The religious right is wrong

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men - robbers, evildoers, adulterers - or even like this tax collectors. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’
But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’
“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
- Luke 18:9-14

The religious right is attacking the transgender community again. Naeldrega has some insightful commentary on the most recent attack on the anti-discrimination act. I particularly appreciated this comment:

*Employment anti-discrimination is not about making anyone “believe” anything– it is about protecting people from being fired (or not being hired) regardless of their abilities or qualifications, merely because they are transgender.  If such legislation is enacted, transphobes will retain their right to believe whatever they want, but they will not be allowed to use those beliefs to justify discrimination or workplace harassment. Anti-discrimination laws are not “thought crime” laws.

I’m constantly amazed at how fervently the religious right fights against laws that would protect the poor and downtrodden. They’re anti-gay, anti-trans and anti-immigrant. With such little faith in God they trade in moral leadership for a small measure of imagined security - and endorse torture. I wonder, would Jesus waterboard?

The Transgender Companion is not worth it

Jennifer Seeley wrote the Transgender Companion, which claims that it is the complete guide to becoming the woman you want to be. Intrigued by this, I recently bought and read through the transgender companion.

Jennifer is a non-op, male to female transsexual, and unfortunately spends most of the time justifying her decision not to go through with sex reassignment surgery. Her approach in the book goes overboard in trying not to offend the reader by prefacing almost every opinion she puts forth with words like “this is only my opinion and it’s okay if you think otherwise”. After reading this for the tenth time I started to wonder if she was trying to communicate a hidden message - perhaps she believes there is something wrong with alternate views, and in an effort to appear welcoming she over emphasizes her openness?

The information about transitioning and presenting yourself more convincingly as a woman is okay, but nothing you couldn’t find searching the Internet for a weekend.

The most helpful part of the book was Jennifer’s emphasis on self acceptance and not overly focusing on any one part of your body that you don’t like. Whether it’s your height or broad shoulders, or something else that communicates your masculinity.

–

P.S. If you’re looking for a crossdressing guide worth reading go here. Learn how to cross dress and pass as a woman.

A Call to Crossdressing Action - it’s Not Just the Transgendered Who Suffer

In Normal, a book written by Amy Bloom about transsexuals, crossdressers and the intersexed, an insightful comment about gender expression is given.

Not only is our society distressed by masculine women, feminine men, and the androgynous; even the big man who embroiders, or the wife and mother of three who has a black belt in tae kwon do, a buzz cut and no makeup in her gym bag, stirs a frisson of discomfort. Gender theorists love the gender nonconforming as examples of all sorts of things, fundamentalists fear and despise them, and whether they avoid our gaze or deliberately seek to disturb, they are the handy punch line for every fading sitcom.

I sometimes think that our culture is like the Church in the days of Galileo. We will not see, and we will silence and mock, even banish and punish, those who say that what is, is.

The insight isn’t that the transgendered struggle to be accepted by society needs to continue for a while. The insight is that the transgendered struggle is the struggle of all people who don’t fit into the classical model of gender. The transgendered are just those who happen to experience this “frisson of discomfort” most vividly.

I think this applies for crossdressers as well. The typical heterosexual part time crossdresser can go undetected and undiscovered by society. Her livelihood isn’t impacted by transitioning, her finances aren’t devastated by expensive surgeries (no girls, buy that expensive dress doesn’t count…) and her health isn’t jeopardized by a cocktail of hormones.

Largely, the impact of societies displeasure with gender non-conformance is limited to those few times the crossdresser ventures outdoors. She goes as undetected as the slightly feminine man, or slightly masculine woman. And she will benefit from the work of transsexuals and transgendered to bring acceptance to gender diversity.

My call to crossdressers action

If you’re a crossdresser, my call to action is to support the transgender community who is at the forefront of the struggle. Either through your time or financial support. A good organization to start with is the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Dear reader, please let me know if there are other organizations that are doing good work for the transgender community. I’d like to post a more complete list of transgender advocate organizations in the future.

—
P.S. Look fabulous while making a difference for the transgender community with great advice from the World’s Best Crossdresser Guide

Cross-dressing and the female privilege

A few weeks ago I wrote an article about crossdressing and ladies restrooms. As you may know, opponents of laws protecting gender identity and expression use the terrible threat of “men dressing up as woman to enter the ladies restroom and assault women” as a rallying cry. I can assure you that

Most cross-dressers just want to use the bathroom

Autumn recently posted a thoughtful article about gender expression as it relates to the fear of men using the ladies restroom. It is clear that over the last few centuries straight white males have enjoyed many privileges. As if somehow they were proto-humans, non-gay Caucasian men enjoy more job opportunities, better wages, less discrimination and favorable media coverage.

With all that privilege, though, women do enjoy at least one of their own in this day and age. As Autumn astutely observes - Women are not perceived to be predators.

I think the root of concern about protecting gender expression is intolerance - “you’re not like me”-ism. Yet this is far more difficult to sell to the public - we’re enlightened enough these days that hate and bigotry aren’t good ways of winning the majority to your cause. It is far easier to inflame the already existing fears that “men are predators” as a tactic to prevent free gender expression.

You don’t even need to look hard to come up with a credible sounding case. After all, if the men of God are caught molesting altar boys, surely the transgedered can’t be far behind?

I don’t have a solution for this deep seated fear. Perhaps if we spent more time cherishing all that is good in this world, in our society, we would embrace the unknown rather than running from it.

In that spirit, a dose of good news this morning. The UK has begun a program called

Living Libraries

Rather than a book, people can “borrow a stereotype”, and spend 30 mins with someone who is Muslim or gay or transgendered. The idea is that the best way to break down prejudice is to get to know someone. You can find some more details on transgendered in the living library and a good article here. If you’re in the UK, I encourage you to borrow someone who you may not understand and spend some time listening.

—

P.S. Feminize yourself through hypnosis. Become the woman inside today!

God Cannot Save the Crossdresser

This week I feel the Holy Spirit moving in me to share what’s on my heart about His son, and His love for us. Before I do so, I want to let you know about a wonderful blog I just discovered this evening called First Born Son. The author Omar is wonderfully in touch with the word of God, and the intentions of Jesus and shares his thoughts in a well written and often humorous manner.

The crossdresser is doomed

God cannot save her. In response to my recent post on why do men cross dress, Katie shared some of her thoughts about verses in the Bible that perhaps shouldn’t be taken at face value. It’s worth a read, and as you’ll see, verses such as Lev 1:9, Lev 15:19-24, Lev 25:44, Lev 11:10 and Lev 19:27 clearly demonstrate that there are parts of the Bible that are not directly applicable in the modern context. The verses vilify seafood, allow slavery and command against a good haircut.

Swimming within a sea of verses specific to the culture and society of the times, we encounter Deuteronomy 22:5 - the Christian Crossdressers kryptonite (try saying that three times fast!). The church doesn’t seem to have a problem dismissing all the verses in Leviticus, yet for some reason holds on to the verse against crossdressing. Strange. Who got to decide?

I digress though, I did not mean to

Lament about Christianity and Crossdressing

I’ve come to realize that no matter how long you stray from God, He is there waiting for you. I found it amazing, as I read through my Bible this evening how close I felt to God. It had been a while, and I’ve been going through some struggles reconciling my support for a church that has different political beliefs. Like a rush of water, or a warm ray of sunshine I could feel my heart drawing closer to God as I immersed myself in His word.

God’s word is more than just a book - it is a living and ever adapting expression of His will for us and His love. Tonight I am encouraged, because I know that in the grand scheme of things

God will not disown me for cross-dressing

Try Him. Spent some time searching for Him and He will show up. There is nothing like His presence to still a frantic heart, to bring rest to a weary soul.

May the weekend be filled with love for all of you.

—

P.S. Feeling tired and fat? Get a beautiful slender body with the Fat Loss Bible.

Socially Acceptable Cross Dressing - will it ever be in style?

Fashions are a funny thing, and crossdressers are perhaps more beholden to the whims of the fashion fairies than most men. When men dress in women’s clothes, there is something special about looking fabulous and beautiful.

The other day I was thinking - what if crossdressing was normal? You know, if you were just as likely to see a man in high heels and a skirt as a woman wearing a pantsuit. What is there was no masculine gender expression, no feminine gender expression. Would we still be crossdressers? In fact, would we still have the desire to crossdress?

Certainly there must be some part of the transgender experience which is about being unique, in our expression of who we are - the desire to be like woman, yet still knowing that we are a man.

Don’t tell crossdressers they’re normal

If you do, we just might agree. Many organizations, such as Tri-ESS, go to great lengths to remove the stigma from crossdressing. This stigma is entirely a social construct, created by our culture. There are theories as to why crossdressing is taboo - perhaps on a subconscious level it slows down the acquisition of a suitable mate with which to propagate the species?

Nevertheless, fashion will move forward. The brief rise of the metrosexual in the mid 2000’s was a definite step towards a more socially acceptable way for men to express their femininity. Even if all it really meant was that you wore nice clothes and bathed more than once a week.

Socially Acceptable Cross Dressing

I wonder if the next fashion wave will see crossdressing as desirable and trendy? I hope so, but I’m not going to leave my skirt hanging in the closet waiting for it to happen…

—
P.S. Don’t wait for crossdressing to come in style. Learn how to do your makeup like a professional and look fabulous!