Interview with Diane Keinanen

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Diane Keinanen, a Minnesota lady of many talents, RN Vascular Access Specialist. Hello Diane!

Diane: Hello Monika! Thanks for having me.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Diane: Old life dissolved, been left to the past. Now Diane has evolved, loving life at long last!

Monika: You are a nurse but you have an artistic hobby ...

Diane: Creation is my serenity. I love to create in stained glass. I also enjoy woodworking as well. I find great fulfillment in crafting things that will bring happiness to another.

Interview with Dina Jacobs

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Dina Jacobs, a Hawaii entertainer, a star at the famed Chicago drag club, The Baton Show Lounge, proud holder of 70 beauty contest titles, and Houston’s Grande Dame of Drag. Her biography "Forever Her Mother's Son: The Dina Jacobs Story" (2020) was published a couple of months ago.

Dina, You look fantastic! What is the secret of your beauty?

Dina: Actually, I'm very fortunate. My Mom and Dad had great DNA. This year in February I turned 73 years old. I've been doing shows since 1964. I started my career in Honolulu, Hawaii, and I worked as a female Impersonator for 56 years!

Interview with Danielly Drugge

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Danielly Drugge, an inspirational fashion model from Sweden, beauty pageant queen, Miss Trans Star International Sweden, cosmetician, and happy wife. Hello Danielly!

Danielly: Hi Monika, first of all, I want to thank you for the opportunity to be here on your blog, giving all of us visibility and voice.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Danielly: Well, I am a girl who was born in Brazil, with a strong temperament. I am a dreamer, who never gives up on dreams, even though there are many difficulties imposed by society for being a trans woman.

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.

Interview with Hope Giselle

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Hope Giselle, an American activist from Miami, writer, artist, activist, founder of The #AllowMe Movement, and author of the biographical book titled “Becoming Hope: Removing the Disguise” (2018). Hello Hope!

Hope: Hi Monika!

Monika: You describe yourself as an artist and activist. Could you say a few words about yourself?

Hope: I’d like to call what I do “being the change I want to see”. I found my passion by simply inserting myself where I once complained. I found that it was easier to create solutions and art rather than criticize them.

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?