Not Another Aiden

Note: This is not a post on the political or religious aspects of Taglit-Birthright Israel.  It is also not at all endorsed by the programme.  It is a personal post designed to help trans* people decide whether or not the trans aspect of their identity will be a problem on the trip.  All information came [...]

My salon does quite a bit of promoting for Pride.  It’s good for business and I think we only have one straight staffer so it’s kind of a big thing for us.  Which means that today I was manning our booth while wearing Kurt’s ‘Born This Way’ shirt. Apparently having ‘LIKES BOYS’ in giant letters [...]

While I’m working on a couple of more in depth posts I thought I’d go over the search terms I’m apparently fairly high ranked for, but haven’t actually addressed.  Figure if people are going to get here from them I should at least make sure they get information. when you start taking testosterone ftm will [...]

Something I’ve been noticing as I make friends with younger guys: there’s a horrible trend of coming out, passing, and suddenly becoming the world’s biggest pain in the ass. I’ve seen some sweet, polite, well mannered, privilege checking guys turn into people I never want to see, let alone be associated with.  It’s more than [...]

Something not a lot of people know: I have a service dog.  When I was 18 my depression was manifesting in dissociative episodes that were only made worse by medication.  California law regarding assistance animals is amongst the most liberal in the country so I talked to my parents and my therapist and we decided [...]

1)  Do your research.  Find trans-friendly medical professionals that take your insurance. Some internet resources to start with: http://www.lauras-playground.com/gender_therapists.htm http://www.angelfire.com/extreme/transrevolution/phoenixrisingftm/transtherinfo.html http://transmentors.org/resources/clinics.html Find a local trans group to ask Google search using such phrases as “trans-friendly”, “gender specialist”, or “LGBT-friendly”; “therapist”, “mental health counselor”, or “psychiatrist” in your local area. Find out what mental health insurance [...]

Just ask.  Same way you’d ask out any other guy.  Really people, we’re not some sort of magical new species or anything.  Get the pronouns right, respect that we’re men, and you should be fine.  Won’t necessarily get a yes, but at least you won’t make an ass of yourself with the trans stuff.

If you’ve been out for more than a month you’ve probably heard the standard passing tips.  They haven’t changed since I came out and I’m pretty sure they were old even then.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they date back to when the first group of butches figured out that they were actually [...]

I normally don’t answer questions unrelated to gay trans men (or even trans men in general), but this one I felt should probably go up. Yes, there are ways to curb testosterone production in teen cis guys.  However, this isn’t something that should be done without a good reason.  Actually, I don’t think you’ll find [...]

In case anyone’s managed to not notice, the GLBT related hate crime rate is going up in the US.  We’re not the only ones, Muslims have a higher rate and it’s going up faster, but it’s something to be aware of. Different people have different ways of handling their new (or increased) target status after [...]