Trans Universe

For the first time since the Transgender American Veterans Association existed, a mainstream print media has dedicated an extensive amount of space to present the stories of transgender veterans and the problems they face. In a two-part series, journalist Carol Ann Alaimo spent over three weeks of interviews, research and education to come up with this two-article, 3500 word essay on our veterans.

Alaimo, the military journalist for Tucson’s Arizona Daily Star, told me that she got interested in transgender veterans when she discovered the TAVA web site and read the survey we did last year. From there, she found transgender veterans in Tucson and spoke with many of them.

I am absolutely impressed with all the work she put into the two articles. As Sunday came to a close, there were already over 150 comments on her first article. By the end of Monday, the second article had nearly 200 comments. Then we also found the articles appearing on Military.com, with equally number of comments.

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By Monica F. Helms

‘Tis the season, where new Senators and Representatives begin getting used to their new jobs, while the cherry blossoms bloom in the springtime. Capital Hill has become ripe for the pickin’, so we need prepare ourselves to talk with them on our needs. It won’t be easy, yet a lot of new activists beam with enthusiasm to descend on the Hill to add their voices to our causes. I welcome them all.

Since a lot of people want to get involved, then they should be absolutely prepared for this new adventure in exerting their rights as American citizens. I have been to the Hill several times since my first visit in 1999 and at each lobby day I learn something new, and each time I bring with me a new weapon in educating people on our issues. I am not the absolute expert in lobbying, because many who read this will have done it more often. A good example is Ethan St. Pierre and his piece on TransFM. I just feel a need to impart some of what I learned and in a complete presentation. But please, ask others who have done this often because each of them will add something new to your knowledge.

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By Monica F. Helms

(for those who have read this on The Bilerico Project, I added a new paragraph toward the end.)

I know that by expressing my opinion about this word in an article, I will make a lot of my trans friends angry. Seems that the quarterly label issue is brewing yet again and right on time. This article of mine came about because of an article my friend Donna Rose wrote on her blog called, “Tranny: Just a Word?” Please note that Donna happens to be one of my closest sisters, but like family, we can disagree on things. This is one of those times.

Human beings have a propensity for figuring out ways to verbally put down other people. Americans are absolute experts in this “field,” especially during a war with another country. In Wikipedia, you can find hundreds of words used for just ethnic slurs alone. It’s more fun for American to burn bridges rather than build them. If ethnic slurs are so prevalent, then it stands to reason that slurs directed at the LGBT community would be also in abundance. The questions now become, “Are some of these words actually worth getting upset about?” and “How do we neutralize them?”

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