My First Time as Rachel in Public

My first time in public was at an open air mall. I was probably semi passable, i.e. not terribly, but enough so that I wasn’t harassed or attracting open stares (in my sight!) from passers by. It was early in 2013 and a good nine months before I started HRT. Even though I wasn’t terribly……

School support for LGBTQ+ students

First there’s a lot we can do to reduce the need for those services by teaching respect and understanding in the home and in school classes and assemblies. The Trevor Project’s statistics show starkly how bad things are for LGBTQ+ students even today. We should endeavor to accommodate trans student’s needs in bathrooms and locker……

Gender Transition

It should be understood first that the primary transition is one of sex, and the secondary transition is a shorter one of pseudo male to female. The second really depends on the person, as soon as one recognizes and acknowledges that one’s “true” gender is female, I would claim a mental transition starts. At least……

Transition and GRS work well

A question that appears fairly often on Quora is about whether people regret transition and in particular GCS. The question is a good one from a lay viewpoint since even a naive knowledge realizes that such surgery is largely irreversible. The focus is, like many of these questions, on the MtF transitioner, ignoring FtM. FtM……

Being Self Confident

Wow, that really didn’t make sense to me for the longest time. Either it was a technical subject I know, in which case I claim my ground to the extent I have expertise, or it’s some other sphere and it was a foreign concept in many ways. A foreign language. When it comes to being……

Writing

I’ve started writing what I’m told is termed “creative non-fiction”. It’s based on my story but isn’t quite my story. It’s truthful, but details, names and places are changed, and conversations are changed to advance the “plot” as it were. I’m finding the writing process interesting, if not also a bit cathartic. It’s giving me……

What’s wrong with the US?

When Pakistan passes a transgender right’s bill and the United States president is doing his best to role back what few federal protections were passed under president Obama, there’s something drastically wrong. It is literally, not figuratively now  the case that a transgender person would have more protected rights in Pakistan than in much of……

Advice on obtaining GCS

You need to follow the standards of care set out by WPATH. You will have to be living full time for a minimum of a year and on HRT for at least a year if there is no medical reason not to. You will need recommendation letters from a therapist or psychologist plus a medical……

How I Waited to Transition

For many years before I came out I not only knew I was transgender but was having some real degree of struggle with it. Over the years I found various coping mechanisms. Early, when I was twenty one I took dance classes in ballet. They allowed that feminine side of me an expression. I wasn’t……

Has the Show “New Girl” Jumped the Shark?

Here I am, far afield. I’m no media critic, but I am a long time fan of the show New Girl. I’ve always enjoyed the main character played by Zooey Deschanel. I sometimes wonder if she started the style of light wing back glasses we see a lot of these days. The writing until last season……