Well go figure, but I’m writing a new relationships advice column at www.ourchart.com called Ask Big Sister. & No, I’m not actually a big sister - youngest of 6 - but I always wanted to be! This is an introductory piece, of course, so the readers there get to know who I am and what my gig is.

Since readers over there can ask me questions, of course you can too! I’d love to hear any you’ve got, especially the ones you’d like to see addressed in a column.

My old blog template couldn’t make use of all the groovy new widgets and functionality of WordPress, so I dove into a site re-design the other day, and I’m still tweaking.

I’ve kept lots of cool stuff, like my flickr badge and extensive blogroll, but here’s the cool new stuff:

• more & newer photos in the random photo header
• a compact category list
• a tag cloud! this one excites me, even if it means going back & tagging 5 years of blog posts. still, it helps locate more of my posts on specific topics, like crossdressing, or the Gwen Araujo trial.
• & most importantly for you, dear reader, is the new “share this” button on every post, so you can put my stuff up on Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, LJ, and Technorati. But you can also email it to a friend! How cool is that? I feel like The New York Times.

So do explore, and if you have any more suggestions, that’s what the comments section is for. In the next months I’m hoping to update both helenboydbooks.com and Trans Group Blog, but for right now, I’ve had my fill of tweaking code.

I’m fiddling with the re-design, so forgive me if for the next several days you can’t quite find everything you’re used to. Eventually I’ll get it all in place, but wow - a website that’s been tweaked for a few years has a ton of tiny stuff in the code.

Hey campers, I just spent a while upgrading the blog and hopefully everything will be groovy and happy.

But… if it isn’t. Let me know via this post.

Update 01: You will have to login again as the whole password/security system has been changed. Fun! Not. Sorry.

Thanks!

Betty

For whatever reason, the blog is holding some comments for approval, so you don’t need to write/submit them twice.

It’s the blog’s five year anniverary; amazing that I’ve been doing it this long, after Betty encouraged me to give it a try.

Thanks all, for reading.

I’ve been invited to participate in a new blog, Invert(e). It’s the blog of Suspect Thoughts press. Apparently those of us who like parentheticals stick together.

Do check it out.

I wanted to point out a new section of my links/blogroll, which is for allies, family & partners. Right now it’s got Abigail Garner’s Damn Straight, Monica CL’s A Seat on the SOFFA, Annie Rushden’s Gardens in Bloom, COLAGE’S Kids of Trans pages, Jonni P’s Trans Married, and PFLAG’s TNET.

If people know of other partners, allies, or family members who regularly blog on glbT issues, do let me know so I can add them. Please, not just LGB allies; they have to regularly address trans issues and need to be currently blogging with some consistency and some history.

This year, to blog for LGBT families, I want to highlight the fantastic new work by COLAGE called the Kids of Trans Resource Guide (pdf). I’m not sure if I can express how desperately this guide was needed nor how happy I am to see it published. It includes not just tips for people who are children of trans people - whether they are still children or have become adults - but it also gives great advice to trans people who are parents, as well, including this gem:

“As a parent, remember that your children come first and your transition comes second. Transition is an inherently self-focused process, as you align your body and appearance with your gender identity. The best way to be a responsible parent during transition is to make your children a major priority throughout the process. Sometimes this means that you have to compromise your ideal time frame for your transition in order to keep relationships with your family healthy.”

Shock and revelation! Trans people are parents, children, spouses; they have families, extended families, and can adjust their transition goals to help the people who love them transition around them. How much does that rock? You can also access COLAGE’s Kids of Trans pages on their website.

(cross-posted to Trans Group Blog)

Ask your senators to support the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

Today is the last day you can vote for me as your favorite female blogger over at Women’s Voices / Women Vote. So do.

Now you can go vote for me, since I made the Top 10. Thanks to all who nominated me!

Nominate your favorite female blogger for Women’s History Month.

(cough cough)

This year, the organizers of Blog for Choice have asked us all why we vote pro-Choice.

I grew up Catholic, as many know, & my first opinion on abortion - once I realized I should have one - was to be Pro Life. I was already against the death penalty, & in this instance, the Church’s rulings - against human beings messing with life & death - seemed consistent to me.

It was only later that I became a feminist and realized that pregnancy is often considered only a woman’s problem, that men are barely even expected to use birth control when they have sex, and that not only do we preach - as a culture - that women have to be sexy, but that it’s bad that they are. There’s a certain ‘head in the sand’ quality to the way we deal with these issues, and when, a few years ago, a pro life friend told me women should just keep their knees together - she wasn’t kidding, either - I’d had enough of the double standard.

So that’s why I vote pro-choice.

If people find others who are blogging for choice, do link to them here.

It turns out at least one of my students has now discovered this blog. I don’t know if others have but this one student quoted Barbara about being a CD on Halloween in a recent paper.

As much as I think I’m very used to being a public person, there are still moments - like this - that make me think, “What have I said in public?!”

Oh, just everything. I’ll get over it again, I’m sure.

In this essay posted on Monica Roberts’ TransGriot blog, Monica Helms of the Transgender Americans Veterans Association (TAVA) talks about her experiences working with the DNC which she concludes by writing:

What I personally would like to see is an increase in registered Democrats in the transgender community and to see an increase in transgender people volunteering with the DNC at a local level. I would also hope to live long enough to see an openly transgender person speak from the podium at the democratic National Convention and to see an openly transgender person elected to Congress. This is truly the MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION in our lifetimes. It is time for the Democratic Party to fully recognize us a part of their party, on all levels. They appear to be doing that. Now, it’s time for us to help Democrats on all levels of government to win in 2008.

Today is this blog’s fourth birthday. Imagine. & You haven’t gotten rid of me yet!

I’m sure that some people are unclear as to why I would have started Trans Group Blog, which is a separate, and group-oriented, blog about trans issues.

I did so because (1) I think it’s a resource that’s long been needed, so that authors on trans subjects can discuss various happenings and theories and resources, like a high-tech, low-budget trans magazine; and (2) because I’m aware I’ve been a useful resource on trans issues for people, which has been a privilege & a pleasure. But I’ve also realized that when I’m between books, I’d like to blog a little more about other things, & I assume other blog readers are something like me: they don’t want to wade through reports of concerts I’ve seen in order to get info/resources on trans stuff.

So in order to me to be more than a writer on trans issues, I started the new blog, where I will cross-post anything about trans stuff that I write for here. That way I can also write about other things here - writing projects, music, politics, what-have-you - so that people who read my stuff can read a ton more kinds of things, and people who are just looking for what I have to say on various trans subjects can read that.

This year I wanted to talk a little about a lovely couple we know who are currently pregnant with their 1st child, because we love them, & a recent talk with them about their upcoming arrival just made me so angry.

Not at them, of course. Just angry that they have to go through so much legal bullshit to make sure they are recognized as the parents of their child. They have to worry because otherwise the non-birth parent might not be able to pick the kid up at school, or make medical decisions, or even be considered the legal parent if anything were to happen to the birth parent. It goes on & on, all those things straight parents take for granted.

Ironically, of course, it certainly ends up proving exactly how fit for parenthood our friends are. I think the straight folks need a similar test of their own commitment, some days.

I’d also like to thank Betty’s family for being so willing to hear us out regarding Betty’s transness, & despite their world being very different from our own, continuing to support and love their child/sibling no differently than they had before.; and to thank my own family who have been just freaking amazing about accepting all the new wrinkles in our lives.

I’ll be blogging this year just like last year, on June 1st, in support of LGBT Families. If you want to, you can check out Mombian’s blog for the info.