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I don’t just “believe” in love at first sight. I know it exists. And I know it lasts, too. I remember the doctor handing me our daughter moments after she was born. “It’s a girl,” she said. I’m not proud of this, but I’ll confess to it, anyway. There was a momentary flicker of disappointment, but it lasted only a moment…not even a second. I know because it takes about a second to say “one thousand.” The flicker didn’t last that long. I remember feeling the warmth of her body in my arms and realizing that this just felt so right. I remember looking down at her face, her lips, (Heart-shaped!) her eyelashes, (They curled!) and at her fingers, perfect even to the tiny fingernails. Who could imagine falling in love with fingernails? But I did. And it took less than a second.

I’ve been shopping for baby clothes! No, not for a grandchild. That’s not going to happen in the foreseeable future, but it’s almost as good. I am on the verge of becoming an adopted grandmother (if there is such a thing.)

Jane Austen famously opened her novel, Pride and Prejudice with the line, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” There are other truths universally acknowledged as well, some of them sadder ones. My “universally acknowledged” truth, as the title suggests, is the power that secrets have over our lives. They bring us into painful confrontation with with our true, though denied, selves; they teach us the paralysis of fear.

I have two jobs that need to be done I’d like to have a transgendered indvidual do the work.
My wife is going on a mini vacation from Wed June 22 to June 27 and that is the time I’d like the work to be done (sorry for the short notice.

Job 1 is to restretch the carpet in the upstairs hall. It is quite bad in front of Joy’s room and loose in other places.

Hello everyone; It has been a long time since I have added anything to the blog so perhaps this is an appropriate time.

All of us in the transgender spectrum have our own personal journey. There is a commonality between our “stories” but within that commonality is our own. My own journey took many twists and turns for the longest time but now is seems fairly smooth sailing; the path forward is clear for these moments.

With gender, as with witchcraft, we, most of us, believe what appears to be true.

Someone looks at your genitalia. (That’s the test.) You’re a girl. Or a boy. How do they know? You look like one.

But how do you know? There’s something inside your head that tells you. You don’t have to look. You don’t need the test. You know. And as some of us know from personal experience, the “test” isn’t necessarily a reliable one. The world tells us we are male or female, and they treat us accordingly, but we know it isn’t so. In life, nothing is as simple as it seems. Gender is no exception.

Sadly, no. Despite the impression given on the final Global news item in their Transformation series, MSP has not changed their policy for MTF patients seeking breast augmentation.

All this week, Global news has been airing a series on what it is like to be transgender, specifically, what it is like if you are TS. If you have missed seeing these mini-documentaries, they can still be viewed on the Global webpage as of Friday, April 22. The final(?) item will air tonight at 6:30. They are worth a look. What follows is my own response to the series so far.

Changing Keys is a trans voice workshop offered by Speech Language Pathologist Shelagh Davies. Offered in Vancouver through Trans Health as a seven week course, Shelagh recently travelled to Victoria for an intensive three day workshop with seven Vancouver Island girls, all living full time, some pre-op, some post-op. I was fortunate enough to be one of those girls. What follows is my recollection of (yet another) transformative experience, one of many I’ve had along the way since finally deciding I had no choice but to honor the person I am within. I am Karen, and at last, I can say that in my own voice.

Stephanie, for all the grace and generosity you have shown me these past few months, I dedicate this, my first blog ever, to you.

Well, I gather it is out