(¯`'•.¸(¯`'•.¸A Lizzie Quizzie!¸.•'´¯)¸.•

From the blog Stopping Traffic


1. Would you rather interview or be interviewed?
I would rather interview, that way I don’t have to worry about answering.

2. Approximately how many jobs have you had? Fav? Least fav?
Since college? Two, this one has lasted 28 years! Since we got bought out a couple of years ago, this one is the least favored.

3. What is the best interview advice you have? :)
Relax, be yourself and don’t worry if you do not have the right answers, nobody does.

4. Would you rather work at home or away from home?
Close to home. I do not want to work at home, I like to be around people.

5. Have you taken any vacations this summer? If so, where?
Just long weekends to work on the cottage. In October I’m taking a week off to go to a conference in Provincetown.

6. What kind of lunchbox did you have in school?
Oh….. I don’t know if I can remember that far back, I think it was a metal Roy Rogers lunchbox.

7. What is your favorite kind of cookie?
Chocolate Chip

8. Besides mine (ahem), what is your favorite meme to play?
3X Thursday

9. On a scale from 1-10, how romantic are you?
Probability an 8.

10. Two's company, three's a ______________.
Party

Marriage is like a box of Trix: It’s for kids!

I came across this New York Times article from Helen Boyd’s blog (en)Gendered:

The article by Dan Savage rips into the decision by the courts that marriage is just for having children.

...At least the New York court acknowledged that many same-sex couples have children. Washington’s judges went out of their way to make ours disappear, finding that “limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples furthers procreation, essential to the survival of the human race, and furthers the well-being of children by encouraging families where children are reared in homes headed by the children’s biological parents.” Children, the decision continues, “tend to thrive in families consisting of a father, mother and their biological children.’’...

My comments are, do they require a fertility tests when you go to get your marriage licenses? Or do you have to wait until after your first born to be legally married?

...When my widowed grandfather remarried in his 60’s, he wasn’t seeking to further the well-being of his children, who were grown and out of the house. He was seeking the security, companionship and legal rights that marriage provides. The survival of humankind was the furthest thing from his mind....

When they get over this insanity and see that it is a question of Human Rights, that all people should be able to marry the person that they choose.
Read the whole New York Times article here.

Neat!

I was just reading the Fantasia Fair schedule and saw that they are having a concert by Namoli Brennet on Monday night at the Vixen. From what I heard on her web-site it sounds like it is going to be a good concert, it looks like she is playing at the Vixen during Woman’s Week and they held her over for Fantasia Fair. I like the Vixen because 1) its does not have loud music, only on the dance floor 2) it’s a lesbian bar so there are no men there, they are all down at the “A” House and most important 3) its only a couple of blocks from the B&B where I am staying, at midnight that’s important.

A Night Out on the Town

I went down to New London to visit some friends and go out to dinner last night. After dinner we walked around New London and went to a GLBT, well more G than anything else, night club. They were checking ID’s at the door and when I handed him my ID, he looks at it, looks at me, looks at the driver’s license, looks at me and says; “This isn’t your...... Oh sorry.” Ahh..... another day in the transworld. :-(

A Dilemma

I am torn over this; one side of me thinks it is a great idea, the other side says Whoa.
I went to another fund raiser for Lamont yesterday and while I was there I was talking to the head of a GLBT youth and family service organization, what we were talking about has me stumped. She was saying that there is a growing consensus among doctors that to treat trans youth that they should be able to start on hormones when they want to. The Standard of Care now has them waiting until eighteen and in the mean time delaying puberty.
One side of my brain thinks that’s a great idea and if it was offered to me back when I was thirteen or fourteen I would have jump for it in a blink of an eye. My logical side of my brain is saying; that’s way too early to make such a life altering decision.
I knew that I was different back when I was five or six and many people in the GLBT community that I have talked to knew that they were different back when they were that young. I know a couple teenagers who have transitioned in school and have had no major problems transitioning. I know one of them is on hormones and I don’t know if the other two are on hormones or not.
But the question remains; is it too young to start hormones? The earlier you start the better they work. Or should they wait, delay puberty and start hormones when they are eighteen? They could still transition when they want to but just not start hormones until they are eighteen.
I don’t know....... I just don’t know.

Thursday's Poem

The Fork in the Road

By Diana

I stand at a fork in the road. One path is worn smooth and well used, the other is rocky and rutted.

My old friends hail me as they walk past on the main road. My new friends say, don’t be afraid, that they will guide me around the rocky places.

Both paths vanish not far down the road, over a crest of a hill. Hiding their secrets of what lies ahead.

I think maybe that I can go down one for a ways and cut over to the other. But, between the two are brambles and thorns.

I look between the paths and know that I have to make a decision. I hesitate and don’t know which way to choose.

My reason pulls, towards the well-traveled road. My heart pulls the other way, towards the rocky road.

I must choose before it’s too late and time passes me by.

More of Those Silly Little Quizzes

3x Thursday

From Sweet Memes

1. How much email do you get on an average day? How much of it is spam?
90+ emails a day. Yikes! Of those emails only about five are not spam. Why so many? Well I am a director of a support group and our email addresses are on about 20 web-sites so a lot of spambots pick up our email addresses.


2. Can you imagine life without the internet? What kind of life did you lead before the internet became an everyday thing? Did it change much afterwards?
Oh yeah, back then I did a lot of reading and never went out. I was very closeted and it was the internet that showed me that there were a community of transpeople out there like me. Now I need an appointment calendar to keep track of everything going on.

3. What year did you start tinkering around on the internet? What did you do to pass the time? Do you still do it? Why/why not?
1979, yup that’s right I was on a dial up modem with a baud rate of 300 that was on Delphi Timeshare network. You could watch the characters load across the screen. I only was on for a short time. Then I dropped out of that because it was expensive, you had to pay for the long distance phone call. Then I started up again in ’99 and I am still going strong.


Bonus Question for Comments: Did you ever do anything online-community oriented? What was it? Do you still do it?
Yes, I am on about five e-groups and am the moderator of two of them. I am on two forums, one a TG support group and the other forum is a Prius forum. Plus I have a web-site on Geocites and a blog.

A quiz for grownups

Also from Sweet Memes


1. Assisted living or nursing home?
Assisted live. My aunt is in a nursing home on state support and I don’t want to go to a place like that.

2. What is your least favorite clinic to go to?
Actually any new doctor, I hate having to explain the meds that I am on. Everything is fine when I tell them my meds until I get Estradiol then you see a blank look on their face and I have to explain that I am TS.

3. If you won the lottery, which loan would you pay off first?
I would have to say themortgage also.

4. What do you want to be when your kids grow up?
No kids. That’s why I can retire at 60

5. Do you still remember who your first grade teacher was?
Nope

6. How many years has it been since you graduated?
From High School, 39 years

7. How many hours of sleep (including naps) do you need each day?
About 5 hours if I am lucky and I nap about half an hour at lunch.

8. Sex: weekly, monthly, or annually?
No comment.

9. Ex-lax or Metamucil?
If I had to choose; Ex-lax

10. Happiness is?
Winning the Powerball lottery.

A Must Read Blog

From time to time I check Becky’s Blog to see what she has to say which isn’t often, but when she does find something to say it usually sometime worthwhile. In her blog she has an article from Saloon that will stop and make you think, so read it here.

The Continuing Saga of My Foray into Politics

I have been working the phone banks at the Ned Lamont’s campaign office once a week for two hours at a time. I started off just doing it to be visible but now I am starting to get the excitement of working for a candidate.

Yesterday, I went to a fundraiser given by NOW for him, boy did I feel out of my league. There was the former Governor Wicker’s wife and a lot of other big wigs attending along with the media. Following the candidate everywhere he went were the video crews and reporters fighting to get close to him. When I was introduced to Ned Lamont they must had briefed him that I was working for him because he thanked me for helping out, so I guess my work (Being a visible Trannie) is paying off.

I did some good networking, met the president of Love Makes a Family and also the Vice President of NOW. I got interviewed by NPR, that was a first, having a microphone shoved in my face. The attendees were 99% woman with a couple of men and two trannies. The friend I was with was a lot better at working the crowd than I was, she was the one who broke the ice with people. Something I have never managed to be able to do, walk up to someone and make conversation. That is how we got to talk to the Vice President of NOW and thanking her for NOW support of the Anti-discrimination legislation.

One thing that I did notice that struck me funny, a good number of the people there had cell phone cameras. While the candidate and the other speakers were talking you see all these cell phones being held up taking pictures. The woman standing in front of me was taking a movie or sending live video with her phone.

Here is the Hartford Courant article about yesterday’s fundraiser.

Real Art Way Creative Cocktail Hour - Spot the Photo of Me

For all of you the wonder what I look like, you can see a photo of me here. Scroll down to the Creative Cocktail Hour photos and click on next slide, I am the third trannie from the left.
The art gallery is an avant-garde type gallery that features little known local artists and the gallery also has a small movie theater. On every third Thursday of the month they have a cocktail party which I usually attend and also a number of other TG’s attend also (If you look closely you can spot two other photos of my friends.).
When I first started going there I went because I like the atmosphere and it was a chance to go and mix with a straight crowd since there were only two of us there. I was using it like therapy to get use to going out in public and interacting with the straight community. Now there is about ten or twelve of us who attend and I don’t interact that much with the straight crowd.

More of Those Silly Little Quizzes

From Monday Madness


1. I won't eat past _____ o'clock in the evening.
I eat around the clock. If I wake in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep I take an Advil PM along with some food so it won’t irritate my stomach.

2. My favorite subject for photographing is _____.
Just about anything outdoors. I do not like to take portrait or wedding photos

3. I use _____ most often to edit my photographs.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0

4. If I'm having trouble sleeping, I usually _____.
See #1 above

5. When I'm hungry for a snack, I usually eat _____.
Fruit or anything else I find in the refrigerator.



Senior Year of High School Meme.


1. What year was it?
1967

2. What were your three favorite bands?
Grateful Dead, Doors and Pink Floyd

3. What was your favorite outfit?
Jeans with an old army jacket.

4. What was up with your hair?
How did you know that I had started loosing it then? ;-)

5. Who were your best friends?
The same ones that I still see today, we are all just older.

6. What did you do after school?
Science Club, cars and get in to trouble..

7. Did you take the bus?
No. My brother let me drive his 1965 MGB while he was away to college (Big Mistake!).

8. Who did you have a crush on?
Dorothy

9. Did you fight with your parents?
Naw, they always thought I was the good one and it was my brother who always got in to trouble. Little did they know!

10. Who did you have a CELEBRITY crush on?
No one

11. Did you smoke cigarettes?
Nope.

12. Did you lug all of your books around in your backpack all day because you were too nervous to find your locker?
No, you carried all your books. Boys under their arm and girls across their chest. I always thought it was much more practical to carry them across your chest, it kept them from falling, but you got called sissy if you did.

13. Did you have a 'clique'?
Yeah, but I was always on the fringe of the clique.

14. Did you have "The Max" like Zach, Kelly and Slater?
I have no idea what you are talking about. Are they hair cuts?

15. Admit it, were you popular?
No, see #13

16. Who did you want to be just like?
Dorothy

17. What did you want to be when you grew up?
An engineer.

18. Where did you think you'd be at the age you are now?
A millionaire

(¯`'•.¸(¯`'•.¸A Lizzie Quizzie!¸.•'´¯)¸.•

From the Blog Stopping Traffic


1) On a scale of 1-10, how well do you know html/css?
HTML = 9.5 CSS = 7.5 ( I took classes for web design )

2) What is your occupation (stay at homes, you rock!)? Do you like it?
Engineering supervisor. I did until we got bought out and now I am paper pusher. When I retire in two years I was thinking about going for my master’s in Social Work

3) Do you enjoy cooking? Are you good?
Yes and Yes, messy though

4) Are you working on any projects (not job related) right now? What?
I am working on Lamont’s primary campaign; he is running against Senator Lieberman.

5) How well do you swim?
Like a rock, I am so out of shape I would probability cramp up.

6) What is your favorite indulgence?
Seafood dinner – Steamers, New England Calm Chowder and a lobster with fresh corn on the cob.

7) Are you a starter, a finisher? Do you enjoy the process?
A starter, I get bored with what I am doing and don’t finish it.

8) Who is your favorite sports star?
Sports....... Bah Humbug. I couldn’t care less about sports

9) What is the last thing you MADE with your own two hands?
Well not really made, but I just did the electrical wiring for our cottage. It took a lot of pushing by my brother ( See #7 )

10) The ________ doesn't fall far from the tree.
apple

3x Thursday:

3x Thursday:

1. Since you're not a kid anymore, do you miss having a Summer Vacation? Why/why not?
No I don’t miss having the summer off; I think I would get bored now. I remember complaining to my mom around the end of August, “There’s nothing to do.”
Having more vacation time definitely.

2. What did 'Summer Vacation' mean to you as a kid? What was a typical summer like?
Playing in the woods in the back of our house, swimming in the brook by the dairy and then getting fresh ice cream at the dairy ice cream bar, riding our bikes into town ( well actually coasting down to town and walking our bikes back home, it was about 2 ½ miles all down hill to town which meant it was 2 ½ mile up hill to get home. ) and catching fireflies.

3. Did your family ever take trips together in the summer, or some other sort of summer tradition?
When I was little my father was a teacher so we did a lot of traveling. We went to all the Civil War battlefields east of the Mississippi and all the forts along the St. Lawrence River. We went from one end of U.S. 1 to the other, from Key West to Canada.
We also spent two weeks in a cottage on Lake Winnisquam in New Hampshire.

circa 1955..... Don't you just love my bathing suit?

Bonus Question for Comments: When you were a kid, what was the *best* thing about summer? Why?
Our house was out in country and woods were on three side of house. About a mile away was a mountain reserve where we used to go hiking, build tree forts and camping over night ( See my April 15 Blog entry ). Why? Well what else would a little boy want to do?

Thursday's Poem

Who We Are

I ask questions others would never dream
Looking at the world from a different side
Thinking thoughts that are deep
Looking far into my soul
Seeking answers from within
Looking for who I am
Searching for my true essence
Looking for my very being
Listening for that inner voice
Finding that spirit down inside
Who’ll tell me who I am

Can You say, "Proof Read"

I just went back and read what I wrote last night; My God it was horrible. Leaving words out, using me for my, etc.
I don’t know about you but I have a hard time proof reading what I just wrote, my brain fills in the words that I missed or doesn’t notice miss spellings because I know what I meant to say and my brain just skips over the errors. There might be some technical word or a disorder for that.

(¯`'•.¸(¯`'•.¸A Lizzie Quizzie!¸.•'´¯)¸.•

From "Stopping Traffic" blog;


1. On a scale from 1-10, how do you like the new TMI blog? Be honest. Any suggestions?
6.5.... No just kidding it looks ok. And the site works for me in IE 6.0, Netscape 7.1 and Firefox 1.0

2. Does your city have any special festivals? Do you go?
We have an annual country fair in October, I don’t go to it any more after going to it for over 20 years it’s old hat. But maybe this year i will go to it and enter some of my photos.

3. Have you ever had an elephant ear?
Nope, I didn’t know what they were until I just googled them.

4. How much water do you drink a day?
About a gallon, not counting soda or tea

5. Did you enjoy school? Do you miss it?
Hated it. Yeah, I am thinking about getting my Masters

6. How many different homes/apartments have you lived in during your lifetime?
Three. We moved for the first time when I was seven and I stayed there until a couple of years out of college.

7. Do you ever burn your own mixes?
At first I thought you meant about burning your own food. But then I realized that you ment CD's, no I don’t bother. I just listen to the radio.

8. Digital or 35mm?
Digital of course.

9. What's the best thing that could happen to you today?
Winnig Powerball tonight.

10. "Oh where, oh where has my little ____________ gone?" :)
piggy

Cool Link

Click on this link!
Read it carefully, it is not what you think it says.

Heat Wave

My computer room is on the second floor of the my house ( I have a contemporary cape ) and even with air conditioning it is roasting up here so I haven’t been on the computer all that much lately.
The weather through out the northeast has been sweltering; we are in the third day of a heat wave and it was 97 ^o today. Right now it is thundering off in the distant as a cool front is approaching and last Thursday a F1 or F2 tornado touched down in the southwestern part of the state. We have been having hit or miss severe thunder storms though the region.
As I said in is thundering and lighting and it’s getting closer so, so long for now.........

Ned Lamont's Stand on TLGB Issues

I just got back from working the phone banks for the Ned Lamont’s campaign. I back him not only on his stand against the war but also a large variety of other issues; the economy, educations, the environment and a number of other issues. But I think that his stand on GLBT rights is a little week.........

Marriage Equality & LGBT Issues

I am proud that Connecticut was one of the first states to legalize civil unions and remain hopeful that we will be one of the first to enact full marriage equality. Unlike Senator Lieberman, I would have opposed the Federal ‘Defense of Marriage Act’.

I support the strengthening of any Federal non-discrimination and Federal Hate Crimes legislation.

I believe that the rights enshrined in the United States Constitution belong to every American. Every American should be able to walk down the street free of violence, learn in a harassment-free environment, and work hard at their jobs without discrimination.

I will be a vigorous defender of our privacy rights. I believe that Americans should be able to make personal medical decisions and decisions about their private lives and their families without interference from the government. I support the appointment of judges who have demonstrated a commitment to protection of these rights for all Americans.

Do you see the word gender or gender expression? It is a very positive statement but I would have like to get it be “T” inclusive. At least he is opposed to the ‘Defense of Marriage Act’ and is in favor of marriage equality.

What's Your Personality Type?

Here is another one of those silly little quizzes, but they are fun to take.

You Are An ISFJ

The Nurturer You have a strong need to belong, and you very loyal. A good listener, you excell at helping others in practical ways. In your spare time, you enjoy engaging your senses through art, cooking, and music. You find it easy to be devoted to one person, who you do special things for. You would make a good interior designer, chef, or child psychologist.

What's Your Personality Type?

Hmmm... I think they came close. What say you all that know me, is it close?

How about this one........

BFI (Big Five Inventory)
Personality Test Results

Generously placed in the public domain by test author Oliver P. John, Ph.D, U.C. Berkeley
This Internet BFI report designed by William A. McConochie, PhD., Testmaster, Inc.

About The Report

The 'BIG FIVE' personality traits are the ones which underlie most others. These traits are about 50% inherited and 50% learned, and stay fairly stable from age 30 on. Higher scores on CONSCIENTIOUSNESS are associated with better school grades. Low scores on AGREEABLENESS may be associated with delinquency in teens and similar problems in adults. Higher scores on all scales are often associated with enjoying employment responsibilities and duties. Norms used for scoring include over 70,000 Americans ages 15-65 (S.D. Gosling & J. Potter, U.Tex., Austin) and several hundred teenagers, ages 12-17. Each person's scores are based on an appropriate gender and age group. Scores can be less than zero, e.g., -16, because they are standard (T) scores (mean of 50, standard deviation of 28). Percentiles are approximate.

Personal Data

Date: 7/14/2006
Name: Diana CeeDee
Age: over 54
Gender: Female

Personality Traits

Score Level: Low Average High
Percentile Level: Less Than 30 31 to 59 60 and Above

Trait Name T-Score Percentile Score
Conscientiousness -4
EASY-GOING, LAZY, DISORGANIZED, NOT DRIVEN

Agreeableness 77
EMPATHETIC, HELPFUL, PROMOTES COMPROMISE TO MAKE PEACE.

Extroversion 53
COMFORTABLE IN SOME SOCIAL SITUATIONS, AND CONVERSATIONS.

Openness 71
MUCH INTEREST IN NEW IDEAS, EXPERIENCES, TRAVEL, CHANGE, IMAGINATION.

Emotional Stress Tolerance 45
MODERATELY STABLE EMOTIONALLY, EVEN UNDER STRESS.

My First Poem

I am going to be publishing here from time to time my poems. As I was coming to accept myself I was charged with strong emotions and my emotions manifested in me in poems. So here is my very first poem!

Lady in the Mirror
Heart skips a beat.
      Stomach flutters.
            Breath is lost.
I see me.
      I am whole.
            I am one.

I seen life from both sides now..........

STANFORD:
Transsexual tackles sexism in sciences

Keay Davidson, San Francisco Chronicle Science Writer


Thursday, July 13, 2006

The debate over men's and women's roles in scientific research is drawing insights from an unusually well-qualified source, a Stanford scientist who has lived on both sides of the gender fence -- Ben A. Barres, a female-to-male transsexual.

In January 2005, then-Harvard President Lawrence Summers caused a brouhaha when he publicly suggested that women are naturally, perhaps genetically, less inclined than men to seek scientific careers. The furor climaxed with his resignation in February.

In an essay published in today's issue of the journal Nature, Barres charges that Summers' suggestion is sexist nonsense that exposes public and academic insensitivity to the severity of discrimination against female science students and scientists.

Barres, a neurobiologist at Stanford Medical School, knows what it's like to be a female scientist and a male one: He is a former female named Barbara who underwent a sex change nine years ago.

Since he became male, "people who don't know I am transgendered treat me with much more respect. I can even complete a whole sentence without being interrupted by a man," Barres writes in his Nature article.

Now 51, Barres grew up in New Jersey, where "I'd dress up like a football player for Halloween." The daughter of a salesman and a housewife, Barres recalls her mother gently smacking her legs to encourage her to sit more like a girl -- demurely, with her legs snugly together -- than like a boy with his legs and arms sprawling all over the chair.

As a girl, Barres sensed she was somehow different from other people. In retrospect, he said in an interview, he is amazed that he didn't realize he had something in common with the many highly publicized transsexuals of the 1960s through the 1980s, such as male-to-female transsexual tennis player Renee Richards and Caroline Cossey, a fashion model and James Bond girl.

"I thought these people were freaks," Barres admitted thinking at the time.

A decade ago, Barres developed breast cancer and had a double mastectomy. When a surgeon advised her she could undergo surgery to regain breast tissue, she fired back, "No way!"

"I was so delighted to have my breasts cut off," he recalled as he lounged in an easy chair in his Stanford office Tuesday.

For decades, the most highly publicized transsexuals have been males to females. They include such notables as former top computer scientist Lynn Conway of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, who is now a professor of electrical engineering and computer science at the University of Michigan, Stanford biology professor and author Joan Roughgarden, and University of Illinois economist Deirdre McCloskey.

The big turning point for Barres came in 1997, when she "got really excited" while reading in The Chronicle about James Green, an Oakland native and female-to-male transsexual. Inspired, Barres consulted with a local specialist on sex reassignment, who began treating her with testosterone to masculinize her body.

She became he: With dark body hair and some thinning on top, Barres would be indistinguishable from most any middle-aged man except for one notable difference: He looks more like 31 than 51.

At Stanford, Barres is a tenured professor of neurobiology who studies cells of the nervous system. He also acts as a mentor to students eager to pursue scientific careers.

So he was flabbergasted by Summers' remarks in early 2005. Barres was even more stunned when some well-known male academics either defended the president's remarks or accused those who criticized him of repressing his free speech.

"Like many women and minorities ... I am suspicious when those who are at an advantage proclaim that a disadvantaged group of people is innately less able," Barres wrote in his four-page essay for Nature.

He said he's haunted by memories of sexist bigotry during his female youth: "As an undergrad at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology," Barres wrote, "I was the only person in a large class of people of nearly all men to solve a hard math problem, only to be told by the professor that my boyfriend must have solved it for me. I was not given any credit."

In his essay, Barres calls for specific efforts to improve science opportunities for female students and academics, including running fair job searches, improving women's chances of winning research grants, and making it easier for women to cover day care costs for their children.

It's also helpful to cultivate male supporters, he said. "It has been 30 years since I was a medical student," Barres recalled, "but I still recall with gratitude the young male student who immediately complained to a professor who had shown a slide of a nude pinup in his anatomy lecture."

Barres also treasures memories of his Harvard doctoral supervisor, David Corey, who encouraged the shy Barres to imitate aggressive male students by approaching distinguished scientific lecturers and asking them questions. Barres said such forthrightness pays off in any career, including science.

"Life, even in science, is a popularity contest," Barres observed.

My only comment is that since he is Trans, did that affect his going into Math and Neurobiology?
It is something I always wondered about myself, how much my being Trans influenced my photograph and love of art. I always thought that I should have been a girl way back when I was five or six and I believe that for what ever reason my brain was partly femininized before birth. If that is true, how was my outlook on life changed because of that?
As for the discrimination that he found as a woman, I do believe everything he said is true then and now. The glass ceiling is true and I believe boys are steered toward business and the sciences.

Fantasia Fair

I made reservation at the Carpe Diem Bed and Breakfast where I will be staying for Fantasia Fair. Fantasia Fair is a week long Transgender Conference in Province town, it is the only conference like it on the East Coast and has been around since 1975. It is part conference and part Party and all the other conferences, except one, are in hotels and only last a few days. Fantasia Fair on the other hand last a whole week and is spread out over the whole of Provincetown.
In October, Provincetown has men’s week, women’s week, trans week and than leather week. I usually go up at the end of women’s week because a lot of the bars are still open and close down once women’s week is over ( There are, I would guess, 200 or 300 lesbians in town vs. only 100 -150 trans ), so P’town is really hopping when I first get up there and then it quiets down with only the Vixen, the Crown and Anchor and the A House staying open.

Picasa Web Album

I just uploaded my photos to Picasa Web Album where all of the photos that I posted here, plus many more that I didn’t post are now stored. I looked for a place on the web where I could store my photographs and the Google Picasa Web Album seemed to be one of the best. So go and take a look.

States pass laws protecting 'fetal rights'

How's your blood pressure today?

I found this posted on the (en)gender forum.........

States pass laws protecting 'fetal rights'


By RICK MONTGOMERY
Kansas City Star
In Arkansas, lawmakers are considering making it a crime for a pregnant woman to take a drag off a cigarette.
In Utah, a woman serves 18 months' probation for child endangerment after refusing to undergo a Caesarean section to save her twins, one of whom died. In Wisconsin and South Dakota, authorities can haul pregnant women into custody for abusing alcohol or drugs.
And July 1 in Alabama, Brody's Law took effect. It enables prosecutors to level two charges against anyone who attacks a pregnant woman and harms her fetus.
Are these common-sense measures to protect America's most helpless citizens-to-be -- or something else?
Abortion-rights groups see this wave of "fetal protectionism" as a setup to make a fetus a person, entitled to constitutional rights, contrary to how the Supreme Court ruled in Roe v. Wade.
But anti-abortion forces -- plus some groups with no stake in the fetal-rights debate -- say it's a no-brainer that society do whatever it can to keep developing babies safe and healthy.
"It's an economic issue and a public-health issue," said state Rep. Bob Mathis, an Arkansas Democrat who touts a record backing abortion rights and recently floated the idea of a smoking ban during pregnancy.
A tragedy in Wichita last month underscored the intractable politics at work.
The killing of 14-year-old Chelsea Brooks, who was nine months pregnant, became a political cause celebre after her family learned that the state could not file homicide charges in the death of Alexa -- the daughter Chelsea was carrying. Three people, including her boyfriend, have been charged in Chelsea's killing, which authorities say was a murder for hire.
Legislative inaction this year on a fetal-homicide bill kept Kansas from joining more than 30 states, including Missouri, where murder laws include the unborn as legal victims.
The anti-abortion group Kansans For Life leapt on the controversy, accusing Senate moderates and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of "kowtowing" to abortion-rights forces by stalling a bill that might have given Chelsea's family the justice it sought.
"Two lives were taken from us," Chelsea's mother said in a statement to the media. "We will do whatever it takes to make sure that the law, in the future, recognizes all life."
Critics of fetal-rights legislation see a slippery slope in the making. In some states, prosecutors have turned such laws against mothers whose behavior -- typically methamphetamine or crack use -- may have contributed to a stillbirth or to costly birth defects.
Taken further, could authorities charge pregnant women who reject a doctor's advice to take prenatal vitamins and then miscarry? How about banning them from playing sports? And why not punish alcoholic men whose addiction, studies show, could affect sperm and produce birth defects?
"What we're seeing is a political trend in which the fetuses are coming first, and the rights of women... are coming last," said Lynn Paltrow, executive director of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women.
"I think 30 years of anti-abortion rhetoric --'women killing their babies' -- has led to a moral vilification that doesn't just stick to those who seek to terminate a pregnancy. It's spreading to all pregnant women."
Still, many courts have been uneasy about how far fetal rights can go.
Saying prosecutors overreached, a Texas appeals court last year unanimously threw out the convictions of two women charged under the state's Prenatal Protection Act for "delivering" cocaine and methamphetamine to their babies through the umbilical cord.
"It makes sense that if a woman's right to privacy encompasses decisions regarding procreation, such as contraception and abortion, it should also include decisions regarding health during pregnancy," wrote Chicago lawyer Erin Linder in the September issue of University of Illinois Law Review.
Even Mathis, the Arkansas legislator, harbors doubts about the state's ability to enforce an anti-smoking law. "The more I think about it... you might end up with a fat lip" if police approach a smoker who is overweight but not pregnant, he said.
In Kansas, fetal-rights advocates pushed a homicide bill that took the mother out of the equation.
Bill 2300 -- overwhelmingly passed by the House in March 2005 -- specifically excluded abortion and "any act committed by the mother of the unborn child" from the law's reach.
It contained, however, a clause that made moderates suspicious: "As used in the Kansas criminal code, 'person' and 'human being' also mean an unborn child."
State Sen. John Vratil, a Republican and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the bill landed, said the language "makes it an abortion bill (because) it would implicitly indicate that life begins at conception."
In any case, his committee received the bill from the House in late March -- too late, he said, for senators to schedule a hearing before the end of the spring session.
Another Republican judiciary committee member, conservative Sen. Phil Journey, is dubious of Vratil's explanation.
"I brought it up at the beginning of the session and was promised the bill would get a hearing," Journey said. "Now the bill is dead -- and so is Chelsea's baby."
So goes the tenor of the debate.
Said Vratil: "Given the history of abortion and the controversial nature of the debate, I don't think you can fashion a bill" that would make killing an unborn child a crime -- and satisfy both sides with the terms.

TMI Tuesday

From the blog "Stopping Traffic"

1. When was the last time someone hit on you? What went down?
So long ago it is hard to remember.

2. Would you rather drive or be driven? :)
Be driven, I am always driving, just once I would like to be driven.

3. On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied are you with your sex life?
Can you use minus numbers? Do you know how hard it is to find a woman who is interested in a transwoman?

4. Do you believe someone can truly be bisexual?
Yes, I even know the president of a local Bi group

5. How often do you feel guilty or ashamed after a sexual experience?
See #3

Bonus (as in "optional"): Do you feel female homosexuality is more accepted than male? Why?
I don’t know, but I do know it is getting to be more acceptable to be Gay or Lesbian and we are working on Trans.

(¯`'•.¸(¯`'•.¸A Lizzie Quizzie!¸.•'´¯)¸.•

From the blog "Stopping Traffic"

1. Have you ever been to a summer camp?
Yes, my parents sent me to summer day camp and I hated it.

2. Do you have any of your own artwork hanging on your walls in your home?
Yes, my photographs.

3. Sunburn or tan? Sunglasses or hat?
Tan, I use a LOT of suntan lotion. Skin Cancer runs in my family. Sunglasses, a hat is too hot especially with a wig on.

4. Do you own a shredder?
Yes, but it is broken.

5. What do you normally eat for breakfast?
Cold cereal with fruit.

6. Who was your childhood hero?
The Lone Ranger.

7. What is on your key ring?
My car key, my house key and my brother’s condo key. All my other keys ( about a dozen ) are on a key ring I keep in the car.

8. Do you own a pool or belong to one?
Nope, but we have a cottage on a lake ( Does that count? ).

9. On a scale from 1-10, how funny are you? :)
5

10. What is the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?
I have no idea.

Working the Phone Bank

Well I just got back from working the phones for Ned Lamont campaign, I survived! I never worked for a campaign before so this was a new experience for me and it went OK. Of course I was nervous going in, me being the only trannie and also the first time at a campaign so it was only nature to be nervous. I made about a hundred phone calls to registered Democrats, most were answering machines, one person was rude and one person wouldn’t shut up. She kept going on and on how she thought Ned Lamont was so great. I didn’t want to hang up be rude on her so I just kept on agreeing with her and making positive sounds. She talked for about five minutes and everyone else in the room started to giggle as I sat there going um hun........ yes most definitely......... yes ....... um hun...... oh yes........
So the Trannie Flag got waved. But over all it was fun and I signed up to do it again next Monday

Gay Kids Coming Out Earlier

The local newspaper had this syndicated article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about GLBT youth coming out at a earlier age and I thought that it fitted in with my post on the True Colors picnic.
Here is the article.

True Colors Picnic

I went to the True Colors picnic yesterday; True Colors is a non-profit organization for GLBT Youth. They sponsor a mentoring program, family consoling program, a youth drop in center, they work with the state to find homes for GLBT kids and they do educational outreach to the non-GLBT community. They also host the largest GLBT youth conference in the U.S. (I don’t think there is another conference like it in the U.S. This year the two day attendance was over 2,000.).
I had the honor and privilege to do outreach with them and to help out at the conference this year, it always gives me a sense of pride to do volunteer work for them. It makes me feel that I am actually doing something to help the GLBT community that my little help will do something to help out the next generation of GLBT kids. Besides it’s a great group of people to work with.
So if you are looking for something to do with your spare time why don’t you volunteer to help them out.

The Christian Left

We constantly hear out the Religious Right stand against GLBT rights and a lot of people don’t believe that we have that backing of any Christians; well I came across this interesting article in the Houston Voice...........

Black churches reach acceptance for gays 102 congregations join inaugural ‘Faithful Call’ event for LGBT equality

By JOSHUA LYNSEN
Saturday, July 08, 2006
More than 100 churches, most with predominantly black congregations, stood up last month for gays and gay rights as part of a nationwide event to bring gay worshippers into the fold.
Faithful Call to Justice, held in churches and synagogues across the nation June 24 and 25, was supported by a wide variety of denominations, including Baptist, Catholic and the United Church of Christ. The event was organized by the National Black Justice Coalition.
Organizers said the event’s theme — that gays have “God-given rights to life, love, liberty, and equal justice under the law” — reached more than 100,000 people.
Rev. Michael Eric Dyson, chair of the coalition’s religious advisory board, said sermons given at the 102 participating churches reflected God’s love for all.
“Too often, our pulpits and places of worship can transform into soapboxes for bigotry,” he said. “I try to speak out against venomous characterizations of LGBT folk, especially those of color, and help them speak truth to power.”
Dyson said churches, especially those located in black communities, must continue to welcome and affirm gay members and visitors.
“We all need affirmation, and as black people of all backgrounds, if we can’t find that through religion and faith, where else should we turn?” he said. “It’s time to heal, and love, and truly seek justice for all.”
Supporting gay rights
Churches that participated in Faithful Call signed a statement supporting gays and gay rights.
“As faith leaders, we acknowledge the spiritual worth of our gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and same-gender loving brothers and sisters,” the statement says. “We welcome their fellowship in worship, and we affirm their God-given rights to life, love, liberty, and equal justice under the law.”
Churches from New York to Los Angeles were asked to demonstrate their support by delivering a sermon, or offering other messages, that affirmed gay rights.
Faithful Call organizers said many of the sermons were extemporaneous, and were unable to provide any transcripts.
But Rev. Ricc Rollins, pastor of Breath of Life Fellowship Community Church in Tampa, Fla., said he challenged his predominantly gay congregation to be true to themselves and their neighbors.
“The mainstream church community is so quick to talk about the homosexual lifestyle,” he said. “It is so important that we let people know that this is not a preference, nor a lifestyle. It is who we are.”
Rollins also asked his congregation to seek and welcome straight worshippers, just as predominantly straight congregations should seek and welcome gay worshippers.
“It’s the Lord’s house,” he said. “No one should feel uncomfortable in the Lord’s house.”
Mandy Carter, a coalition board member who attended a Faithful Call worship service in Charlotte, N.C., said she had “an absolutely amazing time.”
“On my drive back home to Durham,” she said, “I remember feeling that my heart and spirit were full.”
Some churches opposed event
But while many black churches joined in Faithful Call, others declined to participate. Rue said the NBJC invited hundreds of churches to participate. Many pastors didn’t respond. Others expressed outright opposition.
She said one coalition ally advocated a “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy on gay parishioners and was against them openly identifying themselves.
Among the churches that participated, Rue said Faithful Call was well received.
She said there were no indications that attendance or offerings were down at participating churches during Faithful Call weekend.
“It really excited a lot of people,” Rue said. “It got a lot of interest. There really was a buzz out there about it.”

I hope that they raise their voices so that others can hear their message.

A New Frontier

The lobbing training that I went to stressed getting involved in campaigns and be seen. Well on Monday I am going to work for the Lamont campaign, for those of you who are not from Connecticut, Lamont is running against Senator Lieberman for the U.S. Senate seat.
The top three reasons I chose to help Lamont instead of Lieberman are;

1. Lieberman strong position on the war in Iraq, Lieberman in my opinion is so far to the right he makes the President seem like a Left Winger.

2. Lieberman stand on the environment, he voted for the Republican energy bill (The one where the Vice President negotiated with the energy lobbies in secret.) which took away the states control of where energy facilities can be located in a state and turned them over to the federal government. As a result we are getting a natural gas plant right in the middle of Long Island Sound. The bill also increases energy conservation funding at the expense of other energy alternative programs that were cut.

3. Lieberman wants to regulate television and video game content, I do not believe that the Federal government should set the standard that it should be up to the individual to decide what the want to see or hear. Are we going back to the days of George Carlin’s “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television" that the Supreme Court ruled were not obscene?

So for those three reasons I decided to go and work the phone banks for Ned Lamont’s campaign.

New York & Georgia

I was trying to think of a topic to write about tonight when the New York Court of Appeals and the Georgia Supreme Court handed me the topic. In each state they rejected a bid for marriage equality.

The Globe and Mail
July 6, 2006

New York, Georgia hand setback to same-sex unions

MARK JOHNSON
Associated Press
ALBANY, N.Y. — The top courts in two U.S. states dealt a setback Thursday to the movement to legalize gay marriage, with New York's highest court ruling that same-sex unions are not allowed under state law and the Georgia Supreme Court reinstating a voter-approved ban on gay marriage.
In New York, the Court of Appeals said in a 4-2 decision that the state's marriage law is constitutional and clearly limits marriage to a union between a man and a woman.
Any change in the law would have to come from the state Legislature, Judge Robert Smith said.
“We do not predict what people will think generations from now, but we believe the present generation should have a chance to decide the issue through its elected representatives,” Judge Smith wrote.
In Georgia, the state Supreme Court reversed a lower court's ruling, deciding unanimously that the ban did not violate the state's single-subject rule for ballot measures. The ban had been approved by 76 per cent of voters in 2004.
Massachusetts is the only state that allows gay marriage, although Vermont and Connecticut allow same-sex civil unions that confer the same legal rights. Forty-five states have barred same-sex marriage through statutes or constitutional amendments.
The New York decision said that legislators have a legitimate interest in protecting children by limiting marriage to heterosexual couples and that the law does not deny homosexual couples any “fundamental right” since same-sex marriages are not “deeply rooted in the nation's history and tradition.”
“It's a sad day … ,” said plaintiff Kathy Burke of Schenectady, who is raising an 11-year-old son with her partner, Tonja Alvis. “My family deserves the same protections as my next door neighbors.”
The state had prevailed in lower appeals courts.
The lawsuit over the Georgia ban focused on the wording of the ballot measure that voters approved.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs had argued that the ballot language addressed more than one issue and that it was misleading because it asked voters to decide on both same-sex marriage and civil unions, separate issues about which many people had different opinions.
State officials held that Georgians knew what they were voting on when they overwhelmingly approved the ballot measure.
In New York, 44 couples acted as plaintiffs in a series of lawsuits filed two years ago after the Massachusetts decision legalizing gay marriage sparked gay marriage controversies across the country.
With little hope of getting a gay-marriage bill signed into law in Albany, advocates marshalled forces for a court fight. Among the plaintiffs were the brother of comedian Rosie O'Donnell and his long-time partner.
Plaintiff Regina Cicchetti said she was “devastated” by the ruling. But the Port Jervis resident said she and her partner of 36 years, Susan Zimmer, would fight on, probably by lobbying the legislature for a change in the law.
“We haven't given up,” she said. “We're in this for the long haul. If we can't get it done for us, we'll get it done for the people behind us.”
In a dissent, Chief Judge Judith Kaye said the court failed to uphold its responsibility to correct inequalities when it decided to simply leave the issue to the legislature.
“It is uniquely the function of the Judicial Branch to safeguard individual liberties guaranteed by the New York State Constitution, and to order redress for their violation,” she wrote. “The court's duty to protect constitutional rights is an imperative of the separation of powers, not its enemy. I am confident that future generations will look back on today's decision as an unfortunate misstep.”
Top courts in Washington state and New Jersey are also deliberating cases in which same-sex couples argue they have the right to marry, and a handful of other states have cases moving through lower courts.

For Georgia, it was to be expected in the heart of Redneck Country. But New York the court backed down from their responsibility .....“that the law does not deny homosexual couples any “fundamental right” since same-sex marriages are not “deeply rooted in the nation's history and tradition.”..... Well tell me wasn’t segregation “deeply rooted in the nation's history and tradition.”? Wasn’t the ban on interracial marriage “deeply rooted in the nation's history and tradition.”? Wasn’t the ban on divorce “deeply rooted in the nation's history and tradition.”? Bah........
Go back and read what Chief Judge Judith Kaye said, she got it right. I just hope when it is time for Connecticut Supreme Court to get the marriage equality cases that they have the courage to stand up and do the right thing.

War Is Not A Game

I found this on the blog "Not THAT Different" and I thought it worth sharing.........






The song made me think of Bob Dylan’s song “Blowin’ In the Wind”, Pete Seeger’s song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” and all the other the protest songs of my generation.

Summer Meme

Summer Meme; from “A ‘Text-book Good’ Visit”

Favorite summer flower: Black Eye Susans.
Flavor of ice cream or tofutti: Pistachio
Mode of transportation: Foot.
Music: The Dixie Chicks’s – I heard a couple of their songs and it sounded interesting.
Food: Easy.... Lobster, Steamer, New England Clam Chowder and Corn on the Cob.
Favorite game to play: Backgammon
Earliest childhood summer memory: Vacationing on Lake Winnipesaukee.
Favorite Drink: Lemon Iced tea with mint.
Favorite Snack: Blueberries.
Place to read: Up at the cottage.

Most annoying: Loud Car Stereos!
How I handle the heat: I don’t!
Pet Peeve: Leaving the Toilet seat up
All-time favorite bathing suit: My current bathing suit. But I want to get a two piece, bikini to and a skirted bottom.
Best Time of Day: Dinner time. (Maybe that’s why I have such a hard time losing weight.)
Most romantic: Walking on leaf covered lane.
Summer movie: American Graffiti at a Drive-In Theater
Best for sex: No comment.

Forth of July Weekend

I am back from the cottage and things went well with the family. We got a lot done and there still is a lot more to be done. Ugh! My brother had the bright idea of renting the cottage out for a week so all the work has to be done by the end of July, which it won’t be. It will be livable; the downstairs walls are not painted or taped, but up stairs will be pretty much done.
So you are all wondering what it looks like, before (I dug that picture from mid-eighties), during and after (The dock in the foreground was added a good number of years ago.) we raised it up to add a basement. It was suppose to be a small project to get rid of the moister from the crawl space under the cottage but it turned into a major project ( Why don’t we add a rec room $Cha Ching$, Why don’t’ we add some more bedrooms $Cha Ching$.........).




This weekend the weather was beautiful and we ate our meals out on the deck, something we couldn’t do before because the deck was too small ( The deck was another “Oh since have to have stairs why don’t we make the deck bigger, $Cha Ching$ ). While we were having our breakfast this morning a pontoon plane took off ( Somebody down the other end of the lake has one. ) and when it landed about twenty minutes later it flew right over our heads at tree top level.

Why Do I Care?

In the previous posting I talk about what would my high school friends think about me when they find out I’m Trans and I ask myself, “Why do I care?” Well I think that I care because we all want to feel liked and when we find out that we are not liked it hurts us. We don’t want to be the back yard over the fence subject of the gossip, “Pssst......... Have heard about Don? He wants to be a woman!”
Why do I care what people I don’t see in twenty years think? I really don’t care about strangers talking about me, but it is people who I grew up with and that’s different. It hurts a little bit more. I think we are programmed to be social animals and when we get pushed away it is hard to handle. We were accepted into the tribe so to speak in high school and you are always marked with the brand of that tribe through out our lives. You meet someone from high school and it is, “Oh yeah, you use to hang out with Tom and Bill and that group.” You were known by your friends and I fear that once they found out I am Trans I would be ostracized from the group.
I think one thing you must learn about being Trans is how to handle rejection and on that thought I will leave it and head off to NH for the long weekend.