Tranny Brothel in Nevada?
I live on Post Street in San Francisco. My building is 3 blocks from Diva's and the tranny stroll nexus at Post and Larkin. During the past two years, I have come to know quite a few of San Francisco's TG "working girls" and count many among my friends. I have heard many stories of danger and harassment.
I have editorialized in favor of setting up a Red Light District in the Tenderloin similar to the one in Amsterdam. Unfortunately, the combined power of the prohibitionists and the corrupt makes this unlikely. There is, however, another way to the same end.
Prostitution is legal in certain counties in Nevada. Why don't we set up a TG bordello in one of those? Girls from California could come East and work legally - and learn how to practice their craft both safely and more skillfully.
I would structure the organization as a collective and operate it as a "teaching brothel", just like some hospitals are "teaching hospitals". We can even do research and development of new devices and techniques! It could also serve as an example of how sexual services could be rendered in a progressive context - and of what San Francisco might be like after the sexual prohibition ends.
There are plenty of hurdles. It has to be close to Reno or Las Vegas and the local politics involved are extraordinarily dicey. Just as in running a bar, the underworld will be nibbling at the edges, supplying drugs and other forms of trouble.
Still, there is an obvious market demand for TG sex workers, and I think this idea could pay off. Please let me know what you think of it.
posted by Jamie at 7:07 PM
Topcats?
As long-time readers of my articles know, I am an advocate for transgender admirers. We deserve to have our sexual orientation accepted by the transgender community and our larger society as a legitimate identity.
One important step on the way to "admirer liberation" is to create a name for us which sounds positive and fun. The closest one in general use (so far) is "admirer" or "transgender admirer". In my opinion, this name does not roll off the tongue and has picked up a bit of negative connotation over the past few years - much like how the term "transvestite" went from being a broad classification over to having a sexual association.
So I have been trying to think up a new name. In my everyday speech, I often use "tranny chaser", despite its negatives, perhaps in the same way gays call themselves fags and lesbians call themselves dykes. This leads my to think of TC as an abbreviation. TC reminds me of the cartoon character TopCat, whose "close friends get to call him TC".
Could Topcat be a name we can use? Top is slang for someone assuming the dominant role sexually, and Cat is a slang word for a "hip person". Maybe the meaning fits those whom we presently call tranny chasers?
I thought about Tomcat too - but it already has among its meanings: "philanderer". Still, it might work and is a more familar word.
Perhaps one of these words will catch on - or we can come up with one even better at capturing a positive attitude toward an identity that many TG people share.
posted by Jamie at 12:36 PM
Corporate Shame
My ex-wife tells me that on two separate occasions, potential employers ran a Google search on her name and found out that she used to be married to a transgender individual. In one case, this fact was "unofficially" used to deny her employment, in the other, she was told that it "looked wierd" (and she didn't get that job either).
The first case involved a company with a presence in San Francisco that certainly should have known better. While nobody wrote anything down, word about the reason did filter down to the hiring manager.
Regretably, I have gone through all my website material and replaced her name with generic references to my "ex-wife", hopefully so Google will forget about the association. I say regretably because I can not think of anyone who has done a better job of trying to make things work out in a difficult situation than her. Her patience, tolerance, and love are true assets. She deserves a medal, not a rejection slip.
If anyone reading this has links to or copies of articles I wrote in which I mention her name, please either take them down from the Internet or replace her name with a generic reference.
I don't know who the companies involved are, and perhaps they should be glad I don't. They clearly belong next to Winn-Dixie in the Hall of Shame.
posted by Jamie at 9:31 AM
MEOW and TGForum
TGForum had a major hardware failure recently, losing 3 out of 4 hard drives in a temperature-related incident at their data center in Toronto.
Alaina, who took over from me as systems administrator, has restored most of TGForum's functionality.
I still have to finish getting MEOW running again. This has been delayed since, among other things, I finally regained FTP access to my own website today. I will be working on getting Java, Tomcat, the Image Scaler, and the rest running as I can over the next two weeks. I wish it could be faster, but between a day job and a new love, spare time is scarce. Your patience is appreciated.
posted by Jamie at 9:14 AM
