Just chilling out, catching in some writing time...

Two media suggestions:

Transparent on Amazon.com
In the Mind Of a Cross-dresser (mid-day.com)

Trans-woman attacked at a mall

Interesting story, one which hits kinda close to home because I've had an experience that was very similar to this.

First, the woman's story:

...the cashier unleashed a torrent of hateful comments. “He called me a faggot and told me to fuck off,” said Vaughan.

“I was completely shocked,” she said. A security guard then approached her, and according to Vaughan, asked her to leave. “I have to remove the problem,” the security officer said to Vaughan. “I wasn’t the problem, he was,” she replied, and he asked her to leave again. (gayrva.com)

Crabtree Valley Mall (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now, my story. I was in Durham, N.C. on a business trip. During the day, I was in boy mode, once the work day was over, I would go straight back to the hotel, get into my girlie clothes, put on makeup, and then I headed out and about. I decided that a mall should be a safe place, so I went to the Crabtree Valley Mall. I walked in, and headed straight to Sephora.

Sephora has a reputation for being very trans* friendly - I figured that I could go there to boost my confidence being out. And I figured I could have one of Sephora's makeup artists to help me pick out some foundation while I was there.  :)

Things seemed to start out okay, one of the Sephora people walked up to me and asked what I wanted. I explained what I needed, and she told me "sure, let me go get one of our makeup artists." All well and good, right?

10 minutes passed. Then fifteen. I saw the makeup artist standing at the back of the store, just looking at me. One of her associates came over to talk to her, and the makeup artists said "I don't care, I am not going to help one of those." Eventually, one of Sephora's managers came out and apologized. I said something unintelligible, and then fled out of the shop, out of the mall, out of the parking garage.

So much for getting my confidence up!!!  :P

Hooray, no more "panic" defense!!!

I think it's horrible that anyone was ever able to use the "panic" defense to begin with. Nobody should be able to injure or kill a person, and then get off the hook because they "panicked" when finding out the other person was gay or trans*. This is absolutely heinous! Thank goodness, it's just about over:

“There is absolutely no justification for the use of ‘panic defenses.’ Clearly this tactic has been utilized by defendants, unjustly targeting members of the LGBT community, based on damaging stereotypes,” Assemblywoman Susan A. Bonilla said in a statement Wednesday. “With AB 2501, we are moving forward to ensure equality in our courts and making it very clear that discrimination against the LGBT community is intolerable and unacceptable.”  - advocate.com

Sometimes victories are small, and sometimes they are big. This one is huge!

Related articles

• US: California bill outlawing trans and gay panic defenses headed to governor
• California Takes A Stand Against Gay and Trans Panic Defenses in Criminal Cases
• Ban on 'gay panic defense' heads to governor

Hotel shot - Durham, N.C.

Be careful on Skype....

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I got myself dressed up and made up yesterday, leaving out only a wig. I was working from home, and got lost in the problem I was trying to solve. Skype's ringtone started playing, and I looked up to see that it was my mom calling. I answered the call, totally forgetting that I was dressed!

I had reading glasses on, and it's kinda dark out here, so there's a chance she couldn't tell. If she could, she didn't mention it. And she didn't seem surprised. I was very surprised, though! I couldn't do anything except talk.  :)

My wife pointed out later that the sweater I was wearing looks very girlie. She thinks that my mom noticed, but just didn't say anything.

Eeeek!

(Yes, I am a 40+ year old. Yes I am still hiding this from my mom. Yes I still worry about disappointing my mom.)

:)