My friend is making a movie!

Hey all,

one of my very best friends is making his first feature film! In order to raise funds for his movie, he has a raffle going on. Raffle tickets are $25 a piece and you could win an Apple iPad, Apple 15'' Macbook Pro, Apple iPod Touch, Apple iPod Nano, and an Apple iPod Shuffle.

Tickets can be purchased online on his website: www.wtfmovie.com.

The raffle is April 9,2010 so get your tickets now!!

Thanks for supporting another great artist!

My new article is up!

You can view and read my latest article here:

http://www.ourbiggayborhood.com/2010/02/when-genders-collide/

Enjoy!

Shameful

Shameful, shameful.

I have so many of you who try to keep up with my life and what's going on and I have the nerve to NOT blog for such a long time. I'm sorry about that, I really am.
I think it's hard sometimes for me to keep blogging about my transition when it feels like it is/was at a standstill. The only thing left that I have yet to complete is to have top surgery...
And guess what!?!??! It looks like I may be able to do that before the year is over!! I thought it wouldn't happen for years and now I think it is going to happen so much sooner! Naturally, I felt obliged to share this on my blog!

A few things to catch you up on....My mother, the infamous Randee, came to visit me in Los Angeles. She was accompanied by one of her best friends, also named Randi (spelled differently, obviously). We had a very enjoyable time. Randi with an i, is very liberal, really into the GLBTQ community, has always known I was trans, even from when I was young. I have mentioned her before on my blog. Well, she was able to spend some quality time with my mother and help her to understand me a little better. This produced some WONDERFUL results for me.
My mom has agreed to help finance my top surgery. THIS IS HUGE. She disowned me 2 years ago when I came out to her as trans and I'd say now she has turned a huge corner. Even though she's not entirely comfortable and doesn't completely "get it", she does get that this is important to me and necessary for me to be happy and successful. So, I will be looking into some dates, surgeons, prices,etc in the next few months.

Other than that, Jordyn and I are still together. We are coming up on our one year anniversary. I almost can't believe it. We are still going strong. She has been and continues to be amazing.
Also, her family has come around slightly. Her mom sent me a birthday card for my birthday and now will actually ask how I am. Her dad called on my birthday to wish me a happy birthday. I didn't get to talk to him, but he left such a nice message. He has been great.

I also got a new writing gig! It's for a new website: www.ourbiggayborhood.com. Their tag line is "where the queers write". But it's not just queers, they have straight allies as well. It's awesome! It's got a lot of good stuff, writers from all different walks of life. I find a lot of it is humorous and well written. You should check it out! I will be writing for them once a month and my articles will be published to the site the 26th of each month. That means you should check that site in 4 days from now to see my first one!

I am also due to put a video up soon as well so you can see how much more handsome I get with each day. :)

That's all for now folks!

Halloween!

I dressed up as Napoleon Dynamite for Halloween and Jordyn was Deb, the girl with the side pony tail who does the"Glamour Shots". We had a great time.

Check out this video of me!

It went well!

I'm happy to report that I met Jordyn's family and it actually went pretty well. Her mom was nice to me and made an effort to talk to me. She was much warmer than I had anticipated after everything she had previously said. I also met Jordyn's father, and both sets of her grandparents. Her grandparents don't know I'm trans and I'm perfectly ok with that. The meeting of the family was something I was anticipating for so long and I was somewhat fearful. So I am so happy that it went as well as it did.
After spending a day in Philly with Jordyn and her family, we departed on our road trip to Los Angeles. We had a lot of fun. We stopped all over the country and stayed mostly with our friends and my family. We made the drive in 6 days, which wasn't too bad.
I'm so happy to finally have my girlfriend living in the same city as me. She is such a huge support to me.

Now, our next project together is raising enough money for me to have top surgery. We are hoping to plan a party/benefit to help raise the funds. So, if you are in the LA area, make sure to check back for updates. We are looking to have something in Jan or Feb.

Meeting Jordyn's Family Finally

A few updates since my last entry…



Jordyn is moving to Los Angeles, which is so exciting!! When is she doing this? Next week!!! How is she doing this?? Well, being the glorious boyfriend that I am, I am flying out East tonight to help her drive her car and stuff to LA.



This also means I am meeting her family. If you recall, her mother reacted very badly to the news that her daughter is dating a transman. She is still not doing well with that. Her mom initially responded by freaking out, calling me names, and telling Jordyn she never wanted to meet me, hear about me, or have anything to do with me. So, I guess meeting her is progress, but I’m still not sure how it will go. Her mom hasn’t been taking any major steps towards wanting to understand us, getting to know me, but she will at least listen to Jordyn talk about me and is letting me stay in her house for one night. I just feel a lot of pressure about all of this. I really want to be able to go into this with my head balanced on my shoulders properly. But after all the trash talking this woman has done about me, without knowing me or how well I treat her daughter, it obviously hurts me and angers me. And yet, it is on me to be the good guy, to block all the crazy shit out she has done and said, so that I can make a good impression and let her see I’m just a guy. I feel like I’m going to be under a microscope and she is going to be staring at me looking for any signs that indicate I was born female. The thought of that is obviously uncomfortable. I don’t really want to be stared at like I have something wrong me or like I have the plague. So, needless to say, it is very challenging to try and be the bigger person, the educator, the person on display so people can learn and grow, all while I still deal with my own issues of being trans.


I’m also meeting Jordyn’s father as well as both sets of her grandparents. Her grandparents do not know that I’m a transman and I think I’d like to keep it that way.

So, this is 7 months of up and down bullshit dealing with Jordyn's family. I am not sure how it will go. I just need to focus on the fact that I cannot control other people, I can only control me. I just need to be myself.

Keep on Truckin'

It's been a somewhat busy summer for me. I have been keeping busy with work. I also went to San Francisco for their Pride parade, that was fun. My girlfriend has just returned to the U.S. after being abroad for two months and she was just in LA to visit me for a long weekend. That was great as well. I'm very happy to be dating someone who I can safely say, completely accepts me for who I am. She loves me MORE for the fact that I am trans, she just totally gets that it is a part of who I am and I would not be who I am if I weren't. She's just incredible. And having a supportive partner really makes a world of difference. Most of us trans folks, or at least the ones in my life (me included), talk a lot about how we feel like we may never find love because we are trans. We often experience a lot of difficulty finding a partner who will love and accept us for who we are. Someone recently said something to the effect of deciding to transition may mean you sacrifice a love life in order to be who you really are. When I heard that statement, it made me sad, but it is somewhat true, at least for some. And I thought I was going to be in that boat, but thankfully, I'm not. As I've had this blog, I've dated a few different people, so the problem hasn't been finding someone to date, but someone who really accepts me. The breakups I've had with the last two people I dated had some issues around the fact that I am trans, and it was very painful to go through. So, I just cannot express how thankful I am to be dating someone I feel really accepts me. It's an incredible feeling, it's freeing. And I'm madly, crazily in love with Jordyn. She's an incredible person, and someone who has been one of my best friends for a few years. She's strong willed, independent, smart, and so so so loving. The next time we are together, I'm hoping to have her film a video blog with me. I want her to share a little bit about her and her views on me being trans. I want to be able to give some hope to the trans people or people in general I know who feel that they may never find someone. I think her perspective is a very important one to hear, and I'm hoping she'll want to share her true feelings and opinions as someone who is "heterosexual", or what I like to call "straight with a twist" (me being the twist :) ).