Update.

Well, I lost my first trial as a lawyer. I felt crummy. But the judge said I did a good job for the first time. The supervisor of the misdemeanor section of the DAs office -- my opposing counsel's boss -- said my closing argument was "bordering on brilliant." The jury (after they delivered the verdict) said I need to speak up/be louder and be more charismatic, but said I mostly did a good job. Not good enough, obviously, but at least my peers think I don't suck. I'd be happier if I were a winner.

Meanwhile, my doctor informed me (after finding a suspiciously tender area during a physical last week) that my liver enzyme tests came back normal (actually more normal than previously measured) and that I am not dying of hepatitis, which I was afraid of.

So, just for those keeping score:

DA's Office, 1. Me, 0.

Me, 1. Death, 0.

I guess I can live with that.

I am now the owner of a 2005 Toyota Prius with low miles

Houston unemployment down to 8.5 percent. I'll care when I land a better job.

Its ghost day on the Discovery, which we are obligated to keep on our demo televisions at work. The shows ('A HAUNTING' etc) absolutely drive me bananas. They are a bunch of unverifiable, unfalsifiable claims stitched together with amazing leaps in illogic and drowning in melodrama. These credulous dramatizations, I believe, simply enable pathological people by giving them a forum to share their delusions (or lies) with a gullible audience. What a waste.

Im totally stoked - I am the only one at my store totally fabulous enough to be instantly approved for a RadioShack credit card. Associate Training rocks!

Nessa thinks its probably the transmission. No tranny jokes please.

I believe my car aka the clown car aka the tomato may be headed to the junkyard. :-(

I have bad news Z. I believe the clown car is dead. And not funny ironic death but death death. Tomorrow I will have to go to a mechanic so that last rites can be administered. Grieve for my little red wagon Z you are stronger than me.

Yes we did!

Time to print up the "I'm With Stupak!" t-shirts. Also, Lady Gaga Lawsuit

So it looks like this healthcare thing is going to pass.

Meanwhile, real news for liti-gaga-tors. I've decided to post links to the Fusari complaint and the Germanotta cross-complaint. At some point I am going to read through these and actually come to understand them.

It's No Hoax

Buzz Aldrin to appear on "Dancing With The Stars."

Hopefully will do better than Cloris Leachman.

Coogs versus Terps in 30 minutes!

It's not me, it's you!

The hepcats were aware of this, oh, about a month ago, but because I'm only paying semi-attention to what the APA does, I just now came to my attention that the proposed draft for the DSM V changes "gender identity disorder" (what it says on my medical paperwork) to "gender incongruence." In other words, the APA is proposing to say I'm not sick, just eccentric.

This is no doubt a victory for the GID Reform movement. Genderkid comments:

This is a big improvement: the revision authors are stating that the problem is between a person’s identity and societal pressures, rather than within said person’s identity. I don’t know how they’ll manage to keep this diagnosis within a manual of mental disorders once they’ve recognized that it’s a larger societal issue, as well as a physical one. I guess they don’t know where to put trans people, yet they feel like they have to put us somewhere to maintain a sense of order. We’re just a reminder that human beings are a whole rather than distinct bits –bodies, minds, social beings– to be dealt with separately.

Speaking of which, I had this letter to the editor published in today's Galveston Daily News, in response to Heber Taylor's editorialabout Josh Davis's letter to the editor on Sunday:

Gays Shouldn’t Be ‘Kept In The Closet’

Thank you for the editorial by Heber Taylor (“Tolerance such a bad thing?” The Daily News, March 14). I (almost necessarily) disagree with the letter to the editor by Josh Davis (“Keep the gay lifestyle out of Galveston,” The Daily News, March 14).

I’m a transgender, which means I feel strongly inside that I’m a woman, despite the fact that my birth certificate, driver’s license, etc. say otherwise. I still go to work as a man, and that is how many of my friends know me, even though I have felt strongly since I was a teenager that this isn’t a correct (or at least, fully adequate) description of who I am. In the past year, I have started to come out of the closet and have been truly amazed by the warmth I have felt from my friends and family.

Mr. Davis yearns for a past “when deviant behavior was kept in the privacy of your own home.” Looking forward at how I intend to live out the rest of my life, I cannot accept that — what kind of life is being a shut-in hermit?

Moreover, an article about Galveston published a few years ago described our city as a place where one could go do grocery shopping “in drag.” I can attest from personal experience that this is true; but still, a life lived at home, at the supermarket or (for a little variety) the “gay bars” still is not a particularly fulfilling life. Why settle?

I recently filed for city council in District 2 (under my “boy” name, since that is, after all, still my legal name). The main reason why I’m running is because I have some ideas about protecting our city’s environment and our neighborhoods, and about how a good, just and moral city government ought to work.

But, I also filed because I feel it’s essential to assert that, “alternative lifestyle” or not, I’m a whole person who will not be chained down by other people’s prejudice.

For what it’s worth, I too have an extended family. Many of my gay and transgender friends have families. The best way for Galveston to present itself as a pro-family community is to welcome all families. This may not make everyone comfortable, but it’s the right thing to do.

And thank you for saying that in your editorial, Mr. Taylor.

James “Gwen” Dallas
Galveston

Link Dump

Football is a sport for girls and boys.


Brains and Eggs calls it the "Texas Textbook Massacre." Among the victims of conservative political correctness, "transvestites, transsexuals, and who knows what else." Also, Thomas Jefferson.

Yup.

Transgingerism

I decided to go redder. I'm still a little thin up top, and lightening the color should reduce the contrast between hair and scalp (making it less apparent that it's thin... wait, why am I telling you this?)

Besides, it's almost St. Patrick's Day and everyone loves an Irish girl!

Online...

This seems to be pretty much how people online view me sometimes:

http://www.explosm.net/comics/1982/

Springsteen does "Galveston Bay" live

From a couple months back.

EPIC KAYBAY FAIL

KBH just conceded to Rick Perry.

Omg I GOING TO HAVE TO FIND THE US v CANADA gold medal game (I missed it) online!

Craigslist

How could such a good idea go so terribly, terribly wrong?

(also, why no "t4w" category, guys?)

Obama hasnt killed MARS exploration yet - in fact the Chronicle says he is about to announce a new MARS plan. Life imitating the Chapelle Show?

The campaign is humming along

Things you wait a lifetime for

Core consumer prices down for the first time since I was 8 months old (December 1982).

Not so every-day-low-low-prices.

Yabba Dabba Doo

Noted without comment.

Met some of the GAIN folks today

Ok all - i checked old returns and in the last election Colbert got only 120 votes and only 199 votes in 2007. This is also pre-Ike so her base is smaller than that today. If we can get 200 VOTES then we have an EXCELLENT chance of winning this race. I set up a facebook group and we need to get all our friends signed up ASAP. Let's do this! Leeeeeeeeroy JENKINS!!!!

J and J MOBILE on Broadway are awesome!

Flip the Script

Today has been an odd day.

The weather was pleasant (a little cold this morning, for what it's worth) but still night-and-day different from how it has been much of this winter.

The letter carrier, for reasons unknown, decided to put my landlord's mail in my mailbox and my mail (apparently) in his.

I voted in a Republican Primary:


The stench apparently takes two years to wear off.

And then finally I decided to give Domino's Pizza a fair shake. Normally I hate Domino's, but they claim to be better than Papa John's. See:



The thing is, their pizza has really improved. I am still duty-bound to assert the superiority of Papa John's, but I think they have done enough to stave off the pizzapocalypse.

It is FAT TUESDAY and it is also about time for me to lose some weight.

Dave is gonna be my campaign treasurer! He is the MAN.

Best. News. Evar.

My doctor informed me that my testosterone is now in normal female range (so the estrogen dosing must be just about right!).

Random Thoughts

1. Is Valentine's Day (or at least the way it's marketed commercially) sexist? Why do all Valentine's Day ads seem to involve some desperate guy struggling to come up with some last-minute-but-wonderful Valentine's Day gift for his girlfriend (rather than the other way around?) And of course, the commercial invisibility of same-sex couples.

2. My friend Andrea asked me to critique her thoughts on the State of The Union address. It came out as a long-rambling-incoherent babble... and then we started talking about Iran. The short story with regard to the Islamic Republic is that I believe everything NPR says.

3. I have a new campaign e-mail address, and am working on appointing my friend Dave to be campaign treasurer. Let the hate-mail flow!

4. Neil Gaiman to write an episode of Doctor Who (probably early Series 6, coming in 2011). Hoping it will be as good as Douglas Adams' outing in 1979's The City of Death episodes.

5. Cristan Williams, who is always enlightening, sends out an e-mail comparing the number of Google searches for the term "shemale" (as in pr0n) versus "transgender" (as in moi, your webmistress) and comes to a startling conclusion -- although I suppose some might write it off as mere Kirk-and-Madsen-talking-point drivel:

Libya is the #1 place on earth that looks for shemales. In Libya, it’s against the law to be GLBT (punishable by up to 5 years in prison).

Here’s more on the top 10:

Pakistan: While transgender people just won a major equal rights victory, anything deemed to be a "homosexual" is punishable by death.

Sudan: If you are found to be GLBT in Sudan, you can receive up to 100 lashes and/or death.

Czech Republic: The Czech Republic is actually relatively good on TG issues.

Afghanistan: The penalty for being TG is death.Yemen: offers torture, public flogging and death to it's queer community.

Bangladesh: The penalty for being TG can range from ostracization, torture, life imprisonment and death.

Syria: Homosexuality is illegal and TGs are often viewed as being homosexual. However, the government has allowed TS people to transition.

Sri Lanka: While being TG is not illegal, TGs are often victims of harassment and discrimination.

Egypt: While the government has allowed a few TS women to transition, it has outlawed music by the Israeli transsexual, Dana International and the topic is very taboo. Individuals suspected of being gay can be locked up, tortured and sentenced to hard labor.

It should also be noted that all of these countries are exceedingly religious. So, here’s a question: Does living in a hyper-religious culture predispose one to TG porn?

Well... On an impulse I filed for Galveston City Council today - I want to be an advocate for LGBT rights and the environment as well as affordablr housing.

Run Away!!!!!

I have to confess to not having read Lori Gottlieb's book, but I did read her essay back when it was fresh. The new book-length version has attracted it's fair share of criticism lately; one of the more thoughtful critiques, by Julia Baird, is here.

Gottlieb is right, I think, in the basic point that the standards we set for ourselves -- and our partners -- can be unreasonable and have negative consequences. We live in a second-best world, and part of maturing is learning to accept things about people we may not necessary like or agree with.

But this passage from Baird's critique caught my eye:

This twisted thinking makes my head hurt. First, the only evidence offered to prove that women expect too much is anecdotal. Are some women too picky? Sure. People are shallow, unkind, and judgmental. But I don't know any women who have checklists. If they do, I imagine it's something most grow out of. If you will only date someone who looks like Brad Pitt, "earns a gazillion dollars, and makes your knees go weak every time you're together," as Gottlieb writes, then you're pirobably either 20 or stupid. Most of us just want to love and be loved. The data show that when it comes to money and education, women are in fact lowering their standards. A Pew study released Jan. 19 found that in 1970, 4 percent of wives earned more than their husbands. In 2007, 22 percent did. The percentage of women who had more education than their husbands rose from 20 to 28.

I had heard about this poll before and I had embraced it for two reasons: first, because obviously it would be nice to have a sugarmama; but second, because it shows some progress vis-a-vis gender roles.

That said, the point Baird is trying to make -- or at least the one I think she's trying to make -- is that there are some women out there who really need to raise their standards. It's really not a material issue and I wish Baird hadn't used economic figures. One of my friends makes a lot more money than her husband, but her beau is truly a sweet man -- a real catch. On the other hand, I have a co-worker (on my night job) whose boyfriend is in prison. And a lady in my neighborhood whose "man" doesn't seem to do a whole lot except disappear randomly and bum money off of her to buy pot. A friend-of-a-friend whose ex/baby daddy is bona fide bonkers. And don't even get me started on the boys my sister used to date (before snagging my brother-in-law, who I approve of greatly).

If "women need men the way fish need bicycles," then these women need these men about the way a fish needs the Gorton's Fisherman to show up in one of his industrial-sized floating fish-stick factories.

The point being, I can see how Lori Gottlieb may have a point. But, at the same time, if being overly picky about men is a problem.... then it really must be a nice problem to have. You know, right on par with not having enough space in the garage to stack all your hundred-dollar bills.

(I will allow more intellectual chicas the task of applying third-wave feminist notions, e.g. the intersectionality of class, to this debate.)

Getting benefits, paying off credit cards, having viable plans to pay off student loans... All these things reduce prole class consciousness

I finally have a job with health insurance (a really crummy plan actually, but...). No thanks to the whining footdraggers in DC or Obama's listless leadership.

Shamiwow: listening to the Democratic gubernatorial debate and impressed with Shami's passionate liberalism -- that said, White's pragmatism is what wins votes

Who dat that just won the Super Bowl?

MmmKayKayKay?

I actually signed up for "Women for Kay" recently. I wonder what Kay would think about that...

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/020610dntexgopwomen.3e00543.html

See, the thing is, Senator Hutchison is not really all that bad, but surrounded by a bunch of folks who are, for lack of a better word, a bunch of twits (I'm looking at you, Mrs. Palin).

I've voted for KayBay before. Because, frankly, voting for "Dancin'" Gene Kelley (back in 2000) seemed like more of a dereliction of my democratic duty than voting for a Republican.

She's not perfect, but KayBay has the guts to have, erm, nuance on the abortion issue. I'm not entirely sure her answers were coherent, but at least she didn't do the easy thing and demagogue the issue (I'm looking at you, Governor).

Women shouldn't vote for women just because women are women. But women should vote for a woman who is at least as competent as they guy she's running against.

Go Kay!

(Though I still reserve the right to - and probably will - vote for my former boss Bill White or Farouk Shami in the general election -- I don't really care who wins the Dem primary, because they're both good guys. And I'm definitely voting Kinky for Ag Comm if he wins his race!)

Yay internets

The Audacity of Nope!

So here's the deal and the premise of this blog:

1. John Gay, who is running for Congress from the 14th District of Texas (the seat is currently occupied by Dr. Ron Paul) came into my place-of-employ yesterday to introduce himself. Nice guy. Will probably vote for him in the primary.*

2. Homeboy and I disagree about a lot of stuff, though. I'm voting for the guy more as a protest and as a symbolic gesture in favor of grassroots commonsensicalism than ideology, or partisanship, or whatev.

3. I've often b.s.'ed about running for Congress. I went to law school and passed the bar exam, and although I decline to practice, being a lawyer makes me morally "fit" enough to be a legislator, right? I'm a (pre-transition, pre-op/non-op, MTF) transwoman, so you know that means I don't have any shocking skeletons in my closet (though I do have a lot of shoes). I still don't have a fantastic career yet, and you know what they say -- a politician is just a lawyer gone bad. And honey, I'm awful.

4. But I have more important things to do, like work (60 hours per week+), blog, play with my ham radios, do my tranny thang, find a girlfriend (yeah, I'm a big fat lesbian too), lose weight, watch football, lose weight WHILE watching football, etc etc.

5. So this blog is where I would say, what I would say, if I were campaigning for Congress. Also, other stuff.

* I actually consider myself a Democrat, and was a precinct chair and captain for Obama in 2008 before Hurricane Ike ruined everything. I'm voting in the GOP primary this year because it is the only way that I can legally vote against this guy twice in one year -- and boyhowdy, does he deserve every bit of scorn that I can throw.