TS/TV/CD Love Blog - Because Of Your Uniqueness

In a follow up to one of our articles - Transition A Story Of One Womans Change, activist Donna Rose was honored this week for her work in advocating for transgender equality in the workplace and the classroom by national nonprofit Campus Pride, according to a press release from the group.

Rose received the Voice Action Award and was the featured guest speaker at the closing dinner graduation ceremony of Campus Pride’s Summer Leadership Camp in Charlotte, N.C.

Donna Rose, formerly David Rosen outlined her struggles and triumphs in her best selling book Wrapped in Blue.

Technorati Tags: Transition, Donna Rose, transgender

Miss Tiffany’s, one of Thailand’s most famous all-male cabaret theaters, holds an annual beauty pageant in a gaudy Roman-pillared building in Pattaya, about 70 miles southeast of Bangkok. The transgender cabaret shows are popular with Asian and western tourists and regularly pack the 2000 seat auditoriums at both venues to see the Vegas and Parisian styled revues.

Since 1998 Miss Tiffany’s has held a transgender beauty pageant for their world famous ladyboys or katoeys, that draws contestants from all over Thailand, and is a fundraiser for Thailand’s Royal Sponsored AIDS Foundation. In addition part of its mission is to promote acceptance of transgender people worldwide.

The pageant has come a long way. The inaugural one couldn’t even get local TV time while the 10th anniversary version, had the finals televised live across Thailand and drew an estimated 25 million viewers.

The beautiful ladyboys are perfectly made up, coiffed and draped in glamorous gowns, convincingly masking their hidden truth that they were all born boys. Through extensive plastic surgery and hormone popping, Thai men are expert at transforming themselves into transsexuals with long, lithe limbs, silky skin and supreme femininity.

Thailand is a predominantly Buddhist country but is widely tolerant of gays, transvestites and transsexuals

Technorati Tags: Miss Tiffany, transgender, ladyboys, katoeys, Thailand, transsexuals, transvestites

The following is an exert from an article by Angela Cara Pancrazio

Meet Donna Rose, a former jock who could bench press 300 pounds, who sometimes feels invisible as a woman.

When David Rosen became Donna Rose, the people in charge of the human resources department at her company didn’t know what to think. Nor did her colleagues. Lots has changed since then.

Corporations across the country are working to extend workplace protections to transgender employees, and Donna often shares her personal story to help managers understand the new challenges that many know nothing about. Transgender workers are becoming more visible at all employment levels. While companies don’t keep such statistics, it is estimated that 1,000 people seek sexual-reassignment surgery every year and as many as 40,000 postoperative transsexuals are living in the United States. Experts believe there are at least three to five times as many transsexuals who don’t have surgery.

In a hot pink floral dress, Donna Rose is a commanding presence as she stands in front of a room filled with dozens of managers and human-resources leaders with Eastman Kodak Co. She has her laptop queued up, filled with pictures that illustrate the message she has been asked to deliver to the Fortune 500 company.

When Donna was growing up as David, or Dave as everyone called him, inside she wasn’t sure what she was. She thought there was no one else like her. It was a lonely existence, trying to find others like herself who couldn’t understand what was going on inside. There were no resources. By personalizing her story to audiences across the country, she is doing for others what would have helped her decades ago.

Donna was born David Guy Rosen on Feb. 22, 1959. The first son of a theoretical biophysicist and a nurse, David never failed to meet expectations. As a child and then a teenager, he excelled as an athlete.

He later started a career in the booming high-tech industry and married. A son soon followed.

Then, 40 years after living his life as a man, David decided he could no longer ignore the gender issues that he had done his best to hide and repress since his youth. He began to embark upon the path that would lead him to Donna, his true self.

Donna began by bearing witness on her own life. She captured it all in her journal, which was eventually published as a memoir, Wrapped in Blue. Numerous speaking engagements followed the publication of the book, which she inscribed with one of her favorite quotations from the French Nobel Prize author Andre Gide:

“It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not.” Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: Donna Rose, transgender, transsexuals

In both the United States and Illinois Senate, Barack Obama has a long commitment to supporting the LGBT community—and specifically the transgender community. Most recently, here is what he said when issuing his statement on Pride month:

“It’s time to live up to our founding promise of equality by treating all our citizens with dignity and respect. Let’s enact federal civil rights legislation to outlaw hate crimes and protect workers against discrimination based upon sexual orientation and gender identity or expression. . .

“We are ready to accomplish these goals because of the courage and persistence of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people who have been working every day to achieve equal rights. The gay couple who demand equal treatment in our family laws as they raise their children; the lesbian soldier who wants nothing more than to serve her country openly and honestly; the transgender workers who ask for the simple dignity of being judged by the quality of their work. Generations of LGBT Americans, at once ordinary and extraordinary, have made possible this moment in our history. With leadership and hard work, we can fulfil the promise of equality for all.”

–Sen. Barack Obama, June 6, 2008

The National Stonewall Democrats have set up a specific page to track donations from the transgender community to Senator Obama’s campaign.

If you’d like to donate, you can DO IT HERE

Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, LGBT, lesbian, gay, bisexual, Democrat, transgender, Senator Obama

Shinata Sangha is from England, she is regarded as the worlds first and most established Indian Transgender Beauty Queen and Supermodelin history.

Shinata Sangha’s wish, as a child, that he wanted to be Miss India and then win the Miss World Contest

Shinata has won over 14 International Beauty Pageants including Miss UK Transvestite 2006, Miss Glamour Queen UK 2006, Miss Gay India 2007, Outstanding Achievement Award Winner Queen of Nations 2007, T-girl of the year 2008, 2nd runner up Miss Mango Tree International 2007, 2nd runner up Miss Alternative London 2007 just to name a few and can now add the prestigious Miss Transvestite 2008 to his accomplishments.

There’s no question that Shinata is one of the most established South Asian transgender women living in the world today. Shinata has appeared on over 10 television documentary shows and appeared in over 80 International magazine and newspapers. Shinata has modelled creations by top Indian and western designers from around the world.

Technorati Tags: England, Indian, Transgender, Supermodel, Miss Transvestite