissions from its "transgender" inquiry.
The final report is due in September. But already it is looking like a case of good intentions, discredited theories and a lost plot.
The commission's intentions seem obvious enough, the theories less so. Many pre-date the 1960s. Some contain echoes of feminist gender politics from that time. All are rooted in behaviourism. Because neurobiology has moved on, they should be past their use-by date. But they are proving hard to kill.
Take the "tabula rasa" theory, for example. According to it, a newborn baby's brain is a complete blank. It has the capacity to absorb and retain information. It has the potential to become sentient, but is unencumbered by those things when it emerges into the world.
The theory had pretty much disappeared by the 1990s. Before that, many experts regarded it as the psychological equivalent of a Newtonian law.
The expert who invented "gender identity" believed in the tabula rasa theory. His name was John Money. He defined gender identity as the "private experience of gender role". Then he defined gender role as the "public expression of gender identity".
Essentially Money's concept can be reduced to a little formula: A + C = D, where A is anatomical correctness, C is gender role conditioning and D is gender identity.
It works like this: first, you have a baby that is a tabula rasa. If he has a willie, then he is anatomically correct. You dress him in blue and call him Colin: that is gender role conditioning. After a while, he learns that people with willies and names like Colin are males. Then he realises he is male, too. Now he has a gender identity.
If the baby has not got a willie, you use pink instead of blue. You put suffixes like "ette" or "a" on the end of names like Colin. You know the rest.
Money believed that humans would not know if they were Arthur or Martha without gender-role conditioning. And Arthur could grow up believing that he actually was Martha if the conditioning was inappropriate. That is called "gender-identity disorder" and transsexuals are commonly accused of having it.
By 1975, the formula had assumed the status of a Newtonian law, and the concept of gender identity had evolved into a sacred cow. Actually it is an idee recue: it exists because people think it does. For all anyone knows, it is the biggest red herring that has been dragged past any inquiry in the last hundred years.
While Money was inventing theories, other experts were busy having arguments with each other. One was over what transsexuals should be called. Some experts believed that anyone who thought it was possible to change sex was seriously deluded. They thought that terms like transsexual and sex reassignment were reinforcing the delusion. Others argued that post-op male-to-female transsexuals were just castrated males who were changing gender roles.
The arguments lasted several years and ended with a decision to use the term transgender to define transsexuals. Transgender is shorthand for "transiting gender roles". Before the 1980s, the word had allowed some distinction between transsexualism and the gender-role transgressive behaviours such as transvestism. . . .
Thailand: Mixed response to poll on transsexuals
The Nation's Internet poll on whether transsexuals should have the legal right to use a gender title of their choice drew mixed reactions from those visiting our website.
Published on August 18, 2007
Here are some of the comments posted:
"Transsexuals should not be allowed to use a title of their own choice.
"They should only use the title that they were born with.
"Also, transvestites have no business in this affair." - True Grit
"No. They should use the title Near-Miss." - Dr Frankenfurter
"It only matters to people who hate anyone different - let them do as they please." - Not bothered
"People should have the right to choose their life since they are human." - Somebody in Thailand
"They are as good as any other human beings and have every right to use the title of their choice." - Anil Parimoo
"It's crazy to allow transsexuals to use a title of their choice. I want to get married with a real girl who is a Miss. If this was allowed, I could have got incidentally married with a former male who changed his title to Miss. It's a horrible idea." - Yes Vote
"Same as basic rights of gays and lesbians for jobs, social recognition and education, rights for transsexual people should be respected as well. Otherwise, society would become a distorted one where people of such sexual inclinations are discriminated, which will make them revengeful, extreme and destructive." - Basic rights
"I do not think being a transsexual make you a woman. Being a woman is about much more than hormones, surgery and titles." - Alan Mercer
"To avoid confusion and to be fair to all parties, it should be Miss or Mr as their choice but with T for transsexual in parenthesis. For example, Ms(T) Albert Choice or Mr(T) Albert Choice." - Mr X
"They should not be allowed to use a title similar to naturally-born women or men as their physical facts are different. However, I agree that they should not be treated as men as they will be faced with lots of disadvantages." - Bangkokian
Nepal: Mention child’s gender as ‘both’: Ministry
Kantipur Report
Sending a letter on Sunday, the Ministry asked Bara DDC to reserve the right of the child's parents to correct the gender and name of the child in its birth certificate if its gender is finally determined through modern medical science.
"Since it is the right of the child to get its birth registered, the personal incidents registration office has been asked to give birth certificate to the "hermaphrodite" child mentioning gender as-both," the Ministry's letter dated 24 June stated. The ministry took the decision last Thursday, according to the letter.
The Kathmandu Post in its Saturday issue carried a news report mentioning the suffering of the child's parents due to refusal of local authorities to register the child's birth. The parents who suffered much due to the behavior of society, had moved to Kathmandu and knocked on the door of the Local Development Ministry.
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Sportswriter Embarks on New Life as a Woman
Day to Day, August 15, 2007 · Three months ago, Mike Penner was a longtime sports columnist for The Los Angeles Times. Then he wrote a dramatic goodbye column and disappeared for several weeks.
"I am a transsexual sportswriter," Penner wrote. "It has taken more than 40 years, a million tears and hundreds of hours of soul-wrenching therapy for me to work up the courage to type those words. I realize many readers and colleagues and friends will be shocked to read them."
Now Penner is back on the beat, as a she. With a new name and a new gender, Christine Daniels now covers sports and her own gender transition for The Los Angeles Times Web site. She tells Madeleine Brand about the experience, personally and professionally, of her new identity.
What was the reaction to [the column announcing your gender transition]?
[Chuckles] Well, I'm laughing because the perceived reaction, or the reaction I was warned about, was 180. I don't even know if you can get any more than 180 degrees different than the actual reaction. But transitioning as a Los Angeles Times sportswriter — the concept kept me closeted, kept me from doing it for several years. I just couldn't fathom it. And even 10 days before that column ran, I was considering quitting the Times. I had talked to two editors, or at least the sports department. I talked to two editors within the Times about transferring to different sections.
It became known in the transgender community that there was a high-profile coming-out about to happen, and a lot of the leaders in the transgender community got in touch with me, and I was told to prepare for the absolute worst. [They said,] 'You should have a friend come in and screen e-mails and phone calls.' And I had that set up. 'Do not listen to the radio. Do not watch TV. Certainly, do not go on the Internet on chat rooms.' And I was told to stay away from the office because they could have protests. I was so freaked out, I just — I was almost in the fetal position the whole day before.
I filed my column about a week before it ran, and it moved up through the channels and we kind of debated a little bit where it should run. I wanted it in the back pages ... in the classifieds, you know.
Buried? You wanted to bury it?
Buried. I didn't want to run it. I didn't want it. I wanted to do this privately, and it was impossible because of my byline. And my sports editor, Randy Harvey — Randy and our editors said, 'Well, because of the byline change, we need to run an explanatory piece about it, maybe have another columnist write about it.' We decided no, if it has to be written, I want to write my story. And it hit the Internet probably 11 or midnight. I tried to sleep and couldn't. And so I was in front of my computer at home, and I started seeing e-mails from co-workers from different departments. And it was all supportive, and I said, well, that makes me feel good. But these are friendly people, these are colleagues. The real test will be when it hits the public.
I tried to go back to bed and couldn't. I remember I got up around 1:30 and sat back, and on my computer screen at 1:46 the first e-mail from a reader came, and ... the subject line was 'You go, girl!' By about 6 or 7 [o'clock] L.A. time, I was getting one e-mail a minute. By 5 or 6 o'clock that evening, I had 538 e-mails, and two were negative. And I thought this could have been the worst day of my life, the worst day of my career. I didn't even know if I was going to get through it. And as it turned out, it was one of the best days I've ever had. . . .
You may not know this but all nonliving things have a gender**
*Ziploc Bags* are Male, because they hold everything
*Copiers* are Female, because once turned off, it
*A Tire* is Male, because it goes bald and it's often
*A Hot Air Balloon is Male*, because, to get it to go
*Sponges* are Female, because they're soft,
*A Web Page* is Female, because it's always getting
*A Subway* is Male, because it uses the same old
*An Hourglass* is Female, because over time, the
*A Hammer* is Male , because it hasn't changed much
*A Remote Control* is Female. Ha! You thought it'd
______________________________
**Thanks to Jack Drescher, MD (NYC) for bringing this to my attention.
India: Transgender fights all odds to become 'top grade' artiste
CHENNAI: When Bharatnatyam exponent Narthaki Nataraj completes yet another enthralling performance, the audience in the prestigious 'Narada Gana Sabha' here gives her a standing ovation -- not a mean achievement for a transgender ostracised and ridiculed by the society.
Winner of the state Government's 'Kalaimamani' title this year and accorded the status of 'top grade' artiste by Doordarshan, Nataraj has scripted several success stories but not before overcoming many a hurdle.
Born as a fifth 'son' in a lower middle class family at Anupadi in the southern district of Madurai, Nataraj became aware of the femininity in himself at a very young age.
Nataraj's family came in for a rude shock when the child started dressing up and conducting like a woman. The child, who was thrashed, abused and isolated by family members and neighbours, found solace in the company of a classmate, Sakthi Bhaskar, who was also undergoing a similar transformation.
An innate passion for dance in Nataraj was kindled after watching the films of danseus-actors Vyjayanthimala and Padmini in a village theatre. Ever since, it became 'her' burning desire to master the art.
"I considered dance as a medium to express my femininity. I used to imagine myself as Padmini and imitate her movements. Fearing that people would ridicule me, I used to dance at secluded places with my friend Sakthi being my only audience. I had even practised in a graveyard," she recalls.
With Nataraj's parents considering her physical condition an affront to the family's prestige, she walked out of the house at the age of 16. . . .
Katastrophe
The 27-year-old native of the San Francisco Bay Area says that even today media images are dominated by ''Jerry Springer'' stereotypes and reports of the murders of transgender women.
''I think that it really sends a message to somebody who's coming out,'' he says. ''It's hard to imagine what your adult life will look like.''
 Katastrophe |
To deal with that struggle, Katastrophe turned to music and poetry at 17, and quickly found himself involved with San Francisco's youth-poetry scene.
Today, Katastrophe is working on his third album, which will continue to blend ''emo,'' pop and hip hop with lyrics that send a message of ''positivity and hope.'' With previous albums, that message has garnered the attention of transgender fans around the country, he says, who e-mail him regularly from places he would have never expected, such as Nebraska.
''I've gotten to see how much the world has changed in the past 10 years.''
But there is still work to be done, he adds, even within the GLBT community. Take the title of Katastrophe's current album, Fault, Lies, and Faultlines. It stems from the confusion he felt about his place in the community, earlier in his career.
''If you're gay, your place is never questioned,'' he says, ''but as a trans person -- especially being a man that dates women -- for all intents and purposes, I'm a straight man in a queer community.''
It's a topic that came up when Katastrophe was about to perform at a previous Homo-A-Go-Go, an annual four-day music and film festival in Olympia, Wash. It was there that he says a few people questioned whether he should ''be able to play during the event at all.''
''It really influenced the content of my second CD, so that's why I called it Fault, Lies, and Faultlines,'' he says. ''It's about where we draw lines, who's to blame, and what is just bullshit.''
Another outlet of self-expression is his skin.
The artist currently has 11 tattoos, mostly words, including ''Hope'' on his neck, ''Tender-hearted'' across his chest and ''Heavy-Handed'' on his arm. Of Greek and Italian descent, Katastrophe was 18 when he got his first tattoo, the word ''Voice'' in Greek on his right shoulder.
''I'm a performer and I use lyrics and text as my way of communicating everything...to the world,'' he says. ''Everyone has a voice and voicing your life to others is the most important part of being alive.''
Katastrophe performs on Thursday, Aug. 16, at 8:30 p.m.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
The Mural Stays!
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER (8.14.07):
A city appeals board this afternoon unanimously rejected an Historical Commission order to remove a mural painted on the wall of a building at 410 S. 15th St.
The Board of Licenses and Inspection Review took just eight minutes to decide that Dee Chhin's The Death of Venus could remain on the wall where she painted it more than six years ago.
"I'm just happy it's over," said Chhin. "Finally, I can focus on something else that's not so controversial."
"I'm shocked. This has been six years in the fighting. I am just amazed," said Michael Sher, the Center City real estate broker who commissioned the mural and funded the legal fight to keep it.
City officials said it would be up to the Historical Commission to decide whether to appeal today's ruling to Philadelphia Common Pleas Court.
Sher has said that he commissioned Chhin, a Cambodian emigre, a transsexual and an aspiring artist, to paint the mural in 2001 in part to dissuade graffitists from tagging the building's north wall on narrow Waverly Street.
When officials at Peirce College, whose campus is across 15th Street, learned that the mural did not have a permit, they complained to the Historical Commission.
The commission, in turn, cited Sher because the 1850 brick townhouse is in the Rittenhouse-Fitler Residential Historic District.
The designation, established in 1995 to preserve the character of the old residential neighborhood, means owners cannot alter building exteriors without obtaining Historical Commission approval.
But through the complexities of Philadelphia's permit laws, the mural was granted "interim approval," which allowed it to remain for four years before Sher had to apply for an extension.
Those four years passed, and in January the Historical Commission twice voted that the mural must be removed, setting the stage for today's hearing.
Hearing to decide fate of city mural
Inquirer Staff Writer When artist Dee Chhin began painting her mural The Death of Venus in 2001 on the wall of a Victorian townhouse in Center City, she had no idea the title would be prophetic.
Today, Chhin's patron goes before a city appeals board to fight a Historical Commission order to destroy The Death of Venus for having it in a historic district without a permit.
The Board of Licenses and Inspection Review meets at 1:15 p.m. in the 18th-floor conference room at 1515 Arch St. to hear the appeal by Michael Sher, a Center City real estate broker who commissioned the mural on the building he manages at 410 S. 15th St.
Lawyer Harry J. Sher, who is representing his brother in the appeal, confirmed yesterday that the hearing was on: "It won't be postponed by us. We're ready to go."
Michael Sher has said he commissioned Chhin, a Cambodian emigre, a transsexual and an aspiring artist, to paint the mural in 2001 in part to dissuade graffitists from tagging the building's north wall on narrow Waverly Street.
When officials at Peirce College, whose campus is across 15th Street, learned that the mural did not have a permit, they complained to the Historical Commission.
The commission, in turn, cited Sher because the 1850 brick townhouse is in the Rittenhouse-Fitler Residential Historic District.
The designation, established in 1995 to preserve the character of the old residential neighborhood, means owners cannot alter building exteriors without obtaining Historical Commission approval.
But through the complexities of Philadelphia's permit laws, the mural was granted "interim approval," which allowed it to remain for four years before Sher had to apply for an extension.
Those four years passed and in January the Historical Commission twice voted that the mural must be removed, setting the stage for today's hearing.
Cross-dressing boxers draw NZ fans
But her softly spoken demeanour hides two things. First, she is anatomically male, and second, she packs a mean right hook.
Training at a boxing gym in a part of South Auckland known more for its high crime rate than its gay community, Queen Mandela isn’t afraid to fight for her rights either.
Born Merota Tasilimu in the Pacific nation of Samoa, Mandela is one of a group of four cross-dressing boxers to appear at a sold-out fight in Auckland tonight.
In her homeland, transvestites are known as fafafine and are an accepted part of the culture.
Mandela, 25, now lives in New Zealand and is taking part in the country’s first fafafine boxing tournament.
“What I am doing in the ring is a message to my sisters that we all can do it. I do it to show people we can defend ourselves,” she told AAP at a training session.
“It is also good exercise for my body,” she adds, with a high-pitched squeal.
A total of 24 fafafine will fight each other in coming months as part of the tournament.
People in Australia wanting to see them in action may get their chance next year, explains Mandela’s manager, fellow fafafine Jennifer O’Brien-Finau.
A tournament is expected to be held in Brisbane in February and in Sydney in November next year.
Trainer Ofisa Vili said the fafafine were as good as any boxers he had seen.
“We are all the same, and god created us all. And when they box, the man comes out in them. They can fight,” Vili said.
As part of the competition, the fafafine will fight over three two-minute rounds.
There were plans to fight multiple bouts on the same night as part of an elimination series, but because of the toughness of the competition the tournament will be spread over several months.
Former New Zealand light heavyweight champion Johnny Nomura was at training to see the fafafine in action.
“He can punch, he is very good,” he said of Mandela.
AUCKLAND
Australia, first person: ALWAYS FEELING DIFFERENT
 Kim* was always attracted to straight women. |  |
I knew I liked girls when I was probably six or seven years old, though I didn’t know why I was feeling that way. When I was about 18 or 19 I decided I was gay – it was all I knew at the time. I didn’t have an understanding of what transgender or transsexual was.
I was always attracted to straight women and I couldn’t understand what that was about. It worked for me at that time though, so I was happy with that.
It was hard to have long-term relationships with straight women, because they would always go back to men. So when I was 30 I decided I would be interested in lesbians. But when I started going out in the gay community I felt different. It was hard for me to come across anyone I found attractive.
I used to have a strong reaction to bridge women, so I would engage them in conversation. I was really surprised to hear that they didn’t feel like men – they dressed like men, but that was about presentation. They didn’t want to be labelled in a particular way.
I was studying counselling at that time and learning about gender issues. I hadn’t had much exposure to it, and I found that lesbians weren’t very open in talking to me about it. There is still so much confusion around the issue.
I then started dating feminine lesbian women and there were also some issues there. Every now and then I found them to be a bit masculine and that made me uncomfortable at times.
But for the last two years I have been with a partner who has a lot of knowledge on the subject. She helped me to understand that I was transgender.
I don’t want to change my sex and I don’t want to become a man. I am happy this way and I am not going to go there. That is where a lot of the confusion and misunderstanding comes from.
Most of the other women I have met who are in a similar position will have the operation and change their sex, so I do feel quite alone. I am sure there are others out there, but I haven’t met them.
I am now beginning to understand why, when I go out on the scene, I am not attracted to lesbians. However, I sometimes find feminine lesbians attractive.
I now formally identify as transgender. I don’t specifically dress like a man or wear men’s clothes. Maybe if I was a man I would be happy to wear men’s clothes, but I am comfortable with the identity I have got.
I wear women’s clothes, but I wear pants and a shirt that are not of a feminine presentation.
People would not know I am transgender by looking at me – they usually see me as a tomboy. Straight women are often attracted to me though. I don’t know whether it is for fun or because they are attracted to a male energy.
If people ask how I identify, I will often say I am gay. But I will say I am transgender if I am talking to someone who has an understanding of gender issues.
In my experience, the straight community has been more willing to understand it. When I talk to lesbians there has sometimes been a negative reaction. A few women I have spoken to when I go out on the scene just look at me in a really confused way. I have definitely found that within the lesbian community there is a lack of knowledge.
* Not her real name.
As told to Cara Davis
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Celebrating Female Game Devs of Yesteryear
As Women in Games International's Austin conference approaches, Next-Gen takes a moment to recognize the outstanding female developers who molded the industry during its early years. . . .
The business has also included its share of transgendered women. Dani Bunten Berry was without doubt one of the greatest game designers of all time, although much of her work was published under her original name, Dan Bunten. Berry created games that are considered industry milestones, most notably M.U.L.E. (which stood for Multi-Use Labor Element). It was a multiplayer trading and exploration game with a clever and innovative auction interface. Berry died of lung cancer in 1998 and is sorely missed. . . .The WIGI Conference will be held on September 8, 2007 at the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. Visit www.womeningamesinternational.org for more details.
