On the road again.

[Shana A]

On the road again.

May 8th, 2008 by Donna Rose

http://donnarose.com/MyBlog/?p=40

I have a couple of follow-up observations on the Dr. Zucker/NPR story from yesterday. First, this is certainly a difficult topic. There can be no one-size-fits-all answers. Personally, there was no way I knew enough about myself to have made any kind of decisions about myself at that early age. But there are situations where the best interests of the child are not served by forcing him or her to be something. These things need to be addressed with sensitivity, not with blunt force trauma.

The underlying message that people like Dr. Zucker is sending is that life as a transsexual is so horrificly difficult and unsatisfactory that it needs to be stopped, at all costs.  It is obvious to me that he percieves us as freakish oddities who end up struggling in all aspects of life. Perhaps it doesn't occur to him that, for some, our difficulties are more a result of being forced to be something we're not more than of being transsexual. Or, that part of the reason that it can be so difficult a life is because people like him continue to stigmatize and pathologize it.  Either way, the notion that there are possibilities for positive outcomes needs to be in the front of people's minds, not an afterthought.

also see Zucker revisited: The lunatics rule the asylum

http://donnarose.com/MyBlog/?p=39

[Natasha]

On the road again.

http://donnarose.com/MyBlog/?p=40
5/8/2008

"Maggie and I are getting ready to hit the road. I've got quite a bit
to do around the house this morning so I don't expect that we'll leave
till noonish or early afternoon. I made reservations at a hotel just
east of El Paso, TX so we've got 420 miles to drive today. We'll
finigh the other 580 miles tomorrow. The wild card in the equation is
the fact that I ordered a new camera to replace the one I lost in Los
Angeles a couple of weeks ago (I got a Canon D40) and it's supposed to
arrive today. I'd like to bring it with me, so I'll wait until it
arrives. I hope gets here this morning.