: Beantown :

Yesterday I visited Boston for only the second time in my life. The first time was a lot more interesting - yesterday was all about work. I flew out of LaGuardia on a Delta Shuttle and got there in less than an hour, had my meeting with a client in Cambridge and flew back. For some reason people find this strange, to visit another city and return the same day (I got a puzzled query about it from a woman in the elevator who overheard me talking about my trip) but it's just part of the job. At some point I fully expect to travel to several different points on the globe, the most likely destinations right now being Boston, Dallas, Houston, Amsterdam or London. Obviously not all of these are going to be one-day trips.

Traveling on someone else's dime has it's good points and bad points. On the one hand, it's nice having a car service that picks you up and brings you back in a Lincoln Town Car - much more comfortable than a taxi cab. Plus, you get to flip through the latest issue of "Bucks" magazine, which is what I suppose rich people who use the car service tend to read. Plus it's nice to eat at nice restaurants (although we just went to a Cheesecake Factory because it was accessible by foot) and not worry about the bill. But the truth is that all the time you are working, and it's not the same as going somewhere for fun. Plus, airport security is a pain - they actually dog-eared a page in my book I'm reading (Imajica by Clive Barker) and my metal HRT pill container on my keychain worried the X-ray attendant and caused them to hand-search my bag each way.

The first time I was in Boston, it was during my wandering loner days when I enjoyed traveling by myself. It was in the late 1990s when I was single and working, and living at home so I had lots of disposable income, so I went to New Haven, Conn. to visit my best friend who was going to medical school at Yale. It was during the winter, so that's the trip I learned how to ski for the first time when we visited a resort in Vermont called Ski Sundown. We also went into New York City and had some great sushi and visited a club there. One memorable thing for me about that trip was our beautiful Eastern European waitress at the Cafe Monaco, where I think I had my first taste of tiramisu (an Italian dessert). She looked a lot like Mena Suvari, but cuter.

Since I was in the area, I told my friend I wanted to visit Boston, but he had to work at the hospital, so I took a train by myself one evening and checked into a hotel. The next morning it was snowing heavily, but it subsided and I spent the whole day walking around the snow-covered, sunlit city, exploring the local landmarks. I saw Faneuil Hall, the bar that doubles as the exterior of "Cheers" on the TV show, and walked across the park and frozen lake where the swan boats paddle in the summer (as described in E.B. White's The Trumpet of the Swan). I went shopping at Filene's Basement, where you can buy clothes with labels like Barney's at ridiculously low prices. That evening I took the train back to New Haven and my friend picked me up.

Tomorrow night I'm hoping to meet up with Stephanie, one of my blog readers who lives in Brooklyn, before heading to Broadway to see Beauty and the Beast. I'm also looking forward to just being Friday - it's been a tough post-Labor day work week.

: My 9/11 experience :

As I was hurrying down to catch my subway train yesterday (9/11) I was "pulled over" so to speak by a transit cop and told to step aside to a table. For an instant, I thought he was going to give me a speeding ticket for running down the stairs too quickly. But then it kicked in - 9/11, heightened security and all that. They wanted to inspect my bag.

I'm not quite sure why I got flagged and the two guys next to me did not, but I have my suspicions. First off, I was carrying a large black purse, with plenty of room for explosives. I think if I were a terrorist though, I'd opt for a backpack - C4 is extremely dense and heavy, and carrying it in a purse would get tiring after a while. Plus, it would be more easily misplaced or waylaid.

The second reason is that I was running - I suppose it's a natural suspicion that people running are agitated in some way. But the pace in this city is such that everybody moves fast - I've gotten used to running for things, and it seems even my natural walking pace has quickened. For example, in Houston, everyone rides the escalators, and it's rare for someone to walk up or down a moving escalator. Here, they have a standing lane and a walking lane on any escalator wide enough to accomodate two people side by side, and there is a constant flow of people walking. Once I saw a man standing on the left, and the people came up behind him and asked him to move to the right so they could pass. That sort of thing would never happen in Houston, but it's just one example.

Third, I suppose that I look somewhat ethnic (to the contrary from how I feel, since I grew up in a mostly white neighborhood) and maybe I could be mistaken for an Arab, especially since I'm not tiny as most Asians are. So I went over to the table and they took my bag and swabbed the handles with a pad soaked with a solution that detects molecules of explosive material. They ran the swab through a processor and of course it came back negative, and I was on my way. I caught the subway train just in time, but to not much avail - I missed my connection to the commuter rail train and had to wait for 20 minutes at Penn Station for the next one to leave.

The other thing that happened yesterday that reminded me it was 9/11 was on the commuter train. At the end of the line as I was approaching my station, a fireman comes up to me in full dress uniform, shakes my hand and asks me how I'm doing. I said I'm fine, just a little tired. He said that's okay, I looked great, and I thanked him. That was it.

In other news, I posted a personal ad on Craig's List just for fun, to see what kind of people I would attract. The ad was fairly straightforward and sincere, and I got seven responses. The one that cracked me up came from someone who seemed barely literate, and conceited to boot. It started off "I women seeking women. I just wanted to introduce myself so we (more...) could talk and get to know one another, but I don't know if my membership allows you to email me or not, I'd have to look into it."

"I women seeking women"? Sounds like Bigfoot-speak to me! And she signed it, "Your new girlfriend." Needless to say, that one wasn't worth responding to. This is the first time I've ever placed a personal ad in my life, but I've thought about it from time to time. Apparently, I'm much less inhibited than I used to be. I would never think that it would actually result in anything serious, but it's fun just seeing the kinds of people who write back.

: Doctor, doctor :

I went to the doctor today, a new one here in New Jersey who will be my GP while I'm here, for a physical examination. I had met her about a month ago to give her my non-traditional background, and she was fine with treating me. She has never had a transsexual patient - the closest she's come is a cross-dresser she treated when she was an intern at an emergency room. Still, she is very professional and seems comfortable with me, and I with her, so that's a relief.

Today she gave me a physical examination - thankfully, I didn't have to remove any of my clothes - and drew two vials of blood for routine tests. I also had to give her a urine sample, which made me a bit uncomfortable, but no big deal. She also gave me a tetanus shot in my upper arm, which still hurts eight hours later. The good news is that she knows a female urologist, so that will come in handy when the time comes. However, she wasn't able to help me find an endocrinologist with GID experience, so she suggested that Dr. Brassard or my current endo help me find someone in this area. It's a shame because I like my current endo very much, but it's just cumbersome to have her treat me from where she is 1,700 miles away in Houston. It's still an option though - I can have blood tests done here and results sent to her. It's something I'll have to figure out in the next few months.

The real upside to today is that I got permission to work the remainder of the day at home, which is a respite from the two-hour commute I have to endure each day. So it's been very relaxing working in my pajamas all day - I wish I could do this every day, it's such a treat. Maybe someday I'll find a company that will let me do this full-time.

: Getting sick... :

It's been a very busy few days and perhaps I'm paying for it since I'm feeling like I'm coming down with a cold for the first time in almost two years. I have always been tremendously thankful for my good health and avoidance of injury during my transition, either of which could have derailed me substantially when I was flying without much of a safety net. Today, being sick is just a minor annoyance that I can deal with. Other than my activity level, being in close proximity to people on the train and subway probably increases my risk of getting sick, another plus for living the car culture back in Houston. If I didn't have a meeting at 4 p.m. I would have cut out early, but as it is, I'm stuck at work for a few more hours before I can go home and lay down, which I desperately want to do.

Friday I went down to Battery Park City in lower Manhattan and helped my friend's band play a gig at a restaurant called The Gate House. That kept us out late, but it was a fun concert. Saturday I had a follow-up appointment with my doctor, who told me that my thyroid is acting up, and I needed to be more diligent in taking my medication. The rest of the day was spent on errands - I got my car oil changed, washed my laundry and did some long-overdue filing, pretty much the last thing in terms of "setting up" the apartment that was left undone.

Yesterday I bought another pair of glasses at Costco, a pair of black Fendi horn-rimmed frames that closely resemble my current style. With the wear and tear I put on my glasses, it's nice to have a back-up pair. I also found a lot of clothes at Target in the clearance racks, plus some belts that were on sale, and a new weekend bag, since my patchwork bag is getting a little threadbare. I'm especially happy with finding a white, button down short-sleeve shirt which actually fits me almost perfectly - the darts are deep enough to accomodate my chest without pulling on the buttons, and the seaming on the torso keeps it close to my body, avoiding the "maternity" effect most tailored shirts have on me. It's a shame that it was in the clearance section - that means it's probably discontinued already and I can't get any more of them. Pity.

In other news, I'm planning to volunteer at a GLAAD event on October 22 (GLAAD OUTAuction NYC2006) which might be fun and a chance to soak up some of counterculture; i.e. hang out with gay people. It's probably the first time I've volunteered for any kind of social justice cause in my life, so I hope to get more involved in volunteering to help champion issues that matter to me.

That's all for now - got to get ready for my meeting and I'm outta here.

: Sick day :

I took the day off today from work, as my cold is being very persistent. I'm not too terribly sick, but it would have been one of those days when I'd be sitting at my desk watching the clock. That's not good for me or my employer, so it's better to just use a sick day. I don't really plan to get sick very often based on past history, so I shouldn't be shy about using them.

Even though I'm home, I did do some work because a report needed to be done today, but it only took about an hour to do. The rest of the time I've been watching movies, a Yankee game, and reading comics. I got a shipment of old comics in the mail yesterday, and last night I got some old movies and CDs from a used music store, stuff that I used to have. The comics are a potpourri of old titles I used to read - Tales of the Green Lantern Corps (1981), Deathstroke the Terminator (1991), Kitty Pryde and Wolverine mini-series (1984) and some assorted What If? stories from the same general time period. I suppose that my love of What If? comics stems from my interest in the hypothetical, which occupies my thoughts from time to time.

I also cooked another big pot of spaghetti sauce, using some fresh basil from my family herb garden. I swear, I must be half-Italian with as much effort as I put into my spaghetti sauce, although it's not really from scratch. I saute minced garlic, chopped onions, sliced mushrooms and diced Roma tomatoes, then add sauce and the chopped basil, dried oregano, red pepper flakes, sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Nothing too terribly innovative, but tasty nonetheless.

I just got up from a nap, so I think I'll watch another short movie before going to bed. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be over this thing, because we have a pretty big weekend planned.

: Master Yap :

I found a new Chinese take out place yesterday, one that actually makes authentic dishes that I'm used to having all my life. I define authentic as closely matching either the food my former family in Houston used to make, or similar to the restaurants we went to back then. The thing is, we always used to go to the same 3-5 restaurants in Houston, so I got very accustomed to a certain style of Chinese food which is not always that easy to find. It's not necessary better or more expensive than other styles, but there's a certain kind of homemade quality that usually has to do with cooking efficiently and consistently that is hard to duplicate.

I think you can tell an authentic Chinese restaurant by how many typos are on the menu. If the menu is devoid of errors, you're probably in a sanitized, white-bread restaurant where the cooks follow charts and diagrams posted on the wall. The more errors in the menu, the more likely it is that the restaurant owner 1) is actually an immigrant and 2) puts more effort into his food than his marketing and 3) has a steady stream of regular customers who don't have to read the menu to know what they want. Oh, and if the restaurant has a Web site, you can forget about it being authentic. Plus, it seems that the quality of the food tends to be inversely proportional to the cleanliness of the bathroom, but that's not a consideration with takeout.

So this restaurant, named Master Yap Express Chinese Restaurant, has some of the classic blunders, like Mountain Due and Mo Po Tu Fu (should be Ma Po Tofu, a spicy tofu dish made with chili bean paste). Another sign of its authenticity is that it sells whole roasted duck or soy chicken (which is not a chicken made of soybeans, but rather a whole chicken marinated in soy sauce). They also sell a lot of noodles, both Cantonese and Singapore style, which are not commonly found at most restaurants.

The dish I was most happy to find is one of my favorites, sauteed eggplant with garlic sauce. I haven't always been an eggplant lover - in fact, up until about 10 years ago, I hated eggplant and probably never ate one in my life. But at some point I discovered Mediterranean cuisine, and fell in love with baba ganoush (roasted eggplant dip) and stewed eggplant with pomegranate, garlic and lemon juice. And after that, I discovered Japanese eggplant used in Chinese cuisine like the dish I mention above, which is a longer, thinner vegetable than the traditional rounded eggplant found in grocery stores. In Houston, one of my favorite dishes was this Japanese eggplant (which turns bright purple when cooked) sauteed with ground pork in a thick, rich garlic sauce - only one restaurant could really get it right, and I really miss that dish. While the version I found near my office is essentially the same sauce and eggplant, they don't put pork in it, which is a pity. Maybe I'll ask them to do that for me next time I order it.

: Birthday fun :

It was an incredibly busy weekend, because for my birthday, I chose to go to the New York Rennaisance Festival. I've been to the Texas RenFest several times over the years, but I was never the type of person who really connected with the event. Quite frankly, I found it rather boring in the past because I was not the person I am now, and I didn't go with people who were any more interested in the RenFest than I was. But this year was a different story.

When we first got into the festival, I went immediately to the swordsmith because I am shopping for a replacement of a Japanese katana I lost in the fire. The large booth was set up by an outfit from Texas, of all places (http://www.angelsword.com/) which has a forge near Austin. They make all kinds of swords of exceptional quality, and they are not shy about demonstrating them. I met the master swordsmith, Daniel Watson, a extraordinary gentleman who demonstrated his technique in tameshigiri by slicing up a wet rolled-up tatami mat about five inches in diameter that is meant to represent the cutting difficulty of a person's upper leg. The katana he showed me sliced through that without difficulty (he holds a record for cutting through 14 mats rolled into a single large column the size of a large tree trunk (see video here) and then proceeded to demonstrated the sharper-than-a-razor edge by shaving a sliver from the surface of a sheet of paper without making a hole in the paper. Basically, the sword is sharp enough to separate the front and back of a single sheet of paper, if you had the skill to do it. The demonstration sparked an interest in sword technique that I've expressed in the past, but never really had an excuse to pursue. I didn't end up buying the sword (although part of me really wanted to) but who knows where this spark of inspiration will lead.

We saw the joust, which is always fun, then to a bellydancing demonstration and finally a glass blowing demonstration. We also saw some mock swordplay from Robin Hood's merry men (Friar Tuck got his ass handed to him in a bo-stick fight with one of the Nottingham soldiers) and we participated in an impromptu drum circle in the drum tent. There was also a number of jewelry tents, one with a parrot who could sing "America" from West Side Story. I found a pair of goddess earrings and had them change out the stones to match the red garnet pendant I wear on my neck. I also found a store specializing in antique writing instruments, one of my collections that was lost in the fire. I found a brass cherub seal that had been my favorite, and bought a couple sticks of sealing wax.

On Monday we went to the Bronx Zoo, home of the Wildlife Conservation Society and saw an awesome tiger display, plus a wonderful bird house and monkey house before stopping for lunch. In the afternoon, we visited the nocturnal animals exhibit and went on a safari via monorail through a large section of the zoo across the Bronx River. By closing time at 5 p.m., we were all exhausted, but happy that we'd come on Monday, when we were able to avoid most of the noisy crowds.

Something that I've been thinking about before this weekend, and that I've decided to do, is that to go along with my new name and gender, I am henceforth going to celebrate July 15 as I would my birthday. July 15, 2004 was the date I started HRT with the intent to continue indefinitely. The reason I'm doing this is to align this annual celebration of self with my whole sense of rebirth since transition and severing all ties to my old life. A new birthdate (while not something I can legally change like my name and gender) is a symbol of my new life, just as keeping the old one (while necessary at work and for legal purposes) simply reminds me of my past life. So starting in 2007 I will be having my meaningful birthday celebration on July 15, and I will let Sept. 25 pass as quietly as possible.

: Birthday presents :

I forgot to mention in yesterday's post all the wonderful presents that my family got for me - some of them I requested, and others that fall into broad categories I gave them to shop in. Here are some of the ones with more interesting footnotes:

Tampopo - this Japanese movie is one of my all-time favorite movies (it's listed in my blog profile). It is a wonderful combination of drama, comedy and philosophy, all wrapped up into what's been called Japan's first "noodle western" (a la the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone). The opening scene sets the stage - a young man takes an old man out to a noodle shop to learn the proper way of eating noodles. The elder gentleman instructs him to first observe the entire bowl, paying special attention to the three slices of pork - they are the soul of the dish, he says. Then the next step is to caress the food lovingly with the tips of the chopsticks - to express affection, he intones. Then he proceeds to pick up the pork and move it to the soup on the side of the dish, as if to say, "see you soon". He then starts eating, first some noodles, then some of the pickled bamboo shoot, then sips the soup once, twice, three times. However, as the tale is completed, it is clear that he is not quite the expert that the young man thinks he is. I used to own this on laserdisc, and I'm thrilled to have it on DVD now - can't wait to see it again.

The Making of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story - I recently posted my impression watching this movie, but this award-winning documentary chronicles behind the scenes in recording Berstein's first-ever conducted performance of his classic musical. As he says in the movie, he chose to use opera singers because he always felt that the parts he'd written were too challenging for the singer/dancer/actors that were usually called upon to perform them on Broadway or in the movie. This choice of using opera singers such as Kiri Te Kanawa, Jose Carerras and Tatiana Troyanos was highly controversial, and sparked many debates among the opera fans of my old life. Actually, I don't really care for the recording itself, but watching a genius like Bernstein at the podium, in the studio and barking out orders is like, in Te Kanawa's words, "like having Mozart there in the studio with you." It's a fascinating look at how a modern musical genius practices his craft.

Dracula by Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano - this is a book I only picked up recently at the big Barnes & Noble in Paramus, but as soon as I saw it, I knew it was something I wanted to read. I have a long fascination with vampire tales (Anne Rice, Joss Whedon and the modern retelling by Francis Ford Coppola) yet I'd never read the original Bram Stoker text. It's one of those books I've always intended to read, and I must have picked it up and put it down at least 10 times in my life. But this version, with its beautiful black and white illustrations, captivated me to no end. Even though it has been months since I first saw it, I never forgot about it and it made its way to my birthday list (it's rather difficult to find a clean copy). The monochromatic art reminds me of Sin City, From Hell, Strangers in Paradise and other graphic novels I've been reading in the past year, and of course, the story is the wellspring from which everything else has flowed. I'm looking forward to sinking my teeth into this one.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World - it may come as a surprise to some of you that I've always been fascinated with sailing ships and naval warfare, so this movie captivated me from the start, and I am looking forward to seeing the special features as well. It brings to mind our trip to the Mystic Seaport in Connecticut earlier this year, and the tour we took below the decks of a whaling vessel. On the other end of the history timeline, this weekend we are going to visit the Intrepid Museum in New York, a modern aircraft carrier. In addition to this movie, my interest was sparked by the movie Captain Horatio Hornblower starring Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo (which I encourage everyone to vote for DVD release on Amazon) and Cecil B. DeMille's The Buccaneer (although that's more about the Battle of New Orleans than naval warfare per se).

Of the new things that my family picked out for me, I'm most intrigued by The Stolen Child by Keith Donohue, which continues my string of fantasy fiction I've been reading, which includes last year's present The Mists of Avalon, Lord of the Rings, Stardust, the Sandman series, Neverwhere and my current book, Imajica.

So much time, so little to do - wait, strike that, reverse it...

: Full-time anniversary :

Today is my first anniversary of going full-time as Michelle, which is a pretty amazing thing to me. I can't believe how much things have changed in only one year. Sometimes I'm also amazed about how easily I've adjusted to my new persona and identity, in addition to the drastic changes in my personal situation. It seems like this year has flown by quickly because I can remember details about last year at this time, yet at the same time it seems so long ago because I've changed so much - it's a weird feeling.

In going back and reading my old blog posts from this time last year, the biggest thing I feel is different is how much more comfortable I am with my appearance. Every TG person goes through insecurity about their looks and passing ability, and to be quite honest, a year ago I looked very trans-y, based on photos from that time period. Compared to a year ago, today my hair is longer and more stylish, my face is more rounded and softer, obviously I have my breast implants and a new nose, and my makeup is much more refined (although I still probably use more than I really need to because I like the way it looks). My voice generally comes and goes, but I've reached the point where it comes naturally and I don't give it a second thought.

October 1, 2005 was the beginning of what I refer to as my cocoon period that ended on July 5, 2006 when I started my job. During this period I spent most of my time alone, with trans friends or with my new family, and had very little contact with non-trans people. I did a lot of shopping for clothes, cosmetics and jewelry, and got used to wearing them out in public. Not having to transition on the job or start working immediately as Michelle gave me the space and time to experiment and really get comfortable with my new identity at my own pace, and contributed a lot to the success of my transition.

During this time I also went through the well-documented process of changing my legal name, which got complicated due to my divorce proceedings, which had to be completed before I could complete the name change. Living in a conservative state like Texas also didn't help, but fortunately, I had a pretty good attorney.

The other thing that happened during this time was the flowering of my relationship with my new family in New Jersey. I can hardly believe it's been less than a year since we all first met in person! Since our first meeting on a rainy night at the Metropolitan Museum on October 14 we have become closer as a family than I could ever have dreamed in so short a time. Especially in the face of rejection from my parents and ex-partner, I consider myself incredibly lucky and honored to have the love and support of my new family. In fact, henceforth I will refer to them without the "new" qualifier, and if I refer to the people in Houston, they will be qualified as the "birth" or "old" family.

There is one more significant aspect of today's date - exactly three months from now (Monday, January 8, 2007, 99 days from today) I will be taking the irrevocable step of my transition by undergoing SRS in Montreal with Dr. Brassard. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm happy that my family will be driving up with me from New Jersey. In another month, I will complete my pre-surgical blood tests, and then shortly after Christmas, we'll be heading north. The last time I was in Montreal was 1996 for my honeymoon - ironic that I should embark on my second life in the same city almost exactly a decade later.

I think I shall write an email to my former therapist in Houston and let her know that I have completed my official 12-month real-life test (RLT) and it seems I've earned a passing grade.

: Skin care :

After a stormy night last night, I'm enjoying this fall weather immensely. It's currently 56 degrees at 10 a.m. and I'm wearing a black mock turtleneck, a tan wrap skirt and brown leather studded belt, black tights and black suede shoes. It's nice being able to show the shape of my legs, which I feel comfortable doing if I'm wearing hose, but up until now it's been too hot.

I gave another young co-worker a shock today by telling her my age. She's 26, and we were talking in the restroom about skincare, which she acknowledges that she does not pay enough attention to. I was telling her how important it is to take care of your skin, and made the point by asking her to guess my age. She declined to guess, but asked how old I am, and the look of surprise on her face is one thing that never gets old for me.

I've been told by many people, both before transition and after, that I have great skin, and I do - mostly due to genetics because until I transitioned, I hardly ever did anything other than wash my face with warm water on a towel. Since transition however, I have developed a simple but effective dry skin regimen for morning and night - Neutrogena Gentle Cleanser in the morning, followed by Dove Essentials Day Lotion (SPF 15) under my makeup. In the evening I remove my eye makeup with Neutrogena Oil-Free Makeup Remover, then wash my face in the shower with Aveeno's Daily Skin Brightening Scrub. Then I put Dove Essentials Night Cream on my face right before bed, and I use Vaseline Night Care balm on my lips while I sleep.

Sometimes I wonder if I will ever look my age. Maybe at some point I'll begin to age faster to catch up with my extended youthfulness (like what happens to the bad guy at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) but because of my personal circumstances, I believe I will always be young at heart. In fact, it was that youngish quality in my eyes that my young colleague said threw her guess off more than my youthful appearance.

: Beautiful Boxer :

This looks like a very interesting movie, and well-received if the awards mean anything. Surprised I missed it in the theaters, although I heard about the real-life person the movie is based on. I wonder if local video stores will carry this? The weekend seems like a good time to find out.

Beautiful Boxer
Watch the movie trailer

: Weekend update :

I had a very nice weekend, the kind of weekend I've been needing for a long time now. For the first time in what seems like a month, I had absolutely nothing planned for this weekend. It was only two weekends ago that we had the birthday madness, and last weekend I had my outing to the chile pepper festival in Brooklyn (which I have yet to post pictures - need to do that).

Saturday I got up really late and made a big pot of homemade soup, using my leftover mushrooms, tomatoes, eggs, green onions, minced garlic, lime juice and spices. I thought it tasted pretty good, but it ended up making me sick on Sunday, so I had to throw the whole thing away. What a waste - but that will teach me to use vegetables that aren't fresh. In the afternoon, we watched the Yankees bow out of the playoffs in the first round, a disaster of such profound proportions that it pretty much killed the rest of the evening.

I went out afterwards to the mall to look at fall coats, and ended up buying a pair of black suede boots at Payless, plus I found some of my favorite hair clips at the Burlington Coat Factory. These were the first clips I ever bought when my hair was getting long - I found them at Ross in Houston and unfortunately one broke and I lost the other one. They don't have Ross stores here, so I felt lucky to find them again. For some reason, these particular clamps hold my hair better than any others I've tried, even though they may look nearly identical to the old ones.

Sunday I woke up early and decided to go to Costco early to get some bagels. However, I ended up wasting that trip because unlike the Houston stores I'm used to, Costcos here open two hours later than in Houston. I came home and ate breakfast and watched The Punisher, which was actually pretty good for a minor Marvel Comics movie. I enjoyed it more than Daredevil or Elektra , let's put it that way, and I'm much more a Daredevil fan than a Punisher fan. Just a straightforward human story, without any superpowers (other than Frank Castle's remarkable durability). I also began feeling the ill effects of my soup from the previous day, but I still made it out to Costco for supplies, finding that I was too late to get the bagels I wanted. However, I did get two DVDs: X-Men 3 Collector's Edition and the extended cut of 1776 (both of which are actually cheaper at Costco than on Amazon).

The rest of the afternoon I stayed home because of my frequent trips to the bathroom, but I still managed to clean and vacuum the apartment and watch Master and Commander and the extended director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven - which I loved so much more than the original cut.

In the evening my family came over since I wasn't feeling well, and we watched Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. It's the middle part of what we consider a trilogy around the death and rebirth of Spock. Hopefully we'll get to watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home this week. That's a really funny movie, and I'm sure watching it with my family, with our collective wacky sense of humor, will be a blast.

Today I have my first dental appointment for getting crowns put on my teeth. Very boring, stupid stuff, not worth taking up space here to talk about. I expect my teeth will be aching from now until Christmas, with the schedule I've put myself on. But I suppose my new life should come with new teeth, since I've abused the old ones so much over the years.

: First anniversary of coming home :

It was a very busy, fun and productive weekend here. On Saturday we went to a fall festival held by the local magic shop. It wasn't a very big affair, and it was held in the parking lot next to the store, but we had fun nevertheless. One of my family was involved in a bellydancing exhibition (which must have been quite a challenge, since it was windy and cold by my Southern-bred standards) and another led two drum circles throughout the day. I played in the second one along with the rest of the family and a couple other people. I haven't played hand drums since high school, but I've been watching and picking up techniques and rhythms for a while now. It was a very nice experience for me.

In the evening we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to celebrate my first anniversary of meeting my family for the first time. It feels like just last month that I first came up here, and yet we've gotten so close in the past 12 months that it seems like it should be our fifth anniversary instead of our first. We started the evening by walking through the room where we first met and talking about what we were feeling at the time. Then we said hello to our old favorites in the American wing and the Great Hall before touring a new exhibit of impressionist paintings collected by Ambroise Vollard (the Van Gogh and Degas rooms were the favorites). We closed down the Met by attending a concert of African music, featuring the Royal Drummers of Burundi (play a sound clip) and finished the night at the same Jersey diner that we went to my first night in New Jersey last year.

Sunday I went into the city to meet a co-worker who is moving to South Carolina for a while and she was giving me another sofa, a family antique from the 1930s. I met her at her storage facility and together we loaded it into Yoshi (I had taken the rear seats out to make room) and I met my family at home to unload it in my apartment. I beat some of the dust out of the feather seatcushions and left those out on the porch to air out.

Then we went out to a pumpkin stand at a local orchard to pick some pumpkins and decorative squash (but not gourds) for display at home. We tried some pickles, freshly made donuts and hot cider and walked through a maze constructed of hay bales.



When I got home, I vacuumed the whole sofa and sprayed it with Febreze to get rid of any lingering odors, then vacuumed the whole apartment. I also went out to Bed Bath & Beyond to buy a slipcover for the sofa, in a paisley pattern that matched the original upholstry, but in a light sage green instead of powder blue. While the Febreze was drying I went over to my family's house to eat dinner and watch Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, completing the trilogy we had started last week. After getting home from that, I put my new sofa together and here's what it looks like in my bedroom:



With all the anniversaries and milestones this week, I haven't had a chance to post my photos from last weekend's chile pepper festival, held at the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens. There really wasn't much to see in terms of the festival, just a big tent where musicians performed and food was served, but the gardens the festival was held in were quite splendid. Here is an art display of different species of peppers frozen in large blocks of ice:



Here is a shot of an herb garden just inside the gates that I especially liked.



Alright, now I'm all caught up. Time to get to work.

: Music & video games :

This past weekend we had some very windy weather, which I'm worried will have blown all the pretty leaves off the trees. On Saturday I went shoe shopping and bought five pairs of shoes and boots - two that were heavily discounted summer sandals that I'll keep for next year. The fact that I didn't have to go all alone probably surprises some of you, as I tend to do more fashion shopping than the whole rest of my family combined, then multiplied by four.

On the way back from the mall we stopped at the used CD store and I bought a bunch of stuff that I'd lost in the fire that was worth replacing (not everything was, you know). Stuff like Journey Time 3, Marvin Gaye's Midnight Love, Jeff Buckley's Grace (Legacy Edition) (who in their right mind would sell that?!?), Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, Linus & Lucy: The Music of Vince Guaraldi by George Winston, and a used DVD copy of X-Men 2: X-Men United so I can watch it back-to-back with the sequel, which I bought a couple weeks ago. We also got a copy of the new Porcupine Tree concert DVD Arriving Somewhere and watched most of it Saturday night.

Sunday was a very productive day for me - I cleaned my air filters, washed my bedsheets, put away a lot of clothes and watched several movies. In the evening I went over to my family's house and finished watching the concert video. Pooh-bear tried to show me some of her Playstation games, but I got nauseous watching her play them. It seems I can't handle modern 3-D video games - I'm stuck in the 16-bit world of sidescrolling shooters and overhead maze games. Which is fine - I don't need to be wasting my time with video games anyway.

While I'm on the subject (and I don't plan to be on it very much at all) I would say my favorite games by far are 1) driving games, and 2) two-player cooperative games that involve someone else playing in the same room as you are inhabiting. All I see these days are solo games (mostly shooters, which I abhor) or games that you have to connect to the Internet and play with people you'll probably never meet. What ever happened to the idea that people could want to play games together, in the same house? Aside from Street Fighter II, the games I remember most fondly are Rolling Thunder 2 for Genesis (a sidescrolling cooperative shooter) and Pocky & Rocky, a cute overhead cooperative shooter for SNES. Those are the games I miss the most because they just don't make games like that anymore. Even the sequels to those two games were reduced to one-player only games. Am I the only one who thinks the whole reason to play games is to have fun with other people, as a conduit for real (not virtual) human interaction? It depresses me just thinking about the state of gaming today, what little I know about it.

Now I'm actually thinking of getting on Ebay and putting together a Street Fighter II system built around this joystick, which is similar to the one I lost in the fire. It's compatible with either Playstation 2 or Xbox, so maybe I'll just get that and the game itself and play on my family's PS2 console.

: Hormones :

I saw this story today on MSNBC - "New hormone therapy sparks debate" and it got me to thinking about pharmaceuticals specifically for trans people, especially the quote that reads:

"The real issue is how long you take them," says Dr. Susan Love, who wrote "Dr. Susan Love's Menopause and Hormone Book." "Three to five years is probably safe, but you don't want to be on high levels of hormones for the rest of your life. That's where the safety issues really come in."

Of course this is a concern to most trans people, being on high levels of hormones for extended periods of time that can last years, if not decades. Add that to the fact that there are practically no scientific studies on long-term risks for cross-gender use, since our populations are so small. This is compounded by the difficulty that many trans people have in affording SRS so that they can reduce their dosage. I'm extremely lucky and well-prepared in that respect - I've only been on my pre-op dosage for a little over two years, and it will be two-and-a-half years come surgery time in January.

I worry sometimes about my trans friends who are planning to be on HRT for long periods of time, either because they can't afford surgery, or are unsure they want to take that step. To make matters worse, stories like this one ("Women sue over popular birth-control patch") could cause the industry in general to lower the dosages of hormones that genetic women use for birth control. This would have a detrimental effect for trans women, because since we use them for feminization instead of birth control, we will end up having to buy more doses of a given drug to accomplish the same effect, thereby increasing our costs.

So what's the solution? It's pretty obvious - there needs to be widespread coverage of SRS by health care insurers for those who qualify. There is still way too much perception that gender transition is a lifestyle choice that people voluntarily choose because it suits them, or that psychotherapy and HRT are long-term solutions for trans people. I think if someone did a study on how many people would actually get SRS and compared that cost of treating illness linked to long-term negative effects of hormone use by the number of people who actually use them (which would include all kinds of cancers, strokes and blood clots) there could be a case made that paying for SRS would actually save money over the long run.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to think of this idea, and there might even be such a study out there already, but I'm too busy to look for it right now. I doubt anyone would pay attention to it even if it existed, since the trans population is such a small one, but there might be an opportunity to put this issue into the public eye someday. At least it's worth talking about.

: Stomp, Boston and being brusque :

Only two months to go before SRS (62 days from today).

I had been thinking of having Dr. Brassard reduce my brow ridge while I was getting SRS in January, but on further thought, I nixed the idea. While I think it would be a small improvement, it would have a negligible effect on my passing ability, and it would probably introduce too many questions from people in the workplace as to why I got facial surgery in the first place. Besides that, it would cost $4,130 extra, and it's just not worth it to me.

It's been a very busy few days since my last post. Friday night I went to see Stomp in lower Manhattan. Most people have probably heard of it - it's a combination of dance, percussion and acrobatics using everyday items as props. The performers created their unique musical rhythms using brooms, matchbooks, five-gallon plastic water jugs, trashcan lids, metal buckets, newspapers, plastic bags and even Zippo lighters. It was a very fun and enjoyable performance. I used to have the Stomp DVD and I've always been a fan of their work, but this is the first time I'd seen them live.

On Saturday we returned to the city to visit the Met museum but unfortunately the gallery we wanted to see was closed for a concert that night, which we hadn't anticipated. So instead we visited some of our old friends and I explored the Japanese sword gallery, which is something I've had in mind since the Ren Fest. Afterwards we went to Papaya King for some of their famous hot dogs and went home.

Sunday we went back to the Met to see what we wanted to see, but got stuck in the New York marathon which was running that day. We made our way on foot through the race crowd and crossed Central Park to get to the museum. We viewed a marvelous new exhibit called Americans in Paris that featured one of my favorite artists, John Singer Sargent. Since the museum closes early on Sunday, that was all we had time to do, so we went home.

Monday I had to get up extra early to go to Boston for the day in preparation for my client's grand opening of a biotech research lab next Tuesday. I met the caterer and squared her away, attended some last minute details and then spent the afternoon in a training presentation with my client to learn how to talk to the media. I flew back to New York that evening, and planned to have the car take me back to the train station, but we got lost in New Jersey for about 45 minutes because the driver didn't know which train station I was talking about and didn't tell me until we were lost. We ended up driving in circles around it until I could get directions from my family on what to do. That ended up being a very long day.

I am starting to realize that sometimes my working style that was acceptable or even at least overlooked in my previous life are less so now. Yesterday my client told me that he has gotten comments from some members of the team that my style was "brusque". As I've never been told that before in my PR career (if anything, I'm usually called "too passive") and I don't think I've changed my style very much post-transition, I suspect that this is a pretty obvious example of gender stereotyping. Men who are aggressive in the workplace are called leaders, while women who exhibit the same behaviors are labeled difficult. While the comment was framed in the form of constructive criticism, part of me would love to point out this discrepancy by telling my client, "Funny, I never got that reaction to my working style when I was a man - do you think the fact that I'm a woman could have something to do with it?"

I admit that there are certain behaviors that I'd like to change about myself that are holdovers from my previous life. I've always been viewed as a contrarian, a devil's advocate, and I hate being called that. I tend to overthink things (in the personality groups of socializer, empathizer, directors and thinkers, I've been evaluated as a thinker, although I'm probably more of an empathizer now) and try to look at things from all points of view rather than sticking to my own viewpoint. Perhaps it's the erstwhile Libra in me, wanting to have a balanced view of things rather than biased. Perhaps it's the former journalist in me that strives to get the whole story and not just one side. I try not to assume things are the result of malice when they could be from ignorance. I try not to assume anything, yet this is often viewed as "arguing for argument's sake." I think the solution for me is to do more of my thinking in my head before I open my mouth, or just keep my thoughts to myself.

: Gender choice :

Very interesting article in the New York Times:

November 7, 2006

New York Plans to Make Gender Personal Choice
By DAMIEN CAVE

Separating anatomy from what it means to be a man or a woman, New York City is moving forward with a plan to let people alter the sex on their birth certificate even if they have not had sex-change surgery.

Under the rule being considered by the city's Board of Health, which is likely to be adopted soon, people born in the city would be able to change the documented sex on their birth certificates by providing affidavits from a doctor and a mental health professional laying out why their patients should be considered members of the opposite sex, and asserting that their proposed change would be permanent.

Applicants would have to have changed their name and shown that they had lived in their adopted gender for at least two years, but there would be no explicit medical requirements.
"Surgery versus nonsurgery can be arbitrary," said Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the city's health commissioner. "Somebody with a beard may have had breast-implant surgery. It's the permanence of the transition that matters most."

If approved, the new rule would put New York at the forefront of efforts to redefine gender. A handful of states do not require surgery for such birth certificate changes, but in some of those cases patients are still not allowed to make the change without showing a physiological shift to the opposite gender.

In New York, the proposed change comes after four years of discussion among health officials, an eight-member panel of transgender experts and vital records offices nationwide. It is an outgrowth of the transgender community's push to recognize that some people may not have money to get a sex-change operation, while others may not feel the need to undergo the procedure and are simply defining themselves as members of the opposite sex. While it may be a radical notion elsewhere, New York City has often tolerated such blurring of the lines of gender identity.

And the proposal reflects how the transgender movement has become politically potent beyond its small numbers, having roots in the muscular politics of the city's gay rights movement.
Transgender advocates consider the New York proposal an overdue bulwark against discrimination that recognizes an emerging shift away from viewing gender as simply the sum of one's physical parts. But some psychiatrists and doctors are skeptical of the move, saying sexual self-definition should stop at rewriting medical history.

"They should not change the sex at birth, which is a factual record," said Dr. Arthur Zitrin, a Midtown psychiatrist who was on the panel of transgender experts convened by the city. "If they wanted to change the gender for all the compelling reasons that they've given, it should be done perhaps with an asterisk."

The change would lead to many intriguing questions: For example, would a man who becomes a woman be able to marry another man? (Probably.) Would an adoption agency be able to uncover the original sex of a proposed parent? (Not without a court order.) Would a woman who becomes a man be able to fight in combat, or play in the National Football League? (These areas have yet to be explored.)

The Board of Health, which weighs recommendations drafted by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is scheduled to vote on the proposal in December, and officials say they expect it to be adopted.

At the final public hearing for the birth certificate proposal last week, a string of advocates and transsexuals suggested that common definitions of gender, especially its reliance on medical assessments, should be abandoned. They generally praised the city for revisiting its 25-year-old policy that lets people remove the sex designation from their birth certificate if they have had sexual reassignment surgery. Then they demanded more freedom to choose.

Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, said transgender people should not have to rely on affidavits from a health care system that tends to be biased against them. He said that many transgender people cannot afford sex-change surgery or therapy, and often do not consider it necessary.

Another person who testified, Mariah Lopez, 21, said she wanted a new birth certificate to prevent confusion, and to keep teachers, police officers and other authority figures from embarrassing her in public or accusing her of identity theft.

A few weeks ago, at a welfare office in Queens, Ms. Lopez said she included a note with her application for public assistance asking that she be referred to as Ms. when her turn for an interview came up. It did not work. The woman handling her case repeatedly addressed her as Mister.

"The thing is, I don't even remember what it's like to be a boy," Ms. Lopez said, adding that she received a diagnosis of transgender identity disorder at age 6. She asked to be identified as a woman for this article.

The eight experts who addressed the birth certificate issue strongly recommended that the change be made, for the practical reasons Ms. Lopez identified. For public health studies, people who have changed their gender would be counted according to their sex at birth.

But some psychiatrists said that eliminating identification difficulties for some transgender people also opened the door to unwelcome advances from imposters.

"I've already heard of a 'transgendered' man who claimed at work to be 'a woman in a man's body but a lesbian' and who had to be expelled from the ladies' restroom because he was propositioning women there," Dr. Paul McHugh, a member of the President's Council of Bioethics and chairman of the psychiatry department at Johns Hopkins University, wrote in an e-mail message on the subject. "He saw this as a great injustice in that his behavior was justified in his mind by the idea that the categories he claimed for himself were all 'official' and had legal rights attached to them."

The move to ease the requirements for altering one's gender identity comes after New York has adopted other measures aimed at blurring the lines of gender identification. For instance, a new shelter policy approved in January now allows beds to be distributed according to appearance, applying equally to postoperative transsexuals, cross-dressers and "persons perceived to be androgynous."

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority also agreed last month to let people define their own gender when deciding whether to use the men's or women's bathrooms.

Joann Prinzivalli, 52, a lawyer for the New York Transgender Rights Organization, a man who has lived as a woman since 2000, without surgery, said the changes amount to progress, a move away from American culture's misguided fixation on genitals as the basis for one's gender identity.

"It's based on an arbitrary distinction that says there are two and only two sexes," she said. "In reality the diversity of nature is such that there are more than just two, and people who seem to belong to one of the designated sexes may really belong to the other."

: Subway sophistry :

It was a very uneventful and mostly relaxing weekend for me, a welcome respite from last weekend. Saturday I did all my laundry, including handwashing all my bras (which helps them to last longer), gathered my trash and straightened up the apartment. I also watched Brokeback Mountain in the morning - I'd seen most of it in the theater in Houston, but we had missed the beginning, so I didn't see how Jack and Ennis met.

In the afternoon I went out to the mall for McDonalds and got a Happy Meal - probably the first time in my adult life I'd gotten one. It's one of those little things that I wouldn't have done in my previous life. It came with a toad character we dubbed "Randy" from the movie Flushed Away and we had fun playing with that. In the evening I stayed home and watched movies and read books late into the night.

Sunday I got a slow start and went to the library in the afternoon, then to Burlington Coat Factory to shop for raincoats (since it was raining, and I have only one ugly raincoat that I bought at Old Navy for $10). After about two hours of shopping I found a simple black coat that is quite flattering and form-fitting, and another lightweight jacket that is lime sherbert green and navy trim that is cut with more room for wearing layers underneath. It was also just about the only coat with sleeves long enough where I can actually roll them back a bit without exposing my lower arms. Afterwards I stopped by my family's house to say hello and to drop off some newspaper articles.

I was watching the movie Coming to America starring Eddie Murphy this weekend, and I noticed that the subway train that Akeem chases Lisa onto during the breakup scene after she finds out he's a prince was the E train, the same one I take every day (it goes to Queens, where most of the movie takes place). What's amazing is that every square inch of the train in the 1988 movie was covered in graffitti, whereas today's trains are almost entirely graffitti-free. I don't know if the movie was shot on location and therefore used real trains, but I have few doubts that they were accurate depictions of the trains at that time (otherwise they would get serious heat from New York politicians). It's quite a dramatic change, even after 18 years.

I was riding my subway train this morning when without preamble an old black woman sitting near me started to preach Christian faith in a very loud voice, saying how great God is and how you must accept Jesus and all that. She continued talking like this for four consecutive stops until I got off, and clearly I was not the only one annoyed. At one stop I overheard one woman mutter, "Hallelujah, I'm getting off this train."

It's kind of intrusive how people do that on subways - other more common events are beggars telling their sad stories and looking for handouts or kids trying to sell candy for a fundraiser. If the train is crowded, you can't move away, and usually my rides are so short, it's not worth the bother of getting my iPod out of my bag and plugging in the headphones. While I suppose the alternative is even more disturbing (that people are restricted from speaking out in a public place) I wish people would be more respectful of religious diversity and refrain from such loud public displays that are uninvited, unwelcome and unavoidable.

: Aches and pains :

It's been a trying couple of days since Monday morning. I had my grand opening event in Cambridge, Massachusetts yesterday, and it went well. It's just tiring flying up and back the same day, having to go through airport security and squeezing into shuttle-sized planes. At least I didn't have any incidents with security this time. I even managed to smuggle some lip gloss through without detection by putting it in my pants pocket and going through the metal detector instead of the X-ray machine.

While everything went well at the event, I've been regretting getting work done on my teeth, as they have become very sensitive and yesterday the temporary bridge wiggled free, exposing the bare teeth underneath. This made it very painful to eat or drink anything, so I haven't eaten anything since I had a late lunch at 3 p.m. in the Boston airport yesterday. I have an emergency appointment at 1:30 today to get it fixed.

The other setback I had recently is that my white blood cell count on my last blood test came back high for some reason, so I'm having to take it again. If it remains high, this could jeopardize my SRS until we can figure out what the problem is. I haven't been feeling sick lately, although a bit run-down from all the activity. I've had some periodic rashes break out on my legs, but no real cause that I can discern. I think it would help if I just took things extra slow for the next couple of weeks before the blood test (which will be in early December). Fortunately Thanksgiving is coming up, and I've asked to take Wednesday off next week to make it a five-day weekend. I have three more days to take before the end of the year.

Yoshi (my minivan) has also been having some problems - there's an awful noise he makes when I first start him up in the mornings, and especially when I turn the steering wheel. I have to bring him into the Honda dealer this weekend to get that checked out. Hopefully it will be nothing major, since I would like to avoid any big expenditures with SRS coming up. In fact, I already scaled back the dental work I was planning, partly to save money, and partly because I've been so disappointed with the results so far.

Last night we went to the big Barnes & Noble in Paramus and I got two books, Teen Titans - The Future is Now and Supergirl: Power. The second book is a follow-up to this one that I read several months ago.

Better get back to work now. Hope everyone is doing well.

: TG soap character :

Another step to being mainstream - the soap opera All My Children is going to feature a transgendered character transitioning from male to female -"All My Children features transgender role" - Nov. 27, 2006. While I'm not planning to set my DVD-R to record the show, I am somewhat curious as to how much detail the show's producers will allow into the script.

As anybody who has read this blog knows, transition can be a tremendously disruptive process, affecting every aspect of the transitioner's life. You could literally do a soap opera on just the one character if you were so inclined. So I'm thinking that as part of an ensemble cast and as only one storyline among many, audiences are not going to get a very clear picture of just how difficult transition can be. Although I could be wrong and they could dramatize the story to a point where even my story would be boring in comparison. I guess I'll never know until I watch (which is, of course, just what the show's producers want).

While I remain skeptical about a soap opera treating the transgender experience with the respect it deserves, I am pleased to see that the effect of movies such as Transamerica , Boys Don't Cry , Different for Girls and others has paved the way for a broader understanding of TG issues. And understanding is the first step toward broader acceptance - people can't begin to feel comfortable about TG people until they begin to understand why they put themselves through transition. It's not a lifestyle choice or a sexual fetish. It's an identity disorder, something that the average person has no idea how to comprehend. In this respect, it is good that millions of people are at least getting exposed to the topic, even if it's from a less-than-scientific source.

: La Boheme :

It's been so unseasonably warm here the last few days - mid and upper 60s during the day - but it should change after today once this rainy and windy cold front moves through. We should be seeing our first sub-freezing temperatures of the winter early next week. After this warm spell, I think I'm more than ready for some genuine, December East Coast weather.

Lots of good things happening at work, but probably not much of interest to the people who read this blog. Suffice to say that I'm actually starting to make some friends, and people are starting to notice me more, and become a little more interested in who I am as a person. Of course, this requires me to walk a fine line between being friendly and open, and not saying too much about my past. Not that I think I'd be ostracized or anything (at least not publicly) but you never know how people are going to react and I'd rather not find out.

Tonight I'm going to see Puccini's La Boheme at Lincoln Center, the same night as some of my female co-workers are going to see the Nutcracker. So the plan is to all go out for a quick dinner somewhere after work, and then we'll all go to Lincoln Center, where they will go to the ballet and I will head off alone to the opera. I'm very much looking forward to the performance tonight - it will be my first time at Lincoln Center, a mecca of opera lovers worldwide, and I have a front-row seat in the Dress Circle level, which is the third of five levels up in the hall (above Parterre and Grand Tier, and below Balcony and Family Circle). I think it might even be my first time seeing La Boheme live, which would be hard to believe since it's one of my three favorite operas (the others being Verdi's Tosca and La Traviata).

I hope everyone has a nice weekend!

: Bear Mountain :

The opera on Friday night was wonderful - everything I expected from the Met. The sets were breathtaking, especially Act II, which takes place in a crowded cafe and Musetta sings her famous waltz. There must have been at least 100 actors on the stage all at once, and the set was a two-level affair, with the cafe below and a sweeping stairway leading up to a street level with shops and an open plaza with a railing. It reminded me of the architecture prevalent in San Antonio, if you've ever been to the famous Riverwalk there. It was so impressive that the audience applauded when the curtain went up, before a single note was sung. Also, the live white stallion pulling a cart across the stage was a nice touch.

Sunday I drove with my family out to Bear Mountain park overlooking the Tappan Zee Bridge in New York state, and drove up to the top of the mountain. The weather was so clear and cold, and you could actually see the city from the summit. We hiked around on the rocks taking pictures (I'll post some later), and watched the sunset from the top of the mountain, which was lovely. Then we drove down to the park area to look at their Christmas lights, and checked out the carousel and the outdoor ice rink, which we plan to try someday. Afterwards we stopped at the Palisades Center Mall for dinner, and a little shopping - I bought a soy candle for my apartment with the essence of cedarwood, lavendar and sandalwood.

: Photos from Bear Mountain :

Here's some photos from Sunday's trek to Bear Mountain. Mouse over each photo for a brief description.

: NYC backs off :

Unfortunately, this measure did not pass, but it's still better in New York than in Houston.

NYC eases one rule on gender records, but keeps another in place
(c) 2006. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

NEW YORK (AP) - City health officials on Tuesday backed off a plan that would have allowed transgender New Yorkers to switch the sex listed on their birth certificate without undergoing gender reassignment surgery.

Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said the issue needed further study, in part to guarantee it wouldn't conflict with federal identity document rules now being developed.

Like most other cities and states, New York has long allowed people who have undergone such a surgery to get a new birth certificate reflecting the change.

The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene had proposed in September that the policy be liberalized further to include people who had taken other steps short of surgery to irrevocably alter their gender-identity.

The new policy, for example, would have allowed birth record changes for someone who took hormone treatments to change their physiology.

While it delayed making that change, the Board of Health went ahead with a related policy revision that will allow people who have undergone reassignment surgery to have their new sex listed on birth documents for the first time.

Previously, the city had simply issued a new birth certificate that removed any reference to gender.

: Christmas tidings :

It was a very fun weekend for me, and I'm happy that we were able to do so much and still get plenty of rest. Saturday I devoted myself to getting into the Christmas spirit. I'll admit I haven't been very festive yet this year, mostly due to physical ailments more than emotional. But I decided that it was time to cast off my cloak of indifference that I usually wear this time of year and allow myself to experience the changes that the rest of the world goes through this time of year.

So in the afternoon I went out to find a Christmas tree, my first artificial tree ever, actually. In my previous life, I grew up with an artificial tree, but once I started my own family we always had real trees at Christmas time. But I think now that it's wrong to support the business of treating living trees as disposable things. So we went to Fountains of Wayne, which is a famous Christmas store (and also a musical group that had a hit song called "Stacy's Mom") but they only sold really high end trees, pre-lit and all that. Plus they were all a bit larger than I wanted - even though my apartment is pretty large, it's laid out in such a way that the only place to put the tree doesn't have a lot of space for a wide tree. But we did go through the store's famous Christmas display, which I'd describe as the "It's a Small World" ride at Disney World, but without the boats.

Since we didn't get a tree, I got a stocking, a tree skirt and a cute Santa hat that I wore the rest of the day. When we went to the mall to look at Sears, but they only had a few trees and none that were suitable. They did have a large selection of wreaths though. We walked through the crowded mall to Macy's, but they didn't sell trees at all. We went back to Sears and I bought a really nice wreath for my door, and a hanger, so we didn't leave empty-handed. Finally, we went to Target and found a really nice tree that was slim enough to fit my needs. Plus it was also pre-lit, which makes things a lot easier.

Now, you're probably wondering "what about all the ornaments?" I have a very specific feeling about starting my own Christmas traditions, and one of them is that I want my tree to be built over time, using ornaments and decorations that mean something to me. To tell the truth, I really like the look of my tree with simple white lights on it that elegantly wink on and off. I think there is much beauty in the look of a tree that does not require much adornment to be appreciated. And I look at my tree as a symbol of where I am in my new life, and right now, I'd say that my life is all about the basics for the moment. There is so much yet to be learned, to be experienced and to be savored in life that's yet to come. I feel that my journey is only beginning, and I want the tree to reflect this tabula rasa state. As the years go by, I expect that I will collect things to hang on my tree, and it will serve as a yearly reminder of the things I've done, learned and experienced over time.

Sunday my family came over to my apartment and helped me set up the tree, which only took 15 minutes and looks really splendid. I also hung some of the colored Christmas lights on my fireplace mantle and around the patio doorframe and connected them all to a wireless switch, so I can turn them all on with a push of a button when I walk in the door.

Afterwards, we drove into New York and visited the Cloisters, which was especially decorated for Christmas, and none of us have ever seen it at Christmastime. As we strolled around we saw giant wreaths over the stone arch doors made from apples, hazelnuts, pinecones and berries. We saw decorative sheaves of wheat stalks bound with ivy and braided wheat, and garlands of laurel leaves draped in the chapel. Here are some pictures of the Cloisters - unfortunately since it was getting dark, I didn't have many good ones.







The best part was that there's a section of the Cloisters in the lower level called the Treasury that has been closed for renovation ever since we started going there this year. Well, yesterday it was open, and for the first time we were able to go in and see some of the most beautiful medieval objects, from ancient texts to vessels made from precious metals and stones. Unfortunately, I only spied that the Treasury was open at the very end, so we only had about 15 minutes to look before they started shooing us out as the museum was closing. Hopefully, the next time we go we will have more time to enjoy the artifacts at a leisurely pace.

In the evening we watched the holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life on DVD, and even though the story of George Bailey doesn't really align with our family's non-traditional values, it's still a really great movie. It's easy to get jaded about movies like this that are on year after year, but even though I've seen the movie countless times, I've never sat down and watched it intently from beginning to end, as is the usual custom in my family when we watch movies together. So I saw things in the movie, small details that I'd never noticed before that added to the overall impact (e.g. Zuzu's flower petals).

So as I said, a very fun weekend, and I might have some more pictures to post later.

: Kudos for Kodak :

I just saw this article today. The sad thing is, I actually applied for a job at Kodak earlier this year and didn't get it (one of the handful of outright rejections I received). Maybe they found out I am trans and didn't want to cover my treatment...

Still, no hard feelings, and this is good news when a major company makes this kind of change and shows some compassion on TG issues. In the long run, the positive impact is to create a world where people can feel truly free to express their gender in whatever way feels most comfortable to them without losing the basic rights they had while pretending to be what everyone expects them to be.


Kodak updates health benefits for transgender employees intransition

Written by Susan Jordan
Friday, 25 August 2006

Kodak Worldwide Benefits has updated health plan coverage to include procedures, services, and supplies for sex transformation (gender reassignment) .

The updated plan coverage applies to expenses for sex transformation procedures, services and supplies (including therapy, sex hormones and transsexual surgery) that are provided on or after July 1, 2006, to any person participating in a self-insured option under Kodak's US medical plans.

This is great news for the employees who need this coverage! Lambda Network at Kodak is pleased that our educational activities have shed light on the need for these benefits to be offered. This change is further evidence of Eastman Kodak Company's support for all elements of diversity. It serves to reinforce Kodak's commitment to Equal Opportunity Employment, which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity.

The following additional information was provided by Kodak Benefits: The company recently announced that the following self-insured options: PPO, PPO Max, Rochester EPOs and National Out-of-Area will cover sex transformation procedures, services and supplies provided on or after July 1, 2006 including therapy, sex hormones and transsexual surgery. Maintenance hormone therapy will also be covered under the Kodak Prescription Drug Plan (KRx), provided it is part of a medically supervised treatment.

: First Christmas in New Jersey :

For most people, it's Christmas Day, but in my mind, it's the day after Christmas - which is nice because I need the break from what has been the most fun-filled and up-and-down emotional Christmas I've had in a long time. The emotional stuff is too complicated to go into, but in case you're wondering, I don't think it was compounded by my being off hormones for the past week in preparation for surgery. As for the fun stuff, read on...

On Saturday we left in the early afternoon for the Met to see the magnificent Christmas tree they put up every year in the medieval art wing. The tree itself is decorated simply with candles and ornate figurines of angels. At the base of the tree are dozens and dozens of intricate figurines, each about 10-12 inches in height, depicting scenes of daily life in biblical times. There were figures of merchants, peasants, noblemen, children and all sorts of animals, each rendered with incredible detail and skill, down to their brightly colored clothes made from real cloth and faces painted with the most realistic expressions. At the front of the tree was a nativity scene, with Joseph and Mary flanked by more angels. I would have loved to take a picture, but they were strictly enforcing a "no pictures" policy, although that did not stop several persistent people from sneaking shots, only to be loudly chastised.

After visiting a new exhibit on sculptured heads and some of our usual favorites, we took a cab downtown to Town Hall in the heart of the Broadway District just off Times Square. After a hurried meal at Burger King, we went inside to see Garrison Keillor's live radio broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion," a special Christmas edition he does every year in New York. The show is so down-home that they hand out gingerbread cookies for free as you leave. It was a wonderful musical performance, with lots of spoken and musical comedy thrown in.



After the show we walked a few blocks uptown to Rockefeller Center to see the huge Christmas tree above the ice rink. The entire area was packed with tourists and sightseers, but we pushed through and marveled at the 88-foot-high tree, topped with a Swarovski Star.



We also watched the musical light show on the side of Saks Fifth Avenue, which consisted of massive snowflake lights flashing to the tune of the "Carol of the Bells" played over loudspeakers. Then we went into St. Patrick's Cathedral to light candles and visit our favorite places in that beautiful church, which was decorated with wreaths and poinsettias for the holiday. Coming out of St. Patrick's we got a cab and drove back to the Met to pick up Yoshi and drive back home.



On Sunday I went to my family's house and we spent all afternoon opening our presents and telling stories about what each one meant to us. I got some wonderful things, including Neil Gaiman's Absolute Sandman, Frank Miller's 300, Alan Moore's From Hell, The Police's Message in a Box 4-CD set, and Porcupine Tree's Arriving Somewhere concert DVD.

After all the gifts were opened, dinner was started - a magnificent Vegetable Wellington with mushroom gravy that was wonderfully delicious, even without my usual application of hot sauce. We ended the evening with chocolate cream pie and by then it was almost 3 a.m. Consequently, I didn't get out of bed this morning until about 2 p.m., and yet I seem to be still lethargic and drowsy. Hopefully another good night's sleep will refresh me enough to go to work tomorrow.

: Year-end recap :

As is my custom on this blog, it's New Year's Eve, and time for a recap of 2006. While this year was only slightly less dramatic than 2005, it was even more eventful. While 2005 was the year that I came out publicly, quit my job and went full time, 2006 was the year that set the stage for being able to secure my future as Michelle by moving away, getting a job and living stealth as a woman.

From January to April there was a series of monthly trips from Houston to New York. I had pretty much finished recovering from cosmetic surgery in December 2005 and I was ready to take on the Big Apple. I thought things were going to be easy when I lined up five interviews over two days on my first trip, and got a job offer on my first time out. Upon hearing that happy news, I started packing, gave move-out notice to my Houston apartment and put a deposit down on a new apartment in New Jersey. Days later, the unlikely news came that the offer had to be rescinded due to the loss of a major client, and it was back to square one.

Undeterred, I pushed myself even harder the next trip up in February, scheduling 10 interviews in two days, intending to take a third day off to rest. But due to missed interviews, call-backs and finding new interviews through referrals, I ended up going to 14 interviews in three days without a break at all. In March, I scheduled another two days of interviews, and on March 27, all my concurrent efforts on the legal front were finally rewarded with my legal divorce and name change.

Unfortunately, this action also included the termination of my parental rights to my six-year-old son, a decision that will probably cloud my happiness for years to come. But it also meant a fair division of our assets from the sale of our property (although my ex got to keep most of the money she stole from our joint account prior to the divorce filing, which gave her the leverage in the first place that forced me to give up my parental rights). But being able to obtain a fair split of the funds from the property sale at least allowed me to survive my job search and also schedule my SRS procedure for January 8, 2007.

In April, the highlight was flying up to Indianapolis to meet my friend Colleen, then drove with her to Chillicothe to pick up our friend Mandy and spending a couple days hanging out in Columbus, Ohio. We stayed in our usual SpringHill Suites, and this time another t-girl, Tabitha, drove up from Tennessee to join us. April was also a very busy month because I decided to move to New Jersey in May, despite not yet securing a job. So there was a lot of running around, getting letters for SRS from my therapists, replacing my broken car stereo, updating my legal records and getting rid of my excess stuff I didn't want to move. In late April, I took my last "trip" to New Jersey for a family trip to Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, then flew back to Houston, only to drive up with my stuff a few days later.

On May 1, I arrived at a Residence Inn and settled in for the long haul. My belongings came a few days later and I put them in a storage facility. For the next two months, I went on job interviews and spent time with my new family in New Jersey, plus did all the things necessary to settle in as a resident (car registration and inspection, postal box, learning streets and highways, etc.). I also got a freelance assignment from one of the companies that rejected me for full-time employment, which gave me something to do while earning a little money to defray my hotel costs.

On June 13, I finally landed a job at a large, well-known PR firm. They offered me the same position as I had at my old job in Houston, so I considered it a very successful job search in that I made a lateral move and didn't have to suffer professionally due to my transition (although at nine months, it took a lot longer than I had anticipated). After securing my new apartment and moving out of the hotel in late June, I drove from New Jersey to Springfield, Ohio to meet up with my Midwest friends Colleen and Mandy, plus introduce myself to new friends Joanna and Anna for the first time.

I started my new job on July 5, and there were a few rough spots at first. There was a VP that verbally abused me a couple times that I felt I was not going to be able to get along with, but fortunately for me, she resigned less than a month after I started. Everybody else has been wonderful, and I've met some very nice people there. The hardest part has been the commute to and from New York, which takes nearly two hours out of my morning and evening each day. Weekends are a blessing!

On July 15, I passed my two-year anniversary of starting HRT, which I will celebrate as my "birthday" starting in 2007. That same day, I got my new passport, the first legal documentation with the long-sought "F" marker on it. That was quickly followed by my NJ driver's license, which I never tire of looking at as a symbol of all my efforts in my legal transition.

From August to now, things have finally started to wind down for me and settle into a groove. I rebuilt my home theater around a 50-inch plasma TV and started collecting books and DVDs again. I've been to a couple Broadway shows and the Metropolitan Opera, a long-standing dream of mine. I hang out with my family as much as I can, I work hard in the office, and I generally do my best to enjoy life. The most significant change of all is yet to come - Sex Reassignment Surgery is only eight days away now in Montreal.

I look back on 2006 with some pride and relief. Getting a job and getting settled into a permanent apartment was the major highlight of the year. Continuing to grow my relationship with my family here has also been extremely important and satisfying. Exploring New York and learning my way around has been challenging at times, but gets easier as time goes by. I've also enjoyed my time and conversations with friends who have stuck with me - Colleen, Mandy, Nexy and Alessandra, to name a few. This year I met for the first time Joanna, Tabitha and Anna, along with all my new co-workers, of course. But most of all, this is the year that I've finally been able to find myself at peace - with my life, with my past, and with myself. I feel like the war that is transition is now over, and it's time to start life anew.

A Happy New Year to all, and best wishes for 2007!

: Successful SRS :

Hi everybody, I'm back home from Montreal and surgery went about as well as I could have hoped for. I can't write too much because I'm still confined mostly to bed and it's hard to type on my laptop laying down, but just wanted to let everyone know I'm okay. The main thing I'm dealing with is the pain of my skin graft site on my inner thigh, which was necessary because I didn't have much skin for Dr. Brassard to work with.

Anyway, once I'm up and around and able to sit in a chair comfortably, I'll post a more lengthy description of the experience, including photos from Montreal. Thank you all for your thoughts and well-wishes!

: Getting comfortable :

It's been three weeks and two days since surgery, and I'm doing much better at the halfway point of my recovery period. I'm planning to go back to work on Feb. 20 (the day after Presidents' Day) so I have about three weeks remaining.

I haven't been online much lately because I haven't been able to sit upright in a chair comfortably, which is still true. It may be several months before that happens. However, I did order and have just finished setting up a rolling laptop desk that is now parked next to my bed so I can work on the computer in bed.



Over the next several days I'll be posting my SRS experience in several installments, based on the notes and photos I took while I was in Montreal. But as for right now, it's just good to be able to type and use the computer again, as it was difficult typing with the computer sitting on my bed beside me. Having another table nearby also helps by giving me a place to put my books, lubricating jelly and paper towels for dilation, which I'm doing four times a day, each requiring about 30 minutes.

That's all for now, more to come later.

: Trials of Phyllis Frye :

Below is a narrative written by Houston TG attorney Phyllis Frye for her law firm's newsletter about the difficulties that transgendered people face in the so-called "justice" system. As some of you may know, I had an initial consultation with Ms. Frye in 2005 when I was preparing to file for divorce. I wound up choosing a different attorney, and my attorney was able to get my legal name change inserted into the divorce court order, but not the gender change. I got the gender change done in my own way when I moved to New Jersey.

It burns me up to hear stories (including my own) how the rights of TG folks are blatantly disregarded by our public officials who are sworn to mete out justice fairly and without prejudice. I know it's naive to expect people in power to be fair and unbiased when it comes to transgender issues, but not expecting it doesn't make it any less right. Ms. Frye's account is, of course, a bit self-serving, but still a sobering look at the legal hurdles many TG people face.

NEVER GIVING UP FOR MY CLIENTS
by Phyllis Randolph Frye

Recently, I had two incidents of extreme difficulty with two judges who were not at all helpful to my transgender clients. These incidents, not related to each other in any other than having me as the same attorney and both Petitioners were transgendered, began within weeks of each other and ending on consecutive days in January 2007.

Client One's Petition was filed at a Texas courthouse and randomly assigned to Court One with Judge One in that particular county in October 2006. Judge One required a background fingerprint check through the Texas DPS and the FBI. Lots of judges so require, no problem here, while some judges do not so require. I obtained the fingerprint cards from the court clerk (not knowing that they were marked as being from a different court), had my client fingerprinted and mailed them with the required fee. In November, I called Texas DPS to inquire as to the delay and was told that the cards had been processed and mailed to the court the previous week. DPS said they were mailed, but we could not find them at the courthouse. After several calls in December, I discovered the mix up and inquired at the different court. That clerk was very nice, said that he assumed that someone would call about them eventually and promptly sent them to the correct court. With the holidays, I was able to get a court date for a Thursday in January.

Client Two's Petition was similarly filed at a Texas courthouse and randomly assigned to Court Two with Judge Two in that particular county in November 2006. Judge Two also required a background fingerprint check through the Texas DPS and the FBI. This went smoothly, but as I tried to set a court date, I ran into a snag. While talking to the coordinator for the court, I met Judge Two and because there was no opposing side, I asked the Judge if the Judge had a problem with doing a name change and gender identification change for transgenders. Judge Two said no problem if the transgenders were completely finished with all of the surgical processes. I told the Judge that the common medical practice was to do the legal document work at the very beginning of the transition. After that meeting, I could not get a hearing date. After two weeks of calls to the coordinator to be told that the Judge would not set a full hearing date, I set it for a Friday morning docket call in January to force Judge Two to talk to me and to set a date.

Client Two and I arrived for the 10:00 printed docket call on a Friday in Court Two. Many cases went before Judge Two. We then sat through the 11:00 printed docket call as well. At 12:20, Judge Two called us up to the bench. I had asked for a court reporter. Judge Two said that he was not disposed to granting my client's request. Judge Two called my male to female client, "him" which I promptly corrected. After several minutes, I requested a full hearing which would either educate Judge Two and answer Judge Two's concerns or create sufficient record for an appeal. Judge Two agreed to give me a one hour hearing. I informed Judge Two that my client and I had rehearsed this and that in previous presentations to other judges (all of which had signed after the 2-1/2 hour hearing), the hearings took 2-1/2 hours. After several more minutes of discussion, Judge Two relented and set a full hearing for 9:30 on a Tuesday morning two weeks later.

During the next week, Client One and I went to the Thursday hearing in Judge One's court. Ten minutes before the hearing began, my office called me to say that the court reporter for Court One had called my office to tell me that she was told by Judge One that she would not be needed and to go home. (I had a motion requiring a court reporter on page one of my Petition.) I asked the court bailiff to find me a court reporter who was not busy from another court which the bailiff did. Moments before Judge One came out, a court reporter from another court arrived and began to set up. When Judge One came out and saw that a court reporter was there, Judge One turned red. We began much the same way as with Judge Two during the previous week with the exception that Judge One did offer the name change but not the gender change from M to F on the drivers license and Judge One did not call my client by the wrong pronouns. After several minutes Judge One told me that I would get a call from the clerk setting a full hearing during the following week. The next day, the clerk called saying that Judge One was busy but that our hearing was set to be heard in Court Three by Visiting Judge Four because Judge Three was out of town. It was set for Wednesday at 9:00.

During the weekend, I checked and rechecked. I had gone toe to toe with two judges who had used various techniques to flush my client and make everything go away. Judges go to judge school to learn such techniques -- offering a short hearing when a long one is needed, sending a court reporter home or offering only part of the relief that the client needs. I knew that I was going to be tested on Tuesday morning and again on Wednesday morning of the next week. I prepared a Motion to Recuse and studied the Canons of Judicial Conduct. I felt that I was ready.

Client Two and I arrived in Court Two on Tuesday at 9:25 for the 9:30 hearing. No one was in the courtroom. We waited until 10:40 for Judge Two to appear. During my opening remarks, I reminded Judge Two of not wanting to do this and of using the wrong pronouns for my client. I asked Judge Two to consider a recusal on the Judge's own motion. The Judge refused. I put on a hearing with sworn testimony on many issues from Client Two. Seven evidentiary exhibits were offered and admitted. We watched a sworn videotape deposition of a medical expert witness and a sworn videotape deposition of a law enforcement expert witness. I discussed the relevant statutes, the supporting case law, and how the admitted evidence fit the statutory and case law requirements. I offered several legal briefs on some of these issues. Judge Two simply said "denied."

Stunned, I asked if Judge Two was refusing both the name and gender change on the drivers license or just denying the gender change on the drivers license. Judge Two said that both were denied. My client began to softly weep beside me. I asked if there was something else that Judge Two needed to hear of if there were concerns for which I had a legal brief to address. (I always bring eighteen prepared legal briefs on legal issues that have come up when I have been in courtrooms throughout Texas in the past.) Judge Two replied simply that there was no discussion -- simply denied. Judge Two then told me that if I could find another Judge who would accept the case, Judge Two would transfer it. I knew it was well into the lunch hour and that finding another judge would be difficult. So I then filed the Motion to Recuse that I had prepared over the weekend, citing before that court reporter that Judge Two was illegally discriminating against my client on the basis of sex and that Judge Two was violating certain Canons that dealt with sex and sexual orientation. Judge Two stood up and left the courtroom. The clerk told me that I would probably have a hearing on the Motion to Recuse later in the day so I gave the clerk my cell phone number and told the clerk we were going to lunch.

Outside the courtroom, I hugged my client who was struggling to be strong. I told her that we were not going to lunch, but that we were going to find another judge. To make a long story short, I went to many courts where judges were gone -- some to lunch but most were out of town for a judicial conference. Judge Two knew this would be so. Finally, I found a judge who would listen and who would accept the transfer. It took many hours for all of the various legalities to occur. Client Two and I left the courthouse at 4:00 after a seven hour day of stress. I obtained for Client Two a transfer and the signed Order for both the change of name and correction of gender from M to F on the drivers license. That night I slept fitfully. Every time I began to relax and fall to sleep the stress of the day in dealing with Judge Two and the struggle to get the case transferred came roaring back into my mind.

The next morning I met Client One at the courthouse. We went to the courtroom of absent Judge Three and were heard by Visiting Judge Four. Less than one hour later, Client One also had her certified copies of her Order for both the change of name and correction of gender from M to F on the drivers license. The Visiting Judge had listened to the statutory and case law as I presented it and also to the evidence and granted our request.

I slept good that Wednesday night. The next morning over coffee, I told my spouse that as difficult and stressful as the past weeks had been with Judge One and with Judge Two and with the huge amounts of my clients' time that both judges had wasted, I had learned a lot about myself. I had been tested by two judges who wanted transgender issues and transgender clients to either go away or to take less that what they deserved under the law. And I had stood toe to toe and withstood the variety of legal tricks they had tried to use in their efforts to flush these transgender cases in a manner that would prevent a successful appeal if need be. I had never given up for my clients.

And my clients are now living each day with one less burden.