One of the biggest problems we as transgendered people face are the stereotypes and preconceptions others have of us. This was highlighted recently in South Africa when a young trans-girl was arrested for molesting some fifteen-year old street kid, only to be "caught in the act" by a local council woman and her entourage. Never-mind the fact that the girl's been on HRT for two years and wouldn't be able to even do that.
Guilty or not though, she's been convicted by the media, denied bail where murder suspects get out on R500 (About $100) and been in holding since November last year. Obviously the trans community back ome is up in arms over this, but there's not much we can do until the preception of us as "perverted, sinful freaks" (The words of a nice lady at the NHS the other day, not mine...) changes.
Youtube is fast becoming trans-central for young transitioners, say age 30 and under. Especially kids transitioning while at university and college are a dime a dozen on there. They're swapping advice, supporting each other, making tutorials on voice, make-up and all sorts of stuff. Well worth checking out. Some of my favourites are:
aire420, karmatic1110 evilstarcat and darliegoddess.
The most important thing though is that they are raising awareness. All of a sudden, the public is being exposed to hundreds of trans-people out there, not one of them a Jerry Springer candidate. They're all generally smart, nice, balanced people, and I think they're doing a great thing, and being very brave.
A few of the girls recently started something called "the transsexual community visibility project" and while it's only youtube, I think it's a good model for what the greater trans community needs to do, just in a media format that reaches more people.
