Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Hey everyone,
I haven't been active lately (sorry). Life's been crazy the last few months.
I've still been serious about transitioning and now that my life has settled down (at least a bit more), I've gotten a lot more focused about it.

Anyway, I've been "lurking" around on YouTube for a while now. (I had no idea there were so many YouTube resources for FtM's, if it wasn't for this Forum I probably would've just discovered it recently). A LOT of the guys that have channels or on Collab channels have been a huge inspiration to me, and clearly a lot of other people.
I've found in the last few months I've been a lot more into activism for transsexuals, transgenders, genderqueer, etc folks, and even joined the LGBTGIA club/alliance at my college (unfortunately, have not really been active because the meetings are when I have class). I guess you can say I have a lot more pride for who I am and the community, and have grown to care a lot more.

After seeing how much YouTube's have helped so many people (as well as myself), I've been seriously considering starting my own. I'm pretty far out from transitioning (I just made an appt for Oct 11th to see if the counseling resources at my college can help me, I'm REALLY crossing my fingers here because I seriously doubt I can afford anything otherwise)- but so far I've noticed there aren't a lot of people who are currently Pre-transition on YouTube, from what I've seen most of the guys who keep their Channels current or are active are pretty far along in transitioning, or at least have been on T for a while. I like the idea of just becoming apart of that community and using it to document my journey.

BUT here are my 2 concerns:
1. I'm wondering if maybe there are "enough" FtM youtubes/channels out there- what do you think?
2. The publicity of it. Anyone and everyone will be able to see my personal life, and for the most part, that doesn't bother me, but it only really concerns me if I decide to be Stealth someday, and currently because I'm only "out" to a handful of people.

At the same time, I feel like being on YouTube can help keep me active in the community, both now and in the future, and possibly being an inspiration to others as so many have to me can out weigh some of those concerns.

I'd really like to hear some opinions from you guys, and if you have experience with this and a channel PLEASE share.

If you haven't discovered the awesome FtM community YouTube has yet, here are some channels I'm subscribed to, check them out! (a few of them are users here on Susan's as well)
http://www.youtube.com/user/itsTtime2010 (http://www.youtube.com/user/itsTtime2010)
http://www.youtube.com/user/itsmeparker (http://www.youtube.com/user/itsmeparker)
http://www.youtube.com/user/ALionsFears (http://www.youtube.com/user/ALionsFears)
http://www.youtube.com/user/noahwagoner (http://www.youtube.com/user/noahwagoner)

Honestly, my Youtube Channel is the best free therapy money can't buy.

So, when I was about to start my transition, I watched a ton of YT videos to education and learn from other MTFs, which would be the same for FTMs.  Very quickly I start catching on to a theme: People love to vent everything that goes wrong in their transition (I'm the opposite - Rainbows and Unicorns).  I took note of what they done wrong, do my research and set out not to make the mistakes then done.

I share some pretty detail information, also my sense of humor too.  Once I start talking it hard to shutup.  Try to keep videos to 4-5 minutes, after that, you lose the interest of your viewer useless it's an engaging topic. 

Besides making videos, uploads and also need to respond to messages & comments.

Good luck,
Jamie :)

BTW:  I only trust people that I can look into their eyes and smiles. 

I'm very cautious to take advice from a random avatar of Hello Kitty!!! 

i think starting a youtube channel is a good thing, we all have different experiences and pasts so the more the merrier...plus like others said, it is therapeutic....I watch ftm youtube vids quite a bit, its inspiring to me to see all the changes these guys go thru on there and gives me hope that when i start T i can look half as good as they do. :)

Oh but a word of warning.... if you start an FTM channel you may end up on this transphobic butch lesbian's blog. She goes by the name "dirt" and runs a blog trashing trans men, posting weekly "who's transitioning this week?" entries and a bunch more ->-bleeped-<-.....
Here it is:
http://dirtywhiteboi67.blogspot.com/ (http://dirtywhiteboi67.blogspot.com/)

Risk accordingly.

What you put out on the net is forever.  No matter if you delete it later down the road, it's still going to exist.  Something to think about.

i made the decision to go on youtube. It's been a pretty pleasant experience. I haven't felt that my privacy has been compromised at all.

I did it out of the issues where I wanted to help people.

Can't say that i have any regrets. My youtube connected me and Anne Rice and we talk with each other about every other week now through private email correspondence. If I never bothered to start a youtube account, that would never had happened. Not to mention other people I have had the honor of meeting.

And as another poster stated, it is good counseling :)

Quote from: dmx on September 29, 2011, 11:04:17 PM
Oh but a word of warning.... if you start an FTM channel you may end up on this transphobic butch lesbian's blog. She goes by the name "dirt" and runs a blog trashing trans men, posting weekly "who's transitioning this week?" entries and a bunch more ->-bleeped-<-.....
Here it is:
http://dirtywhiteboi67.blogspot.com/ (http://dirtywhiteboi67.blogspot.com/)

Risk accordingly.

Oh, no! A busybody lesbian?! Anything but that! (Don't pay attention to this Dirt lady. Her name implies how much attention she's earned from you already. Add no more traffic to her website. And I totally hope the links in this forum are nofollow so she gets no credit from search engine bots every time she's mentioned and linked. Just sayin', just sayin'. The more you link to her, generally-speaking, the higher on the search results for FTM-related terms her blog will be.)

In all seriousness, yes consider it deeply if privacy is a concern because ->-bleeped-<-s who repost the crap out of stuff like this Dirt person do exist. If you ever want to be 100% stealth, it's basically out of the question.

If it's on the internet, everyone in the world and their mom and their dog have the potential to watch your videos. If you can get to a place where that doesn't bother you (and it doesn't bother a lot of people, with perfectly good reason), there's really nothing to worry about. The chances of any real harm befalling you because of a youtube channel are slim.

100% stealth

No such thing on a total level.  You can casually be there, but anyone with the money (and it don't take much) can find anything out.  Public records are public, births, deaths, name changes.  But beyond that there is a huge range of information on you out there.  It's growing, and becoming ever more interconnected.  So any law enforcement, military, homeland security agency - as well as most credit companies, banks and insurance companies - can get it.

Quote from: BMXJake on September 29, 2011, 01:27:59 PM
2. The publicity of it. Anyone and everyone will be able to see my personal life, and for the most part, that doesn't bother me, but it only really concerns me if I decide to be Stealth someday, and currently because I'm only "out" to a handful of people.

You can't unring a bell.  Once you vid/s are there yeah you can delete them but chances are someone has seen it/downloaded it and re-uploaded it/some variation 

There are also mirror sites, and backup sites.  Nothing truly disappears on the net if you know how to search for it.

Quote from: tekla on September 29, 2011, 11:34:35 PM
100% stealth

No such thing on a total level.  You can casually be there, but anyone with the money (and it don't take much) can find anything out.  Public records are public, births, deaths, name changes.  But beyond that there is a huge range of information on you out there.  It's growing, and becoming ever more interconnected.  So any law enforcement, military, homeland security agency - as well as most credit companies, banks and insurance companies - can get it.

Well, yes, clearly one can never truly be completely stealth. If a truth exists, it can be found somehow, period. Further, the truth usually wants to be known and will plot to be uncovered. No matter what happens, you were born the way you were, period, and that leaves evidence. (And that's not necessarily a bad thing, but that's a whole other story.)

But I meant relatively speaking. I meant doing as much as possible to be as stealth as possible. Doing nothing in ones own power to out oneself. In that case, it would be out of the question to post videos on the internet, I think.

(Personally, I don't seek to be stealth for exactly those kinds of reasons. I think it's too limiting and it's much easier to side with the truth [the whole universe is backing you up with evidence] than to try to evade or deny it. So I see nothing at all wrong with posting videos to help others and oneself. But, again, that's a whole other topic.)

I'll think it over more but I think I might go ahead and make a channel, or at least eventually. I already started doing video diaries a while ago, mainly because I just don't like to write/blog (it takes too long, talking is so much easier).

As far as that blog goes, I'm not gonna waste my time worrying about some man-hating(cis or trans, haha) feminist lesbian that could probably use some family therapy with daddy. Fringe is fringe, whether they're in KKK outfits burning Harry Potter books or making an animal rights porn site (that's right folks, guess what PETA's new project is?), they're all crazy and irrational.

It's Maslow's hierarchy, we all eventually need some kind of community, and I think the internet has done so much to show us that we are not alone. It'd be a small way to give back.

Thanks for all the input, guys :)