Chances are you know who Brandon Teena was, if only because Hilary Swank won an Oscar for portraying Teena in Boys Don’t Cry, a film based on Teena’s murder. It’s likely you were outraged by the 1993 Humboldt, Neb., case where two men brutally beat and raped the 21-year-old preoperative transgender man when they found out that he was biologically female. You probably couldn’t believe that the authorities – who referred to Teena as “it” – didn’t arrest the two when the beating and rape was reported. And you almost definitely said you saw it coming when, five days later, it was reported that the two men shot and stabbed Teena to death.

But you haven’t likely heard of Amanda Milan, Allison Decretal or Willie Houston. Or the hundred-plus other transgender murders that have happened in the last decade.

Amanda Milan was 27 when her throat was slashed while cab drivers cheered and applauded and three men shouted such incendiary remarks such as, “You’re a man!” and, “I know that’s a dick between your legs!” The New York transgender woman had no one to help her.

Allison Decretal was out celebrating Halloween with some friends in Inverness, Fla., when she was literally run down by a car driven by two other teenagers. The two teenagers in the car had driven by the small group of young people, who were cross-dressed for the holiday, shouting gay epithets, including “faggot.”

Willie Houston was not gay. In fact, he may not have ever even heard the word “transgender.” A bus driver in Nashville, Tenn., Houston was about to marry his fiancée, Nedra Jones. They had just concluded a fun evening at the local casino riverboat, when Jones announced she had to use the restroom. Houston offered to hold her purse.

One of Houston’s friends, who happened to be blind, also had to use the restroom, so Houston took him by the arm and led him into the men’s room. Less than 30 minutes later, Houston was shot dead in the parking lot, having spent the last half-hour of his life having anti-gay epitaphs yelled at him. Houston’s fiancée, Jones, gave a eulogy instead of her wedding vows.

Each of these individuals was brutally murdered in what Gwen Smith, author and creator of the Web-based “Remembering Our Dead” project, calls a “transgression.” These are crimes against individuals who are killed because of issues regarding gender.

“There are over 340 cases over the last 30 years” explains Smith, a transgender male-to-female herself. “There have been 24 reported murders of individuals based on their gender this year alone. It seems like we hear about a case being sensationalized in the news, and then we go away for a while. There is such a forgetfulness in [the GLBT] community.”

One day, Smith says, she asked herself, “So what are you going to do about it?” As an answer, Smith began the Remembering Our Dead project after the tragic death of Rita Hester in 1998 in Boston, which remains unsolved to this day. The Web-based project continues today, listing those who have been murdered in acts of violence based on gender.

In 1999, Smith’s project came out of the Web realm and went into real space, says Smith, with the Transgender Day of Remembrance, a day set aside to memorialize those who were killed due to anti-transgender hatred or prejudice.

The Gay-Straight Alliance Network helps schools observe the Transgender Day of Remembrance. “The Transgender Day of Remembrance serves several purposes. It raises public awareness of hate crimes against transgender people, an action that current media doesn’t perform. Day of Remembrance publicly mourns and honors the lives of transgender people who might otherwise be forgotten. Through the vigil, we express love and respect in the face of national indifference and hatred. Day of Remembrance gives transgender people and their allies a chance to step forward and stand in vigil, memorializing those who’ve died by anti-transgender violence.”

Although not every person is self-identified as transgender (such as Houston) each individual memorialized is a victim of violence based on bias against transgender people. Vigils were observed in eight countries at 212 events last year. This year marks the seventh annual observance. Events will be held on Nov. 20 [see local events sidebar].

And for Smith and others, this year holds a special place with the recent court decision that convicted two northern California men in the slaying of transgender teen Gwen Araujo. (A mistrial was declared for the third defendant when the jury could not reach a unanimous decision. A fourth defendant pleaded guilty last year to voluntary manslaughter in exchange for testimony against his three friends.)

The verdict is a long time in coming since the October 2002 crime. For Smith, a friend of the Araujo family, this trial marks a necessary closure. What Smith cannot accept, though, is that the jury left one question ringing in her ears: “How was this murder not a hate crime?”

“This is a textbook hate crime case,” argues Smith, who has been very much a presence during the three years of legal wrangling. “The defense was that they were all having a good time, discovered Araujo was biologically male, panicked, and killed her because of her gender deception. Since when do they get to be the victims?”

It had started a few months earlier, when a couple of guys saw Araujo by the side of the road, pulled over and gave her a ride. They thought she was hot – thin, with dark, penetrating eyes and full, luscious lips. And she liked to party. Over the next few months, 17-year old Gwen Araujo, a.k.a. 19-year old Lida, spent a lot of time getting to know Jay Cazares, Mike Magidson, Jose Merel and Jaron Nabors.

In fact, she was the life of the party. Over the summer, Araujo spent a great deal of time at the Merel house. Before long, she had managed to have sex with Cazares, Magidson, and Merel – without ever having to take her clothes off. One night, Magidson started bragging about how Araujo had finally let him “do her, but only from behind.” She was having her period. The conversation went south from there, when the guys started comparing notes. If their dates were correct, Araujo seemed to suffer from an extended period cycle.

The affront to their masculinity wouldn’t rest. They had to find out. After all, doesn’t that make them gay if they had sex with another man? So, a couple days later after a bar-crawl through town, the three men returned to the Merel home where Araujo and Paul Merel’s girlfriend, Nicole Brown, were getting high.

Tonight was the birthday of Gwen Stefani, Araujo’s namesake idol, so she had celebrated with a very short, especially tight denim skirt. The men immediately confronted Araujo. Why did they always have to have anal sex? Why wouldn’t she ever let the guys feel her up? Why did she always have to wear high turtlenecks or scarves around her neck?

Magidson then dragged Araujo into the bathroom to find out once and for all. Apparently, Araujo held her ground. Finally, the three men sent Brown into the bathroom with Araujo. What happened next was the basis for the three men’s first defense: they panicked. Court documents reveal the next few hours in gruesome detail.

Brown ran from the bathroom screaming, “This is a fucking man!”

Araujo bolted for the door. Magidson tackled Araujo, pulled up her skirt and ripped her underwear to her knees. There was likely nothing Araujo could do at this point, as Magidson screamed, “Right there – fucking balls!” and Merel was in hysterics, crying, “I can’t be gay!” over and over.

Araujo pleaded for her life, “Please don’t. I have a family.”

Jose Merel ran to the kitchen and grabbed a heavy can of food. He knocked Araujo over the head, sending her flying against the wall. Merel retreated to the kitchen one more time, this time returning with a frying pan. While Magidson propped Araujo up, Merel swung with full force, connecting Araujo square on the forehead.

Brown left. Cazares and Jaron Nabors drove to Cazares’ parents house and retrieved three shovels and a pick. Araujo, though severely injured, had not given up on life yet, when Cazares and Nabors returned 10 minutes later.

Jose Merel was scrubbing blood from the sofa and floor, having ordered Araujo off the sofa, when Cazares, Nabors, and Magidson arrived with the shovels, pick, a 10-inch hunting knife and some rope. Nabors, who declared, “Enough is enough. Knock the bitch out,” watched on as Magidson punched Araujo in the face twice. Slumping to the floor, Araujo took two more blows to the face, this time with Magidson’s knee. On the second blow, Araujo’s head snapped back and left a dent in the wall.

While Magidson wrapped Araujo’s hands and feet in rope, Nabors retrieved a blanket. Merel continued his Lady Macbeth-like scrubbing of the floor and sofa. In the garage, Magidson took one final opportunity to ensure Araujo would never achieve her dream of being a fashion designer: He took a rope, looped it around her neck, and twisted.

Several days after Stefani’s birthday, Araujo’s lifeless body was driven to Silver Fork, a cedar-filled mountainous area near Lake Tahoe. There, the men dug a shallow grave. There were no words of remorse that night, according to court transcripts. Instead, Jose Merel said, “I could kick her a couple more times, shit makes me so mad.”

When word reached Araujo’s high school, rehearsals for the school play were in full swing. Ironically, they were rehearsing The Laramie Project.

Taking a page from the Laramie case, two of the men charged with Araujo’s murder chose the “gay panic” defense.

The gay panic defense alleges that individuals who discover that someone they believed to be straight is in fact not become so terrified by the implications on their own sexuality that they are sent into a temporary rage in which they are less culpable for their actions. This can reduce a murder charge to manslaughter.

In the first trial, defense lawyers successfully argued the gay panic defense, stating, “Araujo had deceitfully lured the men into having homosexual acts with them.” The jury returned deadlocked in whether they could convict any of the men with first-degree murder. Because the prosecution sought first-degree murder with hate crimes enhancement, and because the jury members were unable to acquit any of the men of first-degree murder charges, manslaughter was not allowed for consideration.

After the first trial, Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said, “The perpetrators committed an unprovoked, pre-meditated, and horrifyingly violent murder, followed by a calculated attempt to hide their crime. Clearly, the only ‘reason’ for this atrocity was that two of the perpetrators felt shamed that they had sex with Ms. Araujo and then learned she was a transgender person. That this ‘defense’ is even allowed is a disgrace to our judicial system; that even one juror bought this pathetic line reconfirms the virulent hatred and loathing of transgender people in our society.”

Much to Smith’s relief, the jury in the retrial would not allow the three men to be the victims in the trial. In September, after seven days of deliberation, the Hayward, Calif., four-woman, eight-man jury made it clear that gay panic was not an acceptable defense. In stark contrast to the original trial, where the jury ended deadlocked because they couldn’t decide on whether her attackers were guilty on first or second degree murder, this jury found Magidson and Merel guilty of second degree murder. The gay panic defense was rejected.

Gwen Araujo’s story is not unique. In fact, the vast majority of those being memorialized in the Transgender Day of Remembrance events follow a similar pattern of brutality, often called “overkill.” Given all that people know can happen to them, why, then go to such lengths to “change who you are?”

Jamison “James” Green has struggled with gender identity since he was a child.

Green, whose book Becoming a Visible Man chronicles his transition as a female-to-male transsexual, was born in Oakland in 1948. At age two, he refused to wear dresses. His early school days reflect those of a great majority of transgender individuals who struggle to reconcile who they believe they are with who their body and society define them as. At age 15, he took the name “Jamie,” though he never thought he would be able to transition to being biologically male. Green struggled through his 20s and 30s for his identity.

“I struggled with the issues around whether it was even possible to transition in a realistic sense,” explains Green. “I had never seen anyone who had transitioned female to male until I was about 30. By then I was saying, ‘Oh, I really have to face this. It is possible. I can do that.’ But I still had a lot of fear, a lot of resistance. There were not a lot of role models, frankly.”

There were other issues at play with James’ transition decision. He was living in an openly lesbian long-term relationship. They had two children, both of whom Green’s partner carried. A month before his 40th birthday, James began transitioning.

Green would lose most of what he knew – his partner, his children, and his career, where he was vice president of operations at a publicly-held software publishing firm – when he transitioned. But he would gain his long-sought self-identity.

“I was living in between genders for a long time,” explains Green. “But I had to transition for my own sake. And you cannot transition in the closet. Every facet of your life, every primary relationship – work, family, friends – they are all going to go have to change with you. And it will be difficult.”

Today, Green is married (his birth certificate was changed in 1991 to reflect his male gender) to Heidi Bruins, and is reconnecting with his children. He is a tireless advocate for the transgender community.

Green’s story has many of the elements that face the transgender community: self-acceptance, transitioning, health care, stigma, careers and family.

Llynda Anne Roshem is a 37-year old male-to-female transsexual who transitioned three years ago.

“One of the biggest issues I faced was that even when I was kid, everyone called me ‘sissy,’” recalls Roshem. “The problem I have now is just the opposite. Instead of everyone pointing at me as a ‘girly boy,’ now they point at me as a ‘boyish girl.’”

Roshem transitioned while working for a technology firm here in San Diego. Because transitioning is a very involved process beyond just the sex reassignment surgery (SRS), Roshem worked very closely with her employer.

Successfully transitioning meant that Roshem would begin hormone treatment, body and facial hair removal procedures, grow her hair long, and dress in women’s clothing. As Roshem puts it, “the devil is in the details.” Coming out to family, money, legal matters, choosing a name, voice changes, hormones and hair growth are just a small part of the issues facing a person transitioning.

“Honestly, one of my biggest issues was the issue of choosing a name,” explains Roshem. “We don’t often consider that. But what if you had to change your name, and you had to stick with that one name for the rest of your life? You can’t blame your parents anymore. You have to make that decision.”

Roshem was lucky in many ways. She had a high-pitched voice, at least for a man. It translated into a raspy voice by female standards, but it still “passes on the telephone,” says Roshem. And she managed to save the money necessary for the transitioning. So far, Roshem has paid over $40,000 out of pocket for her expenses, including the vaginoplasty (the original surgical procedure for inverting the penis and shaping the vagina) and labiaplasty (a common follow-up procedure which completes the shaping of the genitalia by adding inner labia and a clitoral hood).

Billie Henmet is a 19-year old transgender woman who hopes someday to transition.

“I watch that show [“TranGeneration”] and I think, ‘Hey, I really need to start looking to the future,’” says Henmet. “My parents kicked me out when they found out that I dress as a woman. I would leave home every day going to school dressed as a boy, but then change at the corner gas station. It wasn’t until my principal called home and talked to my parents that they found out.”

Henmet, who moved to San Diego this year from Arizona, says financial concerns are foremost on her mind. Without medical insurance or a decent job, she simply cannot access the proper regimen of hormones.

“It can really be hit or miss with me,” says Henmet. “And I know that isn’t good. But I guess some is better than none.”

Insurance is an issue for most transgender persons seeking to transition.

“Most health care insurance providers have specific exclusions to any SRS-related treatment,” says Smith. “And I don’t mean just for the surgery itself. They can link anything to the transition and anything they want to view as related they don’t have to cover.”

California Assembly Bill 1586 is intended to change that. Introduced by Assemblymember Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, the bill follows the path of 2003 legislation that clarified existing prohibition on discrimination based on sex in the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) to protect transgender people. AB 1586 clarifies that transgender people also are protected under the existing discrimination prohibition in the Insurance and Health Safety Codes.

According to a statement released by Koretz, “By declaring that the definition of sex is the same as that found in FEHA and other provisions of the California Code, AB 1586 will insure that insurance companies and health care service plans understand their legal obligation to refrain from discriminating against transgender people in the creation and maintenance of contracts and the provisions of services and benefits. Specifically, AB 1586 adds the following definition, which is the same as used in FEHA, the Education Code, and the Penal Code:

‘Gender’ means sex, and includes a person’s gender identity and gender-related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth.”

Beyond the money issues, time is another huge factor. Henmet, who has a long mane of bleached blond hair, also sports a bit of five o’clock shadow under her make-up. “I hate the fact that I would have to shave twice a day to keep my beard from showing.”

One solution to hours spent making up one’s face is Facial feminization surgery (FFS). FFS can be quite expensive, sometimes even more than the actual vaginoplasty. And because men and women have different skull shapes, often the surgery can be very intense in adjusting the actual bone. For some people, soft tissue, skin resurfacing, injections and implants suffice.

“Most transgender [women] I know say that 95 percent of being a woman is from the neck up as far as the general public is concerned,” says Roshem, who has not had FFS but is considering it. Roshem understands Henmet’s concerns about facial hair, though. “At first, I just started with the temporary methods. They were less painful. But then I realized [that] this is probably the most time-consuming part of my transition.”

Definitions of gender and society’s pressures surrounding them are huge factors in a transgender person’s well-being.

“First of all, we have to balance our own personality against all of the other people we come in contact with,” says Green. “How they treat us and what they expect from us. That balance is essentially trying to find our own place with whatever gender we are and what people expect of us within that gender.”

For example, explains Green, a non-transgender male has to deal with the same pressures about masculinity that a butch woman has to deal with, but that male is going to be read against his male body. The woman is going to be read against her female body, and the attitudes that come with being female. It is how each person deals with this disconnect, though, that makes a difference.

“So many transgender people pull themselves back,” avers Green. “They find occupations where they have limited social interactions. Transgender people are often software engineers, for example, where they don’t have to deal with other people. They can express themselves as they need to, wear what they want to, and just be who they are.”

Roshem remembers when she announced to her human resources department that she was going to transition.

“I really don’t think they knew what to do at first,” says Roshem. “Over a few weeks, though, I spent a lot of time meeting with them explaining what I was going to do. I made them watch Normal [with Jessica Lange and Tom Wilkinson, where Wilkinson plays a Midwestern husband who announces he is going to transition]. I told them, ‘This is what you can expect. Even though we don’t live in a red state doesn’t mean we won’t get this.’”

Jeremy Bishop is the director of Pride at Work for the AFL-CIO labor union, who sees firsthand the discrimination transgender people face.

“Oftentimes [the] simple act of living honestly results in LGBT workers facing tremendous discrimination and harassment on the job,” writes Bishop. “About once a week I get a phone call from a different person, and if I didn’t know better, I would think they are reading from an identical script. The caller usually self-identifies as transgender and they are calling because they are facing discrimination on the job. They tell me that in previous economic eras they would have simply looked for a new job. Nowadays, however, jobs are scarce for most working class people, and even more scarce for transgender people who frequently face an unrelenting barrage of discrimination when trying to find a job.”

Forty-four states allow someone to be fired on the bases of gender identity – 10 more than allow firing based on sexual orientation. California is one of six states that protect a person based on their gender identity.

Roshem took two weeks off to have her surgery before returning to work. During that time, the human resources department held a number of meetings to explain what was going to happen. When Roshem returned, even her name plate on her office had been changed to reflect her chosen name, Llynda. This was all done, Roshem said, because she had done her homework (having her name changed and social security card reissued) and the company had done theirs.

The biggest issue Roshem faced at work turned out not to be her co-workers but rather her secretary: “I remember the first thing she said to me was, ‘I really don’t like working for women. I hope you’ll change that.’”

Roshem and Henmet also talk about the struggles they have with getting family and friends on board with their new names and gender pronouns.

“It’s sometimes hard because my friends want to talk about what we did a few years ago,” says Henmet. “And they’ll say, ‘Oh, man, remember when he did that,’ and then realize that they should be saying ‘she’ even though I was identified as a boy at the time. The way I see it, it’s all or nothing.”

For Roshem, though, things are bit more tempered. “It’s often awkward with clients because they will refer to past contracts or projects, and my former name appears on the paper work,” explains Roshem. “Sometimes I just take a deep breath, smile demurely and do my best [“Desperate Housewives”] Bree [Van De Kamp] imitation.”

Then there is the bathroom.

Nothing, says Roshem, and she means nothing, prepared her for the issue that ensued over what bathroom she would be using.

“There’s a men’s restroom and a women’s restroom on the floor right by my office,” says Roshem. “I just assumed that everyone was on board with everything else, and they would be fine with me using the women’s restroom. I could not have misjudged a situation any more.”

After several uncomfortable encounters, Roshem went to her human resources department and asked what they recommended she do. A compromise was reached. On the first floor, there is a handicap restroom that is a one person facility. Roshem says that having to use the “handicap” person’s restroom is bitter irony, but she is grateful for everything else.

“I am so grateful that my company did everything they did,” Roshem explains. “You can’t expect the moon. And you can’t be overly sensitive. You are asking people to fundamentally shift the way they communicate with and about you. The fact that the vice-president of human resources was the one who sent the memo explaining my return, and that my nameplate was on my door meant so much to me.”

However, Roshem also knows there is a lot more work to do for those who are to come after her.

While San Diego repealed its primary transgender municipal code (San Diego Municipal Code 56.19 Appearance in Apparel Customarily Worn by the Opposite Sex Prohibited) in 1997 and added gender identity into its non-discrimination law in 2003, only about one-quarter of the entire U.S. population is covered under such laws.

And worse, says Smith, are the masses of transgender persons who are in “forgotten places.” Even in their own communities. On Oct. 27, the Lambda Letters Project hosted a forum entitled “Where’s the ‘T’ in Marriage Equality?” The focal point of discussion was “the interrelationship between the movements for transgender rights and marriage equality, as well as the necessity of broadening the debate to strengthen alliances within both the gay, bisexual, transgender community and the community at large.”

“I think you’re dealing with quite a number of decades of separation within the community,” laments Smith. “It isn’t like in the ’60s and ’70s. For example, arguments have been put forth by the Human Rights Campaign that we can’t include transgender in the Employment Non-Discrimination Act because it will hurt the bill.”

And when it comes to systemic opposition, Smith argues that it isn’t where you might think. It’s in places that hurt much deeper.

“By and large, we don’t see companies shy away from transgender issues,” explains Smith. “We see families and schools do it. When the issue came up with my school, and I was being called a ‘sissy’ or ‘queer’ and on a daily basis being beaten up, the school contacted the school psychologist. What did the school psychologist tell me? He tried to teach me not to cry.”

Green understands that struggle. He faced it himself growing up: “When you realize and make a conscious decision to manage and manifest an identity that is most comfortable for you, you often end up facing more opposition.”

Opposition is one thing. Brutal torture and death at the hands of hate-filled persons is another.

While statistics vary on the percentage of people who self-identify as transgender (the majority of studies that this author found noted around 1-2 percent of the population lives at least part-time in their non-biological gender), many studies show that about half of the crimes committed against GLBT individuals are based on gender issues. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs reports a consistent rise of reported hate crimes against transgender individuals since 1999. On average, over 20 transgender persons are victimized by a hate crime every month. Smith notes that on average, one to two murders occur every month based on gender.

Transgender historian Kay Brown, a charter member of the ACLU Transsexual Right Committee, claims the murder rate of one male-to-female transsexual person every month creates an average of 119 murders per 100,000 transsexuals, or an average 16 times greater than the national murder rate. This murder rate, explains Brown, is more than three times that of African-American men, who have the highest recorded murder rate.

“This is a state of emergency,” declares Brown.

And according to Smith, San Diego is the fourth deadliest place in the country for gender-based murders. So what are you going to do about it?

The Center will host San Diego’s fourth annual Transgender Day of Remembrance on Sun., Nov. 20 at The Center. In cities across the country, this annual event is organized to commemorate the lives and mourn the losses of those killed due to anti-transgender violence.

This year, participants are invited to gather at The Center for a march at 5:00 p.m. followed by a ceremony at 6:00 p.m. The keynote speaker will be M.E. Stephens, a prominent local attorney and activist, as well as a member of The Center’s Board of Directors.

“Standing up to the violence that too many transgender people experience on a daily basis is at the heart of this event,” said AJ Davis, director of public policy for The Center. “It is so important that we gather to remember those lost to this type of hate-based violence and, at the same time, renew our commitment to ending the discrimination that lies at its root.”

This event is sponsored by the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, AEGIS, Bienestar, Center for Community Solutions, The Center/Hillcrest Youth Center, Ebony Pride San Diego, Equality California, the Imperial Court de San Diego, Institute for Transgender Education, Mama’s Kitchen, Project S.T.A.R., San Diego Regional Hate Crimes Coalition, Transgender Community Coalition and the Transgender Law Center.

For more information, contact AJ Davis at (619) 692-2077 ext. 212 or at adavis@thecentersd.org.

The San Diego and San Diego State University (SDSU) community are encouraged to attend a transgender awareness workshop and panel discussion themed, “What is Transgender? Uncovering the Myths.” The forum will promote a positive and empowering dialogue featuring speakers sharing their transgender experiences and a workshop to help attendees gain a better understanding of what transgender means. Organized by graduate students in the Marriage & Family Counseling program at SDSU, the event will be held in Nasatir Hall, room 100, Wednesday, Nov. 30, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

The panel selected will provide a multi-generational, multi-dimensional perspective with transgender presenters illustrating how gender, transitioning, coming out, parenting, privilege, sexual orientation and gender-based discrimination have impacted their lives. Panelist Tracie Jada O’Brien, who coordinates Project STAR (Supporting Transgender Access to Resources), will lead a mini workshop called “Intro to Transgender Issues.” Connor Maddocks, a discussion group facilitator and co-chair of the Transgender Community Coalition will share his transgender perspective. Panelist Dr. Carrie Sakai, Ph.D., contributes a counseling and clinical research perspective. Two additional presenters will round out the panel.

Portraits and quotes from Jana Marcus’ award winning photo-documentary Transfigurations. The Making of a Man, will be on display. The event will finish with a Q&A.

Nasatir Hall is on the northwest side of the SDSU campus. Take the College Avenue exit from Interstate 8. For detailed parking and driving instructions, e-mail drush82@hotmail.com. “What is Transgender? Uncovering the Myths” is free and open to the public.

bfnsandiego.topcities.com

E-mail: annegtimmons@cox.net

The San Diego Chapter of the Butch/FtM-Femme Network sponsors occasional social gatherings in the San Diego and Los Angeles areas. The Femme-Butch/FtM Network is a national organization, created to foster a greater sense of friendship and support among Femmes and Butches in local communities, and to create a greater understanding of Femme-Butch relationships and identities. We are inclusive of all types of Butches and Femmes - from soft Butches to TG Butches and Transguys who also ID as Butch; and Femmes of all descriptions. Our gatherings are open to our friends too.

(619) 819-5007

Our main goal is to consolidate information and resources, validating that contact information and services provided are kept up to date. The H.O.T. Project seeks to serve those persons who are or are considering transitioning from their gender at birth to any level of transgender existence, as well as the significant others of these persons. We are still in the forming stages and area applying for 501(c)3 non-profit status. We do have resource guides available at no charge to any one needing them.

www.geocities.com/neutral-corner/

E-mail neutral-corner@yahoo.com

(619) 685-3696

P.O. Box 19008

San Diego, CA 92159

Neutral Corner is a nonprofit organization registered with the state of California created as a self-help support group to assist crossdressing and transsexual individuals in the community. Neutral Corner is dedicated to helping individuals understand and adjust to the phenomena of gender dysporia. Through our support and social functions we provide a contact point for crossdressing and transsexual persons. For the individual, membership entitles one to our newsletter, our monthly general meeting, a library source for products and services and a link with the medical and professional community for those in need. But most importantly, it provides the opportunity for self-expression, acceptance, understanding and friendship in a supportive and empathetic environment. Security and privacy is of the utmost importance.

www.transgendercommunitycoalition.org

E-mail: SDTGC@yahoo.com

(619) 515-2411

The Transgender Community Coalition seeks to identify the needs of the transgender community and educate itself and others regarding those needs and advocating to make resources a reality. Our goal is to make sure that transgender voices are heard in our wider community, to help the transgender community find it’s place in that wider community, as a group and as individuals, and to act as a platform to help our community create the support network necessary to live healthier, happy lives.

www.ftmi.org

E-mail: info@ftmi.org

(415) 553-5987

This site is the Internet contact point for the largest, longest-running educational organization serving FTM (Female-To-Male) transgender people and transsexual men.

www.transgendercare.com

E-mail: publicrelations@transgendercare.com

P.O. Box 273107

Tampa, FL 33688-3107

Transgender educational and medical resource for M-to-F transsexual transition provided by medical, psychological and electrolysis specialists.