A Very, Very Tired Conversation

Ms. Shandy gives us an excellent retelling of a harrowing bathroom experience while presenting not as her target gender but while in "guy-mode." It's a great example of what one can expect when they transition and haven't gone to living full time.
Give it a read and please don't forget to leave a comment.

Read "Revisiting a Very, Very Tired Conversation" HERE.

Dr. Oz Show to Feature Transgender Children - Tune in Thursday, February 18th

(crossposted from my personal blog):

Many people were disappointed with the way the Tyra Show handled the sensitive subject of raising a transgender child.  This Thursday the Dr. Oz Show will attempt to approach the topic honestly and more thoroughly.  I've been told by Kim Pearson of Trans Youth Family Allies and by one of the mothers who was there with her transgender daughter that the taping went exceptionally well and that this will be a show that was clearly done right.

I will be watching this Thursday, either during or later on that evening via DVR. Please be sure to tune in.  Here is a preview from the Dr. Oz Show:

T-Central Viewed Through Google Analytics

I wanted to provide a brief update to show the steady growth of T-Central since I first created this blogroll as a type of second page to my main blog.  The site continues to be used by many of you who are interested in reading trans related blogs but prefer the site to using RSS feed readers ( I also use Google Reader to keep up with all my favorite feeds).



As you can see by the image above, T-Central receives on average anywhere between 150 to 200 unique visits a day, and it continues to trend upwards with more readers returning to use the site as a link to visit other blogs.  

If you know of new sites you'd like for us consider including here, please use the form at the "T-Central Comments and Questions Page."  If you don't like the broad range of topics here, feel free to create your own blogroll page similar to this one that suits your needs.  Otherwise, keep enjoying reading and sharing your comments with other fellow bloggers!

The Doc Is In

Our own Dr. Morbius writes a very interesting and compelling blog today called "Identities."  Thinking through her post at length, I've decided not to give any opinion for the sake of only directing you there to form your own.

What are you waiting for?

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. 

A Life Reborn? Rebecca Begins a Blog

I recently met someone online who is just beginning her path to self acceptance though she, like so many, have struggled for years to internalize her true self.   In "A Life Reborn," Rebecca explains how she's recently seen a gender therapist who has had extensive experience dealing with gender identity issues.   The question Rebecca raises concerns her therapist's recommendation (after one visit) that she's ready to begin a hormone replacement therapy program.  

How soon is too soon?  And when SHOULD a therapist prescribe HRT?   How rigid should the WPATH Standards of Care be followed?   Being that this is Rebecca's new blog and first post, I'm hoping you'd be willing to head over there and chime in.   Her "Followers" feature is up so you can follow along with her too!

Common Teri's Commentary

Ever since I began my first steps to transition, my friend Teri had a blog on Yahoo 360 where she would write her unadulterated thoughts about transition, life, and the new challenges of living as a woman.  She left the blog world for a few months recently but has returned with a new blog and new input.  Her most recent posts already prove she's back in true form sharing her heart and chronicling her life in a real and sensitive way.  

Please head over to her site and become a follower.  It's definitely worth it!

http://commontericommentary.blogspot.com/

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.

A Daydreamer Among Us

Over on Wordpress, I stumbled upon Adrienne Morgan Leigh's blog (READ IT HERE or navigate to http://daydreamer37.wordpress.com/ ). Adrienne seems ready to continue the chronicles of her transition, and I appreciate anyone willing to share another simple yet incredibly personal journey with the rest of the world.

Head on over the Adrienne's blog and decide for yourself. She's also been added to the T-Central list below in case you miss a blog or two!

Tiana's "Being My True Self"

I have a dear friend who just recently transitioned on the job. From what I hear things went exceptionally well and she is finally settling into her role as her true self.

Speaking of true selves, Tiana no longer posts over on Yahoo 360 and has begun her own blog here on Blogger. It's titled "Being My True Self," and I think the world of Tiana. Following her over the last two years, our lives seemed to eerily parallel each other, and even now I wonder what kind of exciting future holds for my friend.

That's her on the right, taken at last year's IFGE conference in Tucson. She and friend Marie A were doing some sort of cotton-eye-joe or something like that. I was busy with camera in hand. So head on over to her new blog, follow her by clicking on the Followers box, and say hi. I'm sure that friendly Texan will be glad you did. Yee-haw! And be sure to tell her not to kill me for posting this photo!

Fresh Blood

Sorry, the title isn't indicative of a new vampire flick coming to a screen near you. Rather, I wanted to introduce you to two awesome bloggers in their own right who will be posting their own blog reviews here on T-Central.

Veronique has been faithfully posting to Trans-Canada since mid-2007, and it's this blogger's opinion that the running message of hope and perseverance throughout her blog is a must read for any person beginning to or in the process of transitioning. Veronique is a representative of what can go right with transition.

Christianne Benedict of Scheherezade's Sister is a long time friend of mine whose own transition I've been following since the old "decrepit 360" blogs in days of yore. The only thing I enjoy more than reading her blog is talking to her on the phone, which we seem to do with a bit of regularity. Her other movie blog Krell Laboratories is amazingly extensive and provides some really great insight in current and classic film. You may be seeing posts in this space coming from them in the near future. Don't worry, and don't adjust your TG Set...

Oh, and these aren't the droids you're looking for. Move along. Move along.

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!

Video Bloggers of Bloggerville Unite!

So another jumps into the waters of video weblogging, huh? This time it's our own temptress from down under (and I ain't talking about Australia!) Shinigami Liz. Then again, she's only HALF-demonness according to her ;)

But I'll let you go check out here blog (click HERE) and watch for yourself! Not bad not bad girlie, keep em coming!

So what the heckage does Shinigami mean anyhow?

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.

From Lori Anne to LoriAnne's World

Okay, that's not a photo of my twin and me, but I bet it made you look!

I did, however, just finish reading about the "week of incomparable lows and stratospheric highs" that my friend of same name and similar life LoriAnne experienced. LoriAnne continues to write about life in transition, this time as she is about to step into the corporate world as her true self. Her writing style is another that I eagerly covet, her ability to accurately express the ranging emotions of the highs and lows in our transtion rollercoaster ride.

Follow along and give her your best wishes as she takes yet another major hurdle within the next two weeks! You can read her blog (HERE).

Aren't We All Out of Our Minds?

I don't always stick to Blogger to find interesting writers who have a story to tell. A lot of good writers can be found on Wordpress and LiveJournal, and I still have a few friends who never abandoned the nearly abandoned Yahoo 360.

One of those friends, Leslie Ann, still posts there for now, but she's also begun to post her crazed thoughts over on Blogger at my request. (Okay, I'll admit it, I'm lazy, and I like reading blogs on my mobile Google Reader in addition to here at T-Central. I can't reliably add 360 blogs to it.)

Leslie Ann, in my opinion, writes from the deep reserves of a passionate spirit longing to find her center in being transgender. What's more, she is one of many who may not or don't pursue transition, something we don't see many people willing to write and blog about. I think those who choose that path also deserve to be heard, and if you'd like to know what that's like, please check out Leslie's site and follow along with her. I know I'll be following closely. Very closely. That girl's out of her mind.
(Really, really, I don't think she's all that crazy.)

Teri, Debbie, Dee, and Allison

Today over on CommonTeri's blog, Teri opens up about her successful day performing at the recent Fresno talent show and the positive review she received from online Gay Fresno. Her point is that we should interact with the world and let them see our talents so that they come to know us for who we are.

Over on Debbie's Life, she ventures into the realm of podcasting as she prepares to travel for her own surgery. I haven't had a chance to give it a full listen, but give Deb your support as she documents one of the biggest moments in her life. She's got a great voice too! As Lucy heals from her own surgery, we wish you luck Debbie!

Dee of Dee's Tales continues to write about the vivid emotions she experiences about the necessity of blogging to help sort through her many thoughts. I like Dee's writing a lot, I think you will too.

And last but certainly not least, I found a new friend in the gorgeous Allison Mackenzie. After reading her most recent blogs, I found myself going back reading her previous writings, and I was hooked. Allison has done a marvelous job chronicling the highs and lows of transition, and I think her wordpress journal is as good as it gets. She faces FFS (pun intended) within a couple of weeks. Her page says "Just another Wordpress blog," but there's much more to it than that.

Too much to read and too little time to do it in. Toodles!

Blogs of the Day, Version 1.0

Beginning today, Renee and I will be giving brief reviews of recent blog postings from others that you may have missed. While it will certainly only scratch the surface, we hope to highlight interesting stories and life events here at the top of the T-Central page.

Over on Teresa's Treasures, today was the day she got her name changed...woo hoo! Go T.E.R.E.S.A! That's just a name FULL of "awesome sauce!" (as Jayna and Mila put it).

Kathryn of Kathryn's Journey met with HR and has a date set for her to go full time at work...stay tuned to hear how that goes. Results from coming out at work still vary from person to person. I have a feeling Kathryn will do just fine, after having followed her blog for a while. Go girl!

And Veronique over on TransCanada discusses what life is like to be happy. She also includes a video at the bottom. If you haven't followed her blog yet, you're missing a wonderful writer who shares her heart and soul.

Finally, Stephanie posts in her own blog about coming to terms with the big "Why," and decides that "I'm a happy girl, not an angry shadow. That's all that matters."

I like that reasoning. I like it a lot.

112 PERSONAL BLOGS...Sheez

112 personal blogs here. Whew! Lots to read. While I may not have enough time to comment on nearly as many as I'd like, I do read a LOT.
All because I'm still learning... a LOT.

Now get back to reading!

2009 ...and STILL growing!

I want to thank all of you who seem to be using T-Central as a jump point to newer trans and glb-related news and personal blogs. (Google Analytics says so!) I am personally using it more than the Google Reader, my current RSS feed reader, unless I read blogs via my mobile phone. We're still debating whether to break blogs down by subjects, but the main issue is where to put each one considering most topics overlap.

For now we'll keep two lists in addition to the new "What We Just Started Reading" list.

I'm glad we can help increase readership with personal bloggers as well as contribute to this interweaving of online friendships. Keep on blogging, and keep on reading and commenting!

Happy New Year!