"The Voice Lesson, Take 2" with Kate Bornstein

I lifted this from Kate's blog, because I thought it was funny and showed, a bit of what, we go threw to get our voice right, if we even can. Maybe I should get some Laurie Anderson records.

You can read her blog "Kate Bornstein's Blog for Teens, Freaks and Other Outlaws" by clicking the link.

"What Have you Done Now?" - Within Temptation

I love this song, and video. Watch for the surprise ending!



I tried to buy the song at iTunes, but they don't have it.

Another first for Vickie

It was a pretty exciting day. Linda Bedore and I went to a Senior Center here in Phoenix for a "Cinco de Mayo" party today (I hope I spelled that right.) There was a hundred or so senior citizens of many ethnic backgrounds. There was music and dancing, a lunch, and then a troop of Mexican dancers preformed for us.

What was so exciting and exhilarating was that we was treated just like any other person there. I was even asked to dance several times by this nice older Mexican American (I assume) man in his 70's. I dance horribly, but he kept coming back for more. He did figure out that he could spin me, so I got spun a lot. It was great. I am pretty sure he did not have a clue to my genetic gender. I tried to ask his name, but he did not seem to understand a word I said. I did get his picture.

We have been to this great lesbian bar twice and will probably go again tonight, called the Cash Inn Country . It is nothing like what we have in Nashville. Lots of gorgeous girls and Linda and I were the only trans folks except for a couple there for a short while on Thursday, and one full time gal on Friday, who did not believe in makeup, but was making plans to see Dr. Meltzer, who practices here in Phoenix, for her SRS.

"best kind of therapy"

I received this a few days ago from Callan Williams. I must have sent her an email a while back and she was responding to the signature block in my email. It has the something that Dr. Laura says in her ads on XM Radio.

"I find it is the best kind of therapy is talking to someone who has been there, done that."

You can read her blog at http://callan.wordpress.com/.

On 5/11/07, Callan <transpractice@gmail.com>; wrote:

I find it is the best kind of therapy is talking
to someone who has been there, done that.
Dr. Laura Schlessinger
(God help me, I am quoting her, of all
people, but I love that quote.)

I have a problem with this quote, and not just because Exercise Therapist Schlessenger said it.

There is no doubt that the limits of someone's fears, usually indicated by the limits of their experience, are a key indicator of their value in the therapeutic process. I have often found that when I talk about business and power, therapists blanch. I remember going to my sister's acupuncturist, who fancied himself a therapist, who spent the introductory and hour and a half negating everything I said, then having the arrogance to say that his blank notepad was an achievement; the fewest notes he ever took, a blank slate to start on.

I found him intentionally blanking me.

The best kind of therapy, though, is the therapy that helps you hear and trust your own voice. It is the therapy of encouragement and possibility, not just the therapy of talking to someone, whoever that is.

The best kind of therapy is making art, whatever art means to you, potent symbols of your experience, understanding, belief and vision, that you can share with the world in a way that helps you shape it into a more potent expression. It's not just talking, it is making manifest what is inside of you in a way that makes you visible to the world and to yourself. You can no more see your desires and your essence than you can see the back of your head, so it is only expressing them that makes them visible.

This is the challenge for so many transpeople. We decide that our desires must fit into some box, and we hold tight to that box to stay in the system of desire, and that attempt to hold on, to parrot the phrases we hope work, ends up blocking our own voices.

Problem is that while we are desperately trying to hold on, the one thing we don't want to hear, don't want to face, are people who have tried that gambit and had it fail for them. Crossdressers & gays who hold on to manhood, transsexuals who demand others respect the surgically created "womanhood" that healed them, well, they all don't want to hear from those who have "been there, done that" and found it lacking.
The only thing that can change them is the need and the possibility of hearing their own voice, small & still behind the posturing of shoulda, woulda, coulda.

They need art, and people who can affirm that art.

Or at least, that's the way I see it.

Here is my reply.

From: Vickie Davis <davis.vickie@gmail.com>;
Date: May 12, 2007 7:56 PM
Subject: Re: "best kind of therapy"
To: Callan <transpractice@gmail.com>;

Callan,

I was referring to Dr. Laura Schlessinger of the radio talk show, not Nathan Schlessinger, M.D. She was seen by many, to be quite gay hating, and she pissed off many, with her strict right wing beliefs and Old Testament values. I found she usually gave good advice, but did not like her style, too abrasive for me. I seldom listen to her show, maybe on a long trip in a car, but never at home. I do Air America mostly now.

I understand you point about that quote, but I was coming from support group, point of view. I could not have left the house, in girl mode, with out the Tennessee Vals a bit over three years ago. The Tvals is an independent Nashville CD/TG/TS support group, of which I am on the board now. Meeting them changed my live. Now I can, at 62 go most anyplace in girl mode. I even flew to visit my friend Linda Badore, here in Phoenix, in girl mode, with boy ID. Now that is a thrill, and so was visiting the American Legion fish fry and dance last night. I am sure those old vets had no clue they we dancing with some trannies.

Thanks for your email, I always enjoy your essays. I have my Google Reader set to tell me, when you make an update to you blog. I tell everyone, that I do not understand, why your work is not more popular. I just wish I could write 1/2 as well as you.

Oh, I see that you have updated http://callan.transpractice.com/ site, I am glad you added that picture page. The only picture of you I had ever seen of you was the one on Gwen Smith's site. I see you have a bigger version posted now. Until I found that I had no clue to how you looked.

Thanks again for the email. I am honored by you reply.

Hugs,

Vickie

Trailer - Hedwig and the Angry inch

God, I love that movie. I even took it to work, one time when we had some non-production days, and showed it to the guys. Melissa said I was crazy, because I told them more then I meant to, by doing that. I say they did not figure anything out. Who knows which of us is right?

Here is a terrific blog entry from Renee Reyes.

Here is a terrific blog entry from Renee Reyes. Wow, what a woman. I highlighted the part that impressed me the most.

I got to meet her at last years SCC. I had written her a "fan letter" earlier, telling how shy I as about approaching her the year before. She graciously wrote back and told me she would be glad to meet me and have a picture taken of us together. She did just that.

transgenderism...is not a four-letter word 03-01-07

I recently attended an important business meeting where our conversation sadly veered from matters at hand and became immersed with "transgenderism" due to the shenanigans of a ridiculous talk show.

I quelled my little rebellion by quipping: "Every culture has its trailer-trash. If tomorrow's episode is about mother's who date their daughter's boyfriends, am I to assume every mother in this room is a card-carrying member of that same class?" Everyone quieted down momentarily & recognized the fallacy of their thoughts until another person espoused content from a web site by a recognized tranz-leader who didn't identify with being transgender because they were some sort of super-transsexual. The conversation only got worse & eventually my meeting lay in ruins.

Upon returning home I visited the web site in question & found myself disgusted by both the direct & indirect overtones of its author. I was pissed. The nature of my new company is forcing potential partners to answer the question: "How will customers perceive our involvement and/or endorsement of your enterprise?" That question was once challenging. Now? It's almost impossible to resolve due to the never-ending lack of acceptance of who we are - amongst ourselves.

After surpassing my aggravation, I found myself re-reading sections of reneereyes.com & realized that a layperson could find my own musings equally confusing.

The bottom line?

If ever a culture was totally consumed with being anything except what it is...we're "it".

This revelation caused me to reflect upon earlier years of being "gay". I knew lots of people that hid this fact - many that still do. However, I don't know any that classify themselves into more than a couple of varied forms. Can you imagine how stupid it would sound today if they tried to divide themselves up into gay, kind-of gay, sort-of-gay, certified-gay, gay self-centered, gay-sexual only, etc...and expected the world to properly address their circumstances for each instance?

Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

This...is exactly what we're doing in the transgender community. At almost every turn, you'll find members of our small minority obsessing to differentiate & distance themselves from others. I understand why it happens because I've been guilty myself. After you spend days, months, weeks - even years crossing difficult chasms in your evolution, it's natural to want to proclaim your accomplishments. Since the band rarely stirs for Queer-central, our simplest notion is often to create some fresh accolade of differentiation from our brethren. In that process? We win a battle...and start losing a war.

To be birthed transgendered is to be born in a cage. If & when you find the courage and strength to escape this slavery - you'll subsequently do almost anything to steer clear of attitudes that directly or indirectly reconnect your shackles. This includes separating yourself from others in our community that are not yet as stealthy or healthy.

Is this right?

No - it isn't. I think we'd all agree that just because another gal has better genetics for transition, better financial resources, less facial hair, a smaller frame, a higher IQ, or more confidence...doesn't make her a better woman. Rather, it just makes her appear to be a better woman. Being better is about helping others...not self-serving differentiation. The women most of us admired & emulated never took that latter path.

I'm very proud to be a transgender female. Every single day, I'm forced to deal with the implications of other transgender women's means of expression. It's sometimes thrown in my face & can cost me dearly. At times, I differentiated myself from others in my community based upon either frustration or a need to feel special.

Not anymore...

From this day forward...any person facing gender identity issues that shows enough courage to apply make-up, don a wig & stroll outside the safety of their own home in a dire need to express their alternative persona? I could care less what scale of transsexualism they're subsequently rated. I'm gonna' stand beside you no matter how well or poorly you "pass". I might privately remind you that by now facing a public world, you're now an ambassador to everyone's transgender cause. However, if you walk out that door...I'll remain proud to claim you as my "own". I'd like to challenge all my sisters to do likewise.

Come to think of it...there was once another group of people facing similar troubles in this great land. While our plights are different, the solution remains the same. Our commonalities far exceed our differences: transgendered...join, or die.

Until we all get that?

We're going no place in a hurry. Or as John Paul Jones put it most eloquently: "You can't sink half a ship".

Get it?

Keep the faith...

RR

A Biblical View of Transgenderism

The link below is a sweet sermon about transsexuals and about a transsexual woman of that Jesus Metropolitan Community Church in Indianapolis. Too bad we don't have a church like that one. I would definitely check it out. I have always heard good things about The MCC church ( Metropolitan Community Church.) I read there used to be one here in Nashville, but it burned down. I wish I knew the story behind that fire.

A Biblical View of Transgenderism
What does the Bible have to say about Transgenderism? This sermon maintains that a person's soul is of primary importance to God, and bringing the body into harmony with the soul is pleasing to God.

• Little Girl, Arise!, June 14, 1998

I had a little trouble getting the RealPlayer to play it, but after a crash or two, and the player updating it's self, it played.

Would Jesus Discriminate Billboards.

Her are some intresting Billboards. As pretty much an agnostic, I found the sight fasinating and I even listended to the sermon about Ruth and Naomi, with tears in my eyes.

Click a billboard for complete information.

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Yahoo IM: vickiecd
Email: davis.vickie@gmail.com
http://vickiedavis.blogspot.com/
http://profiles.yahoo.com/vickiecd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FhjgxjAJxU
Website Director of http://tvals.org/

I find it is the best kind of therapy is talking
to someone who has been there, done that.
Dr. Laura Schlessinger
(God help me, I am quoting her, of
all people, but I love that quote.)

If you are not working to integrate your life
you are working to disintegrate it.
Callan Williams

=======================================================

Acrylic Nails

Last Friday I was heading to Nashville for the first time in a long time on a Friday. I was going to get my nails done for the first time at cool Springs Mall, but it was to late, so I pulled into the mall here in Columbia. I knew they had a nail shop and would still be open at 8:00 pm. No one blinked when I signed in and asked for Acrylic nails. They only cost $25 and a $5 tip. Wow, I love them!

Blog coomment: Injectable Hormones

I sent this to Donna Rose a few minutes ago. I had read in her blog that she paid $180 for her EV and I knew where one could get it for less.

Thanks Keegan for reminding me about her blog.

Donna,

I almost went down to the hotel in Nashville, to look for you and Marisa last night.

I wanted to crash the dinner or at least hang out in the lobby and watch for you two, but the person I was with, said she was not a groupie. I guess maybe I am for you and Marisa. (there is a copy of her speech at http://www.ttgpac.com/ her PAC.)

Anyway, one can legally order EV from at least 2 places in the US, for far less then $180.

"Your EV will come in standard rubber topped vials if you get a prescription and order it from a compounding pharmacy. Women's International ( www.womensinternational.com ) and Kronos Pharmacy (www.kronospharmacy.com) are two that many women in the U.S. use." From an email I received from the Crone Yahoo Group.

I know at least one person that gets her EV from The Woman's International, I believe, and that bottle costs her around $35. My doctor is reluctant to give me that prescription, but he gives it to that gal I was referring to, so I guess I need to be more insistent.

I met you at the last SCC after one of your seminars. I was the older gal who said that I arrived late to your seminar in 2005 just in time to see everyone lining up and hugging you, but I did not know why. But I sure could see that they all loved you. In the next year, I read your book. Then went to your 2006 seminar. I knew, then, why everyone lined up for that hug, because I was in that line for that hug. It made my day!

Here is a picture dragged from my blog. One with my wig and another with out. I have been talked out of using that wig, but I love the fullness of it. LOL



Hugs,

Vickie

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Yahoo IM: vickiecd
Email: davis.vickie@gmail.com
http://vickiedavis.blogspot.com/
http://profiles.yahoo.com/vickiecd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FhjgxjAJxU
Website Director of http://tvals.org/

If you are not working to integrate your life
you are working to disintegrate it.
Callan Williams

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