TransPanTastic: Transgender parenting, work, marriage, transition, and life!

George is a gnome, and heteronormativity is weird AF. The human brain has a propensity to fill in gaps in available knowledge with inferences based on prior experience. We categorize things and synthesize ideas to assign meaning to things we don't fully understand. But when someone's entire experience is comprised of only one type of experience, they may apply inaccurate preconceptions to those of...

TSA PreCheck is a great benefit to people who transition. We highly recommend it, if it's available to you. It made a lot of our recent travel less stressful, as has George's male presentation.  Child#0 is a great benefit to our sanity as we deal with nonsense caused by both the nine-year-old toddler and the seventy-year-old toddlers. And we finally get them onto the mic! (We refer to Child#0 as "...

When We Rise is a docudrama miniseries, in four double-episodes, that highlights specific leaders in, and key moments of, the American historical struggle for LGBTQIA+ equality. After watching it, we reminisced about our own experiences as we lived through many of the events that were explored in the show, and how George's experiences with the Gay and Lesbian communities in his young adulthood wer...

The lots-o-travel month has come to an end, and George thought he could finally get back to being productive at work. But he was wrong. Thankfully, his male privilege made life easier when trying to help problem-solve for a family member who was caught driving down the highway in the wrong direction!  We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with anyone who finds it beneficial, bu...

When Child#2 went to stay with his mother at Christmas break, we knew there was a possibility that he would be back. We knew that his mother's family were rich, entitled, control freaks. We knew he was a bigger challenge than they were expecting. That doesn't change our disappointment that he won't get the care he was promised. Happy spring break, friends! We are here to share our entire intersect...

That new dick we mentioned a couple weeks back? Yeah, George tried it. Medical adhesive mishaps and prosthetic penis shenanigans ensued. Fun was had. And by fun, we mean awkwardness and discomfort.  We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with anyone who finds it beneficial, but we want to know what you connect with the most. You can let us know by clicking to a one-question anon...

Child#2's other mom has asked for him to move with her out of state, and we have no good reason to refuse. But the adventures of raising our most challenging child don't stop just because he's a couple hundred miles away. George went to visit him back before we went to Gallifrey One, and we recap the challenges up to the time he returned, from dealing with controlling ex-in-laws, to informing the...

George's old-guy problems haven't quit, although we get more gendery observations on them. He observes the self-segregation of people by gender, considering his place in one of the two groups that folks tend to segregate themselves into. People who've known George for a long time, but haven't seen him in a while, react to the "effectiveness" of his transition. We consider the struggles of dressing...

In case you missed it on our social media, we attended Gallifrey One again this year. After the usual three-ring-circus known as "the logistics of leaving our responsibilities behind", we brought pronoun ribbons ( pronounribbons.org ) and were lucky enough to find some folks to pass them out on our behalf. Then we went on about our merry con-going, to encounter various awkward situations, and as m...

At the time of recording, George was supposed to be preparing to visit Child#2 at his mother's house, out of state. But emergency rooms kept happening. Thankfully, not for him this time. We consider, for a moment, the oddities of being treated as male in these situations, how it is different from his prior treatment, and then return to managing the situations.  We are here to share our entire inte...

George's body has seemed to age a little more rapidly in the past few years, and while we're not sure whether that's a result of HRT, or stress, or environment, or a little of each, the result is the same. He weighs less, but his pants are tighter. His back and neck pain have increased. And the process of finding a mattress that will better support his aging back has been a long one.  We are here...

We attended the women's march solidarity event for our region, and it was pretty cool. George is a feminist, a TransDad, and a man who was perceived as female for decades, all of which make him a heck of a feminist father. But how to act on that feminism? How does one act as an ally and accomplice in movements for the rights of the oppressed, when one is a member of the dominant (and historically...

George's insurance plan rolled over at the new year, and he needed to re-authorize a prescription. Child#2's prescriptions may not be covered for some time until his new insurance is effective in his new state. And Republicans in congress don't care who gets insurance or not, so long as they get to enforce their expectations and worldview. But no matter what is wrong, we know that some woman, some...

We continue our conversation with the Gender Rebels this week, Kath and Faith discuss their experiences travelling before and after transition, and we observe the nature of the transition workload. So many things to do, and it's great that they all get to happen, but damn, it's a lot of work! You can hear the Gender Rebels at  http://genderrebels.podbean.com/  where they host a weekly question-and...

We can has guests?! Sweet! Today we sat down with the amazing ladies of the Gender Rebels podcast. Two transitioning people and their two partners swap stories of, among other things, the mental flexibility required to manage various stages of "outage".  You can hear the Gender Rebels at  http://genderrebels.podbean.com/  where they host a weekly question-and-answer podcast that explores life outs...

♪♫ On the adjusted date of Christmas, the universe gave to me: twelve-hour workdays, eight forgotten presents, five diabetic crashes, two cases of norovirus, and a sex toy infomercial at the hospital! ♪♫   As usual, we celebrated Christmas on a day that was not 25 December, but as not-usual it went fairly smoothly. The fun didn't start until later, but when it did, George's status as male made his...

When Child#2 was adopted by George and his ex-wife, they had no clue just how uniquely challenging he would become. We are now preparing for him to move out of state with her, with hope for his improved wellbeing as well as for our sanity. Recordkeeping and other issues could arise, however, when George is still listed on the kid's birth certificate as his mother, and his actual mother isn't liste...

Can we find a home for the surprise dogs? Will George's birthday combine with Child#3's birthday well? Will Child#0 come to live with us? Is George irritable because of decreased testosterone? Holiday JOY for the whole freaking family abounds, but we don't get to have our holidays yet.  We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with anyone who finds it beneficial, but we want to kn...

Christmas giraffes and flamingoes and dinosaurs are a perfect wrap-up for this bizarre year. George's birthday present made him smile, but he still deals with more irritability than usual as we finish Child#3's birthday celebrations. Did we mention that this is the final section of the discussion we started two weeks ago?  We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with anyone who f...

Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we have birthdays and other to-do's that are unavoidable. The holiday dinner was nice, and comparatively quiet, but the string of gatherings started to pinch George's introvert sensibilities beyond managing, bringing us back to the questions about the effects of HRT on his emotional restraint.  We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with anyon...

As we prepared for Thanksgiving and the rest of the holiday season, we continue to be responsible for other humans with underdeveloped self-care skills. Between a nine-year-old with fecal incontinence and a seventy-year-old with verbal incontinence, we are having a grand old time! We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with anyone who finds it beneficial, but we want to know wha...

The election results and the changing dynamic among the bigot class have made the world a scarier place, but life keeps chugging along. George is sick, but that doesn't keep him from being responsible for his elderly relatives, who have new adventures with recurring themes.  We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with anyone who finds it beneficial, but we want to know what you...

It's okay to like things, to dislike things, to like or dislike people, even to have opinions on things or people. But to paraphrase a recent viral tweet, "Opinions are for things like 'I dislike coffee', not 'I dislike black people'." It is generally frowned frowned upon, and for good reason, to dislike people, for certain traits that have been historically used to justify their disenfranchisemen...

Did you meet us at some event? What should I do if my kid is trans? Does Jess have any voice tips for MtF's? Does George have any packing preferences for FtM's? Will we host your client on our podcast? We tried for six questions, but only got to five. The tutorial video for the homemade STP is at youtube.com/watch?v=TLiaVVihEn4  and we have a longer discussion of George's initial experiences with...

We continue discussing ALL THE THINGS that are kicking George's butt lately, between finding out who ate the cake, and taking the elders to vote, and continuing his game of "which doctor does mom think we're visiting today", he still feels more than a bit overwhelmed. Which has made him more than a bit irritable. And we still haven't settled on why he is more irritable lately, but there's likely s...