What exactly is "full-time" ?

[tekla]

Only really bad ->-bleeped-<-s put on hoop earrings and makeup to go jogging.

Don't live in Cali do 'ya?

[Wolf Man]

Only really bad ->-bleeped-<-s put on hoop earrings and makeup to go jogging.

Don't live in Cali do 'ya?

I'm sorry, but this forum needs to take from facebook and have a like button because THIS is hilarious.

[The None Blonde]

AUtumn: OH god.... I had to pee recently at an event and so.. down I squat and pee in a good foot of snow... COLDEST experience of my life. I got back and my friend just burst out laughing at my expression and said "You've just been for a pee haven't you?" Guess I wasn't the only one that found it *bleep* cold. hehe

[tekla]

THIS is hilarious.

Only because it's true, and Cali can't be the only place where women get all dolled up to go to the gym - because the gym is the hot pick up place in certain social sets.  When I go to visit my friends in Marina Del Rey all I have to do to entertain myself is walk on over to Venice and sit down with a cup of coffee and watch the people go past on Ocean Front Walk.  It's amazing.

[CharleneT]

What is cheating here exactly?

Would sweatpants and a hoodie by 'cheating' by these standards?

No, it's not really about clothes.  MOST GG's end up in sweats and a hoodie frequently !

It is about presenting yourself as a man because it is more convenient or easy or safe or whatever.  Or even just because you're tired of the effort of being a woman and back slide for a break .... No cheating means you believe it, practice it and do not go back.

[Tammy Hope]

Full time ... Hummm.  I would say that if someone were to come to your door, late at night, they would realize that they just woke ( your target gender ) up.

Well, there would be the little issue of facial hair but otherwise...

Post Merge: January 18, 2010, 01:51:05 PM

So does full time include having to use the appropriate bathroom for your target gender? I am actually getting close to going 'full time' and am a bit fuzzy on the bare minimum. I am preparing to start my paperwork for a legal name change and already wear female clothing and light makeup to work (jeans, turtlenecks, jewelry, ladies mule shoes, etc) but I am not 'presenting' as entirely female. More androgynous. But not all females wear makeup and girly things so is me simply stating my name is legally Dana and I am a female enough?

I'm not sure what the highlighted phrase mean but just in case you are mistaken - a legal name change takes more than simply stating "from now on..."

There are legal actions you have to take through a court.

[Alyssa M.]

Full time is whatever anyone who thinks the term means anything thinks it means. I have a trans friend who isn't changing her name (it's female enough as far as she's concerned). She could change the marker on her DL (under state law), but she doesn't want to jump through the legal hoops required. That's just not how she goes about things. But I don't think anyone could say she's not full time.

For me, I want to get my DL changed, and it's not a problem to do so. Changing my name is also important, because my legal name is very obviously masculine. It presents a problem.

I consider myself full time, and the legal stuff is just paperwork I haven't gotten around to. But I'm not sure a doctor taking a strict interpretation of the SoC would agree. It doesn't really matter, because the only thing that has any bearing on is my ability to get SRS, and that's out of the question for financial reasons.

So I agree with Natasha, but that might mean different things to different people. For some, it might mean never appearing in public without perfect hair, flawless makeup, manicured nails, and fabulous shoes. To others, it might mean living off the grid in a lesbian artist and organic farming commune in Oregon.

[Keroppi]

Post Merge: January 18, 2010, 01:51:05 PM
I'm not sure what the highlighted phrase mean but just in case you are mistaken - a legal name change takes more than simply stating "from now on..."

There are legal actions you have to take through a court.

Um, that does depends on where you are. Legally speaking in the UK for one, one has change their name when that person start using the new name for all purpose (and they are not doing so to try to defraud somebody etc.). Sure, good luck trying to get legal documents, banks etc. with that new name without getting a stat dec., deed poll or other "documentary evidence"....

[The None Blonde]

No, it's not really about clothes.  MOST GG's end up in sweats and a hoodie frequently !

It is about presenting yourself as a man because it is more convenient or easy or safe or whatever.  Or even just because you're tired of the effort of being a woman and back slide for a break .... No cheating means you believe it, practice it and do not go back.

Interesting...

I see it as more effort to persent male... I've not  tried, and i dont really want to.

Have a break?
tired of the effort?


I mean, like, only a dude would do those things.... Surely a woman would feel more comfortable and relaxed as she is?

As for beliving it and practicing... well im not going there. Never really practiced anything, things just fit.

[Alyssa M.]

I can easily present as male, in the sense that I can put on a men's shirt (loose enough that my boobs don't poke through too much), slacks, men's shoes, and put my hair in a pony tail -- voila, man. Maybe mistakable for female, but not too variant.

But, no it's not the slightest bit comfortable or relaxed to do so, which is precisely why I don't.

Practicing? Yes, I do that. Just like any teenage girl figuring out what looks god on her in terms of makeup, clothing, how she carries herself, etc. And yes, it comes a lot more natural than trying to figure out how to present myself as a man ever did. That was always really awkward

[Asfsd4214]

It's a stupid term used as part of the institutionalization of transition.

Personally, I hate all this stuff like "full time" "real life experience" "real life test". These are our lives not a job or a hobby.

[Sarah B]

What exactly is "full-time"? Except for the two times that was before 1989 where I was properly dressed as female (I used the appropriate facilities at the given time and I never questioned myself which one I should use), these times only occurred for a couple of days and happened while I was travelling from one city to another.  Did I even think this was full time? No, I never even thought about it, even to the extent I had no idea whatsoever, what full time meant even in those days, let alone knowing anything about the Wpath and SOC guidelines.

I arrived in a big city in February 1989, I was on a long holiday (and so I had some time to myself to do certain things, I will go into them sometime later in the appropriate forums) and I had some idea that I was going to live as a female and if things did not work out I had a fall back plan, sort of.

Around May 1989. (I believe, I still have my diaries from those years I will have to dig them out and complete my story).  I was working and living full time as a female.  So as Natasha said "full time: when you completely stop living as the gender you say you aren't & start living 24/7/365 as the gender you say you are." How you achieve 'full time' and what you define as 'full time' is up to you, given that every bodies path is different.

During those 20 years some, all or none of the OP statements applied to me at one stage or another.  Which brings me to the last part and Ashley4214 basically says what I also want to say but rephrase it in maybe a better way.  "They are degrading terms which are used as part of the institutionalization of transition" and I hate those terms too. I am living my life as I want to live my life and not by some script concocted by some person with a particular agenda in mind.

Kind Regards
Sarah B

Be who you want to be.

[Dorothy]

Full time is the opposite of part time.  No seriously.  If you think you've got to rest to take "a little break" from being a woman, if you go back & forth from male to female.  If when asked by an official authority, you give them an I.D. that says "James" & you've got boobs.  If you go to college as "John" & tell your professors you're a girl.  If you live partially as a male because of your job.  If you don't want to disappoint "the wife & kids" & you're still a man to them.  You damn sure aren't full time.

[Janet_Girl]

"gmmflt"   I like that Tasha. 

[Marie731]

"Fulltime" is whatever your therapist and SRS surgeon define it to be. That's all that matters. You jump through their hoops to satisfy their "requirements," get your letters, and move on.

[Valentina]

Full-time is when you live exclusively as your target gender without reverting back to your birth sex for any circumstance.  On a different note, in today's economy if you want to be employed, you've got to get your butt out there & look for a job.  No mystery boss is going to come knocking on your door offering you anything.  Often trans people complain that in today's economy, finding a job is a dream.  Baloney!  Sure if you spend your whole day fooling around in trans sites, of course you aren't gonna find anything

I'm from Bulgaria.  I'm studying in the US.  I've got a student visa with limited employment authorisation by the USCIS, English isn't my native language & I just found a job in a library.  Oh yea I used to be trans too.  Small detail that I almost forgot to mention.

[K8]

As others have said, full time is full time - 24/7.  On a recent road trip, I had to pee in the middle of nowhere.  I pulled over and squatted down on the side of the car away from the road.  Everywhere I went on the tirp I was seen as a woman, behaved as a woman, interacted with others as a woman, thought of myself as a woman.  I was (and am) a woman despite the "M" on my drivers license.

Full time is full time.  One of the goals of the Real Life Experience is to get irreversible surgery.  If you can't live for a lousy year full time before surgery, how are you going to live full time for the rest of your life after your surgery?

Just my two pence.

- Kate

[deviousxen]

According to the standards of care

1. To maintain full or part-time employment;
2. To function as a student;
3. To function in community-based volunteer activity;
4. To undertake some combination of items 1-3;
5. To acquire a (legal) gender-identity-appropriate first name;
6. To provide documentation that persons other than the therapist know that the patient
functions in the desired gender role.

Gender specific clothing too, but I don't think that's specifically mentioned.

Doing this all the time would be full time, otherwise it's part time.

Personally, I think you can be full or part time without an official name change because that can take some time.  I also think the term 'combination' isn't quite the right word.  I mean, if you are working full time at a job, do you really have time to function as a student or in a volunteer activity?

I think that sums it up.

Do they want me to clean their toilet too? Or jump through a flaming hoop? Why all of that crap to just be yourself. Thats wrong... Bloody NO

[Teknoir]

Does anyone know exactly what they're looking for in #6?

Are they looking for paperwork in your legal name (eg, acedemic records, pay-slips, bank statements, bills, car related stuff, etc), or are they looking for correspondance in which people refer to you using the approprite name and pronouns?

First time around, I interpreted it as "some sort of documented proof that you are doing 1 - 4 with 5"... but that just seems too easy. Surely there has to be something more to it than that?

[Janet_Girl]

I took it as official documentation. Academic records, pay-slips, bank statements, bills, car related stuff.  Something that show that the world know you as you.