I sat on my sofa Easter night, watching a movie with my roomie/bestie Linda.  I also zipped through Facialbook, when I saw it. My dear friend F.M. (Mike) Yates had passed.   I was stunned.  I am still stunned.  I eventually learned that he'd died a few days earlier- of what I still don't know.  Now I'm writing about a true polymath- a renaissance man whose mutant power was being a friend to all, and I still can't believe he's gone. Mike I met Mike in 1989.  He worked at Comics and More in the King of Prussia mall.  I worked at TGI Fridays in the same ma ..read more

Ten years ago today, March 25, 2014, (well really around 11 PM the night before), I declared to the world that I am Sophie.  I began living my Truth.  I was 47 years old.  I'd previously told close friends either face to face or via a YouTube video I made.   The results?  I lost 90% of my friends (many of whom vowed to support me then vanished); never received another job offer for Instructional design (my masters degree); my marriage (which was really tossed when I was thrown out months before); and, for a time, I was disowned by my family. Happily, that is no l ..read more

As I write this, it's Sunday, March 24, 2024.  Today, hundreds of people like me are leaving the Hilton Harrisburg and returning to their daily routines.  For up to four days, they reveled in the company of people just like them: transgender people both out and closeted.  Dozens of people attended for the first time.  How many took those brave first steps out the that hotel room and into the elevator to the convention floor?  believe me- that takes a LOT of courage.  it's an admission of who you are inside, and a determination to share that inner self with others ..read more

I haven't written anything here in a bit.  All the usual reasons: depression, depression, and laziness.  Depression includes a huge smack in the face near Christmas, which I wrote about HERE.  This weekend (I'm writing this on Sunday) I've seen a lot of reminders on social media that we are approaching the anniversary of covid- four years ago all of our lives changed here in the US.  There is a definite divide between pre-covid and post covid (not that we're post covid.  It's still killing people, but not at the rate it was before.  I'd guess those deaths continue ..read more

 Jennell Jaquays passed away early on Wednesday, January 10.  She was 67.  She was recovering from Guillain-Barré syndrome.  From the GoFundMe: “On Sunday evening on October 15th, she fell ill and with[in] 36 hours she was barely alive and hooked up to a respirator. After numerous X-rays, cat scans and blood work finding nothing, they determined she is suffering from a neurological disease. She is responding to the blood treatments and has started regaining motion in her hands and feet, she is looking at a minimum of 2 weeks (more like 4) in the hospital and six to twelve m ..read more

 I grew up in an old row house built in the 1870s I think.  My brother and I shared a room on the top floor, which had small windows and a small wooden closet, painted white.  It was very hot in the summer and freezing in the winter as we used a wood stove for heat, and it was on the first floor.   Sometime when I was very young, my mum cut out a picture of Spiderman from a comic, and taped it to the closet wall, where it joined some other things long forgotten.  I figured I was around three at that time, so 1969. Somehow, that Spiderman lasted for a long time- t ..read more

 It was another life: A lifetime ago.   It was April 1987.  I was twenty. My parents drove up to State College on a Thursday to my apartment in Beaver Hill to pick up my things.  The school year was over, but I had one final left, the next day.  The next week, a subletter- the girlfriend of a fraternity brother, would move in.  My roomie, Marc, moved out the previous day.  I would never see nor speak to him again.  That's life. Fortunately, it was a furnished apartment, so there was nothing huge to move.  They left a pillow for me.  As ..read more

 Sorry it's been a while.  Depression sucks.  In any case, on November 14, I gave the keynote speech at Penn State's Transgender Day of Remembrance.  It was on that day instead of the 20th because the students were on fall break the week of the 20th.   This is what I wrote and delivered that night, pretty much word for word. ************************************************************************ Despite the fact that the news and policies and losses should’ve left us numb or calloused our souls to the Pain, I offer the following trigger warnings: murder, sui ..read more

Last week was not a good one, for several reasons.  It was my birthday, for one.  However, the day before that, on the night of September 12, I received word that Jennifer Jensen died that morning. "JJ" April 2010 I don't know if Jenny (JJ) was out to her family, so out of respect for her privacy, I must keep certain personal details vague. I met JJ at my first Renaissance meeting/ Angela's Laptop Lounge in December 2008.  I was a mess- no makeup, rumpled outfit, bad shoes, and a cheap Halloween wig.  Despite my trollish appearance, Jenny was warm and welcoming, as were mo ..read more

I still write to Lisa Empanada.  Not as often as I used to, but I still do.  Yes, I know she won't read it, but it helps me sort my thoughts sometimes. For those who don't know, I write about Lisa often, but THIS is as good a starting point as any. I hate this time of year, as the anniversaries come one after the other.  Being thrown out, SEC, birthday, Lisa's suicide, funeral.  This year it's a bit rougher. This year it's 10. Ten years since I was thrown out.  Ten years since I last spoke to Lisa.  Ten years since she died, and everyone endured her funeral.&nbs ..read more