25th December

A merry Christmas. 

Remember life is not perfect like the adverts and families can be annoying. You're never alone. 

Eve

Happy Christmas eve. We're truly in the bleak midwinter I'm with a frozen Woo Woo, basically tasting like an adult Slush Puppy. 

Elsewhere I'm sure many of you have read Elliot Page's elequent and passionate coming out letter, essentially the sort of thing I wish I wrote all those years ago. As you'd expect some people had a problem with this for some reason which probably says more about them.

Eddie

Seeing Eddie Izzard trending, I'm reminded of when I was a young and Eddie Izzard burst onto my screen. Watching I saw someone confidently smashing gender stereotypes and wearing whatever along with a highly creative and above all, funny act. She was an inspiration to a confused baby trans and in many ways still is to an older (but still often confused) trans. 

Friday

Was in the fortunate position of being able to take a duvet day Friday for my mental health I could feel the signs building and decided to push everything non urgent into the future, make sure I had a supply of Jammie Dodgers and turn off my alarm. 

Insert Competitor

Thinking back to disagreeable customers many will end with something like " well I'm shopping at (insert competitor) from now on" which I think they believe has any devastating impact on the harassed, under paid and non managerial person on the other end. In my time it was the welcome signal that they were about to leave.

Don't Be A

Card payment systems were down locally, frustrating undoubtedly and necessitating a visit to the cash point but it's not the fault the fault of the young woman on the till who earns only a few pennies above minimum wage and has definitely had to deal with a lot of crap this year. Yet some people continue to act like a dock.

.... But It Helps

When someone describes their workplace in terms like "needing a sense of humour" my mind starts flashing giant red flags before my eyes. What sort of bullying hell hole is it I wonder, the sort that constantly sends you out to get tartan paint or engages in tedious bants all the time. We tend to laugh less once we hit the mid 20s and the workplace is the main reason for that. So it's great of you can have a laugh, for mental well-being most of all, but if you have to point it out, them it's nothing of the sort.

Strawberry and Mint

With an eye for the different I picked up After Eights with strawberry and mint.

It's rather disappointed, I couldn't take much strawberry and their wasn't that nice minty tasting filling. Instead you get that horrible mix which doesn't really work.

Edge

The Christmas tree is up and decorated. It's not the only delay writing this post Microsoft is getting increasingly aggressive in getting me to use Edge and throwing strops when I'm not using a Microsoft application as a default. With legislators from both sides more focused on social media, Microsoft will continue to drift into their old bad habits and harder to work outside their own software on Windows.

Blogmas 2k20

It seems everyone has put up their decorations early this year, the National Grid working overtime to power all those elaborate displays undoing that long period where no fossil fuels were used to create power. I've also come across the annual Fairytale of New York debate already and somewhere on social media people have probably spent several weeks shouting at each other about Die Hard and Baby it's Cold Outside. Here we're sticking to December 1st to launch this year's Blogmas.

Transgender Day of Remembrance 2020

Transgender Day of Remembrance, when we remember and honour people whose lives were lost due to transphobia, and raise awareness about anti-transgender violence. We remember a staggering and depressing 350 this year, the majority people of colour, for example 79% of the victims in the USA were of colour. This does not include those who lost their lives though discrimination in healthcare, of they were able to gain access at all.

Trans people should not have to learn to be resilient though all this. They should have a safe and inclusive environment for all.

Find and Replace Transphobia

You look at many articles about transgender people in the British media and wonder if the writer has just found an old Word file from the days before Clippy was deactivated, typed homosexuals in the Find box and put transgender in the Replace field before sending it off for publication. 

Wondering if The Onion might want to get in on the act.  

Funerals

Since the last post I attended a funeral, oldest and youngest not being present in person. So there was no child noises followed by a parent hurriedly trying to hush them which I missed. At mine I'm tempted to instruct them give all children a very noisy object and tell them to go absolutely wild. Funerals are one of those rare occasions where you get to see your extended family in all its weird glory and this was not an exception, some with their dubious interpretation of social distance and those who you only recognise when they speak. 

Tented Market

The former tented market stands on the site of the original market which was demolished in the 70s. A big clue that this was a 90s construction are the glass bricks which were added, it felt like everywhere. Much like other popular things from the 90s like Oasis and Friends they haven't aged well. It now stands empty begging for demolition.

Back From A Break

Hello from this spec in the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy. I hope you're fine wherever you are in the universe. Back from a little break with the same kind this sort of thing popping up on your feed a little more regularly than it has so far this year. 

13 Years

Oh hello you good looking people, hope you've had a great pride month even without your regular safe spaces. This blog has been going for 13 years, seen baby trans grow up, new babies come up assending to even greater heights, label wars come and go, mayfly trans come and flourish then disappear all in a few short hours and hearing the same scare tactics deliberately toxifying amplified across the political spectrum. 

And that Nationwide adverts will always be annoying. 

I wonder why they thought the Little Britain fan was a valuable demographic to chase, today they complain about it being banned despite it still being available on DVD which many better comidies aren't.

Fly

Tank fly boss walk jam nitty gritty you're listening to some trans from the big bad city.

Not everyone's in their PJs and Netflix and for most it's been bloody stressful, everyone here has tales of variously dealing with idiots who are old enough to know better, left to hang by the government, and managers hiding at home ignoring the above but finding some minor uniform infraction on the CCTV screen. So the fortnight's isolation was a relief, especially as the colleges symptoms didn't develop. I had the chance to slowly declutter, finding 20 year old pay slips from the days I kept it all and financial statements, several expired condom's, some floppy discs with my A level coursework on and a cheap bottle of "eau de cologne' I received as a Christmas gift and promptly dropped in a box and forgot about. It's not as nasty as I feared but it's not exactly great and will guarantee people stand more than 2 metres away from you. 

Dating Trans

As online dating is getting a boost at the moment, here is my brief guide to trans dating. According to a recent survey less than 18% of Americans would consider dating a trans or non-binary person. One reason why many trans eventually hook up with other trans people, the probability over time rises to 1 the longer you're looking for love. There's also still a stigma about trans attraction among cishet society due to the marginalisation and fetishisation of trans life. I'm totally against such shaming but I'm also against treating trans as a fetish and if there are any people reading this looking to date a trans person it's to leave anmy fetish at the door or in that special folder on your computer. Also don't use any language from that special folder it'll have me hitting the block button quicker than you can type s****** Its a big turn off. As are questions about tyransness like surgery's, how I put my thing away and so on. If you're curious ask Google not your date. My standards are not lower either. In short don't be a dick and , ultimately treat your date like any other person.

Transgender Day Of Visibility

Happy international transgender day of visibility a day to celebrate trans, non binary and gender variant people and highlight discrimination and oppression. There's still so much terrible discrimination, harassment and violence about and so it's unsurprising that for many it's unwise and unsafe to be visible. Being anywhere on the trans spectrum requires a lot of learning and discovery which can take many years, hopefully days like these can help.

Updating the GRA in Scotland

If you had only read the newspaper coverage of the Scottish Governments proposed reforms to the Gender Recognition Act of 2004 you might be led into thinking there was something really radical in the draft bill. The nation becoming innundated with people from all corners of Britain wanting to change their birth certificates, children given sex swaps, men taking over women's changing rooms, people being forced to transition by the sinister trans cabal. 

The reality is that it is a modest reform which will bring Scotland up to date with international best practice. To paraphrase for those unfamiliar with the current system of changing the sex on their birth certificate across the UK it requires providing evidence over several years, be signed off by two separate doctors and convincing a panel. In essence unnecessarily time consuming and bureaucratic. Replacing all that with a legally binding declaration and a reasonable period of reflection. It's a system that works successfully in other jurisdictions without fuss and should be welcomed especially as the proposed reforms in the rest of the UK are lieing in rapidly lengthening grass.

Pretend Family Relationship

For LGBTQ+ history month marked in the UK since 2004 to mark the the repeal of Section 28 (clause 2A in Scotland). I'm going to visit recent history, in particular the 1980s where not just casual homophobia was rife but much of it was overt. A difficult time to be very young and feel different from the cis-het world and not have any knowledge apart from crudely drawn stereotypes depicted in mass culture. Also to step away from that culture and be yourself was too scary and possibly dangerous to contemplate. Section 28 of the Local Government Act effectively legitimised this homophobia under the cry of 'wont somebody think about the children'. The reference in the section to pretend family relationships stands out and is still offensive to this day.

The repeal was not a given, although most people at the time were not anti gay it was clear that this was only if they did it behind closed doors, even if this was just a peck on the cheek and definitely not in public especially if young people were near by. Hence the long bruising battle to equalise the age of concent, followed by the repeal of section 28 and the fight to allow same sex couples to adopt. Even after schools practiced section 28 in all but name, including one academy here in Swindon and the outcry over equality lessons recently show there's a long way to go.

Its easy to see the same playbook being used to attack trans rights exploiting the involvement of children and young people exploiting fears and telling lies with many now calling for a trans section 28 in all but name.

Just Like A Woman (1992)

Going down the EPG one evening I came across a channel showing Just Like A Woman (1992), which I had not seen since the early 1990's. To the young viewer I was excited to see trans representation on screen and in a sympathetic manor, the transformation scene was particularly memorable.



The film was based on a real life story, turned into a book with a sub plot about corporate intrigue added into the script. Gerald played by Adrian Pasdar is divorced by his wife after she discovers women's underwear not knowing they're his ending up renting a room at Monica's (Julie Walters) home. Where gradually Monica finds out about Geraldine and unfortunately so does Gerald's boss who promptly sacks our hero. Leading to a climatic showdown between the two featuring some Japanese businessmen straight from central casting.

Watching it recently, you notice the use of the term "transvestite" dates the film and there's a constant feel of heteronormality, throughout. There's no caption on screen saying "not a gay, only likes doing it with women" or indeed something like the opening voice-over to Glen or Glenda there doesn't need to be you're very much beaten about the head with it. Also, apart from the make-up department Adrian Pasdar is not convincing or I would argue that he looks that comfortable as a transvestite.

That said the basic story is fine, the corporate intrigue bits less so, anything with Julie Walters is worth watching and the makers had good intentions, even consulting a trans group during the making.

Twenty 20

I wish you a happy new year.

If you're making resolutions, don't make too many, one or two at most and keep them small, realistic and attainable. 

Finally do share and good luck with them.