Still a Facade

On a bright day not that long past I wrote and believed:

I am NOT my body

She is two spirits.

She is Halle.

In his post, Halle muses over the subject that is so common among us, who have not transitioned or are part-time. 

Halle is a wonderful writer and one of our T-Central admins.  If you haven't seen her most recent post, please take a look at Still a Façade.

Cass Gets Bang-ed (a/k/a My New 'Do)

Have you met Cass yet?  Many have seen her blog but, if you haven't, take a look at this post from a lovely girl in transition.

She's got a new 'do!

My History of Reading

Ruby loves books, especially those books written by women.  My History of Reading is a lovely post I so related to, where she goes back into her past and talks about her love of books.

I've written several times, in my own blog, on the subject of books and female authors.  I guess I got carried away when I left three comments (so far) on Ruby's post!

Reading books written from the female point-of-view is very therapeutic for me.  Why not read Ruby's post and then go to your local library and find out for yourself?

Ruby is one of those rare T-Bloggers who has transitioned and has continued to write.  We need more like Rudy, who can continue writing, "from the other side".

Actresses

Dabrela loves actresses.....
 
I love actresses. It’s one of the ways in which my own crossdreaming finds an outlet. I collect images off the internet, run them as a slideshow and let them wash over me, merging into a composite mental image of the woman I dream of being. 

 .....and she has a lot to say about it.

Go here to read more.

What's in a Name

Aimee, is a part-time-girl, in her early 30's, living in South Wales, in the United Kingdom.  At the suggestion of another T-Girl, she began exploring this side of her in 2011.  Since then, she's been out and about and has a long-time girl friend who has accepted her.

I referred to our blogger as, Aimee, but in our featured post, What's in a Name, she's looking for a name that is the real "her".  She began her TG life as Suzy, then chose Aimee, and now wants to find a name that she will be comfortable using for a long time to come.

In this post, she discusses her process of choosing a name, but she's also open to suggestion.

As is always the case, with our T-Central featured blogs, Aimee is an excellent writer.  I encourage you to explore her blog.

The Crossdreamer Survey of Gender Variance, Some Preliminary Results

It's interesting reading the results of the survey, compiled by Jack and Sally Molay.  Many T-Central followers contributed to the total of 1202 responses to the survey.

Go here for the preliminary results, posted on Jack's Crossdreamer blog site.

Etiquette for the Cis-gendered

Interesting suggestions from Kathleen as to how you, someone who is transgender, should present yourself around the cis-gendered.

Go here for the post.

So I Outed My Kid Today...

In the fall, he announced he was growing his hair long and wanted to dye it purple. I picked up a box of Lusty Lavender, complete with a picture of a teenage boy with purple hair. Jeremy’s hair came out fushcia and turned to pink within days. I worried about how people would react and was relieved to find it was mostly positive. I asked Jeremy what he thought of his new style.

“I look fab-u-lous” he sang, gesturing madly. I had to agree, he certainly did.

Last week, I was watching a video about a young transgender girl in the US. Jeremy sat down beside me and watched the girl intently.

“She’s kind of like me,” he said, his gaze focused on the screen. “Except she looks like a girl. I look like a boy and feel like a boy but I have the brain of a girl.”

That wasn’t a surprise either.

Because I'm Fabulous is a blog written by the mom of a gender nonconforming child.....Jeremy.  This mom writes under the pseudonym of Michelle.  She writes novels under her "real" name which, for obvious reasons, she's not sharing with us.

She's a good mom, and she is fabulous.  Just read her blog and you'll agree.  But, I believe the "fabulous one" the blog is named after is Jeremy.

The excerpt from Michelle's blog, above, is from the first post, An Introduction.  In this post, she briefly describes moments in Jeremy's life from pre-age-seven to "their" (Michelle often uses the zir gender neutral pronouns when referring to Jeremy) teenage years.....the present.

The featured post is titled, So I Outed My Kid Today...  It's a light-hearted, and interesting read, describing how Michelle, well.... "outed her kid". 

Because I'm Fabulous is updated nearly every day.  You're going to want to add this one to your reading list.

Transitioning Without Transitioning

Gosh, I really try to feature blogs from all over the transgender spectrum, and not just blogs that I personally relate to.  I can read a blog and relate to the what the author writes, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I relate to the blogger.  (I have a feeling that what I just wrote will look pretty stupid when I read what I've published!)

What I'm trying to say is that I'm featuring a post from a blogger whom I feel is very much like myself: Someone who fights her inner-self's relentless desire to transition, but doesn't because of concerns for her family and marriage.  That has essentially been the theme of my own blog for years.

We're not featuring my blog, however, but Kirsty's blog, and her most recent post, Transitioning without Transitioning.  Kirsty is a blogger from Northern Ireland.  Read the post, and you'll perhaps understand her inner-conflict.

Lori's Revival

I remember how cathartic blogging would be to me.  Oh sure, it was nice having people relate to me by commenting.  And the new topics and conversations that started in the comments section were worth following as well.  But the most important thing about blogging for me was that I just felt better when I did it.

SHE'S BACK!!!

Long time bloggers will remember Lori, the creator of T-Central and once a prolific blogger.  Well, she's back!

You can find Lori right here.

Realization and Acceptance of Myself

Realization and Acceptance of Myself is the title of our featured blog post.  In this post, our blogger discusses how she is dealing with depression.

This paragraph especially resonated with me:

Music impacts me so tremendously sometimes that I can't even listen to it. Correction... I can't deal with "emotional" sounding music or something that I associate with loss if I'm fighting my sadness.  I only can listen to that type of music if I'm ready to cry and give in to the sadness.  Sometimes I need to feel sad.  Sometimes I need to cry in order to let it out, but if that happens around other people, I get very uncomfortable and want to run away or shut down completely.

So, our blogger is a transwoman, right?  Certainly, depression goes with the territory.  Been there, done that.  Music became such an issue with me that I switched to listening to audio books.

Our blogger, however, is not a transwoman but, rather, the wife of a transwoman who revealed his/her secret to her future wife prior to marriage.  The love between them was there, however, and it still is.  They're going through this journey together and the seas can be rough at times, but the love persists.

This is a good post for someone who is currently dealing with depression.  Our blogger gives a link to an interesting video that impacted her deeply and resulted in her finally bringing her depression out into the open, allowing her to talk about her issues with others.  

This is yet another of the very well written blogs featured on T-Central.  I've always said that it's the personal thoughts of others that help us to better understand ourselves.  In this case, it helps me to better understand what the spouse of someone who is trans is going through.

In her January, 2014 post, Finding Balance and Getting Back to Being Me, our blogger, who refers to herself as, "B. Strong", has these revealing thoughts to share:

I find myself with any of my alone time just wanting to learn more about the transgender issue.  I spend so much of my time researching, reading blogs, and watching videos.  I've been staying up too late and not sleeping enough. I know I need to research things to get a better understanding of what might be happening for us both, but it's consuming most of my "me" time.  When I go shopping without her, I find myself looking for things she'll like and what will look good on her.

Later, in this post, she says:

I fear how much I love my spouse and how deeply I am connecting with her. I fear that opening up my heart is dangerous because maybe she will change so much that we don't connect anymore.  What if she decides she want someone else and leaves?  What if I can't handle it and I leave?  Oh the "what ifs..."  I feel myself shutting down and putting the wall up again.  It seems to happen right after having beautifully touching moments or great nights with her, which seems odd to me but probably makes sense.  

After reading this post, it's pretty easy to see that "B. Strong's" transitioning spouse is so, so lucky to have her in her life.  She loves her transitioning spouse.  She is trying to understand and accept a very difficult journey for both of them

For more on our blogger, you can go here for her story.