Trans Universe

By Monica F. Helms

The music changes to deep bass tones and the woman on the screen backs up slowly into the dark living room of her dark house. The kitchen door window shatters and the door slowly swings open. In the opening stands a silhouette of a figure, outlined by the lighting strikes behind it. Something ominous can be seen in the hands of this figure. The scene cuts quickly to a close up and when the next lighting strikes, we see an ax with fresh blood on its blade. The woman has plenty to fear.

One of the most debilitating emotions that can grip a person’s heart and freeze a body in an instant is fear. Everyone of us fears something, be it spiders, rats, crowds, small spaces and even death. These fears don’t last long, and we can easily get past them, with the exception of death. We’ll all go there, eventually.

Yes, we all experience fear, but for many in the transgender community, fear becomes their constant companion. Society gave us a lot to fear and because of that, some trans people have raised fear to an art form. For many, fear has kept them from realizing their potential in life. It serves as their crutch, their excuse, their way to avoid growing as a person. “No. I can’t do that. It scares me.”

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By Monica F. Helms

The country’s fifth largest city, Phoenix, AZ, served as my home from 1953 to 1961, then again from 1966 to 2000. I arrived there because my military father received orders to Luke Air Force Base, located west of Phoenix. In that year, the city’s population had only reached 100,000 people. My parent’s bought their first (and only) home in 1955, in an area that later became Maryvale. This predated John F. Long, the builder who pretty much created Maryvale, and since no one else had moved into any of those other homes yet, we were the official very first residents of this new tiny section of tract homes.

In 1997, my life as Monica began, changing not only the obvious, but internally as well. I started my activism for the trans community in 1998 and by the time I left in June of 2000, myself and a few others had accomplished enough to give the gay, lesbian and bisexual people of Phoenix a new respect for transgender people. However, shortly after I left, activism in the transgender community came to a halt. “Why?” I don’t know.

It didn’t stay that way.

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By Monica F. Helms

(This is the 3rd and final installment in the “Stuck in . . . ” series.)

We all know that loneliness does not limit itself to LGB or T people. This feeling probably strikes 100% of the human population at one time of another, many living in perpetual loneliness for most of their lives. A person can feel lonely because they have no one special in their life who loves them. Others can be lonely in a crowd of people who do love them. A majority of people don’t go out of their way to choose to be lonely, yet some do. But, loneliness goes out of its way to chooses us.

Even though the feeling of loneliness does not differ between LGBT people and straight people, the causes can be different. If we can believe the figures for the number of LGBT people in the population, between 5% and 10%, then that means that there would be far less LGBT people in the world to find your special someone from. Of course, bisexual people have more numbers to choose from, as do straight transgender people. If an LGBT person lives in a rural area, their chances become zero in many cases. However, numbers alone don’t keep people from feeling lonely.

Loneliness in the lesbian community is such a large issue that it generated a joke. When two lesbians fall in love, one quickly rents a U-Haul so they can move in together. It might seem funny, if it didn’t have its basis in reality. For gay men, you’ll find dozens of cruising bars in large cities to accommodate their need to cure loneliness, even if it’s for just one night. Everyone tries to cope the best they can, but loneliness keeps its own time.

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By Monica F. Helms

Think of how dull the world would be if everything came in just twos. We would only have two different colors, two different smells, two different tastes and two different sounds. People would appear in just two different varieties for each sex, and only thinking in just two different ways. From our diverse perspective, it would be a boring existence, except that in that world, boredom would only come in two forms as well.

Being a science fiction fan and writer, I can easily imagine how a world of true binaries would look. I’m envisioning a novel coming from that right now. We should consider ourselves lucky that Mother Nature can think beyond binaries. Unfortunately, even with all the evidence in front of us, Human Nature cannot think beyond binaries.

I should clarify that last sentence. When it comes to all that exists around us, we easily bask in the beauty of a world that goes way beyond binaries. We see flowers of all colors and varieties. Our pets come in all shapes, sizes, species and temperament. One could take a decade sampling all the varieties of food the world has to offer. Yes, we don’t live in a binary world, yet in some forms, binary thinking exists in people.

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By Monica F. Helms

I’m sure that many of the readers have been in a situation where they needed to make a left turn at an intersection with a left-turn arrow that lasts so short that only two or three cars can get through at a time, and you sit fifteen cars back. The other lights last for over two minutes each, making it a long wait before you can “transition” to the direction you needed to go. Frustration sets in, especially if you’re late for something. Many transsexuals can also get stuck in transition, waiting for their “trip” to be over. Is there such a thing as being stuck in transition?

First of all, in order to understand why a transsexual feels they get stuck in transition, you need to know the definition “transition.” There isn’t one. No real definition for transition can actually exist, because like a person’s gender identity and gender expression, how they define “transition” or “transitioning” becomes as personal as wearing cotton or silk underwear . . . or none at all. Since each person gets to decide what transition means to them, then no definition or description would be wrong. What we see as “wrong” takes place when a person feels their definition of transition has to be the only one other people have to follow in order to be correct.

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By Monica F. Helms

Follow the crew of “Mysteries of the Transgender Community,” as they discover at least one mystery of the famous Casa Del Monica in Marietta, GA, with your host, Donna Daluchi.

By Monica F. Helms

The impending repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell hangs over Bigot Americans like a specter of doom that will reach biblical proportions. In other words, they lack a strong grip on reality. They will do anything it takes to instill fear on the unknowing masses, stopping short of predicting the coming of The Rapture. Well, maybe they won’t stop short of that.

In this endless process of misinformation and out-and-out lies, the one part of the LGBT community that they like pointing to in order to generate the most fear are transgender people. They will always gravitate to the worn-out, standard line from the Bigot’s Handbook (Volume 17, 5^th Edition, page 963,) “Men in dresses.” If all else fails, they can always throw out “Men in dresses,” even if it has nothing to do with transgender people. To Bigot Americans, ALL gay men wear dresses. That’s BS to the max. Hell, I know several trans women and lesbians who wouldn’t be caught dead in a dress.

Let me show the important points in this latest round of lies that the BAs like to gloss over or don’t wish people to know about.

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By Monica F. Helms

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote “Transgender Veterans articles and navigating the VA system,” about the two wonderful articles written by Carol Ann Alaimo of the Arizona Daily Star and my attempt to find a person in the VA to speak with about our issues. The article appeared on two blogs, The Bilerico Project, and Trans Universe. It seems our efforts to speak with someone of authority paid off. On Friday, March 6, Angela Brightfeather and I spoke with a female doctor in a high position in the VA. I will not reveal her name or title at this time, nor will I provide any specifics of what she said, because this is an ongoing process.

Angela and I prepared to ask certain question, but as many of you may know, it doesn’t always work as planned. When we connected with the doctor, she had brought in another doctor to speak with us. We quickly discovered that both women had extensive experiences with transgender people in their days working in the field for the VA. They actually volunteered to be the first ones in the VA to speak with us.

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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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