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What’s in a name? Sometimes it’s the very stuff of life itself.
One thing is certain, the more public ones transition is the more likely the idiots and the purposely ignorant are to come crawling out of the woodwork to proclaim the heresy that has supposedly been committed against them.
I should know.
The truth is that most people wouldn’t know, and in many cases wouldn’t believe it if they were told.
Transsexual men and women work in every legitimate profession you can think of. They are writers, college professors, teachers, musicians, artists, physicians, surgeons, lawyers, engineers, etc.. some are even the owners and CEO’s of large, well known corporations.
They are parents, grandparents and God Love them they are someone’s child too, but most important of all is that they are human beings, who deserve to be loved and treated with respect… just as do those who run about complaining about these so-called abominations. We are all God’s children. Let us not forget that.
Thursday morning, Mike Penner, a well known sports writer for at the LA Times, announced that she is a transsexual, and will be known as Christine Daniel’s.
In her coming-out column, she wrote;
Transsexualism is a complicated and widely misunderstood medical condition. It is a natural occurrence — unusual, no question, but natural.
Recent studies have shown that such physiological factors as genetics and hormonal fluctuations during pregnancy can significantly affect how our brains are “wired” at birth.
As extensive therapy and testing have confirmed, my brain was wired female.
A transgender friend provided the best and simplest explanation I have heard: We are born with this, we fight it as long as we can, and in the end it wins.
I gave it as good a fight as I possibly could. I went more than 40 hard rounds with it. Eventually, though, you realize you are only fighting yourself and your happiness and your mental health — a no-win situation any way you look at it.
When you reach the point when one gender causes heartache and unbearable discomfort, and the other brings more joy and fulfillment than you ever imagined possible, it shouldn’t take two tons of bricks to fall in order to know what to do.
It didn’t with me.
With me, all it took was 1.99 tons.
For more years than I care to count, I was scared to death over the prospect of writing a story such as this one. It was the most frightening of all the towering mountains of fear I somehow had to confront and struggle to scale.
How do you go about sharing your most important truth, one you spent a lifetime trying to keep deeply buried, to a world that has grown familiar and comfortable with your façade?
To a world whose knowledge of transsexuals usually begins and ends with Jerry Springer’s exploitation circus?
Well, Christine, you took the first step into the rest of your life.
Welcome.
Oh, and once again Graphic Thanks to Toni DiTerlizzi for ‘E is for Evil’.
I’ve loved music since before I could walk. I grew up in a house where almost everyone played an instrument (except my grandfather… who said he played on the floor and did that count?… har har) in a time when the Big Bands were really Swinging. I also learned to love symphonic music and the symphony orchestras, opera and the ballet.
Too tall for tap shoes they said. [SIGH...]
When I was very small I sat down in front of a piano keyboard and found out that I could make music… just not as well as others I’d heard. As I grew up I picked up an instrument that I was much better on (french horn), and finally one that seemed truly suited to me (trumpet).
I wanted to be professional musician but I found out I’d be able to pay the bills better as a physician or an engineer… or both. I still play, all these many years later. I’m no competition to the pro’s, but I get by, and from time to time I even get a gig or two.
I still love the big band sound but I love jazz… and piano jazz is still my favourite. I love listening to good piano jazz musicians like Marian McPartland. and her guests on NPR’s Piano Jazz programme.
One jazz pianist in particular is near and dear to me, not only as an artist but also as a friend. Her Name is Jessica Willians, and if you’ve not heard her music then you’ve missed something special.
P.S.
If you’ve got a fair voice, like to sing and happen to be in the Lake Merrit area of Oakland, California, drop in on one of my favourite piano players, Mr. Rodney Dibble… appearing nightly at The Alley. You might even learn a few lyrics you never knew.
Tell him Dr.Gwen says hello and sends her love.
The horror of the senselesss killings at Virginia Tech University on Monday is slowly beginning to sink in.
Though the press has focused mainly on the student deaths, there was an even greater tragedy within the story… for among the victims were three engineering professors known world-wide for their contributions to their fields of interest.
Liviu Librescu: an internationally known lecturer on aeronautical engineering. His impressive credentials fill a very long page on Virginia Tech’s Web site.
Kevin Granata: a professor of engineering science and mechanics at Blacksburg, was a veteran. Granata’s research in biomechanics and robotics is well known to most in the industries.
G.V. Loganathan was an award-winning professor of civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech.
The engineering profession and the world are poorer for their passing,
