[ Butch-ish | Genderqueer | Transboy | INFJ ]
Warning: this page contains material that the closed-minded may find offensive. If you are easily offended by things you don't understand or haven't seen before, you may want to click here.
(If you are Jewish or Christian, or have beliefs which are in concordance with the Judeo-Christian holy texts, and have a religious conflict with homosexuality, bisexuality, and/or transgenderism, please click here. Southern Baptists please click here.)
| His life was gentle, and the elements So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up And say to all the world, "This was a man!" --Shakespeare, Julius Caesar |
Truths and Lies I have been told that I am a figment of my own imagination, that what I am cannot be, that my truths are lies and their lies are truths. But I know that I am and that my truths are not lies and their lies are not truths. They may keep me outside the boundaries of their imaginations, but I refuse to be invisible. --Jason Cromwell, FTM activist |
I am a Female-to-Male (FTM/F2M/F-M) Transgender/transsexual person. (Not clear on what that means? Click here. Want more info? Click here.) After I found out what trans*ism was, when I was 15, I educated myself entirely via the Internet. The sites listed below, among others, gave me the information I needed to begin my transition. I am now living full-time as a guy (since July 1998) and am happier than I've ever been. I'm also a member of Compass, the southern New England support group for FTMs, which I love and recommend to anyone who was labelled female at birth but doesn't feel that that is a complete or accurate description of their gender. Check out their Web site for more information.
I started taking testosterone via the AndroDerm patch on 18 August, 2000. On 12 February, 2003, I began using AndroGel instead of the patch because I was tired of the skin irritation. I raised my dose on 29 July, 2003, from 2.5mg per day to alternating between 2.5mg and 5mg each day, averaging 3.75mg per day. (This is the equivalent of around 150 mg by shot every two weeks. Most FTMs inject their T, and many start off at about 200 mg every two weeks to bring on the changes more quickly, then drop the dose to 70 or 100 once their puberty has taken place.) At that point, I alternated days - on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I put on 5 mg, and on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday I put on 2.5.
As of 08 August, 2003, I am on injections: 50mg every week. I inject testosterone enanthate, suspended in sesame seed oil, and I use 25 gauge, 1-inch needles.
As of 21 December, 2004, I am self-injecting with 27 gauge, half-inch needles. I used the 25 gauge needles to draw up until they ran out in late 2006; then I bought 20 gauge needles to draw up with. Sometime perhaps in early 2005 I started injecting 60mg every week instead of 50mg, to help myself feel secure that I was definitely getting enough testosterone and wasn't riding the edge.
Click here for my transition diary, which unfortunately starts on my first day of testosterone and not before.
Want to hear my voice? Click here. (I added to it about once a month, to chart my progress on the hormones.)
Think you might be Trans? Want more info? Check out some support organisations.
Find support online!
Join the Exxon/Esso boycott! Click here. ("But where will I buy gas?" you ask. Click here for some help.) ExxonMobil has continually refused to reinstate a written non-discrimination policy covering sexual orientation and to open its domestic partner benefits program to all gay and lesbian employees.
| Check it out: The Transgender Bill Of Rights.
Non-Trans Privilege - yet another spin on Peggy McIntosh's famous work, White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (For the curious, Male Privilege, by Barry Deutsch, is here). Click here for a list of toll-free crisis hotlines. Click here for a ton of resources, including the Standards Of Some facts from GLSEN about queer youth. |
open-minded people have visited this page. |
Check it out: Safe2Pee.org - because everyone deserves a safe place to go. (A listing of all the known safe places for gender-variant and Trans people to go to the bathroom in cities around the world.)
There's a lot of offensive stuff about Queer folks, and particularly Trans people, that floats around - especially on the Internet. I think it's about time that we worked to clarify what's offensive and what's not, so there's less grey area, less ignorance, and thus fewer excuses for being offensive. So anyway, click here for some clarifications. Also, feel free to E-mail me with any additions.
Check out my old journal.
(Last entry 6/18/00)
Click here for FTM passing tips!
on: Thursday, 22 May 2003.
