Interview with Kelly Grice

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Kelly Grice, an inspirational woman from Manchester, England, happy wife, and the author of the biographical book titled “My journey from He to She and how to transition” (2017). Hello Kelly!

Kelly: Hi Monika and thank you for interviewing me.

Monika: You grew up on the same housing estate as the Gallagher brothers from the famous band Oasis! Do you know each other?

Kelly: Yes, I grew up in Burnage in Manchester. I knew all three brothers Noel, Liam, and Paul. I fell out with Liam after we had a fight, which I won as children. Noel and Liam now live in London but I would still see their mother Peggy around in Burnage, where she still lives and we would have a chat.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Kelly: I see myself as honest, reliable, and trustworthy. I also see myself as very tall, especially for a female, as I am 6 ft 4.

Interview with Ísabel Pirsic

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Ísabel Pirsic, an Austrian transgender rights activist, member of TransX, a Vienna-based organization that supports the transgender community in Austria. Hello Ísabel!

Ísabel: Hello Monika! Pleasure and honor is mine as well.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Ísabel: I started my public transition about 4 years ago and have been engaged in activism for 2 years. I work as a scientist at university, doing research in mathematics.

Monika: What are the goals of TransX?

Ísabel: We aim to give personal support for trans people in their individual processes and also do political activism for naming laws, depathologization, trans prisoners' rights, etc. The most visible part is our bi-monthly meetings, where we usually also have talks about dedicated topics; these are meeting places as well as a means of establishing what trans culture can be.

Interview with Jemma

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Jemma, a transgender woman that documents her transition on Reddit.com as SuddenlyJemma. Hello Jemma!

Jemma: Hi! Thanks for the opportunity!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Jemma: Sure! I'm in my early 30's, started transitioning at 30 years old. I currently work in a tire manufacturing factory that makes the tires for the giant off-road mining equipment. Our smallest tire is 9.5 feet tall and weighs almost 2 tons! Definitely not the easiest job; but it pays the bills. I have 2 rescue dogs and a handful of guinea pigs at the moment.

Monika: Why did you decide to share your transition details on Reddit

Jemma: The trans communities on Reddit really helped me to come to grips with my gender issues and help to give me a little bit of hope that transition might be a big help to me. At first, I was terrified that transition and hormones wouldn't have much of an effect on me. The Q&A posts, timelines, and the information there was so helpful and inspiring that I'd like to be able to contribute something back for people at that same early stage and need a little hope.

Interview with Jessica Harrington

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Jessica Harrington, an inspirational American woman from Reno, Nevada. Hello Jessica!
Jessica: Hi Monika. Thank you for having me. 
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Jessica: I am a 42-year-old trans woman. I have been in transition for almost 5 years and while it’s has been amazing being free, it’s also been the hardest time of my life.
Monika: At what age did you transition into a woman yourself? Was it a difficult process? 
Jessica: I started transition when I was 38. The process itself wasn’t that difficult. I did my research for years beforehand. I knew what I needed, who I needed to talk to, and about what everything would cost me.

Interview with Beatrice Wong Suet-ling

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Beatrice Wong Suet-ling, an inspirational woman from Hong Kong, a 36-years-old out and proud transgender IT support staff, and amateur filmmaker from Hong Kong. Hello Beatrice!

Beatrice: Hello Monika, I’m so honored to be interviewed by such an international platform, never thought I could have global appeal!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Beatrice: I’m a simple transwoman from Hong Kong. I’ve appeared in news media a few times (thus the discovery by Monika) but I do not consider myself a representative or an activist. I do not believe I am well versed in academic speak or inspirational speak, I’m just simply available to talk about my experiences. A lot of transgenders hide from the limelight because no matter how society has progressed, there is always some form of social stigmatization in some corner.

But I’m not afraid to stand out into the limelight because I believe the world is a big place and if one corner doesn’t accept me, there’s always some other corner for me to exist in. I also made a documentary about my transition which has been shown in a few festivals. (I will share my documentary with your blog once the screenings are finished. I’ve submitted it to a few other festivals and pending results so it will be a few months before I can publicly share my video).

Interview with Rhyannon Styles

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Rhyannon Styles, an actress, writer, ELLE UK magazine’s columnist, one of the most influential British LGBTQ activists, and the author of the biographical memoir titled “The New Girl: A Trans Girl Tells It Like It Is” (2017). Hello Rhyannon!

Rhyannon: Hi Monika!

Monika: You are a woman of so many talents that I do not know how to start. Let me start with your acting career. You have been a performer in Carnesky Productions since 2008. Their latest theatre show ‘Carnesky’s Incredible Bleeding Woman’ was recently at the Soho Theatre in London. How do you find yourself putting the magic back into menstruation? :)

Rhyannon: You know the classic sawing in the half trick? Usually performed by male magicians, well this time we reversed the action. I appear from inside the sawing in half illusion, naked and covered in blood. It was purely magical.

Interview with Andrea Chrysanthe

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview an American transgender musician and video blogger: Andrea Chrysanthe, who documents her transition on YouTube. Hello Andrea!

Andrea: Hello Monika, it's good to be here.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Andrea: I always had diverse interests so I'm a licensed x-ray technician, medical assistant, and phlebotomist, nearly completed with my bachelor’s degree in physics and teaching, I also am a musician, and audio engineer. I've also done the majority of my own tattoos, myself.

Monika: You like tattoos? You are not afraid that someday you may need to remove them and it will be difficult to do so?

Andrea: I did most of my own tattoos, as I wanted to be able to do personalize them more to reflect my thoughts and experiences more accurately. While I've thought about the implications of removing them, I don't think I will because they've become a part of who I am and they represent a side of me that would otherwise not be visible. I feel I still have a lot more to do.

Interview with Melody Maia Monet

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Melody Maia Monet, an American video blogger who shares her experiences as a transgender woman on YouTube. Hello Melody!

Melody: Hello Monika! Thank you for asking little ‘ol me for an interview.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Melody: Sure. I am a 46 yr old and five years post-op trans woman living in Orlando, Florida. I was born in NYC to Latino immigrant parents and grew up on Long Island in New York State. I went to Princeton University, which is where I met my ex-wife. We were married for 15 years and have a teenage son. We divorced after I came out as transgender, so I moved to Florida where I have a family. I love it here!

Monika: Why did you decide to share your life on YouTube?

Melody: I noticed that many of the more prominent transgender people on YouTube are young and tend to be straight and into a glamour type of look. I saw lots of transition-based channels with “this is me after 3 months on hormones” and a lot of sadness and resentment in the mix. I wanted to create a positive-minded channel focused on the everyday realities of my transgender and lesbian life.

Interview with Micheline Montreuil

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Micheline Anne Hélène Montreuil, a Quebec lawyer, teacher, writer, radio host, trade unionist, and politician from Canada. Hello Micheline!

Micheline: Hello Monika; how are you today?

Monika: I am fine, thank you. Could you say a few words about yourself?

Micheline: Well I could say that I am just an ordinary girl, but being also at the same time a little bit special because I am a transgender. Otherwise, on a professional level, I am just a lawyer, a professor of law, management, and ethics at university, a writer, and a lecturer.

Monika: You made yourself known with your struggles for transgender rights in Canada. Could you elaborate on some of your initiatives in this respect? 

Micheline: My first initiatives were about my name. I wished only to add the first name Micheline to my birth certificate to allow me to have a driver’s license under the name of Micheline Montreuil but unfortunately, the Registrar of civil status denied me this right.

Interview with Jessica O’Donnell

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Jessica O’Donnell formerly known as Jessica Cummings. She is an American transgender activist, video blogger, former co-host of Transition Radio. Hello Jessica!

Jessica: Hi Monika! Thank you for providing me with this opportunity to be a part of such a positive outlet for our community. I am truly honored to be included in this!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Jessica: Sure! I am a 40-year-old transgender woman who like others has struggled with my gender and identity my entire life. When I started daycare and through 1st grade, I thought I was a girl but learned very quickly that if I wanted to be accepted by others I had to act like a boy.

Interview with Jer'Ell Hartsig

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Jer'Ell Hartsig, an American writer, the author of the biographical book titled “The Wind that Ruffled the Field” (2014). Hello Jer’Ell!

Jer’Ell: Hello Monika!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Jer’Ell: I can say that at this time in my life I’m very happy and have no regrets. I have become the person I always knew I could be. The journey that I took to becoming Jer’Ell can be followed in my book, ”The Wind that Ruffled the Field”.

Monika: Why did you decide to write your autobiography?

Jer’Ell: I felt my story would not only be inspiring but also enlightening to those people struggling with gender dysphoria and also their family and friends who have someone in their lives who may not be understood as a transgender person. Also, there is a hook to the story that needed to be told that Hollywood did not want you to know.

Interview with Simone Whitlow

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Simone Whitlow, a singer, guitar player, transgender activist, former member of the Ishtar hard rock group from New Zealand. Hello Simone!

Simone: Heya Monika lovely to meet you.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Simone: Hmm let’s see, I work a day job I don’t like to define myself. Music runs through my veins though I don’t have the time at present to do much with it. I am passionate, creative, and intellectual and in fledgling steps towards entrepreneurship at the moment. I’m very happily post-transition and in the process of achieving my ideal life unencumbered, however, I have more pieces to the jigsaw than space to lay it down right now.

Interview with Ingrid Ung

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Ingrid Ung, a Finnish visual artist based in Helsinki/Turku and Berlin/Leipzig. Hello Ingrid!

Ingrid: Hello Monika! Thank you for inviting me and kind words!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Ingrid: Well, I could say that I am quite a happy person nowadays because I'm able to do what I really love and have passion for, and at the same time, perhaps give people a bit of inspiration and hope.

Interview with Jaroslava Brokešová

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Jaroslava Brokešová, a tram driver from Prague, the Czech Republic, former diva, one of the most charismatic transgender women in Central and Eastern Europe. Hello Jaroslava!

Jaroslava: Hi, Monika. I am pleased with your interest and I am happy to answer all your questions. I would also like to greet the readers of your blog!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Jaroslava: This year I am having my anniversary. Although I underwent a gender reassignment operation twelve years ago, in fact in April I will be fifty years old. I have two children, a son (25), daughter (23) from my 15-year marriage with a woman.
I live in a small town - Úvaly, near the capital of the Czech Republic, where I work for a Public Transport Company, being a tram driver.

Interview with Paulina Ashley Angel

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Paulina Ashley Angel, a transgender activist from USA, songwriter, musician, singer, producer, and blogger. Hello Paulina!

Paulina: Hola Monika, hella great to meet you!!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Paulina: WOW, where should I start? I’m a 32-year-old Transwoman from the town of Indio, in California. I’m a songwriter/singer, multi-instrumentalist, student leader, LGBTQIA Rights Leader, and a dreamer. I'm the creator of the Facebook page, Trans Role Models, and its sister page, Trans Fund Raising. I have my own music company, P.A. Music, Inc.

Monika: You have written over 200 songs. Where do you get your music inspiration from?

Paulina: I’ve always had a knack for writing lyrics. Some songs are written just by coming up with a song title, or if a lyric pops into my head, and at times from real-life experiences, or dreams of experiences I can have in the future. The first song I wrote, The Rain (which can be heard on my first album), was actually based on a suicide letter I wrote during the summer of 1997, but I'm still alive and decided to make a song out of parts of it.

Interview with Alessandra Bernaroli

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Alessandra Bernaroli, a transsexual activist from Bologna in Italy, whose legal victory was an important step for transgender rights in Italy. Hello Alessandra!

Alessandra: Hello Monika, thanks for this opportunity to talk about LGBTI Civil Rights!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Alessandra: I was born a man in 1971 and lived my life forcing myself to adhere to the image that the society established for people who had a male appearance. In my teen years, there was neither Internet nor so much “correct” information about transsexualism, so I always tried to deny my intimate feelings, believing that they were wrong and that it was happening only to me and no one else in the world.

However, that was not true; now I know it! So I behaved trying to look as manly as possible, and I succeeded easily in doing this also because of my physical appearance, which was, at that time, indubitably a male appearance both in aspect as well as in attitude. Year after year my deep feeling to be a woman didn’t disappear, of course.

I graduated in economics, served one year in military service, practiced charted accounting and finally worked as a clerk. In the meantime, I found love and I got married. Until then, it was 2005, and I was a man!

Interview with Denise Brogan-Kator

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Denise Brogan-Kator, a lawyer, transgender activist, Senior Legislative Counsel for the Family Equality Council, a national LGBT rights organization, the former Executive Director of Equality Michigan, co-founder of the Rainbow Law Center, recipient of the 2009 Pride Banquet Committee’s Choice Award, businesswoman, U.S. Navy Submarine Force veteran. Hello Denise!

Denise: Hello, Monika! Thank you for having me.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Denise: Well, the thing that is most present for me, these days, is the birth of my first granddaughter. So, despite all my accomplishments and activities, being a grandmother is currently my most important and most exciting job. And, family is – and has always been – at the root of my passions. It is such a natural fit for me to work for the Family Equality Council.

Interview with Dr. Lynn Walker

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Dr. Lynn Walker, an American transgender activist, educator, retired US Army officer, and bishop in the Orthodox Catholic Church of America. Hello Lynn!

Lynn: Hi Monika. It’s very good of you to invite me.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Lynn: I live in Brooklyn with my spouse and two cats, teach occasionally, and direct a couple of housing programs for a non-profit AIDS service organization.
Monika: Why is God so merciless towards transgender people, placing their minds in the opposite gender bodies?
Lynn: I don’t necessarily agree that God is merciless. It seems to me that nature and the creator love variety, and in the last hundred years or so we’re seeing that more clearly. Gender identity is not A or B, but may be better represented as a spectrum – far more nuanced than the scale developed by Dr Harry Benjamin.

Interview with Jacquie Grant MNZM

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Jacquie Grant MNZM, a proud naturalized New Zealander of many talents, Sex Worker, Merchant Sailor, Drag Club owner, Restaurateur, Dairy Farmer, Small Zoo owner, District Councilor, Foster Mother, Sock Knitting Machine Museum owner and businesswoman. Hello Jacquie!

Hello Monika! Nice to hear from you and to read some of the stories of our sisters from around the world.

Monika: Your story could be a perfect movie scenario. In 1964 you had to run away to New Zealand to avoid imprisonment for dressing as female…

Jacquie: Yes, I along with some friends left the country of our birth Australia to escape the oppressive political regime that would see Trans and Gay people outside of the legal system and would go out of its way to harass and victimize people who by birth were different.

In post war Australia, it was illegal for a “male” person to dress as the opposite sex except in some strictly controlled circumstances, for example on private property or performers in clubs who change after performances.

The only option for those of us with little talent as performers and who felt the compelling need to express who we were had to fall back on street work something that was dangerous for those of us who came out so early for me. It was 1958 and I was 14 years old suffered from what is now known as ADHD.
After being imprisoned several times as I said a group of us came to New Zealand where the law was far kinder to Trans people which gave us the freedom we craved.

Interview with Meggan Sommerville

Monika: Today’s interview is with Meggan Sommerville, an American transgender advocate, and activist, former frame shop manager, writer, a blogger from Oswego, Illinois. Meggan hit the headlines in 2011 when she filed a complaint to the Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) after she had been denied to use the women's restroom at the workplace. Hello Meggan!

Meggan: Hi Monika. I am honored you chose to pick me to be included in this awesome group of people.

Monika: Your professional experience covers a wide range of jobs: a veterinary technician in the Western suburbs of Chicago, an EMT/Paramedic, EMS Instructor, and a paid on-call firefighter for Bolingbrook, Illinois. Which did you like most?

Meggan: Well, to be perfectly honest, I loved them all. They all had their own ups and downs, but I am very thankful for each one of those jobs. Each job allowed me to better myself, challenge myself, and stretched my abilities, and at the same time, I was able to do something that truly made a difference.