FAQ’s Answered #12: Who Is Cindy-Mei Winter?

Today in a series of replies to FAQ (frequently asked questions) sent to me by fans (and sometimes not so much), I answer the question:  "Who is Cindy-Mei Winter?" the first main character of the Quantum Series, and a transwoman.

FAQ’s Answered #10: Who Is Marsha In "Dead Beckoning" to Blachart?

Today in a series of replies to FAQ (frequently asked questions) sent to me by fans (and sometimes not so much), I answer the question:  "Who is Marsha in "Dead Beckoning", and what part does she she play in relation to the character of Blachart?"

What Does Being Transgender Bring To My Writing?

Hello! :)

Today I'd like to discuss the question: "What does being transgender bring to my writing?"

It's a question I was asked recently by someone, and so after a little thought, I'm here to answer it.

It's 2019 now, and it's been 19 years since I started transition and 13 years since I had my final surgeries. As a matter of interest, since I woke up after my "big op" on January 10, 2006, I felt completely natural - and above all, whole and complete! As a result, I sometimes have to stop and think to remember what it was like to have grown up and lived a male life.

"Loderunner" - Why Did I Write It?

"Loderunner" is book 4 in my Quantum Series, and I completed the first draft in 2007. The background of the story and why I wrote it is something I've never gone into at length before, so for those of you who are interested, this might be worth your while reading.

New Release: "The Pink Community - The Facts" Second Edition!

New release: "The Pink Community – The Facts" - Second Edition! Back in 2009 when I was in full swing of my human rights advocacy and running two LGBT rights groups (SA GLAAD and ECGLA), I put together an online information resource which mainly consisted of useful quotes and links to articles online.

As an activist who campaigned a lot on social media against bigotry in form of homophobia and transphobia, these links came in handy to post as replies to enraged bigots, rather than typing out lengthy replies each time! Instead, the link would manifest with a reference to a useful scientific or medical article that would invalidate the bigot's viewpoint, and they would be left there, seething, embarrassed, with egg on their faces!

Gradually this list grew until it migrated from a text file I kept on my PC, into a Word document - and then, when I started my blog "Sour Grapes: The Fruit of Ignorance", I dedicated several pages to it there. Later, in about 2012, I migrated it to my official author site, where it still lurks, as a free resource for human rights advocacy. This allowed for page hierarchies rather than just a huge cluster (or clutter!) of pages on a site!

The Enemy Of My Enemy Is Not Necessarily My Friend

Why is it that when people who use a word like 'tranny' to describe transgender people are told, by a transgender person, that the word is derogatory and offensive towards transgender people, they rally and insist that it isn't?

Live Your Dream!

I think we all start off hoping to start changing into that mythical supermodel with the long thin legs, that impossible Barbie waistline and cleavage we always wanted as soon as we embark on Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)... Meanwhile, it doesn't happen for everyone quite the way we hope it will, and certainly not overnight, if at all. I think it's an unrealistic expectation we all have.

Ignorance Is Not A Legitimate 'Point Of View'

The debate around the St Marks "Sex in the City - Is Gay Okay?" discussion held at the church three weeks ago just doesn't seem to want to die. 

You can view the video I took here: https://youtu.be/00-u-tJwh-o

Homophobes continue to post their ignorant remarks  in such a manner as if to show that a) they know what they are talking about and b) they have some kind of hand-written note from "God" to authorize them to hate and to persecute others in its name.

Yes sirree, Port Elizabeth has a "prophet" in its 'burbs - another one who claims to know what "God" said and meant, intent on not letting anyone get on with their lives without being told off for being the "lustful sinners" they are.

In today's episode, let's look at the comment made by a Nigel Wakeford, a regular in the Herald "chirps" column. In my humble opinion, Mr Wakeford is just showing his ignorance. 

Challenges of Life

I believe where it is SAFE to do so, transgender people should be out and proud. And where it isn't safe, they should be proud if not out - and they should still work for equality, dignity and human rights so that they - and the generations that are to come - one day can be out. Nobody cares about people they don't know about, folks. 

When people don't remind folks that they really do exist, the haters, purists and bigots like to believe and pretend that they don't.

Dismantling Fear

Many transsexual people I have encountered over time have chosen to introduce themselves to friends or acquaintances as being more than "just" transsexuals. 

Instead of just being honest about having been biologically male or female, and having changed that, they invent stories about having been born intersex - presumably because in their minds, the audience will somehow view them more sympathetically that way than if they were just honest to begin with.

 

Why can't they just be honest?

 

Well, as it turns out, there may be some very good reasons why they do this.

Founder's Day

On Friday I attended a Founder's Day ceremony at my old high school. It was quite something to be there again. The school was celebrating its 85th year in existence, and I will be attending my 20 years reunion in May.

I'm a bit of a sentimental fool sometimes, and even though I was not very happy during high school, I still have fond memories of my time there. Many of my old friends of those days vowed never to return, and as far as I know, have kept to it. I was so looking forward to my 10 year reunion back in 2001, but it never happened. This year it will be different.

The Little Joys Of Being Trans In SA

I went to renew my driver's license today. Oh, you have no idea. It was an adventure. 

 

Funny, you would think that once you were found competent enough to drive a car, or own a gun, and not having any serious misdemeanors logged against your name - that you wouldn't need to keep reapplying for various permits? It is an interesting innovation in South Africa, figuring a way to make people pay for the same damn thing over and over again - and paying more each time. What fun.

So off to the merry traffic department I went.

Please Take Action!

Thanks to all who have taken this up!

Below is a form drawn up to send to the SA govt, Canadian govt and the UN human rights desk.

Thanks again!

Christina

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Friendly Advice

I find the older one gets, the harder it is to find and make true friends. 

 

Some time ago I had many real life friends, some with whom I had kept relationships going since junior school, people that I shared and did everything with - even until long after high school. And then one day, about ten years ago - I lost every single one of them, every single one - including a best friend I had known 14 years.

The Human Race

The issue of Caster Semenya, the 18 year old female athlete who has won two gold and one silver medal for her country - South Africa - makes me wonder how far we have come in the past 15 years post-Apartheid, and how far we have come since the inclusion in the Constitution of certain phrases which are supposed to guarantee equality for people on the grounds of gender, gender identity and sexual orientation with everyone else.

 

Of course, you'll notice I said 'supposed to'.

As Time Goes By

I had a friend who waited until her wife died before transitioning. Her name was Stephanie Bishop - and when she began transitioning, she was 79 years old.

She lost her friends and family on coming out, even her children and grand children were too conservative and short sighted to accept this - I know she cried many bitter tears over how nasty they were to her. But she was financially independent, moved to another city (where I met her) and got on with her life. 

 

She was delighted by the tendency people had of underestimating her age by 20 years or more and endured many jibes about her "toy-boy" suitors who in many cases were twenty years younger than her. I doubt she was ever lonely again, as most people her age often are.

Poor Taste In "Men"

Last year a transwoman in the US, 23 year old named Angie Zapata who had not yet completed her transition, was brutally and mercilessly beaten to death by a man she met and entertained at home. 

According to the police interviewed in a media article at the time, he suspected something was amiss because she hadn't allowed him to touch her genital area and because of some of the pictures in her apartment. When she admitted to him she was transgender and pre-op, this man picked up a fire extinguisher and bludgeoned her over her head with it. 

She awoke some time later while he was going through her things and he finished her off with the same weapon. Afterwards he left the scene in her vehicle. When arrested by the police he had the arrogance to say to the police that "I killed IT".

It.

Like he was talking about putting out a cigarette.

Let us put it into perspective. Angie Zapata - much loved by her friends and family as a warm and caring human being - a woman - is dead, brutally slain for no good or justifiable reason at all. Another individual - I shall not call him a "man" because a "man" does not behave like that - is on trial for his crime. And if there is justice in the USA - and I believe there still is - he will pay for his hate crime.

Assumption Is The Father Of All Screw Ups

While browsing a site on the treatment of transgender and intersex patients, I noted the following assertion: "Newborns with intersex deformities must early on be assigned to one sex or the other."

WHY?

This is surely the biggest error medical caregivers can make.