Four Simple Questions: Part 4

Trans Media Action is having a "Trans Camp" at Channel Four on the 13th January 2012 and they are asking Transgender people to make short videos answering four questions. These videos will be played during the Trans Camp.

I've decided that doing this is a very good idea and am answering these questions. However, the videos must be no more than one minute in length, and those of you who know me know that I tend to waffle on in my videos! Thus, I am going to answer these questions here first to enable me to make my videos as short as possible.

The fourth question is "FAMILY: How have you experienced support, or lack of, from family and friends?"

When I first realised that I am transgender, the first people I came out to were my boyfriends. They are the most supportive persons I've ever met and have helped me in so many ways from helping me figure out what my clothing sizes are to being witnesses to my name change via deed poll.


I came out to my family and friends via a Youtube video this past August on my birthday. Everyone, including some I wasn't sure about, were and are very supportive, including using masculine pronouns. The most memorable message of support was from my Aunt who lives in the States. She declared, "I am not behind you in this, instead I stand proudly right beside you."


The amount of love, acceptance, and support that I have received in the few short months since coming out has truly inspired me.

Four Simple Questions: Part 3

Trans Media Action is having a "Trans Camp" at Channel Four on the 13th January 2012 and they are asking Transgender people to make short videos answering four questions. These videos will be played during the Trans Camp.

I've decided that doing this is a very good idea and am answering these questions. However, the videos must be no more than one minute in length, and those of you who know me know that I tend to waffle on in my videos! Thus, I am going to answer these questions here first to enable me to make my videos as short as possible.

The third question is "COMEDY: How do comedy portrayals of trans people affect you?"

To start, let me just say that I hate stereotypes and I hate them even more when comedy programmes portray them. To me, using stereotypes in comedy material is not only outdated but is also very infantile and immature. Yes, I'm aware that comedy in it's purest sense, is immature and it is this immaturity that the audience often finds funny. My question is "Are the use of these stereotypes really necessary?"

Think about it - stereotypes strip away the humanity of those being made fun of. And that's what it is - making fun of a group of people. To make a logical leap, when people witness a group being made fun of, what is their first reaction? Answer: to join in. This creates a loop and it often doesn't take much to nudge the "Let's make fun of this group" mentality to "Let's ridicule and abuse this group because they're different" mentality.

By all means, keep the comedy coming, but let's keep it real and get rid of outdated stereotypes, ok?

Four Simple Questions Part 2

Trans Media Action is having a "Trans Camp" at Channel Four on the 13th January 2012 and they are asking Transgender people to make short videos answering four questions. These videos will be played during the Trans Camp.

I've decided that doing this is a very good idea and am answering these questions. However, the videos must be no more than one minute in length, and those of you who know me know that I tend to waffle on in my videos! Thus, I am going to answer these questions here first to enable me to make my videos as short as possible.


The second question is: "MEDIA: How does media coverage of trans people affect you?"

As a transguy, I've found that the media barely mentions FTMs, or when they do, it's very fleeting or very stereotypical.

FTMs are often portrayed as straight (attracted to females only) bodybuilders who are into sports and drinking beers with the guys. We're not all like that though. For example, I'm not into sports at all and am attracted more towards masculine people - regardless of their actual gender or sexual characteristics.

It is my opinion that the media's representation of FTMs as beer-swilling, sports-involved, ladies-men feeds into the public mind that we're nothing but butch lesbians with penis envy and makes it difficult for people to take us seriously as transguys. I know I said this in my previous video, but the stereotyping needs to stop and there needs to be a wider portrayal of transpeople.  

Four Simple Questions Part 1

Trans Media Action is having a "Trans Camp" at Channel Four on the 13th January 2012 and they are asking Transgender people to make short videos answering four questions. These videos will be played during the Trans Camp.

I've decided that doing this is a very good idea and am answering these questions. However, the videos must be no more than one minute in length, and those of you who know me know that I tend to waffle on in my videos! Thus, I am going to answer these questions here first to enable me to make my videos as short as possible.

The first question is: "CHILDHOOD: For those of you who knew, what was it like growing up as a trans child?"

Now, I didn't know that I was trans* as a child, but I think that it's important that people are aware that not all trans* people knew they were trans* from childhood.

As a child, I was raised in a very conservative religious American town. The churches told us that being homosexual was a sin, but they didn't really touch on being transgender except to say that it was wrong for a man to dress like a woman. It wasn't until I moved to England that I learned what "transgender" is and it took 10 years of living here before I came to the realisation that I am Transgender - a Female to Male, genderqueer, Bigender person, to be exact. And I'm still learning and still figuring out what applies to me and what doesn't.

To sum up, a lot of transgender people knew from childhood that they were trans, but not all of us.

FTM Pathway for Halton and St Helens PCT

I received another email from the Interim Chief Operating Officer of Halton CCG today. In his email, he listed the Female to Male (FtM) core surgical procedures. These are the surgeries that are recommended for support and funding by PCTs in the North West of England.

The recommendation of the North West Specialised Commissioning Team is that PCTs support and fund the following core surgical procedures for female to male (FtM) patients where an application has been made by the patient’s clinician:

 

·         Mastectomy

·         Hysterectomy

·         Vaginectomy

·         Salpingo-oophorectomy

·         Metoidoplasty or phalloplasty

·         Urethroplasty

·         Scrotoplasty and placement of testicular prostheses

 

The recommended non-core procedures are not routinely funded.  Requests for funding on an individual case basis can be made and these requests are considered for funding by a PCT in line with existing local

policies for plastic surgery/cosmetic procedures.  It must be stressed that this list is not exhaustive and any other procedure not listed would be considered as non-core procedure until further review.  The following

are non-core procedures:

 

·         Breast augmentation in trans women

·         Reduction Thyroid chondroplasty

·         Rhinoplasty / other facial bone reduction

·         Blepharoplasty

·         Face-lift

·         Hair removal/ electrolysis

·         Body contouring – e.g. suction-assisted lipoplasty of the waist

·         Voice modification surgery

·         Procedures to decrease areas of baldness

·         Storage of gametes

·         Skin resurfacing -  e.g. acid peel (a method of removing the upper layer of skin in order to improve skin smoothness)

 As you can see, mastectomies are considered to be a core surgical procedure for FtMs and PCTs are supposed to fund them.

He also attached a document which details the pathways for transgender people. You can find it after the jump, but be warned that it seems to be out of date in regards to the Gender Identity Clinics that are listed. The document lists Leeds Becklin Centre and Claybrook Centre in London. This is incorrect. The current GICs are located at Seacroft Hospital in Leeds and Charing Cross (CHX) in London.

I have emailed my contact asking for further clarification and will post another blog entry when I receive it.