June 2009
Hello Sweet Readers!
We all know that the big issue in the United States right now is not the war in Iraq or the growing military presence in Afghanistan. It is not foreign relations with China or Israel. It’s not even who wins the Stanley Cup or next weeks baseball game. It’s LGBT issues and the lack of commitment by politicians from the president down on delivering campaign promises.
It has happened in the past and unfortunately will continue to happen. Many gay rights issues have long been a deciding factor on how voters cast their ballots and who they support. Both sides of the issue have gained support because of their open stand one way or the other. But do they really mean what they say in a well-written speech that has usually been written for them by some underpaid political writer who knows just the right words to say to which group to gain support.
Oh this is nothing new. All down through history candidates on both sides have scouts who tell them what issues are big in what parts of the country and what things they should avoid when making a speech. Consultants and PR people and lobbyist and pole takers surround them and direct them in certain paths to gain the highest number of voters.
What I find offensive is when a politician promises things and then makes some excuse and finds someone else to blame for their lack of fulfilling what their mouth promised in the heat of battle so to speak. It happened several years ago with a certain presidential candidate from Arkansas. He promised everything he could to the gay and lesbian community and was even welcomed into the White House by a ball given for him by that community. We sat and waited, and waited, and waited and his entire term went by and still no reform and no delivery. Several years later his wife, then a candidate herself, would blame the Republican party for his not being able to deliver on his promises. Interesting, seeing as when he was in office he had a Democratic majority in his senate. In other words, don’t blame him for not delivering on his promises, someone else wouldn’t let him keep them. Do we believe he ever meant to in the first place?
Now here we are again, sitting and waiting, and people making excuses as to why the current president hasn’t even started to move toward any of his promises, even though this is a major hot issue in the country. Once again we have people making excuses about everything else, he is too busy with all the other issues at hand, but he is not too busy to take his wife on dates at our expense. They go out on the town, arm in arm, while there are still members of society that can’t do that without persecution, and yes our tax dollars are paying for him to show his wife a good time and then our noses are rubbed in it by the media who report on everything from what they ate to what she wore.
Meanwhile, some of us who are worrying where next weeks paycheck is going to come from or what bill we will have to get an extension on just so we have electricity, can’t even afford to dream about a date night out with our partner.
I will be the first to say, yes the job of the president is a hard job and filled with all sorts of majorly important issues and decisions and international events that may be more important than same sex marriage rights or equal employment rights for gays and lesbians, BUT, to completely ignore the issues will not make them go away and making off-hand jokes about them will definitely not endear yourself to those who these issues are very important to.
I know that my thoughts on these matters will probably lose me readers and gain me some well heated emails this week, but I am willing to endure them in order to make you aware of my feelings. Your issues are equally important to me as mine are and having a politician no matter the party or level of higharchy does not matter, what matters is pick a stand and stand for it or move over and let someone who will take the stand take over.
I am not alone in thinking that the greater community of humanity that makes us all equal is in need of a great kick in the pants and that no matter what a candidate or office holder believes in and stands for, they should stand for it and not falter and not cowtow to anyone. If you are willing to stand in front of farmer Joe in Iowa and say something you should be willing to stand in front of Senator whoever from a major eastern state and say the same thing and mean what you say.
Don’t stand on a platform of LGBT rights and then get into office and sit behind your desk and conveniently become “too busy” to get back up again. The time is now, the issues are here, they aren’t going away no matter how much you ignore them, so take your fingers out of your ears and stop going lalalalala so you can’t hear the cries all around you. To those who these issues are highly important to, there is no waiting, the time for waiting is over, they want action and now. They have been decades waiting for certain things to be different and just when there is a ray of hope shining through the dismal past, someone turns the light off.
This issue has been as important as any war and there have been casualties along the way. Both actual loss of life and the loss of so called social life because of a choice of life partner, sometimes the latter is far more devastating than the former. Being tagged with certain labels have cost founders of every major lifestyle all down through history far more than it should have. Not just gays and lesbians have endured these tragedies but they have had their share and one life lost in the name of any cause for human rights is one loss too many.
Until Next Week, Dear Ones, Love & Many Hugz! Leeza
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| Hello Sweet Readers!Amazing where inspiration for my columns can come from, this week it’s from the Jerry Springer Show. Yes, you read that right, Jerry Springer. I watched a preview for an upcoming show and it got me thinking about something that we hear about but don’t know much of the process or the details involved in this happening. So I began my research and decided that all the information is way too much for one week, and even two weeks, so this may turn into a series of several articles. But I bet this will be information that you have wondered about as well but just didn’t have the time to research for yourself.
I have known about people who are considered transgender but never really gave it a whole lot of thought about if they desired to be a man and they had been born a woman or if they were passionate about becoming a woman and were born a man. The process is a lot more complicated than we might think. It’s not something you can just rush into because there is quite a lot you must prove before a physician will perform your surgery and a lot of legal procedures that you must attend to afterward in order to be legally recognized as the opposite gender than you were assigned on your birth certificate. It all begins with the deep feeling that you were not born the gender you feel inside, every transgender individual sincerely believes that they are either a man who has been trapped in a female body or a woman somehow caged in a male body. Both of which yearn to be free of that body and transported into the correct one. These people have feelings for members of the same sex as they are, not considering themselves gay because they do not feel the sex they currently are. A young man who feels like a woman and is attracted to boys is not gay because he does not see himself as male and is not attracted to females. To him he is a female and it is only natural to be attracted to males, to him being attracted to females would seem gay. Society blindly labels these type of individuals as queer or odd or side show freaks, when actually all they really are is a human being just like we are who has a desire to change something they feel nature made a mistake on. Nature makes all kinds of mistakes that we don’t see a problem with having fixed, such as a child born with a severely disfiguring birthmark or a cleft pallet. We don’t think poorly of a woman who goes to have a breast implant done when one of her breasts is markedly smaller than the other or when cancer has taken one of them and she gets the implant to feel better about herself. We don’t make an issue of it when someone goes and has their nose fixed if they have had an accident or if they have a problem that is causeing them physical problems. Then why do we look down our noses, so to speak, then someone wants to change their gender? According to the WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) Standards of Care publications, it is estimated that 1 in 11,900 males and 1 in 30,400 females is transsexual. Astonishing fact isn’t it, that that many people feel they are not who they should be. I know that there are many so called “religious” groups and some really misinformed people who call themselves a church and who openly abhor transgenders and want to rant and rave and show up at Pride festivals and carry signs and damn everyone to hell in the name of God. Claiming that God is punishing them and will send them to hell for their atrosities but God doesn’t work that way. He is not into hatred and not into condemning based on what nature has created. I really hesitate to use the word mistake when speaking about someone who is transgender, because they are not a mistake in God’s eyes and God doesn’t make mistakes, but something has happened to bend nature a little and tweak it in a different direction. But God has given man the intelligence and the opportunity to change what nature created, and has given doctors and caregivers the tools to make accurate assessments and diagnoses when it comes to who truly does need this type of surgery and who can’t handle it or doesn’t really need it. Sometimes in haste an individual might come to the conclusion that they are a transgender and what is really the case is that they are legitimately gay and do not need to change sexes it is just a whim. Those are the type of people who get weeded out during the long process of determining if gender reassignment surgery is the option in the end. In the next few weeks I will walk you through the process of a male becoming a female or a female becoming a male. Some of the details might be pretty graphic and I will include illustrations where I feel they are needed so be warned ahead of time. Until Next Week, Dear Ones, Love & Many Hugz! Leeza Hello Sweet Readers! Amazing where inspiration for my columns can come from, this week it’s from the Jerry Springer Show. Yes, you read that right, Jerry Springer. I watched a preview for an upcoming show and it got me thinking about something that we hear about but don’t know much of the process or the details involved in this happening. So I began my research and decided that all the information is way too much for one week, and even two weeks, so this may turn into a series of several articles. But I bet this will be information that you have wondered about as well but just didn’t have the time to research for yourself. I have known about people who are considered transgender but never really gave it a whole lot of thought about if they desired to be a man and they had been born a woman or if they were passionate about becoming a woman and were born a man. The process is a lot more complicated than we might think. It’s not something you can just rush into because there is quite a lot you must prove before a physician will perform your surgery and a lot of legal procedures that you must attend to afterward in order to be legally recognized as the opposite gender than you were assigned on your birth certificate. It all begins with the deep feeling that you were not born the gender you feel inside, every transgender individual sincerely believes that they are either a man who has been trapped in a female body or a woman somehow caged in a male body. Both of which yearn to be free of that body and transported into the correct one. These people have feelings for members of the same sex as they are, not considering themselves gay because they do not feel the sex they currently are. A young man who feels like a woman and is attracted to boys is not gay because he does not see himself as male and is not attracted to females. To him he is a female and it is only natural to be attracted to males, to him being attracted to females would seem gay. Society blindly labels these type of individuals as queer or odd or side show freaks, when actually all they really are is a human being just like we are who has a desire to change something they feel nature made a mistake on. Nature makes all kinds of mistakes that we don’t see a problem with having fixed, such as a child born with a severely disfiguring birthmark or a cleft pallet. We don’t think poorly of a woman who goes to have a breast implant done when one of her breasts is markedly smaller than the other or when cancer has taken one of them and she gets the implant to feel better about herself. We don’t make an issue of it when someone goes and has their nose fixed if they have had an accident or if they have a problem that is causeing them physical problems. Then why do we look down our noses, so to speak, then someone wants to change their gender? According to the WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health) Standards of Care publications, it is estimated that 1 in 11,900 males and 1 in 30,400 females is transsexual. Astonishing fact isn’t it, that that many people feel they are not who they should be. I know that there are many so called “religious” groups and some really misinformed people who call themselves a church and who openly abhor transgenders and want to rant and rave and show up at Pride festivals and carry signs and damn everyone to hell in the name of God. Claiming that God is punishing them and will send them to hell for their atrosities but God doesn’t work that way. He is not into hatred and not into condemning based on what nature has created. I really hesitate to use the word mistake when speaking about someone who is transgender, because they are not a mistake in God’s eyes and God doesn’t make mistakes, but something has happened to bend nature a little and tweak it in a different direction. But God has given man the intelligence and the opportunity to change what nature created, and has given doctors and caregivers the tools to make accurate assessments and diagnoses when it comes to who truly does need this type of surgery and who can’t handle it or doesn’t really need it. Sometimes in haste an individual might come to the conclusion that they are a transgender and what is really the case is that they are legitimately gay and do not need to change sexes it is just a whim. Those are the type of people who get weeded out during the long process of determining if gender reassignment surgery is the option in the end. In the next few weeks I will walk you through the process of a male becoming a female or a female becoming a male. Some of the details might be pretty graphic and I will include illustrations where I feel they are needed so be warned ahead of time. |
Glad to be back with you this week. Last week was terrible, my computer decided that it was no longer going to make an internet connection and so I was off the net for several days. But my son has been nice enough to me to let me use his until I can get one of my own or until he leaves for school whichever comes first. So keep your fingers crossed for me.
I am interrupting my series I started about gender reassignment surgery to report on an event that I attended last weekend. A wedding reception. Some of you might know the couple, James and Matthew. Some of you might say who? Maybe I should have said Candie Lynn Summers and Matt?
It was a very nice reception and I had a great time! Everyone made me feel so welcome and Jimmy introduced me to everyone as Miss Leeza from WVA’sQueerNews and I felt like a celebrity. I needed my crown. The guests feasted on chicken and potatoes and all sorts of salads and vegetables and fruits. There was even a pan of gay pride rocky road brownies made with rainbow marshmallows. The cake was a lovely 2 layers with white icing and rainbow swirls topped with a crystal heart with two intertwined hearts etched into it.
I arrived a little early for the reception and eagerly awaited the happy couple’s arrival. Not to be disappointed when I heard a large cheer coming from outside as they pulled up. I took some pictures of the reception and “borrowed” some of the wedding so that you can see them. Warning ahead of time, yes that is Candie Lynn in boy mode.
As I said before, I saw some friends I already knew and met some new ones who I look forward to getting to know better. I was worried at first because I didn’t know how I would be accepted but my concerns were quickly put at ease when everyone included me right from the start. I had a great time from the beginning right up until I left to go home and Matt and Mike walked me to my car. Thanks guys, what true gentlemen you are. Wish I had been at the wedding and could report to you about the atmosphere there and how it happened but judging by the pictures I have seen, it was a very nice, emotional ceremony with James struggling to say his vows through tears of joy. This day has been a long time coming and they were both overwhelmed by the moment. I’m still a little unsure about who is related to who and how they all fit in the family but I must say that Jacque did a wonderful job of helping the happy couple have a wonderful day. Good job girl! I drove away from the reception feeling like a part of a new family and blessed that I was invited to share in this special day. Many, many happy years together Matt and James! May your future together always be as happy and blessed as it was the day you committed yourselves to each other! God bless you and your wonderful family! Until Next Week, Dear Ones, Love & Many Hugz! Leeza
