Kenneth Cole, a company that sells shoes, clothes, and fashion accessories is featuring Nina Poon (trans woman) as part of their "We All Walk in Different Shoes" ad campaign.
Previously Kenneth Cole has been bold in their advertising by featuring two lesbian moms and their daughter. They have been in the forefront of queer visibility within the context of their advertising.
Thank Kenneth Cole for being LGBT inclusive and call toll free at 1 800 KEN COLE (536-2653).
More about Nina Poon
Born in 1975 in Saigon, Vietnam, the oldest son of traditional Chinese parents, multi faceted media artist Nina Poon immigrated with her family in 1978 to Orlando, Florida at age four.At age five she began showing prodigious talent with her childishly animated, Disney inspired drawings. It was during this initial stage of childhood that Nina first remembers identifying as female and experiencing viscerally, the knowledge that she was assigned to the wrong gender. Nina’s authentic, innate femininity made her the target of frequent abuse at the hands of her father. Alienated as a child by both her family and her peers, Nina immersed herself in her sketchbook and looked to fashion icons like Coco Chanel, with whom she shares a birthday, for inspiration.
On the basis of her abilities as an illustrator, Nina gained entry into Miami’s International Fine Arts College and at seventeen, left home to fulfill her dream of becoming a fashion designer.
While at college, Nina entered into the South Beach club scene and began performing with drag impresario Kevin Aviance. During the day she went on castings which led to an appearance on an international commercial for H&M with Marcus Schenkenberg and time on the runway for Hugo Boss’ 1994 Spring Collection. Nina soon became a regular on the Miami club circuit, where she befriended many local celebrities, among them Gianni Versace and Madonna, whose brother Christopher Ciccone cast and directed her in the Lonnie Gordon video IF YOU REALLY LOVE ME.
Nina moved to New York in the summer of 1994 and expanded her social network to include party promoters Richie Rich and Michael Alig. It was at this time that she caught the eye of Lady Miss Kier, who cast her in the Deee-Lite video PICNIC IN THE SUMMERTIME.
In New York, Nina found her true element. Despite having lived as a woman for the majority of her life, she completed her full surgical transition. She became a muse to designers Thuy Pham of United Bamboo and Jack McCollough of Proenza Schouler, both whom she briefly lived. While living with McCollough, Nina decided to try her hand at makeup, as a natural extension of her interest in fashion illustration. After assisting makeup artist Tracy Murphy during New York fashion week in 2000, Nina began honing her skills for the legendary Patricia Field at her signature Manhattan boutique, which led work on music videos, celebrity appearances and a position as key makeup artist for the HBO short film BETTY LA FLACA, winner of the 2006 Latin Film Festival Best Short Film.
Nina currently lives with her boyfriend Robert Jason, an Emmy award winning producer and filmmaker. Nina appears in Jason’s forthcoming docu-series on the lives of transsexual women in New York entitled BEING T. In addition to making appearances on the Fuse Network’s PANCE OFF DANCE OFF and Style Network’s SPLIT ENDS, Nina has been cast in her first motion picture speaking role in director Dito Montiel’s FIGHTING starring Terrence Howard and Channing Tatum. While there is an ongoing interest by casting agents in Nina, she also continues to enjoy her work as a makeup artist, fashion illustrator and has recently added photo retouching to her list of talents.
The Real World Brooklyn Cast Gets Transgendered
- Courtesy of Vevmo
The cast of The Real World Brooklyn looks to differentiate itself from the previous twenty seasons on MTV by having the first transgender cast member.
The cast's head shot compilation was posted on Vevmo and combined with my sources indicate the naming of the cast is as follows - starting clockwise from the top left.
- Kate - formerly Chris
- Sarah
- Baya Voce
- Devyn Simone
- Chet Cannon
- JD Ordonez
- Ryan Conklin
- Scott Herman
This would be the first time a transgender cast member would be on The Real World and hints to why for the first time filming starts with eight instead of the usual seven cast members.
The reason I am told there are eight cast members to start with is because Kate may be leaving for the transgender surgery in Taiwan during filming and then return post-op - similar to another MTV reality series True Life.
Other interesting highlights of this cast include:
- Devyn was the 2005 Miss American Teen National Pageant winner and is looking to be a singer.
- JD is a dolphin trainer from Miami and had reportedly dated CNN news anchorAnderson Cooper according to the Gawker.
- Chet is both a virgin and a mormon so the rest of the cast have taken it upon themselves to help him lose his virginity when they go out, which is generally in Manhattan since the Red Hook area has given the cold shoulder to the cast.
I love this movie!
Of course I cried.
Watch the preview above.
By the way Andrea James and Calpernia Addams are the couple in the background.
Watch the whole movie at this link.
Charlotte Goiar.
HBS International Founder.
Licensed Human Rights Investigator.
Member of the Citizens Commission
on Human Rights International.
SHB Act Up Task Force.
HBS International Activist.
SHB Europe Activist.
The 4 male to female transsexuals in the list are Rebecca Heineman, author of Bard’s Tale III: Thief of Fate and Dragon Wars, Audrey Tang, known for the Pugs Perl 6 compiler, Sophie Wilson, designer of the instruction set for the Acorn RISC Machine, and Danielle Bunten Berry, known for the M.U.L.E. multiplayer video game written in 1983.
Special Note to Those Thinking About a Sex Change, by Danielle Berry
Compiled from a number of emails I sent in response to requests for input from those considering their own change.
Don't do it! That's my advice. This is the most awful, most expensive, most painful, most disruptive thing you could ever do. Don't do it unless there is no other alternative. You may think your life is tough but unless it's a choice between suicide and a sex-change it will only get worse. And the costs keep coming. You lose control over most aspects of your life, become a second class citizen and all so you can wear women's clothes and feel cuter than you do now. Don't do it is all I've got to say.
That's advice I wish someone had given me. I had the sex change, I "pass" fine, my career is good but you can't imagine the number of times I've wished I could go back and see if there was another way. Despite following the rules and being as honest as I could with the medical folks at each stage, nobody stopped me and said "Are you honest to God absolutely sure this is the ONLY path for you?!" To the contrary, the voices were all cheerfully supportive of my decision. I was fortunate that the web didn't exist then - there are too damn many cheerleaders ready to reassure themselves of their own decision by parading their "successful" surgeries and encouraging others.
I can speak the transgender party line that I was a female trapped in a male body and I remember feeling this way since I was 4. But, it's never that easy if you look at it sincerely and without preconception. There's little question that a mid-life crisis, a divorce and a cancer scare were involved in at least the timing of my sex-change decision. To be completely honest at this point (3 yrs post-op) is not easy, however, I'm not sure I would do it again. I'm now concerned that much of what I took as a gender dysfunction might have been nothing more than a neurotic sexual obsession. I was a cross-dresser for all of my sexual life and had always fantasized going fem as an ultimate turn-on. Ironically, when I began hormone treatment my libido went away. However, I mistook that relief from sexual obsession for validation of my gender change. Then in the final bit of irony, after surgery my new genitals were non-orgasmic (like 80% of my TG sisters).
So, needless to say, my life as a woman is not an ultimate turn-on. And what did it all cost? Over $30,000 and the loss of most of my relationships to family and friends. And the costs don't end. Every relationship I make now and in the future has to come to terms with the sex-change. And I'm not the only one who suffers. I hate the impact this will have on my kids and their future.
Anyway, I'm making it sound awful and it's not. There are some perks but the important things like being comfortable with myself and having a true love in my life don't seem like they were contingent on the change. Being my "real self" could have included having a penis and including more femininity in whatever forms made sense. I didn't know that until too late and now I have to make the best of the life I've stumbled into. I just wish I would have tried more options before I jumped off the precipice. I miss my easy access to my kids (unlike many TS's I didn't completely lose access to them though), I miss my family and old friends (I know they "shouldn't" have abandoned me but lots of folks aren't as open minded as they "should" be ... I still miss them) and finally, I hate the disconnect with my past (there's just no way to integrate the two unrelated lives). There's any number of ways to express your gender and sexuality and the only one I tried was the big one. I'll never know if I could have found a compromise that might have worked a lot better than the "one size fits all" sex-change. Please, check it out yourself before you do likewise.
Class surprises lesbian teacher on wedding day
Saturday, October 11, 2008
A group of San Francisco first-graders took an unusual field trip to City Hall on Friday to toss rose petals on their just-married lesbian teacher - putting the public school children at the center of a fierce election battle over the fate of same-sex marriage.
The 18 Creative Arts Charter School students took a Muni bus and walked a block at noon to toss rose petals and blow bubbles on their just-married teacher Erin Carder and her wife Kerri McCoy, giggling and squealing as they mobbed their teacher with hugs.
Mayor Gavin Newsom, a friend of a friend, officiated.
A parent came up with the idea for the field trip - a surprise for the teacher on her wedding day.
"She's such a dedicated teacher," said the school's interim director Liz Jaroslow.
But there was a question of justifying the field trip academically. Jaroflow decided she could.
"It really is what we call a teachable moment," Jaroflow said, noting the historic significance of same-sex marriage and related civil rights issues. "I think I'm well within the parameters."
Nonetheless, the excursion offers Proposition 8 proponents fresh ammunition for their efforts to outlaw gay marriage in California, offering a real-life incident that echoes their recent television and radio ads.
"It's just utterly unreasonable that a public school field trip would be to a same-sex wedding," said Chip White, press secretary for the Yes on 8 campaign. "This is overt indoctrination of children who are too young to have an understanding of its purpose."
The trip illustrates the message promoted by the campaign in recent days, namely that unless Prop. 8 passes on Nov. 4, children will learn about same-sex marriage in school.
"It shows that not only can it happen, but it has already happened," White said.
California Education Code permits school districts to offer comprehensive sex education, but if they do, they have to "teach respect for marriage and committed relationships."
Parents can excuse their child from all or part of the instruction.
On Friday, McCoy and Carder, both in white, held hands on Newsom's office balcony overlooking the rotunda and recited their vows.
"With this ring, I thee wed!" Carder said, shouting the last word for emphasis.
After traditional photos, the two walked out City Hall's main doors where the students were lined up down the steps with bags of pink rose petals and bottles of bubbles hanging from their necks. McCoy, a conferences services coordinator, was in on the surprise and beamed as the children swarmed around Carder.
The two said they have participated in the campaign against Proposition 8 and planned to travel around San Francisco on Friday afternoon in a motorized trolley car with "Just Married" and "Vote No on 8" banners.
The two met on a dance floor two years ago.
"This is one girl I can honestly say deserves happiness, and it came in the form of Kerri," said Carder's friend Dani Starelli.
Creative Arts administrators and parents acknowledged that the field trip might be controversial, but they didn't see the big deal. Same-sex marriage is legal, they noted.
"How many days in school are they going to remember?" asked parent Marc Lipsett. "This is a day they'll definitely remember."
Carder's students said they were happy to see their new teacher married.
"She's a really nice teacher. She's the best," said 6-year-old Chava Novogrodsky-Godt, wearing a "No on 8" button on her shirt. "I want her to have a good wedding."
Chava's mothers said they are getting married in two weeks.
The students' parents are planning to make a video with the children describing what marriage is to them.
Marriage, 6-year-old Nolan Alexander said Friday, is "people falling in love."
It means, he added, "You stay with someone the rest of your life."
As is the case with all field trips, parents had to give their permission and could choose to opt out of the trip. Two families did. Those children spent the duration of the 90-minute field trip back at school with another first-grade class, the interim director said.
"As far as I'm concerned, it's not controversial for me," Jaroflow said. "It's certainly an issue I would be willing to put my job on the line for."
E-mail Jill Tucker at jtucker@sfchronicle.com.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/11/MNFG13F1VG.DTL
Take Pride In 20 Years: Nashville Pride 2008
from Nashvillest by Morgan Levy
This weekend, one of Nashville's biggest annual cultural celebrations will be taking place: Nashville Pride 2008. The festivities have already begun, stretching for 10 days leading up to the big celebration this Sunday. This year, appropriately themed "Carnivale" for its 20th anniversary, also marks the first year that the festival will occur on a Sunday, which has caused mixed reviews among usual attendees. The idea was that it would allow more flexibility and travel time for those who work on Friday, but many seem to be running into the opposite side of the problem, getting back to work on Monday. We'll see if this has any impact on this year's numbers - The past three years have averaged over 15,000 attendees. As far as events go, they have mysteriously canceled the Pre-Pride Party in the Park and we're not sure why. In the long run it probably doesn't matter, since there's enough going on to keep everyone busy from tonight through Sunday. We secretly just can't wait to watch the Bush-McCain Challenge in the middle of the festival. Here's what's happening.
THURSDAY
7:30pm at Outloud: Pride Movie Night, free double feature (Another Gay Movie, Sordid Lives).FRIDAY
This is where the Pre-Pride Party In The Park would have gone. Take a break for the night.
SATURDAY
8am at Centennial Park: Rainbow Run In The Park
12pm at Centennial Park: Family Day At Centennial Park
4pm at Play Dance Bar: Riveter Rock Concert
10pm at Belcourt Theatre: Southern King Drag Extravaganza, tickets $10.SUNDAY
12pm-5pm at Centennial Park: Nashville Pride 2008 CarnivalePhoto by inkyhack.
Can I Really Engage My Own Trans Nature?
May 15, 2008
A reply to a private note from the contact form:
You have the trans calling in your soul, deep at the acorn. You know that.
Your question is simple: What the hell can you do about it?
The answer, as you know too, is both simple and insanely hard. You stand in front of the mirror and say the serenity prayer: "God, grant me the strength to change what I can change, the serenity to accept what I cannot change, and the wisdom to know the difference."
Then, everyday for the rest of your life, you work it, saying the same prayer, changing what you can, finding ways to accept what you cannot change, and searching for the wisdom to know what to try next.
You know that no amount of praying is going to turn your body female, no matter how much you want it. It would have happened long ago.
But you should know that now, more than ever before in America, being out as a woman of transgender experience is not only possible, but it is easier and comes with more opportunities than ever.
Yeah. You are never going to be 18, thin and hot again with a body that hasn't fully taken all the hits of male puberty. But you can be a grown up woman.
The challenge for you is to take the steps. One step at a time.
I suspect that there are things and people you value in your life; a family, a career, whatever. Those are things you do not want to lose capriciously, that you have to be smart and prudent about.
But there are steps to take. 1) Find a transpositive therapist and start. 2) Find a tranny group and attend 3) Find a tranny conference and go. The Be-All in Chicago, First Event in Boston, or my home conference, Southern Comfort in Atlanta
I don't know where you live or what your life is like, but there is some way that you can start the exploration you need. And the first part of that exploration is finding someone to whom you can say out loud all the things you have held inside for years. It is only when you can hear what you say, see what you express that you will know what is inside of your heart, inside your head, inside your soul.
One of the hardest parts of starting down the exploration of trans is finding the wisdom to know what expectations you need to release. In the darkness, everything grows twisted, and it takes a long time in the light to straighten out our thinking and feeling, those deep desires and deep fears, what we want and what we need and all the other bits we twisted together. We have to feel our feelings, think through our thoughts and challenge our beliefs to get straight again.
I am absolutely sure that you can find a trans-expression in this world that suits you and your situation, though I don't know what it will be. Take it slow and don't assume you know where you "should" be; like all of life, our destination is always the same, planted in the dust, and it is the journey that makes all the difference, choices and immersion. Lots of transpeople thought they knew they were a this or that, ran to that place, and wonder why it didn't make them happy.
You don't know what will make you happy, though you suspect some magical new life that starts as a young girl might. You don't know that for sure, and you also know that's not going to happen.
But you know that you can't stay this sad, hidden and hurting anymore. That means you need to take the steps, my friend, starting with the basic one, saying out loud "I always wanted to be a girl," and continuing down the long road to find out what kind of mature expression works for you, merging honest and pretty expression with whatever else you value in your life.
One step at a time. Don't jump ahead, because that will only bring fear. You have choices to make everyday, a choice to go ahead, to go back, to stay where you are, or to try a different choice. You will go down dead ends and have failed experiments; all human growth has that, as any teenager will be happy to tell you.
Find a way to make your own art, your own representation of your inner self, and shape that art to become as beautiful and as challenging as you want to be.
But take the step. One step, just one, to saying "This is me, without all the denial and filters, with understanding and grace."
I believe you can free yourself and find a balanced life, you a transperson who is loved and valued in the room.
But I also believe, in the end, that while finding good help is key, in the end, who you are in this moment and the next is up to you.
And you can do it.
Dance the dance. Find a therapist, a group, a conference. Make art and see yourself reflected. The longest journey starts with one step, and can go any way at any time.
And most of all, trust the love and the beauty in your heart.
Callie
