Showing posts with label Transition at 40-50. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Transition at 40-50. Show all posts

Thursday, 23 April 2020

Interview with Joelle Circé Laramée


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Joelle Circé Laramée, a Canadian artist and feminist, painter, authoress of the biographical book titled “Breaking Free: 45 Years In The Wrong Body” (2020). Hello Joelle!
Joelle: Hello Monika, nice to be having this interview.
Monika: You are a woman of many talents. Could you say a few words about yourself?
Joelle: First I think you for thinking of me as I'm now just getting back to creating my art (paintings) and find this an excellent moment to speak out a little. I was born in a lower working-class home and neighborhood in Montreal, Canada, and have always known of my difference though not necessarily in terms like transsexual or queer which I came to understand later on in life. My whole world has been one of observing from the outside and I think this made me becoming a visual artist.


Thursday, 1 February 2018

Interview with Lannie Rose


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Elaine Rhodes, a.k.a., Lannie Rose, an American computer engineer, and writer, a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Clara University. In her day, she was a regular contributor to the e-zine Transgender Forum, a member of the Triangle Speaker Bureau, the author of “How To Change Your Sex: A Lighthearted Look at the Hardest Thing You'll Ever Do” (2004), “LANNIE! My Journey from Man to Woman” (2007), and “Everything Nice: A Late-Onset Coming-of-Age Story” (2009). Hello Lannie!
 Lannie: Hi Monika! Your website is an impressive body of work, as well as being nicely designed, and I say this as one web designer to another. I am happy to become part of it! 
Monika: Before we get started, could you please explain your name? Are you Elaine, or Lannie, or what?
Lannie: Yeah, uh, well, it’s like this: Early in the Internet days, in the late 1990s, there was a lot of fear about people online tracking you down and murdering you in your sleep, so nobody used their real names. Nobody actually got murdered in their sleep, by the way. 
Anyway, I became Lannie Rose at that time, and it stuck. When it came time to legally change my name, I went from Edward Rhodes to Elaine Rhodes, keeping the same initials, you know?


Saturday, 13 January 2018

Interview with Cathy Serino


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Cathy Serino, a disabled transgender veteran, and activist from Missouri, USA. Hello Cathy!
Cathy: Hello Monika. It’s a pleasure to speak with you.
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself? I have read that you have three lovely three granddaughters!
Cathy: Yes. I have five children and actually, at this point, I have 4 grandchildren. 3 girls and 1 boy with the newest arrival being in August 2017. My grandchildren are my special angels and everything I do is to hopefully allow them to grow up in a society that is about love and acceptance and not the hate and discrimination that has been present throughout my life.


Monday, 18 December 2017

Interview with Lisa Bunker


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Lisa Bunker, an American writer, known for her debut novel “Felix Yz“ (Viking, 2017), about a boy fused with an alien. Her second novel, “Zenobia July”, about a trans girl getting to live as a girl for the first time in a new school, is due to be published in Winter/Spring 2019, also from Viking. Hello Lisa!
Lisa: Hi Monika! I’m glad to be talking to you today.
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Lisa: Well, you covered the basic facts of my current life situation in your intro. I’m finally a full-time author after decades of trying to make that my work. Also, I’m in a wonderful relationship and finally getting to find out what it’s like to love and be loved as the person I actually am. Plus, my children are grown and my parents are gone. So, I guess you could say I’m a person whose dreams have finally come true who then finds herself curiously free to look around for the next thing to do.


Monday, 4 September 2017

Interview with Fran Fried


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Fran Fried, an American editor, writer, blogger, DJ, music fiend, friend, daughter and, accidental civil rights activist from Prospect, Connecticut. Hello Fran!
Fran: Hi, Monika! Thanks for finding me and thanks for the interview. I’m honored and flattered to be in some pretty good company here! 
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Fran: Well, I’m a writer, an editor, a DJ, a daughter, a sister, a good friend – and, oh, yeah, by the way, I’m trans. I’m out and about in the everyday world, and if you don’t know me, chances are you won’t read me. As far as I can tell, with my friends, being trans is just incidental; first and foremost, to them, as well as myself, I’m Fran. The gender dysphoria is just one facet of an interesting life – a big, honking facet, but still, just one nonetheless.


Monday, 10 July 2017

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!


Sunday, 9 July 2017

Interview with Laura Smith


Monika: Today’s interview will be with Laura Smith, a transgender woman that documents her transition on Reddit.com as inharmony123. Hello Laura!
Laura: Hi Monika!
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Laura: I'm 49, single, and have been on hormones for nearly 3 years, and I live in the United Kingdom.
Monika: Why did you decide to share your transition details on Reddit?
Laura: As an older woman transitioning, I wanted to inspire others who transition later in life, and show them, that there is hope even for those late bloomers. So, what better way, was to show people what could be done, with makeup, and our appearance to make it possible to pass and blend in public? 
Monika: I am sure you get many questions from your Reddit audience. What do they ask for?
Laura: Where did I get my hair? What makeup do you use?


Friday, 23 June 2017

Interview with Melissa Seymour


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Melissa Seymour, a writer, a novelist from New South Wales, Australia, the author of “Mel's Fantasy Life” (2016) and “Mark's Real Life” (2017). Hello Melissa!
Melissa: Hi Monika, Thanks, I now reside in Melbourne, Victoria, which is an awesome place to live.
My novels have been renamed for a new broader website I have discovered. The names are now “Mel’s New Life” and “Mark’s Pathetic Life”—that is due for worldwide release July 30th, 2017 as I have made some minor adjustments.
“Mel’s Fantasy/New Life” is the first in my series, each part allows the reader to use their imagination as I stop sections abruptly. I also end each part on a Cliff-Hanger to hopefully maintain interest.


Friday, 16 June 2017

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.


Wednesday, 1 March 2017

Interview with Paula Coffer


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Paula Coffer, a retired US Army Finance Officer with many years of military service in Vietnam, Germany, Korea, and the United States. She later served with the Department of Defense and Department of State in Afghanistan and is the author of the biographical book entitled “A Walk in Confidence” (2017). Hello Paula!
Paula: Hello Monika and thank you for taking the time for this interview. It is an honor to be a part of the illustrious group you have interviewed in the past.
Monika: You can boast a fantastic military career. Could you say a few words about yourself?
Paula: I enlisted in the US Navy at 17 years of age and during my 4-year enlistment I spent 3 years and 2 months on sea duty while making 3 WesPac (Western Pacific) tours of which 2 were to Vietnam. I joined Army ROTC while in college and accepted a commission as a Finance Officer. During these 24 years, I struggled with living the dual identity of satisfying my military responsibilities and family obligations and of accepting the gender identity that I held so close to within. Don’t ask, Don’t tell did not exist during my military career. If asked, I had to tell and I would have been released from the military as unfit and probably with an ‘other than honorable’.


Friday, 8 April 2016

Interview with Rachael Evelyn Booth


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Rachael Evelyn Booth, an American writer, poet, US Navy veteran, linguist, computer scientist, martial artist, entertainer, and the author of the biographical book titled “Wishing On A Star: My Journey Across the Gender Divide” (2016). Hello Rachael!
Rachael: Hi Monika! Thanks for talking with me.
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Rachael: I am a 64-year-old woman living with my wife in the beautiful mountains of New Hampshire. I grew up in rural northwestern Ohio where I first realized that there was something wrong inside of me. I would sit out in a little field behind our house waiting to wish on the first star so I could be a girl when I woke up the next morning. Thus the name of my first book.
As many other trans-people of my time did, I tried to find my way in society as a man by first joining the Navy, then getting married and having children all in an attempt to find something that would make me feel happy in my expected role in life. Nothing worked and all I ended up doing was bringing more and more people into my life that I hurt terribly when I finally had to move ahead and become the person I am today.


Saturday, 9 May 2015

Interview with Nicola Jane Chase


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Nicola Jane Chase, a British writer from near Liverpool, who currently lives in New York. A former globe-trotting DJ and radio personality, she is the author of “Tea and Transition” (2015). Hello Nicola! 
Nicola: Hey Monika!
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Nicola: That's always hard! But I'd say I am a supremely content New York woman with a transgender history.
Monika: Why did you decide to write your autobiography?
Nicola: In fact, it started out as a journal, a diary, I didn’t set out to write a book. It was relatively early in my transition and I realized that I was having experiences and going through events that had never happened before and may not happen again. Starting hormones, the first therapy session,  and so on.


Saturday, 14 February 2015

Interview with Samantha Collins


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Samantha Collins, a British criminal lawyer, happy wife, and mother. Hello Samantha!
Samantha: Hello, thank you for wanting to speak with me.
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Samantha: Well, what is there to say. I'm in my mid-forties, I've six children from two marriages. I'm with a lovely caring woman who I have been 2ith mow for fifteen years, I'm a lawyer and a lecturer in law, and oh I'm transsexual. Sorry, I don't really let that define me.
I'm a person, a parent and a partner first being trans to me is no real difference to being blond or having blue eyes. It's a part of me but it's not ME. That said I transitioned a year ago, everything went fantastically, home life was superb work, was really supportive, and my friends and family were absolute rocks.


Friday, 5 December 2014

Interview with Greta Martela


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Greta Martela, a software developer from San Francisco, transgender activist, and co-founder of Trans Lifeline - the first U.S. suicide hotline dedicated to transgender people. Hello Greta!
Greta: Hello!
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Greta: I’m a trans woman living in San Francisco, CA and working in tech.
Monika: Trans Lifeline is the first U.S. suicide hotline providing support to transgender people. What is the suicide rate among transgender people in the USA?
Greta: We aren’t the first transgender crisis line, but we are the first national crisis line for transgender people staffed solely by transgender people. There isn’t a good rate statistic because so many trans people are misgendered after death. The self-reported attempt rate is 41% but obviously this doesn’t include people who die from their suicide attempts.


Thursday, 30 October 2014

Interview with Abby Grace Hughes


Monika: Today’s interview will be with Abby Grace Hughes, known to friends and family as Abby-Grace. She is a video blogger that documents her transition on YouTube and on her blog. Hello Abby!
Abby: Hello Monika, thank you for this privilege. So much has happened in my life. From coming out at around 6, to struggling through puberty and school. Touring the UK in my Rock band in the 80s and early 90s. Transitioning in my early 20s to turning away to have children.
Three gender dysphoria caused nervous breakdowns putting me into psychiatric help. Coming out. Starting hormones. Changing name. Being beaten up for being trans. Life threatened. Had people arrested. I falsely had the police called out on me. Falsely tricked and lied about. Ran away from the UK to the States. Got stuck in Germany during my connecting flight because of a slight error on my Visa which cost an extra $800. 2 years RLE now as good as complete. Finding work here and processing my Visa. Then I’m off to college if I can.
I think I am now better equipped to help people having gone through it all, so there was a reason.


Friday, 3 October 2014

Interview with Heli Hämäläinen


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Heli Hämäläinen, a married woman from Helsinki, Finland, Senior Customs Officer in Finnish Customs, and a father. Hello Heli!
Heli: Hello Monika, it is my pleasure to meet you.
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Heli: I am soon 51 years old. I have worked most of my career as a public servant. I graduated in 1991 from the Helsinki School of Economics which is nowadays a part of Aalto University. I got married in 1996 in Keuruu Church, which was built in 1892. I am Evangelical Lutheran. My daughter was born in 2002.
In the Autumn of 2004, I felt that I could no longer suppress my female identity. My life was awful because even the advertisements at bus stops reminded me of my gender. I couldn’t read women’s magazines.
My wife gave me the advice to seek professional help and I did. A referral was written to official transsexuality investigations in November 2004 and I met the psychiatrist in February 2005. I was diagnosed as transsexual in April 2006 and I changed my forename in June 2006.


Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Interview with Claudia McKay


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Claudia McKay, a transgender activist from New Zealand, President of Agender New Zealand, a leading advocacy organization for the trans community in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Hello Claudia!
Claudia: Hello Monika and thank you for this opportunity.
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Claudia: I am 57 years of age, born and raised in Wellington, New Zealand. When I left high school I spent the next 35 years as an artist, I painted and exhibited all that time and married Janet in 1995. We were together for 12-13 years and although now separated we are still very close.
It was Janet that came home one day with the idea that would eventually become Agender NZ. I began my transition at age 40 and have not had surgery. I have nothing against it, just never had enough money at one time and am always spending what I do have on clothes and shoes. My current work for Agender is unpaid so I work part-time as a rental property inspector and also do some cleaning and gardening.


Thursday, 17 April 2014

Interview with Jennifer Cohen-Taylor


Monika: Today’s interview will be with Jennifer Cohen-Taylor, a video blogger that documents her transition on YouTube. Hello Jennifer!
Jennifer: Hello Monika! I am honored to be one of many so highly admired women. Thank you.
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Jennifer: Sure, I have always known that I was a woman. From very young, about 5, I knew it well. There was never dysphoria at that age. I lived as me. I was happy. But as I grew older, I began to see that my body was not like other girls. That’s when the issues began. It took me a long time – 44 years, to finally come out and be Jenny, but today I am happy and free – the woman I have always known.
Monika: Why did you decide to share your transition details on YouTube?
Jennifer: Well, I have always loved video as a medium to share and connect with people. I look into the lens and I imagine people like you on the other side. I connect with people using real emotions and real words from my heart. YouTube allows me to do that well.


Thursday, 20 March 2014

Interview with Honey West


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honour to interview Honey West, an American entertainer, singer/actress, and YouTube vlogger. She started her cabaret career in the 1990s with one-woman show “A Taste of Honey”. She won two After Dark Awards as Chicago’s Outstanding Cabaret Entertainer as well as several other honors.
In 1997 she released her first album “Take Honey West Home” and seven years later released a second collection “My Big Fat Cheesy Lounge Act”. Honey appeared in the film “Velvets”, which was shown at the Chicago Lesbian and Gay International Film Festival, and recorded the love theme for the Judy Tenuta film “Butch Camp”.
She starred in the comedy Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and was featured in such stage productions as “Tony N’ Tina’s Wedding”, “Pussy on the House”, “Diva Diaries, The Musical”, “Music Kills a Memory”, “The Wizard of A.I.D.S.”, “Sexy Baby”, “Applause”, and “Jerry’s Girls”. Hello Honey!
Honey: Hi Monika!
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Honey: Sure, I have a degree in Musical Theater from Indiana University. I have been singing and acting professionally for the last 33 years. I traveled with cruise ships and resorts fresh out of college and finally settled in Chicago where I live now.
Monika: When did you decide that you would like to be a stage artist?
Honey: Smile, I don’t remember a time I didn’t dream about it. They say I came out of the womb humming a tune.
Monika: Could you name some of the venues and shows in which you participated?
Honey: I got the chance as a young entertainer to live and work in Tahiti for American Hawaii cruises. I still remember the beauty and the people fondly. In Chicago I had a cabaret act that lasted for 13 years and some of the people that I met during those years are still friends today.


Monday, 27 January 2014

Interview with Katie Anne Holton


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Katie Anne Holton, an American photo model, and transgender advocate. Hello Katie!
Katie: Hi Monika. Thanks for contacting me. I’m honored. My girlfriend laughed when I told her that she’s now dating a model.
Monika: How did you get involved with "Visible Bodies: Transgender Narratives Retold" photography series?
Katie: Scott Duane is a dear friend, so when he asked if I wanted to participate, I jumped at the chance. I believe in the goal of Visible Bodies, to let trans people tell their own stories. And, let’s be honest, being asked to model is very good for my 50-year-old ego.


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