Susan's Place Transgender Resources

We are sending this newsletter out to keep you up to date on the web site, and all the goings on. In this edition we will be covering:

• Welcome
  
• A message from Susan
  
• Follow us on Social Networks
  
• Secure Server
  
• We need your Support & Subscriber Drive
  
• Chat
  
• Forums
  
• Links
  
• Minecraft
  
• News
  
• Wiki
  
• Notifications
  

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Welcome!

In January 245,110 people visited the site, accounting for 7,187,029 page views.  As of January 2016, our news articles were viewed a total of 196,962 times  (number not 100% accurate due to missing stats), 20,721 times in January.

Our top 10 articles in 2016 are:

Views - Title

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1,273 - Transgender Romantic Woes: Preference or Prejudice? (https://www.susans.org/2016/01/03/transgender-romantic-woes-preference-or-prejudice/) (New!)
1,025 - Attempted stoning (https://www.susans.org/2016/01/16/attempted-stoning/) (New!)
  835 - Brighton College alters uniform code to accommodate transgender pupils  (https://www.susans.org/2016/01/22/brighton-college-alters-uniform-code-to-accommodate-transgender-pupils/) (New!)
  805 - The Lure of Stealth (https://www.susans.org/2016/01/17/the-lure-of-stealth/) (New!)
  702 - Stabbing of two transgender people in Brazil (https://www.susans.org/2016/01/20/7884/) (New!)
  674 - Stop Blaming Caitlyn For Our Unwillingness to Organize (https://www.susans.org/2015/12/20/stop-blaming-caitlyn-for-our-unwillingness-to-organize/)
  652 - Anti-Transgender Ballot Initiative Fails in California (http://www.susans.org/2015/12/31/anti-transgender-ballot-initiative-fails-in-california/)
  630 - Was that Will Smith's son Jaden wearing a dress (http://www.susans.org/2015/04/13/was-that-will-smiths-son-jaden-wearing-a-dress/)
  600 - Ben Carson calls transgender people "abnormal" (http://www.susans.org/2016/01/13/ben-carson-calls-transgender-people-abnormal/) (New!)
  573 - To Finish the Row (http://www.susans.org/2016/01/24/to-finish-the-row/) (New!)

We have added translate options all of the major pages of the website. We have also added an international area on the forums with sub forums for each of the major languages which allows non-English speaking transgender individuals to receive support directly in their native languages.

A message from Susan

I am currently looking for a doctor who can help me get back on hormones once again. I have been off of them way, way, way, too long.

My personal expenses have increased due to my transition finally beginning to move forward once again.

This year my landlady has also informed me she will be increasing my rent. She hasn't done so in the 5+ years I have lived in this house.  So I can't bitch too much about it.  It's will still be cheaper than just about anywhere else in this town.

When that comes the monthly goal (which is the bare minimum needed to pay the bills) will have to be increased. I have kept it steady at $2,000 since putting it up in 2013, so I hope no one will begrudge me a small cost of living increase, after 3 years without one.

I will let you know when all this will be happening

Follow us on Social Networks

Susan's Place has accounts on facebook (https://www.facebook.com/pages/Susans-Place-Transgender-Resources/300296723411615?ref=profile) and twitter (https://twitter.com/Susans_Place). We would love to see you follow us there! Be the first to find out about new stories, the reason for downtime, and general links of interest from our social networking and admin teams.

Secure Server

To help protect our members, and to enhance your privacy when you browse the site; I have added SSL encryption to Susan's Place. All communications between you and the server are now encrypted with 256 bit security. This means your ISP, your employer, or other parties cannot see what you are browsing when you are on Susan's Place. You will receive a warning, if anyone attempts to intercept your connection to the server.

We need your Support

It is a New Year, and we have had a few months which we were short on the fundraising needed to support the web site and myself, and some hardware expenses that were paid out but never reimbursed for.

I would like to meet the monthly goal for this month, and also try make up a total of $1,500 that has either been spent on the web site or was a monetary shortfall. $700 of the $1500 was due to the replacement of the server drives in November, and then two roughly $400 shortfalls in both December and January. We can do it in one big donation from one person, but I would prefer if possible that we get a bunch of small donations towards knocking this out, even 5$ will help!

We are 13 days into a 29 day month, and so far we have received $518.32 of the $2,000 we need to meet the expenses for the month. Leaving us $1481.68 short of what is needed for this month, not counting the $1,500 I spoke about earlier. For those who can step up and donate or subscribe please consider doing so.

I would like to establish a decent buffer to ensure that we don't get to the point that the bills won't be paid if we have a month were we receive lower than expected donations, the additional $1,500 will go a long way in that direction.

We are up 1 subscriber since the previous newsletter. So we currently have 90 active subscribers! I would like to see number that increase to 250. We have 22,549 members, up 495 members since last month; so surely that's not asking too much.

To help make subscribing a more affordable for those who are on tight incomes we have a Bronze subscription for $5.00 a month. For those who want to do more, we have several platinum options ranging from $50.00-$1000.00 a month. We also have a Gold ($20.00 a month), and Silver (10$ a month) option. 

Since the 1st of January of 2015 I have been able to give my 24x7 attention to the site. Something only possible with your continued support.

If you can afford to do so, please consider committing $5.00, $10.00, $20.00, $50.00, or more a month to help support Susan's Place. Your subscriptions are budgetable, and that helps me to know where the site stands financially.

If you can't donate or subscribe, I understand fully! However, if you can even small amounts makes a big difference, when you add them all up!

If you would like to donate to the site, or contribute towards my transition; without sending it through paypal you can send a check or money order to:

Susan Larson
709 Perkins Ave
Clarksville, TN 37040.

Please make offline donations payable to Susan Larson, so that I don't have trouble with the bank. Please note what you wish the donation or contribution to go towards, all donations will be used towards whatever purpose the donor specifies. Also indicate if you wish donations to be public (Shows up on the donation list on the site), or private.

Together we make the difference. So please consider Donating or subscribing!

Chat

If there are Dog Days of summer, late in the season when the days are hot and humid, long and innervating, then February must hold the Dog Days (Cat Days?) of winter here in western New York. Daylight, while getting longer, are still far too short. The weather is miserable too. It's either cold and wet, snowing like an overloaded souvenir globe or meltingly springlike but far too briefly - sometimes all in the same day! We have a saying around here, if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes! :D

Sometimes it seems the chat rooms can get really busy, really wild, with some people celebrating transition milestones while others bemoan the very real harm that discrimination causes, interspersed with people posting cute kitty pictures and others photos of their delicious dinner. Then, all of a sudden, it grows quiet. Minutes pass. The only activity might be TGBot setting people away by adding a "ZzZz|" prefix to their nicks. Then somebody enters the room, and writes "Hi!" and people start popping back in and the craziness begins again. It can get really hectic, with periods of pandemonium punctuated by minutes of dead silence.

And I wouldn't want it any other way. :)

In any event, please let again me invite you all to come visit us in #Chat, maybe start a conversation or two? It's fun, informative and you'll get some great typing practice in! :D  And every now and then, when something serious comes up, maybe we can give you some advice that works for you!

BCNU (be seein' you) all there soon! (I hope!)

Hugs & Smiles
HelenW

Forums

February has been the usual hectic time on the Forum. The political situation in the USA has generated many posts and of course can be quite contentious. Please limit political discussions to subjects that are relevant to the gender diverse community, and remember, if someone has an opposing view, they are equally as free to express it.

We do get posts asking why the OP has not received a reply. It takes time for posts to be read and of course if the title of your post is not informative, then people may not open it. Your post may also cover a topic that has been widely discussed before, so maybe try to search for the topic using key words, you may find a mountain of information.

We all know that transitioning is hard, often down right terrifying and can be met with criticism and resistance but, as many of us can attest, it can also lead to a new happy life, and often our fears were not justified. Support during the critical time as we come out of the shadows and nervously look at the world is critical and of course we will offer all the support we can.

I recently did a photo shoot with a lovely woman for an Art project. She logged onto the Forum and had a look around and made the comment of what a wonderful supportive place this is. That it is such a place is due to you, the members and of course the incredibly hard working Mods.

I am actively seeking more Mods. If you are interested please contact me. I need well balance people who can deal with what can be extremely confronting situations, can give me a time commitment, who are open minded, have made around 2000 posts and are willing to work hard for no pay.

Who could resist such a job description!

Have a wonderful February and remember it is a leap year I'm looking forward to see which members have a birthday on 29 February!

Cindy

Links Directory

Linkin' Logs
February 2016

We have a short month and a lot of work to do in the Links Directory. We recently added Locallytrans, a new  transgender resource site, and  TransKiss, a dating site for transgender people, to the Directory. Check them out, and all the other links too!

If you're interested in joining the Links Staff, get in touch with me. If you can find things on the internet, I have a job for you!

Hugs, Devlyn
Links Admin

Minecraft

The first month of 2016 was a big one for our server as we welcomed many new players on the server, and February seems to be just as full!

As you all know, our staff team have been working endlessly towards Arcade, our new mini-game world, and we recently opened two preview warps which can be used by anyone on the server! There you will see an underwater PVP / Capture the flag arena, and the second will become a Hunger Games style PVP arena.

If you are interested in being a part of huge projects like arcade, or just helping keep our server safe, we are currently accepting staff applications - if you are interested send me, Matthew, a PM!

2016 is going to be a big year for our Minecraft server, so what are you waiting for?!

Matthew

News

2016 has been an exciting year for the News team. We've added new staff and have had some very good articles posted on the front page.

We'd still love to get some more people contributing articles for the front page so please feel free to PM me if you're interested in joining the team.

Wynternight

Wiki

Happy February! It's a short month, but there is still a lot to get done! We've been fielding a lot of requests from surgeon's offices and clinics to make updates to their pages so that you have access to the most up to date locations, services, procedures, etc. Do you have a specialty clinic in your area that helps transgender patients? Take a look at the Wiki to find out!

We are actively looking to add new members to the Wiki staff. If you're interested in any aspect of the Wiki process - to include researching, writing, editing, checking links - get in touch!

Max

Notifications

Please note, this newsletter was sent to you via forum pm. If you received an email notification about it, that is because you have the option to receive notifications of new private messages turned on in your profile.

The newsletter is sent monthly to all registered members of the forums.

Regards,
The Susan's Place Transgender Resources Team.
https://www.susans.org/forums/index.php

That's Susan, very informative as always. Just an FYI, I didn't get it via PM this month. :)

Ya, still hashing out issues with sending the newsletter. I think they didn't count on sending out pm notifications to so many people, so keeps timing out.