February 2008

If you caught last night’s CSI (in Boston anyway) … it was the “Living Doll” episode. In one of the most sad and romantic moments in TV history, Sara writes a letter to Grishom, the series main character, that she is leaving. She tells him that she loves him; she talks about herself; she talks about what haunts her; and that she must go,

You know I love you. I feel I’ve loved you forever.

Lately I haven’t been feeling very well. Truth be told, I’m tired.

Out in the desert, under that car that night, I realised something and I haven’t been able to shake it.

Since my father died, I spent almost my entire life with ghosts. We’ve been like close friends and out there in the desert, it occured to me, that it was time for me to bury them. I can’t do that here.

I’m so sorry.

No matter how hard I try to fight it off, I’m left with a feeling that, I have to go. I have no idea where I’m going, but I know I have to do this. If I don’t, I’m afraid I’ll self-destruct, and worse, you’ll be there to see it happen. Be safe.

Know that I tried very hard to stay. Know that you are my one and only. I will miss you with every beat of my heart. Our life together was the only home I’ve ever really had. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

I love you…I always will.

Goodbye.

In a lot of ways I feel her letter says, from the heart, what alot of us must feel like … at least sometimes.

You can see the scene for yourself at You Tube by visiting You Tube here.

Astronomer extraordinaire, and my friend, Sonia, has placed a new social and support group into the constellation of what we have in New England! She’s named it, T-Party, and you can reach her new venture by visiting her groups site HERE.

Those of us in the Boston area might wonder how this area can support yet another transgender group. Well, surprisingly, very easily. Lyn Conway actually did some statistical analysis not too long ago and even presented a paper on her work, you can read what she presented at the WPATH conference by clicking over to her article at her site HERE. In a nutshell, she found the prevalence of MtF transsexualism on the order of ~1:500 so let’s do some math

Greater Boston is home to 4.4M people. So, if we look at Lyn Conway’s findings, that means, if I have my math right, that there are 8800 trans-women in the Greater Boston area and, possibly, 1/2 that many trans-men. If we look at the entire transgender umbrella (crossdresser, drag queens, transsexuals, gender queer, etc.) there might be alot more but let’s just go with that figure of 8800 trans-women. Okay stay with me here for this next part.

I have heard, through the grapevine, that Dr. Richard Doctor has discovered in a study he led that only 70% of all crossdressers actually go outside their homes crossdressed and of that only a small percentage (5% perhaps ?) actually go to public venues (stores, restaurants, etc). I can’t find the any documentation where he said this but let’s just go with it.

If the above are true, then of the 8800 trans-women in this area, only 6160 actually venture out to trans-friendly events and of that only 300 or so go out in public, out and about. If we look at the 6160 number, the Greater Boston Area can easily support T-Party and all the other groups in this area.

Maybe we’ll have a cup of coffee with the star gazing Ms. Sonia at some point and understand what motivated her and what her dreams are for T-Party.

7/12/2008 Update
T-Party’s on-line presence for coordinating their doings has moved to TransSpace.    To reach their new site at TransSpace you can click over to them from our link here.

The Nashua Telegraph did an excellent series on transgender neighbors. It’s very well done, and is about four or so articles. The commentary and letters to the editors are equally as good reading, providing an interesting look into what others think of the transgender community. It’s well worth a nice cup of mocha-java and a read. Here are the links:

• Taking a Look at the Transgender Community in NH
• The people you’ll meet
• Woman finding acceptance with herself
• Series Sheds Light on Hidden Population

How about some laughter with that morning coffee there?

Maybe a tailor would have helped?

After week’s of medical treatment, my doctor became concerned about some redness around my waist, so he sent me to a specialist. When that doctor entered the examination room, he studied my chart, then looked at me sitting in the chair.

“Should I take my clothes off?” I asked

“No need to,” he said. “I already see the problem. your pants are too tight.”

You always guessed this was true about those meetings!

Percentage of the work week that a typical worker spends in meetings: 25.

Odds that a person at a meeting doesn’t know why she’s there? 1 in 3.

Puntastic!

Seen in the window of a camping shop: “Now is the winter of our discount tents”.

This dog’s bark is worse than her bite

My dog is half pit bull, half poodle. It’s not much of a watchdog but it’s a vicious gossip (Craig Shoemaker)

(Photo courtesy of k-girl’s photostream Humor courtesy of Reader’s Digest, Dec 2007)

Early Registration Discounts for Fantasia Fair End Soon

If anyone is considering going to this year’s Fantasia Fair conference in October, you may want to register before March 1st. As of March, the early registration discount will no longer be available. If you are not sure if you can make it to this event, you can register now and get nearly a full refund if later on you have to cancel. Check out the Fantasia Fair website for details on the refund policy. The Fantasia Fair website is at http://www.fantasiafair.org.

If anyone could help us with the Beck’s Cafe graphics header we’d be grateful. It’s apparenlty too big. The cafe’s ultra-high tech computers can’t tell but some of our readers don’t see the nifty header we mashed up. So, if you’d like to help we’d be grateful because we aren’t sure what to do to make it fit for displays that don’t like big headers.

Thanks