“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!)