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.