Travels With Lizzy: The Road Home I

The things we do to express who we really are.  On my recent cross-country trip -- well, my recent cross-two-state trip -- I was determined to return to Somewhere In Western Alabama the way I had come: expressing my better side.  Problem was, the check-out time at the motel was 11:00, but I had interviews until 12:30 or so.  Where was I going to change?

WPATH Releases New Standards of Care

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) released an updated Stanards of Care (SOC) Sunday.  It is the seventh edition, and the first since 2001.  "Overall," reports Kellie Winters of GID Reform Advocates, "this newest SOC represents significant forward progress in respecting trans people and affirming the necessity of medical transition care for trans and transsexual individuals who need it."

Significantly, the SOC denounces gender-conversion therapies as unethical.  "“Treatment aimed at trying to change a person’s gender identity and lived gender expression to become more congruent with sex assigned at birth has been attempted in the past ... Such treatment is no longer considered ethical.” (SOC, p 16).  This is truly good news: psychologists have considered reparative therapies unethical for homosexual men and women for decades, but have maintained a double standard in the case of the transgendered.  This can only help further the de-pathologization of trans folk.  Along those lines, it also replaces the language of "disorder" with "dysphoria," and removes some of the barriers for the care of trans people. 

The Perils of Presenting -- Greasy Face 101

Beard cover.  In the past, I've put way too much thought into it.  And for good reason: I had a pretty heavy black beard.  So fifteen years or so ago, in the early 90s, I worked up enough courage to go into a J.C. Penneys in the middle of the Colorado prairie.  Well, it was in a town, and it was on the prairie, but close to the edge, not the middle ... ok, it was in  Greeley.

Anyway, I entered the J.C. Penney and did the usual dry-run passes by the makeup counter.  I had concocted a fool-proof alibi that would spare me any embarrassment and leave the clerk totally clueless about the true nature of my mission.  The following is a recreation of that fateful day:

Motel Dreams

One thing we TG types do is decorate motels.  I mean, it's sad when we can't openly express our other side on a daily basis.  So a staple of many a transwoman's photo collection are pictures taken in various motel rooms, snapped on lonely trips away from her loved ones, standing in front of the door, or window, sitting on blandly-upholstered couches or posing provocatively on the bed.

For many, especially those toward the heterosexual crossdresser end of things, these are the only times they get to express their inner girl.  The resulting pics often have an undefinable desperation to them, as if this is it, as if they can see their entire career as a TG playing out in these rooms.

Travels With Lizzy

This is a post about a trip.  It was a watershed trip for me, for one very simple reason: it was the longest time spent in trans-mode.  Ever.  As my renaissance has progressed, and I have become increasingly proficient at presenting as the female me, I have hankered to be Lizzy for increasing lengths of time.

Approximate route of my trek

My daylight experience has been, until now, limited.  So, I decided to inch out into the daylit realms with my usual caution and prudence:  I set out from my home Somewhere in West Alabama, bound for Somewhere in North Georgia.  Trip time: five hours each way.  Route: a busy I-20/59 to Birmingham, then I-20 to Atlanta, then the dreaded Georgia 400 (and smaller two-lanes) to my destination.

I was going for a job interview, which was in two parts: dinner with the hiring committee on Friday evening, then interviews with each member the next morning.  I was determined to spend as much time as Lizzy as I possibly could.

t-Spotlight -- The Lazy Crossdresser

I live Somewhere in the Bible Belt, and at the moment, anyway, I am not near a big market, where there are makeover places, trans-friendly bars, etc., etc.  So in my recent renaissance, I have had to find help online and via the mail.  There are many helps out there in the form of books, web-sites and specialty companies, and in this occasional feature, spotlight a resource that has been of particular help to me.

First up is The Lazy Crossdresser,  by Charlie Anders, the single most positive book on getting dressed and getting out that I've ever read.  Sure, it's got the word "crossdresser" in the title, but it applies to all trangendered who experience the paralyzing fear many of us feel at the thought of getting out and about as who we are.  Plus, he doesn't write crappy sentences like I do.

News You (might be able to) Use (9/14/2011)

Is it just me, or is the rate of violence against trans-people on the rise?   I sincerely hope not, but it sure looks like it.  Diana, over at her little Corner of the Nutmeg State, reports that "Washington DC is becoming a place of death for us," and tells us about the third group of assaults on transwomen this summer in that city.

Meanwhile, the most high-profile case has been resolved.  Sort of:  the teen who pleased guilty to beating a transwoman in a Rosedale, MD McDonalds was sentenced to five years in prison, plus three of supervised probation.  The maximum sentence for such a crime is 35 years, but the 19-year-old woman had no previous record, and tearfully apologized in court.

Hi, There

Me.   But I'm working on it ...

So, here I am, writing another in a long line of introductory posts.  So be it ... folks need to know who you are, right?  I mean, there is a whole lot of blogging going on, and it behooves the smart blogger to state up front what it's all about.  Alfie.

With that in mind, let me say the "t" in "t-Spot" is for transgender, not tea ... although aren't I clever, calling it t-Spot?  I'm a little t-Spot, short and stout ... here is the handle, here is the spout.

Ok, so I'm no comedian ... but I am a transgendered woman, unspecified as to category, and I prefer to keep it that way, thank you very much.  There is far too much reductionism in our "community" for my taste.  Although categories are how we learn, they are also how we exclude and label.

After being away from it the "community" for a couple of decades, I am saddened to find the same old arguments  being . . . argued.  Just how transgendered are you, anyway?  Are you a transsexual, heading toward the promised land, or are you "only" a crossdresser?  Are you pre or post or non?  Are you truly a woman at heart or just a perverted little fetishistic panty wearer?

Ok, so I have issues.  Come explore them with me as I go on this journey from whatever I was before to whatever I am becoming.