Thursday, July 3, 2014

*taps Microphone* Is this on?

Drunken Octopus wants to fight

*dusts off the keyboard* One would assume that someone who claims to be a writer would write more, and one would be incorrect. It's been a while between posts for a wildly varied set of reasons. Depression being one of them, increased activity in the local and online Trans* communities being others.

After last years TDOR, I became more involved with helping other Trans* people to deal with my own pain, I got into a Gender program at Ontario's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, worked with the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto in running their gender advocacy group Transgender Resources, Education and Action Team (TREAT). I was called on to work with Trans* Pride Toronto for the WorldPride 2014 celebrations and am now just pulling myself together to find some sort of gainful employment.

Not that depressive episodes left me alone... I had several very bad ones in the 8 months between postings. But... there were good times amongst the bad... although one of my kitties passed in October (missing you Tigger), a new, goofy boycat joined my family during December's icestorm. Dexter...

Lasercat sees you...
 I met Zoltar, who didn't grant my wish...boo
Your wish is...improbable

and basically tried to live a good life...

I am still Looking Forward and Moving Forward, albeit in fits and starts sometimes, but in general, it's better than the alternative.

Diana 

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Trans Day of Remembrance and the Purple Ribbon Project

The Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) and the Purple Ribbon Project.
Wednesday November 20th, 2013

Remembering our dead and raising public awareness

A conservative estimate places the worldwide Transgender population at one in five hundred, unfortunately, public understanding and general misinformation about Transgender persons, especially children makes us a target of hatred and violence. In the last year, twenty nine Transpeople were murdered that we know of, and many more died through self harm. On Wednesday November 20th, The Transgender Day of Remembrance, Transpeople worldwide will hold vigils to remember our dead and honour them.

The Moongoddess Foundation, a not for profit enterprise in Toronto, ON., in association with The Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto’s Transgender Resource, Education, and Action Team group have created the Purple Ribbon Project to raise awareness of this most important day of the year for  Transpeople. The Purple ribbon already stands for anti LGBT Bullying and we thought it appropriate, since more than fifty percent of Trans youth ideate of suicide and self harm. Sadly, far too many follow through and succeed.  

On Sunday, November 17th, The Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto will be observing the Transgender Day of Remembrance at their 9:00 am, 11:00 am and 7:00 pm services with a moment of silence to honour those who died in the last year. 

November is a month of remembrance already, and we don’t want to take anything away from the veterans, as a great number of Transpeople have served and are serving proudly in the military worldwide. So we are asking people to wear the Poppy and the Purple in November, and to take a moment in the evening of November Twentieth to think about those we have lost.  If raising awareness saves even one life over the next year, it’s working.

Although TDOR is a day of somber remembrance, it is also an opportunity for the Transgender community to raise awareness of the fear of harassment and violence we live with every day of our lives. We are more likely to question our self worth, live in a web of denial and lies, and are very prone to depression.
We are your neighbours, we are your children, we are your family, and we are human. 

The T in LGBT Cannot be Silent.




These are the faces and names of Trans people Murdered since the last Trans Day Of Remembrance.

This is by no means a complete list as may deaths go unreported or the gender and names of the Transpeople are misreported.
This also does not take into account the 40-50 % of Transpeople who self harm.

Mercedes Demarco (aka Fernando Gomez): Died in police custody after being tased. The exact cause of death has not been disclosed by this writing.

Hilary Molina Mendiola: Pulled from a car and thrown from a bridge by two men in Mexico City.

S. Athiswaran: Found tied up and stabbed to death at her home in Bagan Ajam, Malaysia.

Eyricka Morgan: Died at a hospital after being stabbed at home in New Brunswick, N.J. A roommate has been arrested and charged with murder.

Melony Smith: Beaten to death in Baldwin Park, Calif. A suspect has been arrested.

Shaun Hartley: Found beaten to death in an abandoned house in Baton Rouge, La. Hartley was a witness to a murder for the East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney and may have been silenced.

Konyale Madden: Found shot to death in her home in Savannah, Texas.

Islan Nettles: Died at a New York City hospital following removal of life support after being declared brain-dead following a brutal beating. Police have a suspect.

Domonique Newburn: Found dead in her home in Fontana, Calif. Police have a suspect.

Gaye: Found murdered in her home in Istanbul, Turkey.

J. Ratworabood: Shot to death after she was given a ride home in Khon Kaen, Thailand. The police arrested a suspect.

Mylene: Beaten to death with a hammer in Limoges, France. A suspect has been arrested.

D. Jones: Beaten, stabbed and hacked by a mob in Jamaica. No suspects have been arrested.

Hari (female name unknown): Found dead under a pile of rocks in Mangadu, India. A suspect has been arrested.

Diamond Williams: Hacked to death with an axe in Philadelphia. A suspect has been arrested.

Dora Oezer: Found stabbed to death in her home in the providence of Kusadasi in Turkey.

Unknown: Found dead in a Houston, Texas, gully.

Diana Martinez: Shot to death inside a hotel in Monterrey, Mexico.

Unknown: Brutally murdered in Hidalgo, Mexico.

Wanda: Legendary Miami entertainer was shot to death in Tampa, Fla. A suspect has been arrested.

Laura Aguilar: Stabbed to death in Rio Grande, Argentina, during an apparent domestic dispute with her ex-partner.

Cemia Acoff (aka Cemia Dove, Cici): Found in a retaining pond tethered to a block in Cleveland, Ohio. A suspect is now on trial for the murder.

Ashley Sinclair: Found shot to death in Orange County, Fla.

Kelly Young: Died at a hospital after being shot in her home in Baltimore, Md.

Milan Boudreaux: Found shot in the head at her New Orleans-area home. A suspect has been arrested.

Unknown: Beaten to death in Istanbul, Turkey.

Evon Young (aka Yung LT): Choked, shot and tossed in a dumpster. His body was never found. Five suspects were arrested.

Cecilia Marahouse: Shot just outside Fortaleza, Brazil.

Gunce Hatun (aka Dairy Babe): Shot on the streets of Istanbul, Turkey. A suspect was detained.

When you take into account that a conservative estimate of Transpeople is 1 in 500, these numbers become terrifying, with the assailants usually attempting the “Gay Panic” Defense when arrested.

Nobody should be so afraid that they take their own lives and nobody should ever be killed for being who they are.

Remember those who no longer have a voice. Remember them on November 20th and all year.


I Give My Voice
I give my voice, to those who no longer have a voice.
I raise my voice, against those who use hatred and violence against us.
I use my voice, to sing of the beauty both hidden and lost.
I lend my voice, to help people know the truth.
I am my voice, for as long as people need to hear.

Diana Howe 2013

Images and list courtesy of Courtney O’Donnell a.k.a. Lexie Cannes

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Out and Aboot!


So, i went out yesterday for lunch with my sister and some friends who were in town for the day. i have been trying to venture out as myself more and more. even when dressed down, I'm starting to get recognized for who i am and it's gladdening. my point is, even though I'm sure i gave some of the people some interesting dinner table conversation, everyone around were unceasingly polite and in most cases, downright friendly. This makes me feel good, however, i do feel sad for others like myself in the world who aren't as lucky as i am. to feel shame, scorn or even violence for being yourself makes me weep sometimes. I am so lucky to live in Toronto, Canada. my prayers go to those who aren't as lucky as i am.
Diana Howe

Sunday, August 5, 2012

this is a difficult thing for me to talk about

I've talked before about depression before and how it effects people like myself; Transwomen, transmen, genderqueer and questioning alike. This one is different... it's a component of my depression, a big one. Self Hatred. more than just doubt, this one this hatred leads to self destructive behaviours that often cannot even be recognized.

Suicidal thoughts are easy enough to recognize, suicidal attempts as well. The quiet self hatred often shows up in self care issues... eating habits, personal environment care, self care, hygiene, isolation. All these and more can drag you deeper into depressive cycles.
When you care more about others than your self, when their comfort and happiness matters more to you than your own... this is a bad thing... you are supposed to love yourself, your ego is supposed to need this...

In my own personal case, i spent 38 some odd years loathing myself. I hid it well, i guess... funny guy and everything. I hid lots of stuff, from myself most of all. Now the dams are breaking and so much is coming home to roost. i didn't do anything wrong by the laws of the land, but i was not a good person, i was withdrawn, bitter and generally sarcastic. i had no faith in anything and any optimism i had soured into cynicism. i don't even know how much money i spent but even with several good jobs, i have very few assets to show for many years of work. i didn't substance abuse, but with the fog i lived in, i never needed too.

Now i find myself in a near constant state of anxiety and annoyance... i suppressed most of my emotions for so long that the negative ones surface frequently. and the self hatred is strong... i can see so much neglect in my life and it's all me...

Sorry for the bummer, but i had to get this down.
Diana

Monday, March 12, 2012

A poem and an essay of Fear


Longing

What i really want you to know,
is the real me.
not what's on the surface,
not just what you see.

You see my fear,
not what i fear,
you see me listen,
not what i hear,
you see me cry,
but, what brings the tear?
if you could only see me as i am.

I deal with my pain,
in different ways,
at different times,
on different days,
but never in indifference phase,
and you never see me as i am.

My truth and joy are hidden, yes,
if you would only try to guess,
who knows? it's just a little mess,
but you might like me as i am.

Longing is a short poem i wrote in 2006 to try to express my frustration at gender incongruity and gender dysphoria.  About how maddening it is to not be seen as you truly are inside.

The following essay was written for the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto's inaugural  session of it's gender education and outreach program that I was honoured to be asked to speak to. Gender 101 is being developed to help educate the church and congregation about T* people and their unique needs, spiritual and social.
Kudos to Jon and Sara for their efforts

Being Me: On fear and its effects on a life.
 
Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. I have to make some assumptions because, as you may have heard already, Gender is not always readily visible on the surface.

Now I could start off with some statistics, Like “According to the DSM-IV, one in 30,000 biological males and one in 100,000 biological females are transgender (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Newer data suggests at least one in 500 persons is transgendered (Olyslager & Conway, 2007).” Or “Transgender persons have an attempted suicide rate that is somewhere in the 31% to 41% range (depending on the study).” But this is not a story of statistics; this is the story of one person. This is my story.

When I was young, before I ever discovered I was different from other children, I was nearly fearless. A lot of this has to do with the fact that there are few visible differences between boys and girls until around age ten. Any differences between sexes at that age are imposed by parents and society and although I understood that I was physically different than my sisters, I didn’t understand that I wasn’t a girl and didn’t realize that I wasn’t going to just change if I wanted it enough. I didn’t get the physical rough housing and games of cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians or war… I liked my sister’s dollhouse and dolls, I liked my mother’s miniature tea set, I liked the stove toy at my grandmothers. In kindergarten, I liked playing house and school with the girls… and this apparently caused adult concern, because I was pulled away to more appropriate toys and games at which point I would retreat and read.

In my knowing that I was a girl, there was no sexuality involved, I just knew and was positive I would grow up like mommy.  When my sisters played dress up with me, there was no shame… just a feeling of rightness. Yes I was different than the other kids, isolated to an extent, but I ran with both boys and girls never seeing any difference, never afraid. I didn’t hate boys, I just wasn’t one. Though as I grew older I felt distanced from other children my age. My childhood was isolated but never a source of fear. The fear arrived when I was eleven. I had taken advantage of having a house to myself and was dressed appropriately, to my mind. I was comfortable, I felt right. I was too relaxed and didn’t hear my family come home. To them I was crossed dressed… I felt their fear and it terrified me. I didn’t understand it but I could feel it. They call it strong empathy, I called it terror.

Their fear was deep… I was the only son and I was a cross-dressing perverted freak and I needed to be cured. No one asked me what I wanted, I was told what was to be. This was early 1976, there was no easily accessed internet for information and fellowship, no television programs discussing people like myself, just rumour and innuendo. As far as I knew I was the only person in the world that felt like this … to them, I was gay, I would grow up molesting children, I was not normal… a freak to be cured.  At this time, people were still very comfortable being homophobic, making jokes and even gay bashing. Transphobia wasn’t even a word yet nor was transgender. I was quietly whisked off to a family councilor to find out how to fix me, and we made sure the neighbours knew nothing of our family’s shame. 

So, picture this if you can, I was eleven years old and scared by my mommy and daddy’s fear… I was terrified of losing their love. I only knew how I felt inside (girl) but the message I was getting from them was I was wrong, twisted, sick somehow. The psychotherapist talked at me for about 20 minutes about things I didn’t understand but would be frightening to any child my age. Then, this professional Family Councilor asked me, in front of my parents, if I wanted to be a boy or a girl. 

I Lied. I lied so my parents wouldn’t hate me. I lied to fit in. I pushed everything that I was deep down inside of me so that my parents would love me. I began to build a false face, a persona; I built him because I feared being me… I was him… I hated having to be him. I hated him.

All of a sudden I wasn’t happy; my parents couldn’t figure out where their happy little ‘boy’ had gone didn’t get that their fear had forced me to hide. All of a sudden words like anti social and depressed got thrown about. I started over eating and wouldn’t leave my room. I wasn’t doing well in school because I had given up… I couldn’t understand the role I was supposed to play… so I would read but not get involved… I was tested and moved into a gifted program. I didn’t fit there either…all I wanted was to be left alone… I couldn’t relate to the boys and the girls wanted nothing to do with me because I was a ‘boy’. But I also discovered one fact that kept me alive during all that reading… there were other people like me, people who weren’t what they appeared to be on the outside.

I’d really like to be able to tell you about my teen years, but the fact is that aside from some rage incidents (no one was physically hurt), my teen years, when I was supposed to be learning about socialization and interaction, as well as English and geography, are a near complete blank. I’m not sure whether there was any bullying involved, but I doubt it. I was fairly large and in all the pictures I’ve seen, I had a heavy lidded appearance to my eyes… I think most people took me for a drug user and left me alone. This was also a time that I would experience what I have called fugue states, where I would be one place, like a classroom, and then find myself somewhere else entirely, several hours later, without memory of the hours between. It wasn’t till about age 18 I started to have any definable memories at all.

During the years between  18 and 24, I read everything I could find on these trans people. It was mostly porn in the late 70’s and early 80’s or sordid biographies with lurid titles. ‘I changed my sex!’ or ‘Man to Maiden’, but it gave me a glimmer of hope. But with that faint hope was guilt and fear, fear of being caught with pornography or reading about weirdos.  On the brand new medium of the daytime talk show, Phil Donahue and other pioneers were interviewing cross dressers and drag queens, but I didn’t relate to them, I didn’t feel any sexual thrill about cross dressing. All I wanted was to find out how all this related to how I felt deep inside, so I would surreptitiously find psychotherapists and try to let me out of him. But if a real step forward was offered he would push me back down and retreat in fear… fear of family reaction, fear of society. So I pretended to be an over masculine chubby guy who did everything in his power to prove he was a man… I joined the armed forces, I went on the road with a carnival and I shut myself down emotionally. I would hide behind humour and sarcasm and I was lonely.

I was living, but I wasn’t alive… I was barely aware. I cross dressed occasionally, but there was always shame and fear attached. Never the comfort and relaxation and rightness that were once there and I cried inside. A lost, trapped little girl never allowed to be me because of fear. I grew older and I tried to be who my family thought I was. I tried to be a guy and have relationships, but my partners always sensed something wrong or off about me and would leave. I dated someone who was more masculine than I was, though I didn’t realize it at the time, but she sensed the ‘weakness’ in me and became abusive, both mentally and physically and I retreated further into myself.

After this I spiraled further into depression and finally had a breakdown. I couldn’t work, I couldn’t go out, and all I could do was stay in bed and try to escape my thoughts. I would have died I think, but I was responsible for more than myself. I had cats, and I was afraid of hurting my family, so I suffered. And I hated. I hated everyone and everything, especially him, especially me. But I lived.

In June 2002, I had a breakthrough… I let go of my hate and fear for a moment and saw the me I had buried. In my journal of the time I wrote “Shit! I’m a woman!” I couldn’t rebury me, he started to weaken. I told my therapist, I told my friends, I told my family…. They all seemed to already know. My fear of society, my fear of my family reactions, all that had kept me in the darkness and made me miserable… it was me…

Nothing brought this more to my attention than two phone calls last Wednesday afternoon. One was from my eldest sister who is a Pentecostal churchgoer and a bit of a fundamentalist. This sister once told me I was under some sort of demonic curse. However, on Wednesday, when I told her that I was going forward with my transition, she told me that it seemed to be doing me good and I was more emotionally present. Not what I expected. 

The second call was from my father and it was because I set a fuse alight a few months ago when I cancelled my old Facebook account. He surprised me by asking why I had cancelled it as he had only just now got the message. I was shocked into direct truth and told him everything, about being referred to CAMH (the Center for Addiction and Mental Health) for its gender clinic, about my name change and together we had a big emotional event with him starting to accept me, and me having a big ugly cry (which I needed). Fear had kept me from coming clean and maybe learning to be my fathers daughter.

At one time the fear may have been justified, but that changed while I kept myself locked away, and I lost over 30 years of my life. I still struggled over the last ten years fighting him, fighting the fears but I am starting to allow myself freedom from fear. I am allowing myself to move forward and I am allowing myself to be Diana Michelle Howe.

Monday, January 16, 2012

I've been looking forward for so long, i forgot to move forward

Greetings and happy 2012, if you follow the Gregorian calendar. Well... since my last post on the Transgendered Day of Remembrance, Stuff has been happening... I started to attend an Anxiety and Depression group, to whom i outed myself... it was odd, there is a Trans Man in the group who looked very uncomfortable, and all of a sudden, i'm introducing myself as Diana and going into who i am, but everyone has been very accepting of me and i can feel their love and concern... My sister, Mel has accepted me as her sister and it is glorious... at least i will have the support of one of my blood family as i *ahem* move forward.

I have been writing fiction also for the last six months at an online site called Big Closet and my work has been pretty well received if you would like, you can read it here. I may have also mentioned my novel The Enhanced: TRI, but enough shameless self promotion. while writing at the site i have (virtually) met and built an online 'Family' if you will, who have given me such love and support that i have finally been able to break my paralysis.

Since December, i have made Doctors appointments and printed out referral forms for the CAMH Gender Identity Clinic, The Toronto YMCA, to try to dump at least 100 pounds of excess weight, which with my diabetes could be the death of me, gotten the paperwork for an official name change and best of all...

 I came out to several co workers at the bingo hall where i volunteer... six in fact, and none of them tried to beat me senseless... in fact all were accepting and most were very happy for me.

I guess what i am trying to show is that you can move forward even in baby steps. i don't know when i will be complete, but i am sure as heck back on the road.

Blessings and loving wishes to you all,
Diana

Sunday, November 20, 2011

The Day Of Remembrance

I both love and hate this day so much.

I hate it, because of the hatred and fear that has cost so many lives, I hate that the MSM* will mostly ignore the day and what it stands for because our "demographic" isn't big or rich enough to be anything more than a source of Outrage or amusement...I hate that my own fear has kept me from being who I know I am.

I love it, for it draws we survivors closer and makes us stronger. I love the fact that so many of us are growing and becoming who they are... 

I love that even dragging my feet, I am becoming who I know I am.

For those we have lost... through Hatred, Sadness and Ignorance... I remember

Diana

*main stream media