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.

Friday 10 January 2020

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.

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?

Thursday 18 January 2018

Interview with Kelly Metzgar


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Kelly Metzgar, an inspirational transgender rights activist from Saranac Lake, New York, USA, a co-founder of Adirondack North Country Gender Alliance, a community-based LGBTQ organization providing services to the Adirondack North Country of Upstate New York. Hello Kelly! 
Kelly: Hi Monika, thank you so much for reaching out to me for this wonderful opportunity for a nice international chat!
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Kelly: I am a transgender woman living in Saranac Lake in the Adirondack North Country of upstate New York.
I am passionate about my advocacy and educational work having been involved in Transgender, Gender Non-Conforming/Non-Binary as well as Lesbian, Gay, Bi/Pansexual training workshops for several years speaking in regional colleges and universities, as well as to various religious, business, and civic organizations. I present customized, targeted workshops and training sessions at Transgender and LGBTQ conferences in both my regional area, New York State, and national levels.

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.

Tuesday 26 December 2017

Interview with Kelly Grice


Monika: Today it is my pleasure and honor to interview Kelly Grice, an inspirational woman from Manchester, England, happy wife, and the author of the biographical book titled “My journey from He to She and how to transition” (2017). Hello Kelly!
Kelly: Hi Monika and thank you for interviewing me.
Monika: You grew up on the same housing estate as the Gallagher brothers from the famous band Oasis! Do you know each other?
Kelly: Yes, I grew up in Burnage in Manchester. I knew all three brothers Noel, Liam, and Paul. I fell out with Liam after we had a fight, which I won as children. Noel and Liam now live in London but I would still see their mother Peggy around in Burnage, where she still lives and we would have a chat.
Monika: Could you say a few words about yourself?
Kelly: I see myself as honest, reliable, and trustworthy. I also see myself as very tall, especially for a female, as I am 6 ft 4.

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