Those who stay with us after moving on

    If you are a seasoned T-Central reader you will probably be familiar with the different flavours of blog that we follow. There are a few that specialise on one subject such as clothing or presentation, others carrying day-to-day musings on gender, quite a few transition blogs and a sprinkling of activist blogs.
    All of the above blogs are very interesting to read, but there is a further category of blog that I would like to draw your attention to.
    It can sometimes be a sad facet of our community, that a lot of us move on. So often when the steady flow of transition-related events to relate dries up or the flame of activism dims, the blogging output dies down and eventually ceases. But what if the writer's motivation in blogging was sustained by the blogging itself and not by that one aspect of their life? At that point they cease to be a trans blogger and become instead a blogger like any other, but who just happens to be trans. Sure you might see the occasional post in this direction but mostly they write about everyday stuff that interests them, just getting on with their lives.
    I hope you have some favourites of your own within this category of blogger, if you do please share them with us in the comments on this piece. I in turn would like to draw your attention to a couple I follow from my part of the world, both Dru and Shirley Anne prove that there is life beyond all of this mess.
    And that, to me at least, is priceless.

My Kennedy

Last night I posted a link from Lori's Revival to a new blog created by the mother of a transgender child.  In "My Kennedy's Story," Candice recounts how her love as a parent triumphed over a difficult decision to allow her child to be who they are. 

Her first post is introductory and she has the followers widget in place.   She welcomes comments and plans to continue blogging to share her and Kennedy's story.  You can visit by going to her page HERE. 

Stillettos and Sneakers: Alexandra Billings

Alexandra Billings is a phenomenal and beautiful actress, singer, and writer. She will be playing an important role in the trans-related short film "Stealth" (view the PR HERE).

In her personal blog at Live Journal (read it HERE) Alexandra frequently shares some of the more intense moments of her life. Many of her real life stories will have you at times laughing and crying almost at the same time. Her main website is HERE.

Sex, Gender, Body

I am currently looking at a promising new site that welcomes you with "I define my sex, gender, body. You define yours." Here is the introduction you will find when you visit the top page of this website of the same name:

These words summarize the intention of this site. There are no experts to tell us how to claim or identify our own sex, gender, body (sgb).

sexgenderbody.com is a community, collaborative blog, built in the same functional model of dailykos.com and mydd.com. The site is open-invitation, meaning that anyone can register and post diaries. This site has been built to serve as a public meeting place for honest and respectful conversations about the entire width and breadth of sex, gender, body. Topics will range from the intimate to the mundane, falling in love, looking in the mirror, workplace, health, advocacy, friendship, sex, identity, change, finances and the list goes on.

Every person on the planet has a unique and rich life of experience and expression. We all define ourselves as individuals in all aspects of our lives, including sex, gender & body. These three areas are intertwined with many other aspects of our identity.

TLDR

Nicky wrote a nice blog today. Too bad I managed to derail it right away by bringing up the mechanics of blog-writing.

But I think there's some value in discussing how we write blogs, why we write them that way, and what it means to our audiences.

Do you write with yourself in mind first, and assume your love and passion for whatever your topic is will come through and attract the right people, like moths to a flame?

Or do you consider your audience first and bend your prose to the limitations that imposes, like a sonnet must be bent to a certain structure?

Or do you not care about an audience at all, writing solely for yourself?

Personally, I see my blog as a relationship between myself and the people who read it. I want to entertain, inform, provoke, or inspire thought. Mostly, though, I want them to read what I have to say, and to that end, I try to make it as easy as possible for them.

Pretty much everyone here has a blog...that was the point of T-Central, to gather us all into one place. And every single one of us is an audience member for someone else, which means you have an opinion. So let's talk!

And in the meantime, check out Nicky's blog, because there was a lot more to get out of that one paragraph than what I led with in the comments section.

(Oh, and bonus points to the first person to tell us what the title of this blog means)

Are you "Another Whiney T-Girl?"

Jamie has a blog. Jamie speaks her mind. Jamie doesn't care if you agree or disagree with her. She is who she is. Heck, some of the things she writes might even infuriate you. Inversely, you may think she gets it right most of the time.

Whatever opinion you may have about her blogs, you just GOTTA read this one. That is, if you are willing to put aside the fact that her blog is called "Not Another Whiney T-girl Blog". If you're perfectly alright with that, then read her latest. It was certainly worth the PRICE OF ADMISSION. (click HERE). Don't say I didn't warn you, though. (For the record, I may not agree with everything she says, but I can't resist reading anyway! Her professional photographs are freaking awesome to boot!)

Good luck at work there, Jamie!

Calie's Chronicles

I don't often get to follow some blogs as closely as I'd like, but find myself making more of a concerted effort to follow Calie of Calie's Chronicles (READ HER BLOG HERE). (Plus, she's a friend of Rebecca's ;) )
Her many experiences and thoughts were so similar to my own, and she expresses her emotions very clearly. Her latest blog "Letting the Shields Down" hits the mark when she explains

I guess what I am trying to say is that I can feel like the real "me" just by being with someone who accepts me and understands me which allows me to release the shields that are almost always up.

Have you ever felt like that? When I first began making friends with accepting attitudes towards my T-ness, I quickly felt the need for makeup and dress much less significant. Nowadays I'm quite comfortable wearing a blouse and jeans, but there was a time when even that just wasn't quite enough.

Until someone friendly enough came along allowing me to let my shields down.

Time to Divide T-Central?

I wanted to thank all those who subscribe and follow the T-Central trans and glb related blogroll. As you can see, the number of transgender bloggers here on this page is quickly growing, and I think it might be time to add new categories, but I need your opinion!

What do you think? While they'd all stay on this main page, I'd like to see separate categories for the following blog types: Spouses and Significant Others who blog about the transition they face with their partners, blogs specifically about crossdressing or crossdressers, those who also do video blogs, religious-themed blogs, political themed blogs, personal transition, etc.

You tell me... should we add new categories or leave this as is with the ever expanding list of personal blogs written by Tgbl writers? These inquiring minds want to know!