Interview with Tuesday Meadows

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Tuesday G Meadows, an American transactivist, blogger, retired grocery store manager from Lexington, Kentucky. Hello Tuesday!

Tuesday: Hello Monika!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Tuesday: My name is Tuesday Meadows, I live in Lexington, Kentucky. :)

Monika: I saw your short story in The New York Times series titled “Transgender Today.” Why did you decide to come out to the general public?

Tuesday: The purpose of the series was to tell stories of transgender individuals from varied backgrounds. The first 10 I read were people who had achieved great things such as scientists, doctors, lawyers, actors, and business leaders. I thought, “I wonder where the ordinary people like me are?” So I decided to give them a profile of me because there is no one more ordinary than me.

Interview with Kristen Aaquist

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Kristen Aaquist, an American legal secretary from Reno, Nevada. Hello Kristen!

Kristen: Hello Monika and thank you.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Kristen: I’m a mother of two. I have a cat. I enjoy running, beading, watching movies, and playing video games.

Monika: I saw your short story in The New York Times series titled “Transgender Today.” Why did you decide to come out to the general public?

Kristen: As I’ve gotten more comfortable being myself, I have found myself wanting to be more outspoken and try to help educate the public about the trans community, which includes humanizing us to the rest of society. By telling our stories, we can show everyone that we are truly just like everyone else.

Interview with Becca Benz

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Becca Benz, an American model, writer, blogger, adult movie actress, Army veteran, trans advocate, and columnist for Transformation Magazine and her weekly column Through The Benz on Grooby.com, and formally for TransGlobal Magazine. Becca also has her own blog at BeccaBenz.com Hello Becca! You look fantastic!
Becca: Hello Monika, and thank you! I was fortunate to be born with good genes and a fast metabolism! Healthy living has also helped, along with working out at the gym six days a week to keep this old body in decent shape!
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Becca: People know me mainly for my modeling and writing under the name Becca Benz, but my real name is Rebecca Pell. The past several years have been full of amazing experiences, but I also led an interesting life before I ventured into modeling. I served in the United States Army, worked at a university managing a research center, managed environmental remediation projects for the federal government, worked as a seasonal wildland firefighter during summer breaks while in college, and worked several summers for the National Park Service on a backcountry trail crew.

Interview with Cassidy McGuinn

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Cassidy McGuinn, an Irish-American blogger from Boston, Massachusetts, that rambles on life, love, music, and baseball (not necessarily in that order) on her blog Cassidy's Quest and YouTube vlog. Hello Cassidy!

Cassidy: Hello, Monika! Thank you so much for this invitation. I am beyond flattered! 

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Cassidy: Let’s see… as you mentioned in your introduction, I’m an Irish-American gal from the Boston area. I’ve also been fortunate enough to live in Seattle and Newport, Rhode Island, two of the most beautiful places in the United States. (For your readers: be sure to try Del’s frozen lemonade if you ever visit Newport. You can thank me later!)

I am indeed a die-hard baseball fan – not just the Red Sox, the team from Boston, but also the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners. To be honest, I’ll watch any baseball game. :c)

Hmm… what else? I’ve gotten into running the past few years and absolutely love it. It’s also very peaceful; I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve finished a run and realized I had worked out the solution to some issue I’d been wrestling with!

Interview with Sheri Swokowski

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Sheri Swokowski, an American advocate for transgender rights and former U.S. Army colonel. She is the highest-ranking, out, transgender US Army veteran in the United States. Hello Sheri!

Sheri: Hello Monika!

Monika: I am so happy to have you here! Let me start with a question about your professional life. You can boast a fantastic military career …
Sheri: I enlisted in the Wisconsin Army National Guard after high school and shortly thereafter started working full time as a federal employee. A dozen years later, I had the best of both worlds, as I was offered an opportunity to go on active duty in support of the WI National Guard.
I was a career infantry soldier who spent almost 35 years in uniform. I advanced through the enlisted ranks, attended the WI Military Academy, and earned a commission as a Second Lieutenant. I made the most of many opportunities and served as a Company Commander with two deployments, although in my day they were to Europe. I served on a two-star staff and was the Force Integrator, Strategic Planner, and finally the J1, Director of Manpower and Personnel.

Interview with Roxanne Manzone

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Roxanne L. Manzone, a Florida Department of Transportation Roadway Inspector from Ocala, Florida. Hello Roxanne! 

Roxanne: Hello Monika!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Roxanne: I retired from Law Enforcement here in Ocala, Fl, and have lived here for over 40 years, and grew up in New York. I am a “Car Girl” and enjoy displaying my car in car shows. I volunteer at a local soup kitchen once a week. I am a model train enthusiast, and I custom paint scale model trains.

Monika: I saw your short story in The New York Times series titled “Transgender Today.” Why did you decide to come out to the general public?

Roxanne: My attitude is that there is so little information about the Transgender Community, we are all responsible to be visible in a positive way, many people have never met a transgender person, and I want people who meet me to have a positive impression. I wanted people to see that we are everyday people too.

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 Faye Seidler

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Faye Seidler, an inspirational American transactivist, educator, and writer from Fargo, North Dakota.
Faye: Hi! :)
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Faye: I’m a trans activist, writer, and nerd with a strong belief in a better future. My work primarily focuses on my experiences, humor, and research, all of which seek to create positive change for the transgender community.
Monika: I saw your short story in The New York Times series titled “Transgender Today.” Why did you decide to come out to the general public?
Faye: I saw a serious lack of visibility in our community and that most people were getting their information about trans people from stereotypes they saw on television. I also saw a medical network that told trans people to blend in, deny, or hide their identity. I saw a tremendous amount of erasure for what it meant to be trans and the identity itself controlled and enforced as a stereotypical binary by the medical industry.

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 Ella Marques

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Ella Marques, a Portuguese-American writer living in Boca Raton, Florida, the author of the biographical book titled “I was born a boy, from Venus. It’s time to be yourself” (2017). Hello Ella!
Ella: Hi Monika, Thank you very much for the interview, and for thinking about me. I like your blog very much.
Monika: You describe yourself as an “international” woman. Could you say a few words about yourself?
Ella: Sure. I was born in Portugal, at the age of 14 I went to an international boarding school in Switzerland, and since then I have lived, worked, and visited many countries. I lived in London, Paris, Fortaleza, a city in the Northeast of Brazil. Lived over 30 years in various cities in Switzerland and moved to the USA 6 year ago.

Interview with Danielle Pellett

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Danielle J Pellett, an inspirational American woman, New Deal Democrat, trans rights activist. She is running for the Democratic nomination to represent Texas 32nd district in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018. She was the founding President of the first Transgender student organization at a Texas University, and later on, she worked with the Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance and the Progressive Alliance. Hello Danielle!

Danielle: Howdy, Monika, and thanks for the opportunity to get my message out there.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Danielle: I think you covered a lot of it in the introduction; I was born on the border in Brownsville, Texas to a mixed-race couple: David Ellsworth and Maria del Rosario.

Interview with Lois Simmons

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Lois Simmons, an American tax preparer and writer from Suffern, N.Y. She writes posts for the blog titled “Being Christian and Transsexual: Life on Planet Mercury.” Hello Lois!

Lois: Hello Monika. To be included with such an illustrious group of trans women who you have interviewed is quite an honor.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Lois: This is the toughest question you asked me, as it is difficult to limit myself to a few words on almost any subject! But here goes.

I’m 64 years old. I was born in New York City (borough of Queens) and have lived all my life in the city or its suburbs. I went to Cornell with plans to be a Civil Engineer/Urban Planner/designer of roads and rail systems. I ended up with a degree in Government.

Interview with Roxanne Edwards

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Roxanne Edwards, an American architect and activist for LGBTQ issues from Washington, DC. Hello Roxanne!

Roxanne: Hello, Monika! Greetings from the United States Capital city, Washington, DC! It has always been an interesting place to live, but now more than ever, it is a critical place to be involved in issues that affect all our citizens.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Roxanne: I am a professional architect who has done projects nationally and in the Middle East. My entire life has been lived in the Washington area except during my degree studies at my university, Virginia Tech, where I met my spouse. We have been married for 43+ years and we have seven grandchildren. My activism started in 2000 with the beginning of my transition to my authentic self.

Interview with Meredith Guest

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Meredith Guest, a teacher, writer, and author of the memoir titled “Son, I Like Your Dress” (2015). Hello Meredith! 

Meredith: Greetings, Monika.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Meredith: Well, I think of myself as a rather unremarkable person who finds great pleasure in doing rather ordinary things. I’m a writer who loves to write, but you’re not likely ever to see my work on the New York Times bestseller list – and that’s okay.

I’m an educator who feels passionately about education, though no one’s beating down my door to get my ideas. I’m a parent, and now a grandparent, who loves her children and grandchild. I love this beautiful planet and grieve what we have done to it. And I also happen to be transgender.

Interview with Holly

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

Holly: Hello Monika and thank you for this opportunity to share a bit about myself and my experiences.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Holly: Okay, so I was born in 1962 in Connecticut, the USA, not too far from New York City. My father died when I was only six months old, and my mother remarried before I can even remember. I had a brother six years older than me and a sister three years older. I realized that I was transgender at a very early age, even though to me, it had no name yet.

As soon as I was aware of being a human being and seeing the differences between boys and girls, men and women, I knew that I was a girl and that I would grow up to be a woman. But something was wrong. My mom kept dressing me in little boys' clothes and giving me boys' toys to play with. I would take my boys' clothing off and go to my sister's dresser and put on her clothes.

Interview with Ana

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Ana, a transgender woman that documents her transition on Reddit.com as MontanaPython1993. She describes herself as a writer and role-playing hobbyist. Hello Ana! 

Ana: Hello Monika! 

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Ana: For me, summing myself up is a bit of a chore, but I’ll try. I’m in the sticks of Washington state, I do a lot of reading and one of my favorite past times is tabletop role-playing games. I am actually quite invested in world-building for my own settings to use for Dungeons and Dragons.

I’m also a bit of a writer, in the process of regaining my momentum following a long and drawn-out writer’s block. I am also sort of between unemployment and not-very-stable employment. For this interview, I’m probably going to end up with long responses to questions.

Interview with Shemiyia O'Bannon-Sweeney

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Shemiyia O'Bannon-Sweeney, an inspirational young woman originally from Louisville, Kentucky, who now resides in the Greater New York area. Hello Shemiyia!

Shemiyia: Well Hello There!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Shemiyia: Wow. Well, I like to refer to myself as "The Jacqueline of all trades"! I am a very busy bee! First and foremost I am the wife to my amazing husband of 2 years, Bobby. I have been a medical professional for the past 13 years, I now work for a very big hospital organization here in New Jersey that prides itself on its advocacy with the LGBT Community.

Interview with Kate Bornstein

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Kate Bornstein, an American author, playwright, performance artist, and gender theorist, the author of many influential books, including: “A Queer and Pleasant Danger: A Memoir”, “My New Gender Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving World Peace Through Gender Anarchy and Sex Positivity” and “Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us”. Hello Kate!

Kate: Hello, Monika. Thank you for welcoming me into the amazing company of trans folks that you’ve pulled together here.

Monika: My first question must be about your health. Are you feeling OK now? The media were full of information about your fight against cancer, and the $100,000 crowdfunding campaign…

Kate: Ah, you’re sweet to ask. Thank you. Yep, I’m feeling very well thank you. In 2012, I was diagnosed with lung cancer. And this was on top of a leukemia diagnosis from back in 1996. Surgery didn’t get all the cancer out of my lung, so the next step was chemotherapy and radiation. But because of my two cancers, there was no approved chemotherapy being used by any doctors on my health plan. The only doctor who was working on that kind of combination of cancer was not covered by my insurance, and cost a lot of money that I didn’t have.

Interview with Galen

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Galen, a transgender woman. She runs the website Trans Substantiation, where she discusses trans issues and philosophy and documents her reflections on transition. She has also documented her transition on Reddit.com as asthepenguinflies. Hello Galen!

Galen: Hello!

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Galen: In short, I’m a 29-year-old trans woman. I originally came out at 17, before going promptly back into the closet and resuming the binge/purge depression/repression cycle that a lot of trans folks are familiar with. I finally came out to my wife and started transition steps in late December of 2015. I write a lot about various trans-related topics on my website, Trans Substantiation, which started as a personal blog to help me process things, and has since gone on to become a place where I attempt to engage people in in-depth conversations related to gender and the philosophical issues surrounding gender.

Interview with Juliet

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Juliet, a transgender woman that started transitioning after discovering herself in sensory isolation. She is a prominent figure in the float tank industry and has regularly documented her transition through her blog as well as on Reddit under her username, jungletigress. Hello Juliet!

Juliet: Hi. Thanks for interviewing me.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Juliet: I’m a 31-year old trans woman and activist. I came out to myself in a float tank during an intensely introspective session. We’re being pulled into the limelight right now and I think that education is hugely important for trans people that feel comfortable enough in that role. I’m currently organizing my local pride event where I will host a booth letting people “Ask a Trans Person Anything.”