Don't know how many of you are fans of Dan Savage, the sex advice columnist and gay rights activist, but his new sex-and-relationship-advice show on MTV, "Savage U," is one of my favorites. In episode 5, he sits down with and answers a question from Alexis, a transgender college student in Chicago. The segment begins at the 16 minute mark.

http://www.mtv.com/videos/savage-u-episode-5/1684029/playlis...

Here's another, very serious but somewhat witty, take on the subject:

Are Straight People Born That Way?

I just saw this and have to repost it! Big brother sticks up for little brother picking out a "girly" present.

[Click Here For Story]

I want to wish everyone the happiest of holidays, whether you celebrate today, or another day, or every day, whether you're religious, or secular, observant, or not! And, best wishes for peace, equality, health, wealth, and happiness in the New Year!

You ever look in the mirror and hate what you see? Do you feel hopeless, like you'll never have a bit of glamour or femininity in your own presentation?

Well, despair not! Or, misery loves company. Or, something. For I have found something that should make every person in that category find some hope.

This photo gallery.

I just noticed, I've been a member here for six years, 26 weeks. That's six and a half years!

It's true, I haven't been crowing about my milestones here, so why this one? I'm not sure, really. Maybe its just because I'm amazed how long I've been hanging around? Maybe I'm just looking for a pat on the back. Who knows? I've been in a crummy mood lately, so maybe this is just me, reaching out somehow.

Our very own author, Cyclist, blogged the other day about a Very Important Programme* on the subject of intersex births that aired on the BBC.

This article strikes me as useful:

25 Things You Should Know About Self-Publishing.

Too late to be useful for anything, but just FYI:

http://www.genderodyssey.org/

"Join Us For a Thoughtful Exploration of Gender"

Interesting, and somewhat sympathetic, article in the NY Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/31/movies/new-roles-for-trans...

Discuss.

The annual Bulwer-Lytton prizes have been announced!

This year's worst, and hence, truly awesome winning sentence is:

Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.

Let us all celebrate!

Click HERE for the full list of prize winners and names.

Hi. I don't know if anyone feels like chatting, but with Bob's passing, the chatroom here is no longer accessible. It was his server that provided the access. If anyone would like to chat about that, or anything else, Amber-Willow has put up her own IRC chatroom, at least for temporary use.

I loves me some Sherman Alexie:

There's fodder for a story here, somewhere! This news item first appeared last week, but I just tripped over it while poking around a news consolidation site.

BERLIN | Wed May 4, 2011 11:20am EDT
(Reuters) - A mayor in Germany helped rescue a man who became trapped in a women's prison after mistaking it for a shortcut to a nearby park, police in the northern city of Hildesheim said on Wednesday.

Hildesheim Mayor Henning Blum heard the man's cries for help while passing by the prison near the city center and notified police who came and freed the 24-year-old.

The man told police he was strolling through town and did not immediately notice he had walked into a prison. By the time it dawned on him where he was, the gate to the jail had already closed, locking him inside.

Police said they are investigating why the prison gate was open, enabling the man to wander in.

Remains of a man belonging to a late-neolithic, early-copper-age community outside what is now Prague were unearthed showing distinct signs of status as a "third gender."

Some of the fine details are a bit muddled in the press reports, which are apparently just copying each other and not going back to the source for clarification, but there is no question as to the main story.

Looking up at the Brooklyn sky, and what do I see? Fighter jets flying overhead. Not very high or fast, either. Loud things. Nothing on the news yet.

Probably nothing happening, but remember, folks! You read it here first.

Really, really bad writing can be hilarious. Unintentionally hilarious, but hilarious nonetheless.

Some incredibly cruel person, who obviously works in publishing, has had the bad judgement to violate the trust placed in them by their employers and the authors who submit their work, and post selected groaners for the whole world to see.

So, of course, I had to repost it: http://sichumor.tumblr.com/

Just poking around the 'nets and I tripped over something I'd like to share. I've been waaaaay guilty of this myself, so I'm not posting it to shame anyone, just for the lulz (as the kids say). (Disclaimer: stolen wholesale from Wikipedia. No original content beyond this point. Formatting automagically screwed up by cut-n-paste. See the original in Wikipedia if you want to see the footnotes.)

Skitt's Law:

Authors of transgender fiction have written many stories on the theme of the male who became a female fashion model. What is it they say about "truth is stranger than fiction?" A young Serbian-Australian man is now the hottest thing on the female fashion runways of London and Paris. His* story trumps many of the fictional ones I've enjoyed reading here.

Here is an interview by an Australian television station with Andrej Pejic, his family, peers, and others in the fashion world.

http://au.tv.yahoo.com/sunday-night/video/-/watch/24174190/

____________________

A few of us are over in the chatroom, shooting the breeze. If you enjoy chatting with fellow transsexuals, crossdressers, and fans of TG fiction, come on over! We don't role-play in the room, although there's a separate role-play room you can open/join. Fetishists and chasers are not welcome in the Main Room, unless you seriously behave yourselves.

It seems a number of celebrants at the New York 2011 Mustache and Beard Fest had flexible ideas about gender presentation.

Frankly, I find this presentation quite heart-warming. I'm starting to believe that gentle humor regarding gender presentation is perhaps an encouraging social trend. Anything that breaks the rigid binary model is a good thing.

Saturday Night Live had one of their send-up fake ads this weekend that was particularly aimed at making fun of transsexuals. IMHO, it was transphobic, trivializing and mocking. GLAAD is calling for an angry response from the LGBT community. Considering GLAAD is rarely "there" on trans issues, this is a bit of an earthquake.

Here's a link to start with, with links to other links, including embedded video:

http://www.towleroad.com/2011/01/estromaxx.html

Saturday Night Live is a production of NBC Universal, which is in the process of merging with Comcast.

The other night, the ABC program, "Primetime: What Would You Do?" had a segment regarding gender stereotyping. In the segment, the producers sent actors playing a father and a young son into a toy store, where the boy is to choose a Barbie doll and the father is to argue with him. The object was to see what the reactions would be of bystanders in the store. The exercise was then escalated with a third actor playing a hostile man berating the "father." A third iteration involved boys wearing dresses in the store.

I'm not sure what I can say about this. The nature v. nurture argument pops up in many areas of discussion of human behavior and identity. Following is an example of personal anecdotes (and photos) of gay men and women and their earliest evidence of being... different.

Presented without further comment:

http://borngaybornthisway.blogspot.com/

Don't know if anyone has been following the It Gets Better Project (www.itgetsbetter.org), but it's been one awesome YouTube video after another, telling bullied LGBTQ kids (and others) that there is hope for their future lives, that they are valued and will be loved, that the despair, isolation, and bullying of high school is but a temporary hurdle, and not to go and off themselves. Ordinary folks and famous ones, the powerless and the powerful are participating with wonderful supporting videos. They're not all gold, but some of them are outstanding.

There was a commercial New Year's Eve party/event in Brooklyn last night, a big one. Two guys who are event organizers have been having these for several years. Three thousand people in a vacant 45,000 square foot industrial loft, themed as an airline terminal, with lots of people in costume. Airline stewardess seemed to be a popular one.

The TV set in our bedroom died the other night, so I popped out to the local big-box appliance store to grab a new set. Setting it up required rescanning the channel spectrum. I guess I should mention that we don't have cable. Well, along with the other 40-something channels we get, a new one popped up, a noncommercial one that carries and promotes high-quality community access and educational content, most of which is in the 5-minute length category.

I know we have a number of sci-fi and space-flight geeks here. If you are one of them, you might enjoy this 45-minute NASA-produced video of shuttle launch footage previously unseen by the general public:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2VygftZSCs&feature=player_em...

I was reading my favorite sex-advice columnist this morning and his "letter of the day." One commenter posted a reply that some might find a "bit" pretentious. I liked it. I might do a needle-point of that last sentence. I'd have to learn how to do needle-point first, but...

Just saw Scotty's blog posting on dressing up as Lolita. I hope he finds the bits and pieces of outfit he needs to pull it off, and I'll be looking forward to pictures.

Let me turn the topic now to... me, because like a lot of people I either like talking about me, or am so completely insecure that I need to, always with the hope that people will somehow offer me some support and acceptance, and if not love, then at least "like." Self-esteem... some day I should get me some.