Trans* Success
Concerned?
Worried about the future?
Scared you won't be able to succeed?
By trans people about trans people.
These are our role models.
Welcome to trans* success.
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This is a study being run by a trans man getting his Ph.D. in clinical psychology. He is doing this study to contribute to developing an awareness in therapists and doctors about how to work competently with trans* clients. He is also committed to helping others in the healthcare profession understand the diversity in trans* identity development, ensuring that people of all identities and transition (or not) statuses are heard and validated.
He also plans to, once he gets his degree, gear his therapy practice toward working with gender and sexual minority clients!
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Hey everyone. My name is Jack and I am a senior at Montserrat College of Art. I’d like to invite everyone in the Boston area to come to my gallery group show, Some Things Take Time.
I am a photographer, videographer and sound artist whose work is consistently presented in a provocative manner and engages the viewer to participate. My thesis work is a multimedia instillation that explores gender issues through a series of personal artworks, conveying the life of someone who is transgender.
Some Things Take Time is the senior thesis exhibition of seven Montserrat College of Art graduating students. It features the work of artists Jon Bolles, Brittany Carr, Hannah Imbesi, Jack Moffitt, Elizabeth O’Toole, Tamara Trudeau and Amanda Woronecki.
Where:
301 Gallery
301 Cabot Street
Beverly, MA 01915
Exhibit Dates:
March 26, 2012 – March 30, 2012
Artist Reception: Wednesday, March 28, 2012 5-8pm (Refreshments will be served)
Gallery hours: Monday through Friday 10am-2pm
The exhibit is free and open to the public.Hope to see you there!
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Marci L. Bowers is an American gynecologist, and is viewed as an innovator in the field of transgender surgery, as well as a pioneer, being the first transsexual woman to be performing the surgery. Bowers graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1986, where she was president of both her class, and the entire student body.
Bowers later went on to study under the late Dr. Stanley Biber, a surgeon who performed over 4,000 transgender surgeries, who is credited for giving Trinidad the title of “Sex Change Capital of the World.” She also operated a surgical practice in Trinidad, Colorado. Though has more recently moved her practice to California in December 2010.
Before moving to Trinidad, Bowers had a successful practice at the PolyClinic in Seattle, and has delivered over 2000 babies. Served as Obstetrics and Gynecology Department Chairperson at Swedish (Providence) Medical Center, and was named the only physician member of the Washington State midwifery Board. She was also named one of America’s Best Physicians for the 2002 to 2003 awards, and is a member-elect of the European Academy of Sciences.
When Biber retired in 2003 at the age of 80, Bowers took over his practice, and since then, has done over 300 sexual reassignment surgeries, performing about five operations per week at Mt. San Rafael hospital. Bowers says her surgeries bring an estimated $1.6 million per year to the hospital; she performs an average of 130 surgeries per year and charges $21,500 per MTF genital reassignment surgery, a substantial portion of which covers hospital costs. She also puts her expertise in vaginoplasty at the disposal of victims of female genital mutilation, whom she does not charge for surgery. -
Jason Robert Ballard is a 24 year old from all over New York State. He first discovered his need to present male when he was 13 in a chat room. At age 17, he came out to his mother and then soon the rest of his family and for his 18th birthday received new pronouns and cards directed at male genders. He’s currently been on testosterone therapy for 3 years and underwent male chest reconstruction Fall ‘10 with Dr Kevin MaGuire of Cooperstown, NY. He has gained experience speaking through being out and open about being transgender. Having opportunities to put a friendly face to the cause where ever he goes and the conversation happens to come up. Whether it’s in front of 100+ people at a panel, or privately to a co-worker, sharing his experiences with the world has started to come naturally.
As co-founder of a quickly growing resource for the Trans* community, The Self Made Men - Jason spends almost all of his time taking baby steps toward goals of wide spread public education and Trans* awareness. Uniting resources, advertising for funds toward future engagements and speaking at transgender panels, lectures and class room discussions.
Jason has attended a few different colleges, landing finally on Nazareth in Rochester, NY. He is an advertising major, focusing on brand identity and public relations and therefore is in charge of the look and feel of The Self Made Men as well as the website and advertising. The Self Made Men actually started as a graphic design assignment meant to educate his classmates. When the professor said “design a logo and brand for your company and run with it…” even she herself says she never dreamed he’d have taken it this seriously, and this far. The Self Made Men became more than just a brand or logo. With over 700 people using it’s new pen pal system, about 250 daily views and an ever growing list of transgender links and resources, he definitely received an A on that assignment.
Jason goals are to finish his degree in advertising and one day take The Self Made Men to a point where it can pay it’s employees. A solid, building location full of local resources and the ability to open smaller chapters around the world. The staff as a whole believes that their first goal is toward public education, and that sales and traffic and being widely known will all follow that as long as they continue to do what they do with all of their heart.
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The Self Made Men is an online resource that believes in promoting transgender equality through public education. The staff travel all over doing interviews, speaking at panels and teaching classes and lectures. On the internet, TheSelfMadeMen.com is home of countless resources including; The Big Brother Program, where tips and tricks to transitioning are shared from transmen to transmen. The pen pal system titled Me Too! which matches up guys all over the world to build community and give them an outlet for trans topics and concerns. A news center, FAQ, photo gallery and actively updated blog. The site is also home to over 80 links of resources for the trans community, making it the largest source for trans information on the web.
Their online store is packed full of trans pride items such as buttons, stickers, Tshirts and support bracelets as well as a full color 2012 calendar. The calendar is designed based on submissions every Sept, and features twelve transguys before and after pictures, a bio and a motivational quote or message in hopes of helping others get through rough points in their own transition.
The Self Made Men was founded by Jason Robert Ballard and Noah Michael in 2010 but has since expanded to having staff members, representatives in other states and countries, and volunteers. Upcoming additions include: The Closet, a clothing exchange program, Noah It All - a guide to basic ‘guy’ knowledge and The Gentleman Primer, a sub-site about the ftm gentleman and situational advice.
Visit TheSelfMadeMen.com for more information.
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Wendy Iriepa and Ignacio Estrada married earlier this year (on August, 13th 2011). Ignacio, 31, and Wendy, 37, tied the knot in a simple civil ceremony on the same day as Fidel Castro’s 85th birthday - in what they called a ‘gift’ to the former leader. They then draped themselves in the rainbow flag of gay pride to ride through the streets of Havana.
Wendy is a transsexual woman who married her love, Ignacio, a self-identified gay man and gay rights activist. Wendy underwent SRS in 2007 as part of a pilot program that began in earnest the following year and made gender-reassignment procedures part of the island’s universal healthcare system. One other transgender woman married years ago, but Iriepa is the first to do so having benefited from the new policy.
“This is the first wedding between a transsexual woman and a gay man,” said the 31-year-old groom, Ignacio Estrada. “We celebrate it at the top of our voices and affirm that this is a step forward for the gay community in Cuba.”
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Aya Kamikawa (born January 25th 1968) is the only openly trangender person to currently hold official office in Japan. She was elected as municipal official to Tokyo in 2003. When submitting her election application papers it is noted that she left a blank space for “sex.”
Despite the Japanese government announcing that they would continue to see her officially as male, Kamikawa stated she would work as a woman.
She was re-elected in 2007 for a second four-year-term seat.
She uses her official position to improve rights for women, children, the elderly, handicapped and LGBT people.
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Maki Yamazaki is a musician, artist and activist living in the UK. She is the creative mind behind Dr. Carmilla, a retrospective-futurist cabaret about a lesbian vampire in space, and also works as a producer and head of Silvana Studio.
Dr. Carmilla tells the twisted tales of a dystopian future following WWII having ended very differently. Her unique blend of dieselpunk cabaret and visual kei defies conventional classification and has been compared to the likes of Amanda Palmer, David Bowie, Nick Cave and Pink Floyd. From jazzed-up ballads of nuclear fallout, to the ever-unfolding, multiple-song stories of infection and love, her music invites audiences to laugh, cry or cringe in amusement.
- From The Uplink
Possibly the first openly out trans retrospective-futurist (ie. steampunk, dieselpunk, atompunk, etc.), Maki Yamazaki post blogs and vlogs about social justice concerning trans, feminist, disability and asexual issues.
She has also been interviewed recently by Bolt Magazine (date TBA) where she discusses some of these issues, and about her upcoming documentary ”All About Us (Art, Activism and People I Love)” in which she aims to raise awareness and promote art art and activism from members of minority groups, including a number of trans-identified individuals from across the world.
In 2009, Maki Yamazaki founded Trans-script in association with the Oxford City Amnesty International group. This event ran for Oxford’s Pride festivals during 2009 & 2010, where she ran and performed these events in collaboration with a number of other trans individuals, including the author, Roz Kaveney. The show inspired others to create another event for the London Pride festival by the same name in 2010.She also is involved with the queer, feminist burlesque collective, ‘Lashings of Ginger Beer’ which, although she now is locationally a lot further from now, she hopes to get more involved with again in the future.
Regarding issues of being openly out, Maki Yamazaki has to say in her own words:It’s not always easy being openly trans. You’re almost certainly going to run into some sort of trouble now and then, but this is something that is so incredibly important to me. After all, how am I supposed to have the same freedom and rights that cisgender people enjoy without those who have come before me as out trans people?
Stealth can really be important for a number of trans people, but personally? I can’t sit quietly and watch others suffer, especially not folk of my own community, and pretend that it’s all fine and dandy. The world is not okay and some of us have an opportunity to make a huge difference. It’s Transgender Remembrance Day today and we should think about how we’re going to protect those alive and prevent these tragedies from happening to anyone else. We can’t do that if all of us have our heads buried in the sand, even though, as I mentioned before, there are definitely those who, for various reasons, cannot be out.
Still, in my life I’ve seen the wonderful effect that being open can have. I’ve met a number of trans people who’ve been able to find the strength to transition through meeting me, which is one of the most fantastic things I can think of. Living your life the way that you need to is important.
I’ve also seen things change legally for the better, which is rarely, if ever, solely the work of cisgender individuals.
Maki Yamazaki is signed to Gilded Age Records and her website for Dr. Carmilla can be found here.
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Andrej Pejić
August 28, 1991Andrej is a model who would best be referred to as gender fluid/ androgynous.
He is male, though does not feel he has a strong identity and just wants to look beutiful, like a girl would. He has stated that he does not find gender important and just loves for who someone is.In the Paris fashion shows of January 2011 he walked both the men’s and women’s shows for Jean-Paul Gaultier (in a wedding dress) and the men’s shows for Marc Jacobs.
In May 2011, Andrej’s magazine cover for the New York-based magazine Dossier Journal - in which he is pictured taking off his shirt with his long blond locks in curlers - was ruled too risqué by US bookstores Barnes & Noble and Borders, which covered the image with an opaque sleeve. Concerns were expressed that customers would mistake him for a topless woman.
