Julie's Other Den

Tegan my transition so far - Picture version

2008-01-16T19:52:00.000Z

"Gender Identity: Transform vs Conform"

2007-12-30T15:43:00.000Z

UK: Incitement to Transgender Hatred [PFC call to action]

2007-12-20T15:35:00.000Z

BACKGROUND On 8th October 2007, during the Second Reading of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced that he wanted to hear views, from parliament and from outside organisations, on whether a new offence of incitement to hatred could or should be created to cover hatred against transgender and disabled people. See http://www.pfc.org.uk/pfclists/news-arc/2007q4/msg00025.htm

Since then Press For Change, GIRES and others have met with the Bill team and/or submitted memorandum to the Public Bill Scrutiny Committee which looked at the Bill. See http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmpublic/criminal/memos/ucm39102.htm

So far no Government amendment has been forthcoming. This does not mean that the Government will not bring forward amendments at a later stage but, with Report Stage and Third Reading scheduled for 9th January and Parliament already having risen until 7th January, there is a diminishing likelihood of any movement before the Bill is passed to the Lords for their deliberations. Therefore, Lynne Jones MP has tabled appropriate amendments which you can read at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmbills/015/amend/noa0151218.72-78.html

– they are NC14 –NC16 and NS1-NS2. NC14, NC16 & NS1 are all concerned with creating a new offence of incitement to hatred on transgender grounds, while NC15 and NS2 give powers to the courts to hand down increased sentences for crimes where transgender was an aggravating factor.

The latter was never suggested by Mr. Straw but does seem to go hand in hand with the former. WHAT YOU CAN DO We would like you to contact YOUR MP over the Christmas break. We want you to ask him/her to vote for the three New Clauses and two New Schedules that will finally give trans people some protection from people inciting hatred against them.

When you write, feel free to refer to PFC’s memorandum on the Parliamentary website (link above), but best of all, please do give any personal examples you may have where you have been affected in this area. HOW TO WRITE TO YOUR MP It is unlikely that you will be able to meet with your MP easily at this time of year – they’ll want to celebrate the holiday as well – so you’ll probably find it easier to write to them.

To find out who your MP is and a little about them, you can go to http://www.pfc.org.uk/node/1485 and enter your postcode. You can follow the “Send a message to ...” link to send a message via WriteToThem.com This is sent via a web form so you might want to write your massage in a word processor and then copy it across when you’re happy with the result.

Alternatively, you can send a letter to: [Name of your MP]House of CommonsLondonSW1A 0AA Do bear in mind the Christmas post though. Remember, whatever your preferred method, when writing try to be succinct, clear and always polite.

Regards Tracy DeanVice President, Press For Change

What famous lesbian do you most closely resemble?

2007-12-19T23:02:00.000Z

Seems I resemble K D Lang, hope my ex doesn't see this as she has a crush on K D. :)

What famous lesbian do you most closely resemble? Your Result: K D Lang You're earthy, crunchy, a little dykey and people like you. You're artistic and talented and you are a diehard vegetarian. No meat will ever touch those precious lips of yours!
Katherine Moennig
Rosie O'Donnell
Tammy Lynn Michaels
Melissa Ethridge
Portia Di Rossi
Ellen Degeneres
Jackie Warner
What famous lesbian do you most closely resemble? Make a Quiz

Walking Around In Women's Underwear

2007-12-19T18:33:00.000Z

I was going to post this on the forum as it is seasonal but was beaten to it..........Thanks T :D

Settling in

2007-12-18T15:28:00.000Z

OK so with the imminent demise of Yahoo 360 I have decided to find an alternative and have settled for here.

So far I have added all my 360 stuff and in future will be adding here.

I hope that my friends from 360 find another space to continue their blogs too and I can visit them there. Wasn't there that long but I made friends with some wonderful girls and I hope many find their way here, they are all special to me.

Now I will get on and familiarise myself with things here.

Transgender Remembrance Day

2007-12-18T13:20:00.000Z

I Am Transgender

by Robbi Cohn

I am the person who is unemployable merely because of my gender identity.

I am the person who lives within a heartbeat of homelessness.

I am the person who might be reduced to prostitution to survive.

I am the person most likely to commit suicide because I have no way to survive.

I am the person living with the despair of hopelessness.

I am the person my family has abandoned and forgotten.

I am the person my church tells me is damned.

I am the person the military has asked me to “don’t ask, don’t tell”.

I am the person right-wingers think will molest women and children in bathrooms.

I am the person who has the same values as other human beings.

I am the person Barney Frank has asked to wait my turn.

I am the person my political party wishes would just go away.

I am the person who has spent countless hours educating in vain.

I am the person who my political party has claimed still needs to educate.

I am the person my community has asked to not make waves.

I am the person who advocates for equal opportunity.

I am the person who believes in diversity.

I am the person who believes people should be judged by what they do, not how they look.

I am the person who wants to love and be loved.

I am the person my one-time friends and acquaintances often shun.

I am the person who works for equality for all marginalized human beings.

I am the person who abides by the principles of Martin Luther King, Jr.

I am the person who trusts in the wisdom of Mahatma Gandhi.

I am the person who finds solace in the love of the Great Spirit.

I am the person who was created to be free.

I am the person who was endowed by my creator to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

I am the person whose potential should remain unlimited, yet has been marginalized.

I am the person society has disenfranchised.

I am the person who must work in stealth, lest I be fired.

I am the person who has erected a wall around myself so as to keep my reality secret.

I am the person other minorities have disinherited.I am the person elites within my community tend to disparage.

I am the person who lives in your neighborhood.

I am the person who attends your church.I am the person who works side by side with you wherever I am employed, if I am employed.

I am your brother, sister, father or mother.

I am transgender.

No Dumb Questions (2001) Young Nieces of Transwoman

2007-12-18T13:16:00.001Z

Returning to work concerns..........

2007-12-18T13:14:00.001Z

Thank you

2007-12-18T13:11:00.000Z

This was from September

Been a good day so far, even though I’m still at work as I type this and intend doing very little for the time I am here.

Just want to thank all those who sent me Birthday wishes (you know who you are), they mean a lot to me and I am proud having you as sisters. Hope you all have a great weekend, I meanwhile am off work for the next 2 weeks after today and planning on doing virtually nothing.

Transwoman Says She Was Asked to Leave Church Position

2007-12-18T13:09:00.001Z

Found this on You Tube and thought you might be interested in seeing it too although some Stateside probably have already.

Lucy Teen Transsexual (The Conclusion)

2007-12-18T13:04:00.000Z

A series here starting on Sunday (Tonight) and it has more about Lucy:- Teen Transsexual, this particular programme is due to be aired near the end of September

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/news/articles/2005-5297.html

BBC3 has commissioned eight documentaries for its third Body Image season, including the story of an 18-year-old who travels to Thailand to undergo a sex-change. BBC3 will follow up last season's Lucy: Teen Transsexual with Lucy: Teen Transsexual in Thailand , which continues the story of 18-year-old Lucy Parker (formerly Richard) as she travels to Thailand to undergo irreversible surgery to become a woman.

Lucy has already undergone two years of hormone treatment, psychological analysis and surgery, making her one of Britain's youngest transsexuals. The cameras will follow her throughout her surgery in Thailand and painful recovery. It is one of three documentaries in the season made by UK production company Endemol's Brighter Pictures.

Brighter Pictures has also made Danny: My Secret Female Body (working title), which follows 22-year-old Katie who has lived as Danny for the past four years. The documentary follows her as she rids herself of her breasts to become a man. In the UK, there are around 15,000 transsexuals who believe they are trapped in the wrong body. Around a third of them have surgery to change their bodies to be the opposite sex.

The average age for this surgery is thought to be 29, but an exceptional few, such as Lucy and Katie, choose to modify their bodies at a very young age. Also in the line-up is BBC's in-house production I'm a Boy Anorexic which follows three boys as they recover from eating disorders at clinic Rhodes Farm and shows what happens as they return to the outside world after treatment finishes. The BBC has commissioned eight hour-long documentaries for the Body Image season, which begins on the 2nd September on BBC3. Lucy: Teen Transsexual in Thailand is scheduled to be shown at the end of September

My Mum/Mom called me he tonight

2007-12-18T12:59:00.000Z

Transgender radio debate

2007-12-18T12:46:00.000Z

A show on KQED Public Radio (San Francisco) that examines the ongoing debate over research into transgender identity hosted by Michael KrasnyDuration about 52 minutes

http://kqed02.streamguys.us/anon.kqed/radio/forum/2007/08/2007-08-22b-forum.mp3

Tummy fat 'can grow new breasts'

2007-12-18T12:34:00.000Z

Tummy fat 'can grow new breasts'

Fat from the tummy or bottom could be used to grow new breasts in a treatment which could be carried out in an hour - or a lunch break.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6283444.stm

Scientists say they can create a fat mixture with concentrated stem cells, which, when injected into the breast, apparently encourages tissue to grow.

The therapy, detailed in Chemistry and Industry Magazine, could help cancer patients who have had mastectomies.

And if licensed, it may rival silicone for those seeking bigger breasts.

Using fat from the patient's own body to rebuild other areas is not a novel idea, but such reconstructions often fail as the fat is simply reabsorbed.

However using fat-derived stem cells appears to overcome this problem, according to the company behind the procedure, Cytori Therapeutics.

Scientists say they are not sure quite how it works, but suspect that the stem cells emit signals that encourage blood vessels to grow and nurture new tissue.

Rajiv Grover of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (Baaps) said he saw the research as a "positive development for medical science", but doubted whether it would provide any immediate results in cosmetic surgery.

"We need to find out how these cells work once they are in the breast before any great claims can be made."

Antonia Dean, a clinical nurse specialist at Breast Cancer Care also said more work needed to be done - "both in terms of how long the new breast really lasts for, but most importantly the safety implications for women who have had tumours."

Filling out

The procedure - dubbed Celution - could be carried out in an hour.

Fat from the either the stomach, bottom or thigh can be taken out with a standard liposuction procedure, and the stem cells then extracted.

These cells are placed into a cartridge ready for injection one hour later. The company says the breasts will then fill out over the course of six months.

The largest trial so far has involved 19 women in Japan. All of them had had at least partial mastectomies and all responded well to the treatment, with no major side-effects.

Clinical trials are continuing, and the company hopes to introduce the therapy to Europe in early 2008.

It is expensive - costing a few thousand pounds per cartridge, but this is not dissimilar to the price of conventional surgery.

In the UK, about 45,000 people are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. Of these about 30% will have mastectomies.

Just a thought after I read this and way too early but if this procedure is a success this could be a good alternative to implants and something some of the girls might look closely at.

Well done Oxfam

2007-12-18T12:25:00.000Z

A charity/thrift store here in the UK have come up with a wonderful idea, wouldn't it be good if this was rolled out in their other stores too. Not only here in the UK but in other countries too so that the girls who have issues shopping for themselves can do so knowing they will not be judged.

Women's wear sale 'just for men' A charity shop in Leeds is hosting evening shopping sessions exclusively for cross-dressing men. The Oxfam store renames itself "Oxtran" when it stocks up on oversized women's wear and open its doors to transsexuals and transvestites once a month.

Sally Stone, who runs the store in the city centre, said: "We felt that there was definitely a gap in the market." The move has been welcomed by Leeds drag queens Daisy du Pont and Anna Glypta.

Ms Stone said: "Oxfam's always looking for new ways to raise funds for the work that we do and we felt that there was definitely a gap in the market. "So we are opening our doors for one night each month to allow an uncatered-for group of people to come to shop in an uninhibited environment.

"We have quite a lot of oversized things and you'll find in all Oxfam shops that they don't sell very well so those things will be shipped to our central warehouse, sorted out and sent to us specially for these events." Ms du Pont, who picked out a see-through black blouse and a gold dress, said: "I think it's fantastic. It's something that Leeds has been crying out for. "The transgender community had nowhere to go and it's great to shop with staff who understand what they are looking for."

Ms Glypta said: "Drag queens like us don't mind going out and buying things and saying it's for ourselves. "But an awful lot of guys out there can't actually admit that they are buying something that is actually for them, so they can't try things on, they end up taking it home and then bringing it back so it just gets complicated. "To have somewhere like this where they can go and it's all 'trans-aware' is fabulous."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/6931044.stm

MSN Live Space

2007-12-18T12:21:00.000Z

Don't know if any of you girls are running a Live Space page as well as another blog page as I do but not long ago I went there to check only to find it was somehow reading in Turkish.

I have no idea how it had happened but I could not navigate as I know no Turkish.......not even for Kebab or Fish and Chips.

I did some searching and found the following link so if you have a Live Space page and this should happen to you it might help. Simply go to near the bottom of the page and click on the English UK/US link and it clears the problem (did for me at least)

http://help.uk.msn.com/windowslivespaces/userguide/article.aspx?cp-documentid...

Ooops !!!!!!!!!

2007-12-18T12:15:00.000Z

So doing my normal Saturday thing today and in the café for breakfast before going to do grocery shopping, I was wearing drabs off course, well 'visibly' wearing drabs. I have been wearing a bra virtually 24/7 for close on 2 years now, dressed as Julie I’m happy being a 36/38C but in drabs the cups are lightly padded out most of the time but unless someone was paying very close attention virtually unnoticeable.

Outside briefly 2 female friends I used to work alongside doing Community stuff were passing so stopped to chat about things they are still involved in, bringing me up to date if you like. Then out of the blue one of the friends asks……….”Are you growing breasts?”

Strangely enough the question didn’t throw me or anything, without a pause I looked her straight in the eye, smiled and said “yes” and the smile seemed to have did the trick as there was no follow up question.

Clearly today I hadn’t reduced my bra padding sufficiently enough but hey who cares.

The meet

2007-12-18T11:58:00.000Z

This I originaly posted on the 22nd July

I have been on the CD forums for quite a while now and today I made another milestone and went to meet one of the girls who was heading home after being in London over the weekend.
I went as he as I am not brave to venture out as Julie but my friend was there in her femme persona along with the friends she had been staying with for the weekend and it was nice seeing them too.

I did wear some femme jeans though with a tee shirt with CD across the left breast bought from an American site selling CD products, I as always was wearing a bra under the tee shirt but only slightly padded out. Nails were cut short as I have real problems growing them but I was wearing some clear varnish on them.

Clothes

2007-12-18T11:54:00.001Z

Is it just me or does the amount of female clothes we have increase without us actually realising it. We buy an item of clothing (or as in most cases more than 1 item) we wear it, wash it, hang it or put it into a drawer and sort of forget about it and we go and buy something else.

This is how it seems in my case anyway and I’m always finding something tucked away I have forgotten about and having a GG friend who is always getting me things too the situation is even worse. My Julie wardrobe far exceeds the wardrobe of him and I don’t remember the last thing bought for him (other than Christmas pressies)

A couple of make up tip videos

2007-12-18T11:50:00.000Z

I posted this link on the forum as it has numerous short videos giving make up tips and thought I’d share it with a wider audience, there’s bound to be something useful there for us girls who are not so good at putting the slap on.

http://www.videojug.com/tag/make-up

There's also this site that has many tips to read over............

http://cincyfilms.com/makeup.html

Joe gets female

2007-12-18T11:46:00.001Z

Damned cat

2007-12-18T11:39:00.000Z

Woken up at about 3.30am this morning by a banging noise and found that the cat had decided to do some jumping and dislodge a pile of my femme clothes onto the floor, doing so it caused a domino effect and a cup of tea I’d taken to the bedroom last night got knocked over and the dregs landed on a lovely new jumper my GG friend gave me on Sunday. Having sorted the fallen clothes I then tried some damage control on the jumper before going back to bed and will check the progress when I get home from work, I don’t hold up much hope though.

Also tonight I will move some of my ex’s stuff so I have at least two shelves in her wardrobe in the spare room, I will then use them to store the clothes I had to pick up off the floor.

A quiet Sunday

2007-12-18T11:37:00.001Z

A quiet Sunday afternoon all to myself, my lad has left for home so the rest of the afternoon and evening is mine that is off course if my GG friend doesn’t call. Even that isn’t too much of a disaster as she knows of my dressing so when I go there I can still be Julie.

Been going through my clothes and trying to get them into some sort of order now that I have extra space seeing that I live here alone now and have 27 skirts and dresses hanging up in the spare room, really don’t see how my lad didn’t notice them last weekend when he slept in that room he certainly knows his mother doesn’t wear those type of clothes.

So as I said previously !!!!!

2007-12-18T11:30:00.000Z

So as I said previously about dressing shouldn’t be a solitary thing which it was for me for some period of time and probably is still so for many crossdressers out there…………………………………

If anyone reading this are in the situation where your dressing is a solitary practice I would urge you to register at a support forum like the Crossdresser Club (there are more out there), doing so over time will besides stopping you feeling so alone will make you many good friends albeit cyber friends.

That said also as time goes by you might even meet some of these people when your confidence grows enough to do so, wouldn’t that be a blast. A good support forum will also not try to push you into doing things at a quicker pace than you are ready for, this is something I believe in strongly and will always insist that someone will progress at their own pace and attempts at pushing them will have the opposite effect and push them back into their shell.

And there’s more……………………….
Something I am lucky in is that there are two close friends who know about Julie and are OK seeing me dressed, one is female and the other male. It is good every now and again to visit them where I can be me with someone in the flesh so to speak rather than being at home alone.

2007-12-18T11:20:00.000Z

Seeing as Yahoo 360 is soon to be no more I am now here and hope to be so with out anymore moving, for now I am migrating stuff here so it is not lost.

I have been crossdressing to some degree for more years than I care to remember but around 3 years ago a voice in my head told me this isn’t a solitary thing I was doing at home alone, there were more like me out in the big wide world.

To this aim I found myself searching the www thingy and at first my efforts were futile in that all I seemed to find were smut sites where guys purporting to be crossdressers had very little on (if anything) with their bits on display, this was not how I perceive crossdressing should be so I continued my search over a period of time.

One day I found a forum where people were discussing crossdressing in a way I could relate to and there was no sign of the smut, I spent ages that day reading stories that were sad, funny and inspiring and I began to feel not so alone. That said I did not register at that site on that day, It was something like 3 months later that I plucked up the courage to register and press that submit button and it was another week or two before I could post some introduction to introduce myself. The forum was somewhere I became attached to and where I learnt quite a bit but more importantly I became forum savvy about how some people act when there.

Time moved on and I began to feel I wanted to find a forum that was more international in regard to its membership, where I was the majority of members were UK based and I wanted to hear about crossdressers across the globe so I began searching again.

Quickly I found another forum and this time I registered straight away unlike that first time, I had at least become more confident with myself and my dressing. Over time I made many friends at this forum and till this day some are still very special friends to me, I would go as far to say these people are part of my extended cyber family and I love them all dearly (those of you reading this know who you are). Eventually I was spending a vast amount of time on this forum and if I wasn’t posting I was talking to friends on either Yahoo Chat or MSN and quite often lost complete track of time, this is why even now I am getting by on 5 hours sleep a night.

One day I was asked to be a Moderator at the forum, a friend who was an Administrator for reasons best known to her thought that I would be OK in doing the job. I really wasn’t sure about this as it was some responsibility from just being a forum member to being someone who had the power to edit someone’s post if it broke the forum rules or delete it all together. My friend persisted and before I knew it I became a Moderator and a whole new part of the forum opened up to me, I spent some time getting acquainted with the workings as I wanted to get everything right. I did though much quicker than I thought get the hang of things and did what I had to do, I also though made sure it didn’t get in the way of my normal enjoyment on the forum.

Many a happy day past but some internal issues arose and one day after a long chat with my friend who’d asked me to be a Moderator we decided that we had come as far as we could with this forum and it was time to move on. We decided in the interim until we could set up another forum to get a Yahoo forum up and running, this is still in use and used by us as a back up. Having left the forum late one night and no chance of returning we made use of the Yahoo forum where we were joined by a number of friends.

Over a period of time there was talk of getting another forum together and with the help of another friend who knew the where for all in setting a functional forum up I and many friends can be found at the Crossdresser Club. I am now an Administrator there and do my best with others to keep it the friendly place it is intended to be without the smut.