8/6/13

Don Ennis ABC News Icon time as Dawn ends. Oy Vey! oh shit. I've, done that too


"Purging".

Its found at the traumatic tip top of the roller coaster ride of transition when the car slows to a stop and shimmies,  and as our hearts skip a beat and we begin back to the bottom of this ride we call life. Uncontrollably, ever increasing to breakneck speeds we hurdle to the welcoming velvet of denial. Its the moment when some trans people suddenly come to the horrific realization someone we know, a brother, friend, or worst, an employer might have seen us while we made forays en femme.

Its a mindless trashing of every fem article we just spent mad money on. Its a purging of all thoughts of femininity. Its a temporary sense of relief, an incredible peace knowing there is nothing 'wronge' with us.... that gradually weeks and months later it becomes a heightening of feminine sense until one day we start to wonder if there wasn't something we did wrong presenting that garnered so many transphobic glares and snickers. Then its the slow gradual euphoric trip back on the roller coaster to the top of life.

Its knowing that we are trapped in a revolving door because no matter how hard we try to deny Dawn, or Tina or Samantha she still lives inside of our now hyper masculine presentations.

I write about purging as if I have first hand knowledge of it . That's because I did it a few thousand times in the earliest days of my transition. And I'm not ashamed of that, anymore. It doesn't lessen the authenticity of my being rather admitting to it reinforces me.

I'm not saying Don purged. I'm not saying that I don't take what he says about making a mistake at face value. I'm just saying...

Don, the major difference I can seen right now between your experience and mine was that no one knew me. No one.

To everyone who has or is experiencing what Don has, know this. There is nothing to be embarrassed about what you have gone through. And Don, there will be many disparaging articles written and to be frank, your credibility may have taken a hit but that's why I'm writing this article, because if the truth be known,  you will be even more respected now.

Like the Cosmopolitan article which tried to empower us but ultimately couldn't because the author had not experienced transition personally, purging is misunderstood by the cis community by no fault of there own. I hope that Sam reads this.

Trans people can now own "Purging", as it should be, thanks to you Don. Its part of our culture, our physiological makeup, our birth right. We can now come to terms with it publicly. For some of us its a beginning on our road less traveled, or possibly a exit from it, but there is no denying purging is at a intersection of transsexualism.

Then again, some trans people have never experienced a purge. *sigh.

What ever you do Don, live your life authentically.


8/5/13

Transgender actress Mimi Juareza wins best actor as Dorina in "Quick Change" at the Philippine Independent Film Festival.

Source Inquirer Entertainment:
MANILA, Philippines- The Best Actor wore a stunning violet gown. 
True to its maverick spirit, the 9th Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival gave the best actor trophy to a transgender, Mimi Juareza, for his acting debut in Eduardo Roy Jr.’s “Quick Change.”
Asked if he had wanted to win best actress instead, Juareza told the Inquirer: “Best actor, best actress … whatever, for as long as they show their appreciation for my work, I don’t mind.” The jury cited Juarez for “his bold take on a gender-bending role.”
Roy said that for a first-timer, Juareza was a “natural.”“Luckily, he was a good actor to begin with. We only had a two-day workshop before the shoot,” Roy told the Inquirer.
Read more at Inquirer Entertainment

The 9th Cinemalaya Film Festival Awards Night was held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) on August 4, 2013.



Quick Change trailer



SYNOPSIS: Dorina believes she is a lady incarcerated inside a male body. She's got herself a flourishing career, albeit in an illegal cosmetic surgery business. She is a mother figure to Hero. She acts as a devoted wife to Uno, Dorina feels that she is one lucky woman. Until his partner falls in love with another transgender.

Reviewed by Brun Philippines online:

Eduardo Roy Jr.’s “Quick Change” (Review): “The Unattainable Virgin”

Eduardo Roy Jr.’s “Quick Change” is one my favorite films in the festival.  The story is not an easy sell and moviegoers with an open mind may be the only ones to give this opus a second look.  Nevertheless, “Quick Change” is one of the must-see movies of the year. Many films have already tackled stories about transsexual individuals, but some films were more exploitative than revelatory. Roy’s “Quick Change” rises above the rest.  The movie tells the story of Dorina, a middle-aged transsexual living with a younger man and raising his young nephew. 


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What separates “Quick Change” from most gay-themed films is that it is not really about being a homosexual.  It is about living.  Dorina is flesh and blood.  He or she (whatever pronoun you may assign to Dorina) is a three-dimensional character solving personal and economic problems like most Filipinos.  Her conditions may be unique but the pain and complications in her life are not alien to most.  Dorina may not necessarily be the poster girl for the LGBT community but director Roy brings justice to Dorina’s humanity by making her a complex individual rather than a prototype.  Dorina, as a film protagonist, does more service to the community than non-threatening gay characters on television. In a way, by being flesh and blood, Dorina indirectly criticizes the community and the public at large.  You cannot really shove her in a convenient box with a label “immoral faggot.”

8/4/13

Russian Officials Flip Again: Now say they WON'T beat up LGBT people at the Sochi Winter Olympics

Another turn around, yet another de facto acknowledgment by Russian officials regarding the immorality of the "Gay Propaganda Laws"

Originally, The Olympic committee (OIC) in a effort to stifle the worlds objection to sending there athletes in harms way at the 2014 Olympics claimed a unnamed Russian official  had given them assurances LGBT athletes would not be persecuted under the "Gay Propaganda Law". This was a optimal evasion by the OIC since it would have freed them of any moral obligation or claims of liability in the event the Russians didn't temporally suspend the law and beat people except.....

......that no sooner than that dog and pony show ended a cosponsor of the anti LGBT law, Vitaly Milonov, a Member of the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg, said "If a law has been approved by the federal legislature and signed by the president, then the government has no right to suspend it. It doesn't have the authority." So the hate fest was back on....

....and if left at that Russia probably would have faced an all out boycott something they were not prepared to do. There is a lot of money to be made and prestige and ego to satisfy.
So today another in a series of  abrupt about faces, 100Wapi reports that "Russia said on Sunday that athletes and guests attending next year’s Winter Olympics will not be subject to the country’s stringent new anti-gay law."
“The Olympic Games is a major international event. We need to be as polite and tolerant as possible. That is why a decision has been made not to raise this issue during the Olympics,” Igor Ananskikh, deputy chairman of the State Duma’s Physical Culture, Sport and Youth Policy Committee, told Interfax."


"His comments came just a day after Russia’s sports minister warned that athletes and spectators would be accountable under the law."

Dear Mr. Igor Ananskikh what of the mobs, the bullies the orthodox 'christian' criminals who always show up whenever one or more LGBT person gather to beat them up? YOUR country not only encourages this violence but turns a blind eye when it happens. Mr. Igor Ananskikh your country needs to change those laws and start enforcing laws that protect all tour citizens now.

Russian officials assurances may seem creditable enough to allow corporations, the IOC and politicians to ignore the  brutal treatment of intellectuals, LGBT and opposition parties which will undoubtedly resume immediately following the "international competitions". So Putin will have his games.

EXCEPT Putin has not taken into account the worlds population which can see through his facade, his pretensions and faux humanity. That is why transaction Convergence sponsored the petition No Pussies No Games: Boycott / Demonstrate at The Russian Winter Olympics.

We're not petitioning politicians, corporations or the IOC. Its understood who they are, they don't care.

This is the voice of the people who you beat.

The voice of the people you brutally oppress.

This is the voice of the people calling out to one another to make a moral commitment to force Putin to lead Russia away from the path he has put her on. This will work regardless if athletes and attendees decide to boycott or demonstrate at Sochi because the reality is that many athletes and guests feel that there attendance is a more valuable form dissension.

And with this temporary suspension of a legally enacted Russian law by a bureaucrat for the temporary safety of LGBT visitors and artists, Putin has ONCE again shown how righteous any protest might be.

Balaclavas for everyone. Free Pussy Riot 




Sarah Baker's unofficial guide to transitioning for Life while in prison

Life Imprisonment An Unofficial Guide
£9.95 Waterside Press
By now everyone has read the sensationalistic mail online article "Violent inmate who tortured his step-mother's brother then boasted about freebies in prison is given £10,000 sex change on the NHS" about Sarah Baker, a transgender prisoner serving life for resisting a child rapist who was preying on her behind bars.

In all fairness the article does make a effort to properly inform but not before repeatably misgendering her despite acknowledging her desire to be called Sarah, positioning her medically mandated surgery as a frivolous unwarranted expense and calling her a "Violent violin playing thug". All of which has garnered Mail on line hundreds of shares comments as of this posting.

Can you say pandering to violence prone right wing thugs?

So lets for the sake of it, take a less condemning look at Sarah. She was originally jailed at age 19 after spending her youth incarcerated in juvenile detention centers. It's not all Rosy. She escaped open prison in 2007, spent 100 days on the lamb and fathered a child with a former pen pal during that time.

The daily mail makes a point to mention Baker said prison was agreeable to her in a 2009 Telegraph article. This sort of bravado in the face of seemingly insurmountable adversity is the same thing that I, like many other trans people displayed when we used hyper masculinity to mask our true selves while serving in the military.

For a inside look I read another article about Sarah's current Pen pal. It was published today sans the sensationalistic headlines and unsurprisingly has receive few shares or comments as of this posting.

"Mrs Stockwell, 74, started writing to Baker when she was volunteering with probation more than 20 years ago and now feels like she is "a second son". She feels that she is a new person and deserves chance." Mrs Stockwell helped Sarah publish her first book and is helping with the next one and feels she is a changed person who deserves a chance.

So who is Sarah, a undeserving inhuman thug as the Mail online would have us to believe?  This Is Croydon today.co.uk shows us her human side in a interview let her speak about the conditions she is facing now:

Social skills are not taught. If you're chucked out at 40 with barely anything in your pocket, how are you going to survive?
"The thought of being released terrifies me and I would find it easier to be left here.
"At least we know what to expect here – what will I do, die alone in a bedsit?
"However, 25 years is enough. I have hurt people but I want to do something positive."
 
The violin player added: "The London Chamber Orchestra have said I can work for them if I am released."
Her next opportunity to appear before a panel will be in October this year

8/3/13

Two Brazilian Trans woman Murdered in Two Days


TransMusePlanet reported that transgender woman Vougue Savannah, 30 was shot and died July 28th. It was later learned that the shots were not for Savannah but for a friend, India, purportedly becuse of a money dispute. According to a post on transfofa  Anchieta Bridges, of the 4th Police District, said José da Silva, 37, was arrested and charged with attempted murder and injury followed by death.

On the 31 another Brazilian trans woman was murdered. In this instance her authentic name was not used by the press.

Ms. Tavares, 21, was found dead with six bullet wounds in her butocks on a plot in the Baixada Fluminense near Rio. 
Ms. Tavares' murder is being investigated as a hate crime.

The head of the station of Niagara Falls (65th SD), Robson da Costa Ferreira da Silva, heard three witnesses and did not rule out that the crime may have been motivated by revenge or homophobia.
According to relatives of the victim, Ms. Tavares had no enemies and her gender has always been respected by family and friends.

Fa'afafine: An antinomy of gender roles not understood outside of Samoa


Shared by Trans Health Australia on planetransgender's facebook page a revealing look at what it means to be a Fa'afafine in Samoa.

There are up to 3000 Fa'afafine – men raised as girls – currently living in Samoa. The Feed's Patrick Abboud investigates this complex and often misunderstood cultural phenomenon.

While it is not widely known in Australia, there is a third gender of people who make up an important and accepted part of Samoan culture.

Samoan Fa'afafine – or “Fafa” – are men who are raised as females and identify with that gender.

They mostly have relationships with heterosexual men and are generally not gay.

In Samoa, gender identity is largely based on a person’s role in the family and if one family has numerous sons and no daughters, it's not uncommon to raise one of the boys as a girl.



As one of the "Fa'afafine" I was not raised to be Fa'afafine I just WAS and simply left to be ME. My family did try to direct me towards more masculine pursuits but never forced me to be anything other than myself. They definately never pushed me to be more feminine or female. Defining "Fa'afafine" is neither black or white, which is the whole point. I'm greatfull that Leo, Ymania and I were able to share our stories and that to be truly happy you must standup and be true to yourself.





Published on Jul 16, 2013
Not really a boy, not really a girl, not traditionally 'trans' of any kind. Somewhere between all those identities exists a third gender. We're talking about the Samoan Fa'afafine or 'Fafa'.

Fafa have the body of a man but identify as female. They have relationships with heterosexual men mostly and are generally not gay.

Confusing?

Well not for the Samoan community - it's part and parcel of their culture. Gender identity for Samoans is about the role you play in the family not so much which anatomical bits you have. So when you've got 7 or 8 sons - no girls in the family, it's quite the norm to simply raise one of your boys as a girl.

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