Transpride: Get Out & Get Proud

Transgender Day of Remembrance 2009

Erin discusses TDOR and what it means to her as a transwoman.

cassket:

http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/Celebrated_genital_surgery_doc_retires-7971.aspx

At the end of November, one of the world’s most celebrated gender reassignment surgeons retired after more than 30 years of performing genital reconstruction and other transition-oriented surgeries. His work has profoundly changed the lives of thousands of trans men and women all over the world.

“We take care of them as if they were our children, our brothers and our sisters,” Dr Yvon Ménard once said of his team at Gender Reassignment Surgery (GRS) Montreal.

Skills of Ménard’s calibre aren’t developed overnight. He has earned an international reputation for his surgical innovations, having refined his techniques year by year, since first encountering genital reconstruction during his surgical residency in 1971.

At the time, it was difficult to find a place to do genital reconstruction, as hospital administrator often looked unfavourably on a surgeon’s decision to undertake the work. But Ménard felt strongly about the positive effects the surgeries could have on the quality of life of his patients; he carried on despite the challenges.

In the ’70s, Ménard did only a few transition-related surgeries. By the ’80s, he had many more trans patients — word began to spread about the care he took in his surgical work and his welcoming and compassionate bedside manner.

Since 1996, gender reassignment surgeries have made up the lion’s share of Ménard’s work — in fact, that year he had to hire a second surgeon, Dr Pierre Brassard, to keep up with the demand.

The combined full- and part-time staff at GRS Montreal’s facilities now numbers about 70 people.

These days, GRS Montreal’s facilities are consolidated in a three-building strip on a quiet sidestreet in Montreal’s north end. Patients need only walk — or take a short wheelchair ride — about 50 yards to get from the hospital to the nearby recovery facility, a two-storey red-brick building reminiscent of a bed and breakfast. This is a dorm of sorts — where meals, stories, hopes and fears are shared leading up to surgery and during recovery.

“The whole thing was a great experience, from beginning to end,” says Catherine Purdie, tearing up as she talks about the community she encountered during her recovery from bottom surgery at GRS Montreal in 2008.

“There was a lady from Manitoba who had surgery the same day I did. On the Tuesday, there was a young woman from Texas and a lady from California. Each of us, at some point, went through a tough time, and everybody supported everybody. We created a little community there. I felt very sad leaving — it felt like a home away from home… just a big family.”

“While I was there, I met trans women from all over Canada, the US and Europe who were there to see Dr Ménard and Dr Brassard,” says Charlie Hoo, a trans man living in Ottawa, about his 2006 experience of top surgery at GRS Montreal. “I think that’s when I realized just how important the clinic was. People travelled across the ocean to have surgery there.”

Despite the sense of loss that Ménard’s retirement might stir up in the community, the services at GRS Montreal will continue. Now 69 years old, Ménard is handing the reins over to Brassard, who studied with Ménard during his surgical residency at Montreal’s Hôpital Sainte-Justine in 1986 and has worked alongside Ménard as his business partner and protégé for the last 13 years.

fuckyeahftms:

Gael Gundin Guevara was born and raised in Panamá City, Panamá. Gael immigrated to the United States at the age of 19. Gael is an organizer for Transforming Justice, a national coalition that works to address the root causes of imprisonment, criminalization, and poverty in transgender communities. Gael also serves as the Community Organizing Coordinator and a collective member of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP).

fuckyeahftms:

Transgender rights campaigns and supporters protest outside the Stonewall Awards, UK

shaanmichael:notaiden:

I already did one of these for the women, but apparently it needs spelled out for the gay men as well because I just got fifteen hits in one day for this question.

Seriously lads, liking a transguy is still liking a guy.  The lack of a penis irritates me just as much as it irritates you.  Actually, it most likely irritates me more.  Imagine how you’d feel if you woke up one day without your dick.

Are there some cultural differences?  It depends on the guy.  I was raised in gay male circles and know more about gay history than most gay men my own age.  Other transguys were into women before they came out and are still learning about interaction and social cues.  Just like with any other guy, a particular transguy may or may not be your type.  We’re all different though so don’t assume because you didn’t mesh with one transguy you won’t mesh with any of us.

A few myths to dispel: No, we are not straight women trying to “turn” you.  You’re not thatattractive and it’s really not worth the effort.  Do you seriously think we decided to start shooting ourselves up with steroids and chopping off parts of our bodies just to get dates?  It’s a bit much to go through, especially since many of us were more popular before we came out.

No, we are not the stepping stone between gay and straight.  We are dudes, if you like one of us you still like a dude.  You don’t get to use us as a way to figure out your own sexuality, just as straight men don’t get to use gay hookers to figure out theirs.  It’s rude, it’s cruel, and it’s ignoring that we’re just as human as you are.

No, we are not all bottoms.  Some of us are tops, some of us switch.  It depends on the guy just like anyone else.

No, we are not all former butch lesbians.  Like I said before, I was raised with gay guys.  I have no lesbian-dar and wouldn’t know what to do in a lesbian group.  Most of the time I end up accidentally offending someone.  Plus, I’m not butch.  At all.

Yes, we do like cock just as much as the next gay guy.  If we didn’t we wouldn’t be hitting on you, would we?

We’re guys.  Guys with a particular medical condition that requires a particular set of treatment options.  Other than that we’re not all that different from you.

jamesdoesthedew:

YOU KNOW ITS HOT.

fuckyeahtrannies:seaponies:clingtomymouth:

Not a single person on this planet is born a woman. Becoming a woman, for those who willingly or unwillingly undertake the process, is torturous, magical, bewildering – and intensely political. In his essay ‘Mama Cash: Buying and Selling Genders’, transvestite Charles Anders explains that: “Transgender people… understand more than anyone the high cost of gender, having adopted identities as adult neophytes. People often work harder than they think to maintain the boy/girl behaviours expected of them. You may have learned through painful trial-and-error not to use certain phrases, or to walk a certain way. After a while, learned gender behaviour becomes almost second nature, like trying to compensate for a weak eye. Again, transgender people are just experiencing what everyone goes through.”

Penny Red: No Feminism Without Trans Feminism: for The F Word

For all the MtFs following us :)