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

George got some feedback on his self-introduction coming-out, and Jess sat thru a racial equity training at work. These experiences made us think about our own social and political leanings, how they became what they are, how we instill our values in our children, and how those values contrast with the smallish town we live in. We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with anyone...

A few weeks ago ( Episode #310 ), we discussed George's preparation for his "all about me" presentation in his weekly meeting, at which he would come out as trans to his colleagues. Today, we recap that experience. 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 o...

With three working adults in our household, we are privileged to each have a car. But when all three cars break down at the same time, of course they picked the time for which Jess' hysterectomy was scheduled. 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-qu...

George has wanted, for a while now, to be more "out" at work. Recently a teambuilding activity was introduced that may provide him the opportunity, but an overthinker like him still struggles with making it happen. 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 o...

Testosterone HRT has been known to thicken the blood, and George's hematocrit numbers are up. Jess is getting their hysterectomy, and also needs to manage their bloodwork, especially since their IUD hormones lowered their "good cholesterol" HDL. COVID-19 is making everything harder, and Jess' surgery is scheduled for the first week of school, but we'll muddle through like we always do.   We are he...

How do we help our child, who struggles to understand abstract concepts, realize that we won't like things just because they're about The Queers™? And when his other mom (who disappeared a year ago, after accusations of abuse didn't work out how she'd hoped) makes herself known again, how do we respond? And how do we help any other human ever, recognize the difference between fault and responsibil...

When will we go back to work in our offices? Will George's change in Testosterone dose help his mood and functioning? When will our kids go back to school? Why does George's blood test show decreased kidney functioning? Is our new neighbor queer? So much uncertainty, but talking about it helps with the anxiety of it.   We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with anyone who finds...

When new descriptive terms are championed by marginalized populations, the lifespan of those words is unknown. Eventually many of those words, however, become victims of the culture of marginalization and outlive their usefulness. Whether it's the change in language around ethnic minorities, gender and sexual minorities, or disability communities, it's important to be responsive to those changes t...

We believe that Black Lives Matter. Special needs parenting in a pandemic is somewhat prohibitive of attending marches or protests, so it's an odd feeling to be supportive from afar this round. That odd feeling, combined with the other oddities of our daily lives in quarantine, has caused George some strange stress dreams and given us cause to have discussions about our relationship that we've nev...

Many studies have shown that working from home can be more productive than at centralized locations like an office. Lately, lots of folks have been multi-tasking while working from home, and when we had an appliance repair that needed doing, George thought he'd be able to manage it without any trouble. The universe thought differently. We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with...

Because George is a civil servant, he is still working, even when gender makes things weird. Much of his job can be provided remotely, while simultaneously parenting and managing a challenging child's distance learning, but occasionally he does need to go to a place to do a thing. And of course, one place he had to go was a place where COVID-19 was confirmed just days thereafter. Our collaboration...

"A case of the Mondays" is the fictional ailment one might experience in an office job upon returning from a weekend. So why do George's Mondays seem longer now that he's working from home? The Pronouns Song that Jess referenced can be found at  youtube.com/watch?v=8Hb30PE1xgo . We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with anyone who finds it beneficial, but we want to know what...

It's George's 7th Manniversary! We talked about how things have changed over the past decade, as his hormones have changed, his body has changed, his brain has changed, and the way others perceive him has changed. 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 on...

Some months back, we thought it might be fun to plan something for our 300th episode. In the meanwhile, a global pandemic has basically cancelled all plans. George has been on testosterone for almost seven years, but survived an estrogen-dominated body and social standing for decades prior, so it still catches him off guard sometimes to be perceived as male, whether by others or by himself. We are...

While quarantined with a small human, George got to work mostly from home. Jess didn't, but they were only a little put out by it. Not only did Child#2's other mom decide to show back up after half a year starting drama again, but the boy decided to express curiosity about George's genitals. For previous notable instances of the "Dick Patrol", see Episode 100 and Episode 262 . We are here to share...

Reality is, some people are transgender. But what that means to each trans person is highly subjective. We discussed the way our gender affects the ways we interact with one another and the world, how we live up to social norms and cultural expectations, and how we sometimes choose not to. We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with anyone who finds it beneficial, but we want to...

We went to Gallifrey One, as we do every year in February. We help out some behind the scenes, and pay attention to the ways the LGBTQIA+ community is welcomed into the con. Between bringing the pronoun ribbons, parenting from afar, noticing women having apprehensive reactions to George's (cis-passing but intentionally visibly trans) masculinity, and Jess noticing others' reactions to the gender-a...

It often strikes George as slightly odd, how folks treat him now, compared to how they treated him prior to transition. It strikes him as downright bizarre, however, the excessively gendered ways in which they reinforce the genderedness of those interactions, especially after having had them pointed out. Whether it's at work, or at his endocrinologist, or at Jess' surgery, binary-minded cisgender...

Sometimes we have time and energy to devote to gender- and transition-related topics. Sometimes we have time and energy to use on our own personal development and enrichment. Other times, things like parenting take up all of our cognitive bandwidth. And with the challenges we've been experiencing recently, that parenting thing has gotten somewhat overwhelming. We are here to share our entire inter...

George has mentioned before that he suffers from depression, which is slightly more common among members of the LGBTQIA+ community, although the degree of prevalence and correlation varies according to supportiveness of family and community. We discussed his experiences as both a patient and practicing clinician in the mental health industry, the strategies he employs to lessen symptoms when depre...

Everyone has expectations of what their journey through adolescence will be like, and what the adult outcomes will be. For those of us who experience more than one puberty, we have more awareness of our prior expectations as we began our second adolescence. George explains what he thought would happen, and we discuss how that compares with what actually happened. We are here to share our entire in...

No, not "Be Best". That's hypocritical nonsense. George's gender is not hypocritical, and it's the most bestest thing in his whole world. Even with a trip to Chicago TARDIS, and seeing old friends, and getting deadnamed, and dealing with some of the more negative aspects of masculinity, transition is still his most best thing. We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with anyone w...

Jess is feeling some kind of way after TDOR, and not quite ready for Thanksgiving, so George reminds them of all the things we have to be thankful for. We referenced: - Gerry Brooks' "Teacher Spouse" bits, see one at  facebook.com/watch/?v=837088456500750 - How we decided to put bizarre lawn ornaments in our yard, at transpantastic.net/2016/12/broken-string-all-gone.html We are here to share our e...

We have had some really strangely gendered interactions lately, and the only explanation we can come up with is that the cis are not okay. From George's clients to Jess' colleagues, cisgender folks focus on their own genders in ways we find baffling, and police our gender in ways that are just annoying. We are here to share our entire intersectional experience with anyone who finds it beneficial,...

Is George having an easier time getting broken things fixed as a guy, than he would have before? And why do we have so freaking many broken things? George got a new prescription for the higher-concentration testosterone, and one week of lower-concentration testosterone clearly made him irritable again, so between all the broken things, and naughty kids, he's having a heck of a time. We are here to...