By Angela Gardner
I can hardly believe it, girls. Here it is, turkey time again.
Soon, oh so soon, the parade of big holiday meals will begin... and
soon after that we'll all be bigger than floats in a parade. Then,
we'll start shopping for all the after holiday bargains and dieting
to get into them. Ah, the symmetry of the cycle of life... ain't it
grand?
Another grand thing is the way new technology is changing our
world. Just recently New Jersey started using the Easy Pass system on
the Atlantic City Expressway. This is a boon for the many gamblers
who need to get to the casinos as quickly as possible so they can
feed all their money into those other high tech marvels the modern
day slot machine. Now they no longer need to stop, or have any human
contact from the time they leave their house until they're broke.
Oops, I mean "big winners."
What's Easy Pass got to do with us TG types? Well, it should get a
lot of more novice crossdressers down to the shore. I remember, just
a few years back, having a nervous breakdown when I realized that I
would have to stop to pay a toll while traveling in drag. I know one
girl who used to actually turn away from the toll taker and hold the
money out as far as possible when she paid. It was kind of like an
offering to the gods, "Please don't destroy me oh mighty Toll Man."
Like that attracted less attention than just handing over the cash in
a matter of fact manner. Anyhow, with electronic toll collecting the
nervous crossdresser doesn't have to worry about human interaction
while heading down to Atlantic City for a night of gambling or to
catch an appearance by Englebert. Of course Easy Pass can't do
anything for you once you get to the shore. If your skirt is short
enough maybe you'll find a high roller to make an easy pass at you,
but you're on your own... The Diva can't recommend any high tech help
for that situation.
Here's Looking at You, Kid
Another high tech thing you may run into in New Jersey is a
surveillance camera. Now they're always a good idea around your
property, to make sure no crooks can sneak up on you, and they have
been useful to America's Most Wanted when a grainy black
and white shot of a perpetrator robbing a convenience store is
needed, but the cameras I'm talking about are placed where no
transvestite would really want to find one. It seems that in New
Jersey there is no law against having a hidden camera in the dressing
room of a store. So, if you have been trying on things in New Jersey
stores I hope you have gone the extra mile and shaved that hard to
reach spot in the middle of your back. "Hey Harry, would ya look at
this patch a fur on dis broad? That's pretty gross, ain't it?"
Oh no, I just remembered that I tried on lingerie in Macy's a
couple of weeks ago... and the store was in New Jersey. Oh well, at
least I am a professional entertainer. If anyone got any fun out of
me slipping into that bustier they had better call my agent and pay
my fee.
But, never fear girls. A senator in the Garden State is working to
get a bill passed to either stop the practice all together, or at
least follow in the footsteps of Pennsylvania and require the stores
to post a sign saying you may be starring in a video if you go into
the dressing room.
There is another solution to this problem. We have to get all
those people who feel stopping at the sales desk is just too time
consuming to STOP STEALING! The clothes aren't free ya know. Every
bit of "shrinkage" gets figured into the retail price which means
we're paying the freight for the girl in the hot, I mean really hot,
dress. Why can't we all just be honest? Oh, did I mention I have some
wigs that "fell off a truck?" My cousin Vinnie gets 'em for me.
They're all brand new. Give me a call if ya want one doll. Cheap. I'm
making nothing on the deal.
Web Search Results Are In
For a bit of fun I decided to do an Internet search on the term
"cross-dresser." I always spell it as one word, crossdresser, but the
rest of the world is not as advanced as The Diva and continue to
hyphenate. With that in mind I typed the term into my browser and hit
the "Go" button. Within seconds the search engine had traversed the
entire WWW (I am cruising the net at 56K) and returned
many pages of information on files containing the term
"cross-dresser." Most of the URLs also mentioned sex of one kind or
another and many used the word "anal." Mixed in among the commercial
sex sites for she-males there were a few real web resources for
crossdressers. There were a few support groups, and then there was a
high school kid's home page. It got included cause its text included
"cross-dressers."
I clicked on the link and found a picture of a high school choir
from St. Cloud, Minnesota in the middle of a performance.
"Cross-dressers" had appeared in the text of this lad's page because
he was describing the picture. His brother is performing with the
choir and he, as well as a couple of other boys, are crossdressed.
(His brother was kind of cute. He wore a long dress with an empire
waist, and his wig was nicer than that worn by the other crossdressed
singers.) Now, in this day of crossdressing kids being tossed out of
high school (like that little sweetie Alex McClendon from down in
Georgia) it's refreshing to find a school in the American Heartland
that seems to be perfectly allright with a few crossdressed singers
in the choir. Then again, maybe the boys in dresses are really,
really good sopranos. In any event, I find it encouraging... and
intriguing. Perhaps The Diva will have to go undercover for an
investigative report on school sanctioned teen crossdressing in
Minnesota. Good morning class. I'm your substitute teacher, Miss
Gardner. Now how many of you boys are shaving your legs?
Speaking of Young Alex...
CNN's website has a story about Alex that was brought to my
attention by Miss Michelle Lynn. It, like the story in Time Magazine
on the ninth of the month, covered how Alex has been attending a
private school in Georgia as a female. She has been living as a
female for the past two years and thought that she could get an
education at the school. She got an education allright, in the
subjects of fear and intolerance.
It wasn't her fellow students who were upset. After their initial
reactions of, "Wow, ya mean the chick's a dude" they settled down and
accepted her as another girl in the class. It was the parents who
complained that Alex was negatively influencing their children which
caused the board of trustees to ask her to leave. Many of her
classmates, including many of the boys, donned hair bows in protest.
Alex has decided that home schooling may be the best bet for her.
I think this kind of thing shows that the younger generation is
often better able to accept gender difference. What kind of bad
influence did the parents think Alex represented? Would their sons
all decide to take a lot of home economics courses, want to wear a
dress to the prom, and maybe develop a love of show tunes just
because a classmate is transgendered? This type of fear from the
parents is not based on fear of transgendered people, this is plain
old homophobia. What if my son wants to date this girl who is really
a boy? That's the question they ask themselves, and it's the same
concern parents had back in the '60s when boys started to grow long
hair. Because they had long hair like a girl, what if they attracted
men sexually? Until this kind of thinking is adjusted by the
application of real knowledge about human sexuality and gender
expression we have little hope of making any advances for transgender
rights. Hey, now there's a good reason why the TG rights and gay
rights groups should work together. In the meantime, all we have is
the fact that Alex's fellow students supported her. That, and maybe
that choir from St. Cloud.
The "Official" Gender Identity Page
At the bottom of the CNN story on Alex they included three links
to TG related sites. One was to a support group for CDs in Canada,
one was to a Rabbi who has a good article on
Crossdressing
and Dueteronomy on his site and the other was a link to,
"The
Official Gender Identity Support Page." Now I'm always a little
bit suspicious of anything on the web (and most anywhere else) that
calls itself "official." To me that's like an official decoder ring.
What if you have an unofficial ring that still translates the code? I
just had to click on that link. It takes you to a church of some kind
and their text, while it does include links to the Standards of
Care for Transsexuals and some other useful stuff, also goes
on about "alternative" treatment methods for gender dysphoria. Quick,
everybody It's sites like this that are the most insidious. They
contain information that makes sense and they profess love and caring
for the poor victims of gender dysphoria... but they think they can
"cure" you. They might as well try curing heterosexuality. It ain't
gonna happen. And besides, who's a victim, anyway?
Wake Up Call to Activists
Recently community activists have been going on and on about an ad
in a computer magazine that uses the old your-bride-is really-a-guy
gag to sell their product. Some activists have put the company that
ran the ad in the same category as Adolph Hitler and other hate
mongers 'cause they dared to use a TS reference that was less than
positive in their ad. Admittedly, the ad is not in the best interest
of the TG community since it equates the bride's TS status with some
kind of deception, but it's not quite as bad as genocide. A few
letters and some nice informational pamphlets should take care of the
ad men who came up with it, and the activists should save the really
big guns for sites like the Official Gender Identity Support Page.
It's sitting out there on the Net, ready to suck in transgendered
people who are looking for real information, and maybe real support.
I think I'm going to start an official movement to quash this kind of
disinformation and... oh, right. Well maybe just an unofficial
movement.
Show Biz Buzz: He's Really a She!
I don't know what to say, I just found out on the Entertainment
Tonight show that ran on the 10th that, that lovely actress
Karen Dior who's been on Veronica's
Closet and Zena is really a man. Oh my, and to
think I thought she was attractive. I must be... oh, I can't even go
there. 
But seriously, ET's Cover Story was about Karen Dior and
Jazmun , two male actresses who have been doing
quite well in Hollywood playing drag roles. Keep up the good work
girls and thanks to ET for presenting them as role models. And again,
as you can see, a little makeup and hair can work wonders.
In other entertainment news, this weeks episodes of Just
Shoot Me had some gender role lessons. The network ran two
episodes on Tuesday night. In the first one George Segal's character
makes abet with Donald Trump concerning weight lose. The loser has to
play a round of golf in a dress. Not full drag, just a frock. Of
course Segal loses the bet by actually gaining weight and has to wear
the dress. With the weight gain it was tough to find him a nice dress
that fit, but he did and we're treated to some shots of him on the
course in a floral print shirtwaist. He accessorized with golf shoes
and a cigar. While it's played for laughs he tells his daughter that
he felt great and played a great game of golf. The fact that he was
in a dress made all his usual golf course worries seem less important
and he got a better score. And, a nice man bought him a drink back at
the club house.
In the second episode the three male leads are all watching a manly,
but emotional movie on TV. After it's over they're all crying and
trying to pass it off as allergy attacks when they suddenly just stop
the male BS. They admit that they have emotions and that society is
wrong to so sharply define how men can express their emotions. Then
one of the guys says, "Yeah, sometimes I wish I was a woman." He is
quickly left alone in the room and for the rest of the show the other
two pick on him about being a girl. At the end of the show he is
asking a model out to dinner and David Spade's character, Finch,
tries to embarrass him in front of her by telling her that the guy
hitting on her wants to be a woman. She finds that refreshing and
consents to the dinner date. Two episodes with two good examples of
how to educate about gender roles and still get a laugh.
Look for a couple of movies with TG stuff in the script. Coming in
January is The Adventures of Sebastian Cole. Sebastian is a boy who
is being raised by a pre-op TS dad, named Henrietta. Reviews indicate
that while it's a comedy Henrietta is not treated in a negative
manner. Keep your eyes on the movie listings for that one.
For FtMs there is a film coming about the life of Brandon Teena.
It stars Hillary Swank, who played the female
Karate Kid and has a following on television's 90210. I think you can
see that Hillary is the right type to play Brandon. All she needs is a haircut. The film is titled Take It Like A
Man and is loosely based on the Brandon Teena story.
Filming just stared on this flick so it may not be out for a few
months. If I learn more I'll let you know.
And with that, The Diva must bid you adieu for another month. Don't
have too much of that holiday food and don't forget The Diva when you
go holiday shopping. Just think size 10. Happy Thanksgiving!
The Diva is a busy woman who just can't read every page on the web and
every newspaper. If you come across any juicy dish send it along to The Diva.
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