Where do I go?

[maybe_amanda]

I think what information that is available must vary by region. There was absolutely no teaching of gender disorders where I grew up. Very conservative smaller city.

[Jessie_Heart]

I think what information that is available must vary by region. There was absolutely no teaching of gender disorders where I grew up. Very conservative smaller city.

I think that in alot of cases people had to seek out the information they found (I know I did) which may sound easy but first you have to know what to look for such as terms to use or ways to describe it. and second you have to know where to look and what may seem obvious to some isn't quite as clear to others!

[Tinagirl]

Greetings!

Hi, im new here. My name's Tina... Dont want to bore anybody with long introductions, so if you want to know more about me just check my site at www.tina.co.za.    Im 34 and live in South Africa. I'm almost 2 years post-op now.

This subject is very interesting to me because i have a good friend called Stef who transitioned late in life. She was married to a woman as a man for over 50 years, waiting until the wife passed away about four years ago before going to see a doctor about transitioning. She had her SRS three years ago... at the tender young age of 80! At her age (now 83) she is an inspiration to me and my circle of TS friends (we are all in our 20's and 30's). She has an active social life, drives herself around and takes care of herself. (In fact, she has had a more exciting dating life than me! She prefers young um, toy boys in their, er... 60's!)

I must admit i am glad i only waited till i was 26 before i went full time, and many times i regret not having the guts to transition sooner, but at least i didnt wait that long! It could have been worse. I could have been 80. 

Anyway, i hope to hear from some people on this site and maybe i could even make some friends here?

Regards

Tina

[Jessie_Heart]

Hi Tina

I just wanted to welcome you and to let you know you friend Stef has just become my newest hero!!

[maybe_amanda]

Hi Tina! Great website!

I thought the clock was ticking, good to know I have about 35 years to find myself!

[cindybc]

Hi Berliegh

Well for one thing I was raised in a small town pop 6000 and did hear some not to nice stuff about ->-bleeped-<-s and what people would like to do to them, and I sure hopped I wasn't one of them. So I didn't identify with ->-bleeped-<-s, the only trans label I was aware of then. But some time when my name came up in a conversation mom use to say, "oh, you mean my little berdache." So I guess my mom knew. She knew about the dressing up and never said a thing to anyone. But unfortunatly I never learned what transsexuality was until about ten years ago. Incredible yes. Possibly I had heard of the word but it had never registered in my mind until ten years ago that it may apply to me.

Cindy   

[Karla B]

I still have some of my old school stuff and looked into it, nope there wasn't anything about GID. I even checked some of my old websters Dictionarys, again nothing about Gid. There's one copy that I have, the last revised printing of it was 1969, No Gid.
I do remember during Personal Developement classes touching on the subject of Homosexuality.  Maybe in some kind of psycology classes they might of touched the subject but in regular classes there was no mention of Gid. "They" probably didn't think it was worth putting in the teaching schedule.
So if you didn't know it exsisted, you didn't know what questions to ask either, much less know that you might have it.
I believe that it exsisted for 60 years, or probably as long as man has, people just didn't know what it was and didn't really care.

Back in the day of the Quakers,if you had gid, They might of burned you at the stake for being possessed by the devil or being a witch.

[Dennis]

But some time when my name came up in a conversation mom use to say, "oh, you mean my little berdache." So I guess my mom knew.
Cindy   

That's cute. Was your mum first nations?

Dennis

[cindybc]

Hi Tina

Welcome to Susan's "wow!" makes me feel like I'm just a kid in comparison. Well sometimes I act like I'm a kid, I don't think I will ever grow up and to tell the truth I don't intend to. Well I just popped in for a second to read the posts and will take a look at your site a bit later.

______________________________________________________________________________

Hi Dennis
Yep part Iroquois and French but I grew up among the Ojibwa people, I guess the Ojibwa people kind of adopted me into their band in the Shawanaga reservation , they knew about that part of me although I hadn't come out yet. This was in the Parry Sound area of Ontario. My soul mate and I now presently live in BC.

Cindy

Posted on: September 25, 2007, 06:15:31 PMHi Karla B

That sounds much like the same scenario as myself. They, other kids, when I was in school knew there was something different, the mannerisms and characteristics just don't fit the gender you are supposed to be, timid quiet and shy, and when you get tagged as different at school it just not an easy thing to live with and as a result I was pretty well a loner. I didn't know why I was different and even after I got into my twenties I was pretty well a loner except for the time I tried to show I was just as much of a guy as they were but that didn't fly to well and again was a loner except for  when I was on the res. I was accepted there.

I liked fantasising I was a girl and even dressed as one on different occasions but I never really find out about what Transsexuality was until about 10 years ago.

Cindy

 

[Kate]

Where were you living Cindy, the artic? ....lol....gender dysphoria has been widely known for a good few 50 or 60 years and I was taught about it at school when I was 15.

Maybe things were different here in the US? We never talked about anything remotely sexual in school when I was growing up. I eventually heard about Christine Jorgeson when I was fairly young, but in my mind that made TWO of us in the world now... I had no idea it was a "condition" many people suffered from.

Television pretty much focused on outrageous behavior and drag queens... not that I mind them all, but I knew I needed to BE female, not just look like one part-time.

As with so many others here, it took the internet to really open my eyes to what this was, and to the possibilities of fixing it.

~Kate~

[Jessie_Heart]

I grew up in chicago where you would figure that I would have learned more about sexual matters but I knew almost nothing about sex (other than through abuse and I don't consider that sex!) till I was thirteen and even then I only knew the misguided information my older brothers told me. I had never heard of Christine Jorgeson till I was twenty five up till then all I understood "sex change" to be was the removal of the penis the olny show I had ever seen with a TS in it was the world according to garp and the results of that case as shown in the movie were not very incouraging. and as far as my parents go I anything other than hetrosexual was described in words unkind enough that I have no desire to repeat them (we all know the type of words I'm talking about and I think we have heard them more than enough!) I had one openly gay cousin who was very nice but I wasn't aloud around him alone because my parents thought that being gay would some how rub off. so all I really got to see of him was at family get togethers and what I knew about it was that everyone was nice to his face and as soon as he left people would make fun of him and talk bad about him and I knew I didn't want that done about me! the most sexual education I had ever gotten at home was at fourteen my dad gave me permission to look at his playboys and when he found out that all I did was actually read them he made fun of me. any show on TV that portryed anything other than what my dad considered normal I wasn't allowed to watch and his idea of normal was a very narrow field (no shows with anything other white hetro people were normal!)
when I was caught at six in my female cousins clothes my life became miserable quick (my dad used this as a reason to sexually abuse me telling me that if I was a normal boy he wouldn't do it but since I couldn't be than he couldn't help himself) all this instilled fear that I still have to battle with on a daily basis!

[cindybc]

Hi, Kate,

I didn't hear about Christine Jorgenson until sometime in the early 70's on TV and remember thinking I could be like her and wished I was, but that was as far as it went.

I liked watching drag queen shows but it didn't feel like it fit in with my desire. It wasn't until 1996 that I first heard the word "transsexual," two people were sitting at a table at a drop-in center for street people where I worked as a social worker. They were discussing the subject as I was walking by. It caught my attention.  I felt like I already knew about it.

At the end of that day I went across the street and got whatever information they had on the subject of transsexuality and my introductory story into transsexual was the biography of Canary Conn. I would still recommend it as a read. This girl transitioned in the sixties when she was only twenty years old. The hell that poor girl went through brought tears to my eyes in different parts of her book.

Anyway, I didn't really do much with my new-found knowledge in those first years, not until I got a computer, and I will agree that a computer opened a whole new world for me about transsexuality, including Susan's Transgender. I didn't waste any time after that, doing all the necessary arrangements to get on hormones and began my transition.

Cindy   

Posted on: September 25, 2007, 09:59:24 PMPS as for anything on TV that I have seen about Transsexual in recent times was pretty defamatory and really not a very good image for us at all.

Cindy

[Berliegh]

Greetings!

Hi, im new here. My name's Tina... Dont want to bore anybody with long introductions, so if you want to know more about me just check my site at www.tina.co.za.    Im 34 and live in South Africa. I'm almost 2 years post-op now.

Hi Tina, I had a look at your site and yes went straight to the picture section. I was expecting the usual kind of stuff........but was really pleasantly surprised and you look very natural which it's very refreshing on a personal site......

[cindybc]

Hi Tinagirl
"Wow!"  I just looked over your site pretty neat stuff. Beautiful pics of you. A VW enthusiast and fixer upper. And a Sci=fi witter, oh goody, maybe I got me a co conspirator of the sci-fi arts. 

I have also written several sky-fi books and also children's fantasy books but never got to the publishers desk. For one ,I would have needed a editor and they cost money and with the transitioning while living on a disability pension and all. it kind of let the air out of the tires on that one for now.

Anyway your site was very interesting and I hope we can connect again some time.

Cindy

[Tinagirl]

Hi girls!

Thanks very much for the warm welcome! And all the compliments! (Blush). I did the site in 2005 when a friend offered me some space on her server. It was my small way of trying to show the world that we can be "normal" people too, with talents, hopes and dreams - and especially feelings - just like "they" have.  It was a continuation of the way i have been "educating" people who knew me since i came out back in 2000.

At first it was a pretty terrible business, getting stared at in the workplace, people actually tripping up in trying to reach a door or window to watch the freakshow as i passed. But gradually, as people started to understand, their fear of the unknown diminished. This continued to a point where i have been able to work a relatively normal day without any strange events because people who asked questions got answers. And news gets around! In fact i am quite popular at work, even known in different units around the country, funny enough! I was never popular anywhere else! School was no fun at all. The place i work? You may well ask! Those of you who saw my site probably know already - the military. And yes, that was a complicated business. Unlike the US, SA doesn't have a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. Discrimination is not allowed here, so there are many, many GLBT people in the force. Why GLBT people like working in such a butch environment is another puzzle i havent had time to solve yet! I havent worn uniform in over 7 years, and have an office job, doing multimedia and other creative things. Luckily, because i dont enjoy the military at all - i only went in the beginning because i was drafted.

But all that aside, yes i do write Sci-fi, but with my own little twist of humour! As Terry Pratchett would say - "She's so far around the twist you could use her to open wine bottles". Yup, that's me! I really enjoy writing and have several books on a website where people can buy them or even download a few e-book freebies. I always thought i have a strange sense of humour, kinda "bent" - like me! (giggle) Anyway, it's at www.lulu.com/tinagirl if anybody wants to take a look. They are POD publishers, as mainstreamers seem too full of *(^&^ when it comes to new authors. Most of my main characters are either TS, Gay or something in the GLBT line. I guess i just like it like that. I dont do graphic sex scenes tho... And there was a childrens story (for adults) too... called Innocent Minds - with illustrations. So its mostly clean stuff, trying to promote GLBT and TS in general as "nice" people! Just my little bit of activism!

Wow! What a long post! Anyway i have to run, i will pop in again tomorrow! Once again thanks for the warm welcome and all! Emails welcome - don't be shy! My addy is c3ngela@yahoo.com.

Hugs

Tina

PS

Btw im a member of a SA transgender site called www.genderdynamix.co.za - its been around about 2 years and is doing wonderful things here... Pop in and have a look if you feel like it!