May 2007

“Last Monday in May”©

By…John T. Bird

We pause to remember those who died

With so much courage, so much pride

They’ll never come back, yet memories endure

To remind us of freedom: fragile, pure

We’re worthy of their sacrifice if we pause each day

Not just on the last Monday in May

Links of interest:
Remembering our fallen heroes: remember.gov
U.S. Memorial Day Site: usmemorialday.org

Thank you to any veterans reading this site today. I appreciate what you’re helping to keep our country free.

Good underwear. It feels good. Looks good. Doesn’t make you feel like you’ve got sandpaper on or something, umm, reminding you it’s THERE all the time. It’s just nice.

The general way of choosing good underwear is to simply keep using what you have been using until it’s so thread bare that your “going commando”, (as an aside, the whole concept and prevelence of “Going Commando” i.e., wearing no underwear at all, has actually been studied. As reported in the Wikipedia at their site HERE, brief and bra firm, Fresh Pair, in 2004 conducted a study “…of 7,000 people which revealed that 9% of men and 7% of women go commando day-to-day. Those who do so semi-regularly are much more numerous, possibly around 25-30%”. You have to love our unquenchable thirst for knowledge).

But now, fair reader, we’ve got the inside track on a more refined way of getting your undergarments right. The Vote. Or more precisely, “The Undie Awards“. In the words of the lingerie ladden workers managing the contest:

Women around the world voted for their favorite lingerie and the results are here. The Underwear Awards, (The Undies) were decided in 13 categories including Favorite Bra, Favorite Panty, Favorite Shapewear and more.

With the vote tallied the Overall Winners are:

• In the category, Favorite Bra (overall) average figure: Wonderbra Gel Satin Push-Up Bra, model #7234
• In the category, Favorite Bra (overall) full figure: Le Mystere Tisha Bra-Full Figure Renaissance, #9955
• In the category, Favorite Bottom (overall): The Hanky Panky Thong
• In the category, Favorite Shapewear (overall): Spanx Power Panties with Tummy Control #004
• In the category, Favorite Shapewear Tops, “Select Award”: Nancy Ganz Body Shaping Camisole #3310

So there you have it, no more holey underthings, no more breezy briefs and saggy bras! You can read about all the winners and even purchase said garments by visiting the Undies Awards by clicking to their site HERE.

Fenway Health’s Transgender Health Program is starting a new support
group series, the “T-Supper Club.” The first six-week group starts on Tuesday
June 5th and runs weekly from 6:30-8:30pm.

If you’re transgender, transexual, gender queer, gender non-conforming,
cross dresser, or anyone who crosses mainstream society’s notions of
gender, Fenway Community Health offers a new support group series, the
“T-Supper Club.”

The first six-week group is forming now!

Topics include: community building, sexual health issues, stress
management, personal expression, and group dialog.

The group is free and dinner is served each week.

The first group starts on Tuesday June 5th and runs weekly from
6:30-8:30pm.

For more information or to register call Fenway Health’s Transgender
Program Coordinator, Alex, at Fenway Health 617-927-6449 or email him at
asolange@fenwayhealth.org

For more information on Fenway Health you can visit their site at this link HERE.

As a transgender woman living in the United States I often have a kind of view that is centered on here in the United States. That’s not a bad thing given that I live and make a living here in the United States. But from time to time I wonder, how do other trans-folk feel about themselves? Do they have the same view as to the source of our GID (gender identity disorder) as we do or is our view in the United States decidedly more “western”.

A 2006 study published by Sam Winter BSc, PGCE, MEd, PhD, Division of Learning, Development and Diversity, Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, in the International Journal of Transgenderism: Volume: 9 Issue: 2, 2006 (see abstract at that journal here) helped to shed some interesting light on this topic for me, as I hope it does for you. The results may surprise you in how similar across the world those who are transgender really are.

The study was done in Thailand. Now for those of you in the transgender world, Thailand is seen, by many in the United States, as a sort of transgender mecca. Fully tolerant with surgery and life options that make integrating mostly easy. That’s the perception anyway.

In Dr. Winter’s study one hundred and ninety-five transgender females (i.e., male-to-female transgenders (or MtF TGs)), with an average age of about 25 years, completed a questionnaire examining, what they believed about the attitudes of parents and society towards them and what they thought may have caused them to have Gender Identity Disorder. First let’s look at the acceptance statistics.

Thai Mothers tallied at the top on accepting their child’s condition with 62.9% accepting or encouraging their children who showed transgender traits. Thai Fathers had an interestingly high number as well, at 40.7% accepting or encouraging.

On the causal front, 84% believed that biology played a role in their being transgender. Interestingly, friends and karma were also commonly endorsed as explanatory factors as well, with 50% for the latter and 48.4% for the former.

All in all, interesting reading on how similar we may all be after all. You can reach the full abstract at Th International Journal of Transgenderism at this link HERE.

In case you missed it Christine Daniels, of the L. A. Times, has put up a blog. From the blogs description:

Christine Daniels is a veteran sportswriter who has worked at the Los Angeles Times for 23 years — as Mike Penner. Christine shocked many readers on April 27, 2007, when she announced her decision to change gender. She will be blogging about her transition over the days to come.

Fun reading You can reach Ms. Daniels blog at by clicking to the L.A. Times from this link HERE. (p.s. bring a cup of mochajava with you!)

In case you missed it. The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Inc. (HBIGDA) has changed it’s name to The World Professional Association for Transgender Health or WPATH.

Their new address on the web is : http://www.wpath.org/

And, if you don’t know, WPATH is, in their own words:

is a professional organization devoted to the understanding and treatment of gender identity disorders.

We have approximately 500 members from around the world, in fields such as medicine, psychology, law, social work, counselling, psychotherapy, family studies, sociology, anthropology, voice therapy, sexology and other related fields

And, their bi-ennial symposium is in the USA this year! It’ll be held in Chicago, September 5th through September 8th at the Embassy Suites Hotel. The hotel is in downtown and a short walk to Navy Pier and Michigan Avenue. The theme for the conference is: “Looking to the Future: Environment, Transplantation, Telepsychiatry”

Here are some of what will be talked about:

• Dr. Walter Bockting on Spectrum vs Dichotomy
• Dr. Stan Monstrey - Surgery Overview and State of the Art
• Dr. Randi Ettner - Children of Transsexuals
• Dr. Richard Green - Nature versus Nurture

Surprisingly you do not have to be a physician to join. You can be on the latest cutting edge developments in the field of Gender Identity Disorder by joining as a supporting member!

Supporting membership is available to individuals who do not work in the professional disciplines listed above, but still have an interest in being an active member of the organization. Supporting membership costs $110 (US) per year, and carries no voting privileges.

Get it on the fun by visiting the WPATH site at this link HERE.

Every day we risk something.

You walk out the door you risk stepping in a pile of dog poop

You drink a cup of coffee you risk burning a few layers of flesh of your tongue

You kiss your honey and your risk your nose ring getting caught in her braces

and so it goes…

But what about those every day run of the mill disasters like a tornado? Or maybe an earthquake? Have you ever thought “gee, I wonder if I’m at risk for those today”?

Well wonder no more fair reader! I present to you the patented, “Glenn Beck Interactive
Disaster Map”. You’ll find it quite illuminating we think. Just click on over to the map by visiting this link HERE. It will take you to Glenn Beck.com where you’ll learn what YOUR risk is!

( Source data for this post courtesy of our correspondant, “The Southern Man”.  Thanks!!)

When I heard about the Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund on my local talk show radio station I thought, “now this is brilliant”. You should too.

Whether you think the war in Iraq is a movement to save the free world or you think it’s about the dumbest foreign policy choice we’ve made in the past 30 years is immaterial. Our soldiers, both men and women, went to Iraq and Afghanistan because they were told to go. They did not have any choice. So they are there fulfilling a mission that I have to believe in some way makes us safer here in the United States.

And, as a result of this, some of them have died. And they died in service to our country. So here’s a way to help out some of their kids. It’s a good thing. Here’s who they are in their own words:

The Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund is the first statewide public charity for fallen military heroes. There are hundreds of servicemen and women from Massachusetts currently deployed in combat operations in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Of these brave young men and women, many have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

The Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fund hopes to honor the sacrifice of Massachusetts servicemen and women who have died in combat by supporting their surviving children in all future educational endeavors. The MSL Fund supports the children of Massachusetts fallen heroes from all service branches: Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard.

You can visit the Massachusetts Soldiers Legacy Fun by clicking to their site at this link here: http://mslfund.org/ The fund just sent their first kid to college. You can be a part of that too by visiting their site and supporting this good work.