G.I.F.T.

Sorry Nathan! I haven't posted forever because... well there wasn't really anything for me to post about, lest I'd go through all of the semester. Before I do that, I'd like to mention some things about what happened in the past week or so.

The big thing was that my school LGBT club called Spectrum hosted a discussion panel with the Office of Multicultural Affairs and a few others. What was the topic of the panel, you ask? "Where is the T in LGBT?" :3

I sat in the back and filmed the entire thing on a small camera. I'm afraid I got the back of people's heads and the main composition was bad (as my wrist started giving out about half way through and started twitching awkwardly)... but still, I got the audio, which was the important thing. Anyway, the panel was mostly about trans-awareness and had a bunch of trans women and men in the audience and in the panel. First time I've ever been in the company of other transwomen, and I was a tad nervous to say the least. The panel talked about hate crimes against trans people, the struggles they go through, and recent legislation in my state to have laws against hate crimes. It was immensely interesting to say the least :)

So, after the panel I chatted it up with one of the transmen, Jake. If he hadn't mentioned that he was trans I wouldn't have known... which makes me think that passing as a transman is much easier than transwomen, since most of them in the audience were older than me by about 40 years (at least), and looked a bit like men. I tried not to stare, since thats commonly considered rude, and for god sakes I didn't want to do or say anything awkward that'd ban me from the community.

Anyway, I commented to Jake about if there was any evidence to support the idea that a majority of transwomen entered the military, since one of the comments after the panel briefly mentioned it. He started to talk about the subject as if I was new to the entire thing- as if I wasn't in the community. I was nervous to say that I was in the community, since there were a few friends still lingering around. So I casually said stuff like "Oh yeah, I read that on a forum I frequent" and I eventually flat out mentioned the work I do to support trans-people in Second Life. He got that part immediately, and pointed me to some local resources. He gave me his business card and told me about the local trans group (its meeting is this week, so I'm definitely going!) and all kinds of things. We joked around a bit and it was really kinda fun. After I told him vaguely that I was basically in the same boat, I noticed that I was able to open up a bit and show off a bit of my feminine side- something I hardly do in real life. It felt good for once :)

So I went around to the people who were left, talked to a younger transwoman on the panel and congratulated her on speaking that night. I also talked to the head of the local trans support group (who I wouldnt have guessed was trans, giving me hope for myself :) ), and she told me where it was and local landmarks to help me find it.

"Its right by the Chinese Restaurant on Mills Ave." She said
"Oh, I love Chinese!" I said
"Well, the reason why I say that is because if you park in their parking lot you will be towed... they don't seem to like us over there."
"Oh... well, atleast I have dinner plans for that night atleast ^_^;"

(the name of the support group is GIFT)

The rest of the night went smoothly. A couple people whom I told I was trans was there and congratulated me on coming. One of them was a girl in Spectrum whom set up the discussion in the first place- making me think the entire thing was for me anyway.


Er. Besides that nothing else has been going on. I've been going to my therapist about all this stuff, and I've started to take DHT blockers to help my hair grow back. Also I've been taking some medicine to help me stop having hallucinations... hopefully it'll work.

Adios!