The reason we’ve been following this is because her death was so unnecessary.  Well we’ve got more follow up.   Christine’s Church, MMC L.A., held a memorial service for her in January 2010.  The interview done by Autumn Sandeen of MMC L.A.’s Reverend Dr. Neal Thomas sheds a little more light on Christine and how she felt about herself after she transitioned.   You can check the story out at Pam’s House Blend; MMC L.A. Memorial Service For Christine Daniels

The December 2008 issue of the Harvard Business Review features a case study, “When Steve Becomes Stephanie” in which they cover the issue of an employee in gender transition.  The intro is free but the actual study is $6.50 and downloadable from HBR.

Dr. Jillian Weiss, who was the keynote speaker at First Event Transgender Conference, has a nice review of the case study and some additional thoughts as well.  You can see her take at The Bilerico Project: “December Harvard Business Review Features “When Steve Becomes Stephanie”

At Beck’s Cafe we covered an earlier note about gender transition at Harvard Business Review, you can click to that write up here at Beck’s Cafe at the article, “Harvard Business Review and Transgender Workplace Issues“

Nobel Laureates Dr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn and Dr. Carol W. Greider recently shared the Nobel Prize for their work in understanding how chromosomes protect themselves as they divide.  The benefit to their work so far is in creating new experimental cancer therapies and in understanding the aging process better.  While their work in science earned them the Nobel, a rarity as only 10 other women have won the Nobel prize in Medicine, their thoughts on how science is conducted on a personal and institutional level by the scientists themselves, women in particular, bears consideration.

Dr. Blackburn noted with regards to the career structure for scientists that, “The career structure is very much a career structure that has worked for men”.  This should come as no surprise as the foundations of science came up from organizations built by men.  They’ve certainly done many great things but maybe now is a time to rethink how we conduct science to give more room for women’s equal brilliance to have impact.  Brilliance isn’t constrained by gender but institutional bias against gender, womens in particular, can artificially trap brilliance and creativity.

Dr. Greider said, “a more flexible approach to part-time research and career breaks would help women continue to advance their careers during their childbearing years.”  My guess is that many men might balk at such an approach due to the institutional sense that intense focus on a problem is needed to solve the problem.  Dr. Greider qualifies her statement by saying, “I’m not talking about doing second-rate quality science, far from it.  You can do really good research when you are doing it part-time.”  Her call is for a more flexibility for women in their involvement in pushing the envelope in science.  I can’t help but think that would be a good thing for men too  and perhaps for science overall.

Dr. Blackburn and Dr. Greider may be the most visible promoters of this issue, (and mother’s themselves) but they are not alone.    A book published in 2008 by Cornell University Press entitled, “Motherhood, the Elephant in the Laboratory: Women Scientists Speak Out” provides a platform for this same topic.  The book, edited by Emily Monosson, an independent toxicologist, brings together the stories of 34 women scientists around this issue of being scientists in mostly male dominated science spaces and yet trying to live the balanced lives they need as mothers and as dedicated scientists.  The books stories are static but the companion blog has even more stories that are quite alive on this important topic.

The blog Science Mom’s, which grew out of the book, “Motherhood, The Elephant in the Laboratory” seeks to capture these living stories, provide a forum to publicize them, and to share them to foster the debate and discussion on this issue.   And the blog Mama PhD. takes a similar tack recording stories of women trying to make life balance, motherhood and rigorous science all work together in a system that was conceived for success by men but, for which a time has come to rethink the structure of how to successfully “do” science.

Apparently the amazing Clownfish is “protandrous hermaphrodites” that is, it’s first a male then, at the right time for it’s species, changes it gender to female for pro-creation.  Yet another example from nature of our sometimes fluid gender in biology.  Interesting indeed.

Have a read for yourself at Wikipedia’s article:  Clownfish

Grab that mug of hot morning blend bold brew and have a watch; well worth the five minutes or so the interview takes by clicking over to CBS in SF: Sue Kwon speaks with JoAnne Herman, author, “Transgender Explained for Those Who are Not”.

Transgender Lives has put out a call for such workshop presenters and the deadline to provide them with your concept is November 15th.  So if giving a workshop on a topic that may be important to the transgender community is up your alley, have a visit to the Transgender Lives site and send your form in.

For as long as Terry* could remember, she never felt comfortable with her body. The 35-year-old New Jersey native was born with XY chromosomes and had the right corresponding anatomy, but “my body parts felt wrong,” says Terry. As a child, Terry preferred to play with girl toys, have female friends, and tried to hide her urge to cross-dress. “My dad would flip a lid if I played with girl stuff.” During her teen years, Terry struggled with low self-esteem and emotional issues as she tried to suppress her hidden gender identity. Terry had no doubt she was a female trapped in a male’s body, but it would take years of anguish and psychological counseling before she could completely transform into being the woman and mother she is today.

On this first Transparent Day, you can read more of Terry’s story at Mom Logic, by visiting, “Trans-Parenting: How Daddy Became Mommy“.

Many of us women-folk don’t really understand the men in our community. We think we do, but, often times our stereotypes cloud our knowing these amazing guys. This night is sure to be extra special and enlightening for everyone who attends. Here’s more of the detail:

Where & When?

• Thursday, October 8, 2009, 7-9pm
• St. Luke’s and St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church, 5 St. Lukes Road, Allston, MA Corner of Brighton Ave & St. Lukes Road, one block from the Packard’s Corner T-stop The event is free and open to the public. Donations for the speakers will be appreciated.

What about those reading?

• Matt Kailey is a Denver author, speaker, and activist focusing on transgender issues. He is the author of Just Add Hormones: An Insider’s Guide to the Transsexual Experience, a Lambda Finalist, the editor of Focus on the Fabulous: Colorado GLBT Voices, the National Transgender Issues Examiner for Examiner.com, and the author of the personal blog Tranifesto. He can be reached through his web site at www.mattkailey.com.

• Max Wolf Valerio is a poet and writer, sometime actor, and long transitioned trans man who remembers Lou Sullivan and a time when the FTM Newsletter was one of the only sources of communication for trans men and their allies. The Testosterone Files (Seal Press) is his memoir about his first five years on testosterone. A poet, who has been writing, performing and reading his work for thirty years, Max began transition in 1989. He has appeared in many films and documentaries including the “Max” short in “Female Misbehavior” and “Gendernauts” both by German Director Monika Treut, and in “You Don’t Know Dick – Courageous Hearts of Transsexual Men,” “Octopus Alarm,” and “Unhung Heroes” — the FTM comedy and the new “Maggots and Men”.

• Rev. Dr. Cameron Partridge is a scholar of religion and gender/sexuality studies and is the vicar of St. Luke’s and St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church. One of his projects is to bring to publication the memoir of Michael Dillon.

So, I follow Ms. Herman on Twitter and what pops up but that she’s writing a book. And now it’s published and I thought all our wonderful readers would like to know.

Entitled, “Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not“, here’s a bit about the book from the publisher:

Joanne Herman, a transgender woman who read everything in sight to understand her own gender incongruity, has been helping others with her non-complicated explanations of transgender for almost a decade. Now she has written down her explanations for all to read in Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not. Organized by topic into short, easy-to-read chapters, Transgender Explained is perfect for parents, relatives, colleagues, friends, allies and even journalists who want to quickly get up to speed on what it means to be transgender.

Joanne claims the book contains many of the excellent essays from her equally excellent web site, http://www.joanneherman.com/ She’s a good writer, a smart businesswoman and a courageous sister. You can pick up a copy of her book at her publisher’s site Authorhouse; Transgender Explained For Those Who Are Not

You can read all about her coming to present, in person, the findings from the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH) funded Transgender Project study at TCNE’s Press Release.

Becki: Lisa, can you give us one or two of your favorite scenes from your book?
Lisa: (laughs) Wouldn’t that be giving away too much? I think my favorite is the awakening. Another one that was fun to write was when she meets her old neighbor in San Diego and learns about her former life. I also like the playful stuff that happens as Susan grows accustomed to being a woman and finds she likes men.

Becki: Why write a transgender fiction book now? And since you wrote it some time ago, why publish now?
Lisa: Actually this is in the past. I started this book probably ten years ago and never finished until last year. I had gotten just so far and got distracted from the project for a long time. I put it aside and didn’t think much about it. Besides I really didn’t know how I wanted it to end. It was my friend, Carollyn Olson, who pushed me to finish it.

Carollyn had just published her first novel, “Deception” and I mentioned that I had this thing I was working on. I sent her the unfinished manuscript and she wrote back Shouting at me “OH MY GOD!!!! YOU HAVE TO FINISH THIS!” She got me to write the ending and have it published.

Becki: How does the theme of death and re-birth play into your main characters life and does that mirror or relate to the experience of other transpeople (or other people in other life transitions all of them not necessarily transgender).
Lisa: You know, I hadn’t really thought of it in such allegorical terms but I suppose it really does because transitioning is really a death and rebirth. You leave one life behind and start a new one.. Initially it was just an exploration of feelings and speculations but it does work on that level as well.

It also has some element of everyone’s wish for immortality, or at least longer life or a second try at getting life right. OK, I’m no longer 60 years old and winding down. Suddenly, I’m 20 and I have a chance to not make those stupid mistakes I made all my life. I have the wisdom of my 60 years and a new fresh body. Of course if’s female now but hey, won’t that be an interesting kick?

Becki: Besides Gordon, can you give our readers any description and insight into another important character in your book and how you came to bring this person to life in your book?
Lisa: Here’s the romance novel reader/writer showing up. Greg is her knight in shining armor. Susan is a smart, capable and strong woman, but she has to face some realities that she never considered as a male. Primary is that she is discriminated against and harassed because she is a woman. This was something she never saw even in her own company until it was directed at her. It was going on when she was a man but she was too involved in other things to see it. She also realizes that while she has skills and is not a tiny woman, she has physical limitations simply because most of these bad people she encounters are so much larger and more physically powerful than she is. She needs someone like Greg to fill that need. Doesn’t hurt that he’s a handsome hunk either. I made Greg kind of an ideal but gave him a past that he doesn’t talk about and that might be something she really doesn’t want to know about. He’s done some things that might not be suitable for all audiences. That’s his mystery.

And every story needs a villain. It’s more interesting when that villain is someone the hero/heroine knows and doesn’t suspect. I had fun making that character pretty slimy. I confess to have modeled him after someone I know. So he’s kind of a real person. That part was a vicarious giggle for me.

Becki: Your smart, gorgeous, a great friend, and devoted parent and spouse, so now a published author, what’s up next on the horizon for you Lisa?
Lisa: Flattery will get you a free copy of the book! (laughs) I really don’t know what’s next. I’m working on a new story that will feature a detective who crossdresses, very convincingly, to work on a big case. I’ve also agreed to allow Carollyn to use the characters in my book in her new novel “Breaking Point”. I’ve been an advisor and consultant on that project as well as writing a chapter or so for it.

Right now, I’m being Dad to my teenage daughter who is smart, talented and beautiful (Can’t tell I’m proud of her, can you?), and trying to stay afloat in the recession. I’ve been appointed Assistant PostMistress for the Vanity Club, which is a wonderful online sorority that counts some of the most beautiful trans-women in the world as members. I’ll be going to the Lake Erie Gala this November.

I’ll let you know when the newest book becomes available.

Becki: Lisa I hope you do! And thanks so much for taking the time to visit with us at Beck’s Cafe

Becki: What led you to write your book?
Lisa: I spent my whole professional career in an office. Got my degree in accounting of all things and I hated it. I was never a detail-oriented person. (Is that right brain or left? I can never remember.) I was always more interested in the arts. My favorite subjects in school were always English and the arts. I enjoyed writing short stories bur never thought I could put together a story that would be suitable for a book. This story didn’t start out as a book either. I just started writing about this idea I had and it kept growing.

Becki: So the story kind of took on a life of it’s own, or, maybe picked you up and carried you on a journey to see it written! Have you always written, what were some of your earliest works?
Lisa: Always. I made up elaborate stories as far back as I can remember.

I have a series of short stories, mostly in the Twilight Zone kind of genre that I may publish someday. Some of these date back to my college days, back when there were still dinosaurs roaming around. I need to finish the three or four ideas I have in progress before that compilation could be book length.

My favorite has to be “The Foxhole”. It’s about a soldier in war who finds himself in a foxhole with a few other GI’s whom he does not know. As they shelter from enemy fire there, they discover that they are not even fighting the same war. One is from Viet Nam, another fought in WWII and another Korea.

I also adapted a short story by Robert Sheckley, “The King Wishes” into a stage play. I would love to produce that for the stage one day.

Becki: I bet the range of characters in your stories is very wide. Can you tell us how you come up with your main character for “Emerald Spirit” Gordon who becomes Susan?
Lisa: Susan wasn’t really a character until later in the process. I started writing not about a specific person but about an idea. What would it be like to wake up in a strange hospital and find that I was no longer a male? But not just a male who had say, undergone SRS, perhaps by accident, (you know the old urban myths: the hospital got the wrong patient for the transplant surgery and now this guy has someone else’s heart and there was nothing wrong with his. That kind of thing.) but that he, now she, was 100% genetic female. So when you read it, the chapter in which that happens is the first part written. After a while I thought there was a larger story that could be told. It expanded in both directions from there. Eventually Susan needed to be a real person.

Becki: The main character, Gordon Carson, with his millionaire, wealth and expensive plane sounds similar to a Howard Hughes or Richard Branson, what led you to create a character like Gordon with his unique attributes?
Lisa: I needed to have someone with a great deal to lose. Someone for whom this sudden change would be even more devastating than the obvious physical changes. It didn’t hurt to give him the means to have done so many things in his life that would come in handy during the story. Making him wealthy, intelligent and successful provided all that.

(tomorrow in part 2:  Lisa’s favorite scenes from her book “Emerald Spirit”, how her friend got her motivated, and what’s next for Lisa?)

• “Hey hows the view from on high?”
• “You’re so tall that even in the summer time you still have snow on your head.”
• “I’m glad you’re tall. It gives me more of you to dislike.”
• “Do you have  enough oxygen way up there”

sigh

But when I’m near other tall women I just feel so …. normal.  It’s so nice

So it was a joy to learn I am keeping really good company with other tall women!  I learned this from Femulate’s List of Tall Women.  Staci has done a superb job of showing gals like me that being tall is not a detriment, it’s elegant.  If you are tall go have a look at her list, you’ll be encouraged to hold your head high and maybe even wear higher heels.

So their latest work is thought provoking and likely to be fun, it’s a movie entitled, “Transproofed”.  From the movies editorial notes on Amazon:

Ava (Calpernia Addams) is a transsexual woman who has recently completed her transition. Her friend and mentor Joyce (Andrea James) has long advised her to get her apartment “transproofed,” a slang term for hiding all the evidence that she’s trans.

In Ava’s case, that’s a tall order: Ava came up through the club scene as a showgirl, and both Ava and her apartment are vibrant, sexy, and full of clues.

Ava calls Joyce for a last-minute transproofing because her hot new boyfriend Mike (Joel Lambert) is coming over for dinner that night. Joyce races over to help Ava give the place an ‘Extreme Ho Makeover’ more in Joyce’s aesthetic: plain and non-descript. Joyce reminds Ava that passing as female means blending in and not drawing attention to yourself. Both Ava and her apartment are garish and flashy, and the two set to work making it look like a drab straight girl’s apartment.

Set to the pulsing club single “Next,” they go from room to room, leaving no stone unturned: closets, medicine cabinets, bookshelves, and even the fridge. As Ava watches more and more of who she is being hidden from view, she starts to have second thoughts about how much she is willing to sacrifice to live “stealth,” where no one knows she is trans.

Will Ava be able to walk away from everything that made her who she is and start fresh? Or will she risk losing another guy she really likes by telling him she’s trans?

This movie sounds completely fun and though provoking.  You can pick up your own copy at the Transproofed site or at Amazon.

Over the years, psychologists and medical professionals have conducted numerous small-scale and highly focused studies of various segments of the Transgender Community, yet precious little is known about how we actually live our lives; who we are; what we do and why; where we come from; and where we are headed.

The Transgender Project is designed to describe the economic, social and personal, family and workplace experiences of male to female trans-persons, how these experiences change over the course of our lives, and the impact of these experiences on our mental and physical health.

(We perked up a post on The Transgender Project back in February 2006 before results were revealed)

While The Transgender Project is tightly focused on NY, the results are interesting in that, at some level, they certainly apply to the transgender community at large. Mona shared some of the results of The Transgender Project study with attendees of the Central New York Health Systems Agency’s, “LGBT Stories: Reflections and Voices from Within”. The program, from their site, is “designed to promote information-sharing among the LGBT community and service providers using a format of storytelling & open discussion”.

One point Ms. Mason shared was about how the lack of acceptance of trans-people, when they come out, can be devastating. But while we might think of this as emotional or physically abuse, it can be far worse: losing a place to live when you a young teen trans-woman and you end up on the street. Mona shared the following,

These young transgender women, expelled from the home or forced to leave, end up on the street, homeless and hungry. Cold and hunger drive people to do things they would otherwise never do. Sex work soon becomes the only means by which they can survive.

It comes as no news to anyone here in this room, that the greater the number of different sex partners one has, the greater one’s chance of contracting HIV or an STI become. But what may surprise you is that this condition of family initiated homelessness is primarily a cultural phenomenon predominate in the African American and Latina segments of the transgender community. This homeless situation, in conjunction with the inability to find employment and shelter, and relying on sex work for survival are some of the direct correlates to our findings that show us that 48.1% of African American and 49.6% of Latina transgender women in our study tested positive for HIV at baseline.

That fact is astonishing. It parallels some of the thoughts that Walter Bockting, WPATH President, shared in a recent interview in “The Body” and that we blogged about at Beck’s Cafe here. It’s about survival, safety and acceptance. Is it any surprise those are the three bottom parts of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

Mona had a few other thoughts to share as well. Depression, bi-polar disorder, personality disorders and other psychologically visible “abnormalities” can often be symptoms of not dealing with some inner real source of conflict and being transgender is one of those conflicts. The Transgender Project found that:

The rate of lifetime major depression in this study of male to female transgender persons was 54.3%. That is almost three times higher than the corresponding estimate for the general population….Suicide ideation for this same group was at 53.3%, again three times higher than the general population.

And she offers a challenges to health care providers and educators (and by proxy to each of us) who deal with glbt youth “but what of our gay and transgender kids who have left or quit school? Are we asking them, or even pushing them, to get that GED so they might be able to get a job, or are we just handing them condoms and telling them to be safe? That is simply not enough.”

Ms. Mason’s keynote is well worth a full read; so take your tall glass of ice coffee and please, have a read, you’ll be challenged to think and, possibly, to action. Mona’s keynote from the “LGBT Stories: Reflections and Voices from Within” conference is at her blog, “Mona Mason-Thoughts On Transgender” here.

My lead in is meant to be provocative as the story in the Wall Street Journal is almost archaic and the comments to the story seem spot on.  So let’s have at it; coffee still warm for this afternoon’s ready? Good!

The article entitled, “Ways Women Can Hold Their Own in a Male World” seems like reasonable advice on the surface.  The author lists seven helpful tactics a woman should consider to hold her own in the job world, they are:

• Make sure the firm you work for actually values women (sadly some firms really are misogynistic; I currently work for one)
• Identify Alpha and Beta males (presumably the Alpha males are always pounding the desk so it’s easier to figure them out)
• Find a Mentor (sounds like good advice for any employee)
• Speak Assertively (elminate “I’m Sorry” is one nugget, others on how to speak are also listed)
• Socialize with the boys (be ready to do alot of whisky shots presumably but don’t skip shaving your legs)
• Don’t assume stereotypical roles (guess I won’t bring in my homemade cookies!)

The article is interseting and has some nuggets but I would save some coffee for the juicy comments and they are JUICY!   Among the caustic retorts and truly sound advice from women commenters?

• “I can’t believe this article had to be written in 2008.”
• “Dominating the position through a colorful use of vocabulary is the best way to get ahead.”
• “Good grief….. how about just do a good job and make a difference. Works every time.”

Well worth the entertainment value and yes, some nuggets to use too, so save some coffee and go have a read.  You may reach this article at the WSJ at this link here.

Women with more testosterone tend to behave more like men when taking financial risks, according to a new study.

“Women with higher levels of testosterone turn out to be less risk averse, more willing to take risks,” Luigi Zingales of the University of Chicago said in a telephone interview.

What’s really interesting is that among men and women with relatively low levels of testosterone there was virtually no difference in risk taking.    Another interesting tidbit?   If you are married, your testosterone decreases to the non-risk taking level (maybe that is the real reason for those marriages without sex!)

It’s a fun article with eye opening results that will make you think what really does drive us?  You can read the piece at USA Today’s site at this link here.

• The most valuable pieces of my post that are worth sharing on “the true measure of a woman” comes not from my keyboard but from the keyboards of two other genetic women. I think their answers may challenge you.
• The reality is that there is no universal, essential experience of womanhood. The mainstream American feminist movement has often and rightly been criticized for ignoring the experience of women of color, queer women, poor women.
• What is this experience transwomen can never have or understand which makes them not “real” women in the social sense?
• If you really want to know the true measure of a woman is, it’s being a friend and looking out for each other.

There’s lots more so have a read and enjoy!   You may visit the article here:  “True Measure of a Woman”

(Amazingly cute photo courtesy of Hoyasmeg’s Photo’s ; Earlbecke is writing anew at Melted Dreams)

• How large does WPATH estimate the transgender community is? “The entire transgender population is likely to be much larger, perhaps 1 in every 2,000″
• Is the rate of HIV among transgender persons high? “It may be closer to between 2-12% that are HIV-positive, but again that is why the CDC recently agreed to track transgender people better because we’ve got to get a better picture of the prevalence of HIV in this population. “
• Is the rate of alcohol and drug abuse higher in the transgender community than in the general population?
  Yes, it is higher among certain subgroups of the transgender population. For some, this is to cope with rejection and anticipated rejection. Others may use substances to overcome inhibitions related to shame and fear about being transgender.

It’s an interesting interview and an important read since WPATH is so influential in the lives of so many transgender persons, whether they know it or not.   You may read the full interview at the web site, “The Body” at this link to the interview here.