Interview with Renee Reyes

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Renee Reyes, a successful American transsexual entrepreneur. She invented a product for cleaning “dry clean only” clothes at home in a household clothing dryer and holds eleven patents in this regard. She recently sold the enterprise that manufactured and distributed her product and now lives in Atlanta, GA. Hello Renee!

Renee: Hiya Monika! It’s a pleasure to catch up. Want to congratulate your progress and success by sharing the lives of accomplished trans-women from around the world. Know its lots of hard work and offers little reward. You’re making a difference: good for you!

Monika: You look fantastic, Renee. What is the secret of your beauty?

Renee: I’m now 52 – thus looking “fantastic” is not something that happens every day. Had my share of surgeries: FFS, breast & buttocks augmentation, and a bit of maintenance along the way. Some transgender women were naturals – ideally suited for a change of gender. I wasn’t. I suppose not being naturally pretty was an asset in some respects – I never quit trying to improve.

Interview with Madi Madsen

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Madi Madeleine Kruse Madsen, a Danish transgender activist, and owner of a beauty parlor. Hello Madi!

Madi: Hi Monika – thank you for inviting me to do this interview.

Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?

Madi: I am 55 years old now, and I spend the first 50 years of my life living as a man – even though I have always known that I would prefer to be a woman. So I have spent the last 5 years transitioning from man to woman.

Monika: You are the owner of a beauty parlor. Which special treatments do you offer to your customers?

Madi: We actually have two beauty parlors – and we do a total of 40 - 50 treatments for customers each day. I have been working with this for about a year now, and I have expanded the business from one small shop doing about 5 treatments every day to where we are now – 10 times as large.

We mainly offer 3 types of treatments – normal facial treatment, massages, and slimming treatment with Lipo Laser and Cavitation equipment.

Interview with Kristin Beck

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Kristin Beck, aka Lady Valor, a retired United States Navy SEAL, recipient of multiple military awards, and author and recent actress as well as other endeavors that we shall hear about shortly. Hello Kristin!

Kristin: Hi Monika and Monika's fans. I am very happy to have some time with you and share some of my recent happenings here in Washington DC.

Monika: Your coming out generated a lot of interest from the media. Were you satisfied with the way the media covered your story?

Kristin: Overall the media has been very gracious concerning my story. The comments in social media however are quite another story. My lesson learned is “never read the commentary of a story.” Anderson Cooper was amazing and I am very happy with the entire media treatment from him and the entire production team at CNN.
A quick take on my story and the media is the following.

Interview with Jeri Hughes

Jeri Hughes is a transgender activist from the USA. Since her arrest for the “crime” of being transgender in 1983, Ms. Hughes has been an outspoken advocate for all Human Rights. Although the focus of her fight has centered around the struggles faced by the transgender community, she has extended her efforts to embrace the entire LGBT community.

Ms. Hughes was among the first to promote direct action within the DC community to expand the existing Domestic Partnership laws into full-blown Marriage Equality.

She actively participated in the fight to repeal DADT.

Ms. Hughes initiated and filed the complaint against the DC Department of Corrections with the Office of Human Rights, while simultaneously engaging the collective LGBT community to participate, resulting in a shift of DOC policy respecting the rights and dignity of transgender prisoners.

Interview with Aderet

Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Aderet, an Israeli singer, composer of pop music and dance tracks, the author of 3 albums (two in Hebrew and one in English), and the host of the radio station program (show) called “Jacuzzi”. Shalom Aderet!

Aderet: Shalom Monika and all the readers from the beautiful country Israel.

Monika: How would you define your music?
Aderet: My music develops all the time, but first of all, it's pop or how some DJs hate to say (hahaha) "commercial". At the outset, it's influenced by a variety of styles with an emphasis on ethnic sounds and electro-pop. In the future, it will continue to be pop but maybe will change in a way to jazz, classical music, or even heavy metal, who knows?!
Monika: When did you first start singing?
Aderet: I started singing as a child at family events and in kindergarten. I remember that my first show was in front of strangers when I was 5 years old. My uncle that was a soldier in the IDF took me to his Air Force military base. Few soldiers were cleaning the offices before the weekend, and suddenly I started to sing without preparations and they were throwing some coins at me. It was a wonderful memory. It's important to mention that 3 years later when was 8 years old I wrote and composed songs for the first time.

Interview with JoAnne Wheeler Bland

Monika: Today's interview will be with JoAnne Wheeler Bland, a woman and a transgender activist, a practicing attorney for 44 years, former Special Justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court, former Vice-President of the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, current Board Member on the Fairness Campaign Coordinating Committee (in Louisville, Kentucky), a current member of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education's Committee on Equal Opportunity (the Diversity Committee).

In addition, JoAnne was a keynote speaker for the 27th Annual Kentucky Governor's Equal Employment Opportunity Conference whose topic was "The Transgender Worker", frequent guest speaker at Women's and Gender Studies at Kentucky Universities, and she participated as a guest speaker at numerous Kentucky Universities (on the issue of Transgender) and at PFLAG Meetings across Kentucky.

She studied theology for 13 years, and was a former United Methodist Certified Lay Speaker, evangelist and teacher, church choir member, architect, and interior layout designer, interior decorator, consultant to Kentucky School Districts on Transgender students and to Kentucky Courts on issues of Transgender, advising parents, adults, and children regarding transgender issues. Hello JoAnne!

 JoAnne: Thank you for interviewing me.