Jenny's Introduction

Hello and Welcome to T talk.
I'm Jennifer
I want to open the discussion with a little bit about me so everyone can get to know me a little better.

I'm a Transsexual woman. I came out in Nov 08, pretty much to everyone I new immediately. I began hormone therapy the following April and have been self injecting Estrogen since September. I feel like I could be described as: a late blooming, avoided anything to do with and denied it to myself till I nearly exploded, have always felt like a girl/woman and that my stuff was wrong, and couldn't be happier now that I have finally accepted myself, type of trans person.

The spark behind starting T talk was with Project H.E.A.L.T.H the health is an acronym for Harnessing Education Advocacy and Leadership for Trans Health.
Lyon-Martin Health Services, Transgender Law Center, and Equality California working together to improve access to transgender health care. The focus is All transgender people have the right to quality and culturally-sensitive health care close to home. I believe they have started three chapters one here of course, one in SF and LA. We are working with the local clinics, planned parenthood, and other participating local health care providers to establish a competent and compassionate health care environment for trans people. The Health council is working on several different projects and I hope to get some of the other members to share there parts.

My personal motivation comes from several places. First my own struggles with coming out experiences. The encounters I've had with local health care providers. Being publicly harassed and refused service. And a real need for trans education. Most of the people I encounter want a better understanding. I also have a personal observation that current coming out trends are shifting to a younger age group. I think this may be due to a growing acceptance from peer groups, the internet, parents being more educated about trans kids, media etc. Today's gender queer & or gender different folks may not ever identify as Transsexual or anything this, that, or the other. They may not want to ever engage a Transsexual support group, but could greatly benefit from a public meeting place that is regularly publicly advertised as a place for resources, for people to gather, network, educate, and help build a stronger community. It is my hope that what this could mean is that it's possibly getting socially more accepted to be gender different and slightly easier for gender non-conforming people to exist. I want to advocate this trend by raising community awareness.

I'm not a psychiatrist, therapist, counselor nor do I know it all about gender issues. Though I have had my share of all. I'm just offering my opinion and friendship.

I will open the discussion to everyone and see where we go.