Hi everybody!
I'm Gin (short form of Virginia aka MercuryX23 at DK). I am currently doing time in Maricopa County, Arizona (I live in the reddest of red districts, AZ-02. Home of Trent Franks.) as a public high school Theatre Arts teacher. I have been lucky enough to have this amazing job for the past five years. Prior to this, I taught English and Theatre at an alternative high school in South Central Los Angeles. While I miss Southern California more than words can say, I am grateful for what I have here in Phoenix, namely in-laws who watch my two wonderful children on a daily basis. I am happily married to an amazing woman who has proven herself to be even more amazing than I initially thought she was because when I came out to her last year that I am a transsexual, she did not run for the hills. Instead, she has supported my need to transition and is learning that even though she is not a lesbian, she can be in a happy and healthy relationship with another woman.
So, yes, I am a transsexual. While I have been in transition for the last year or so (about ten months into my hrt regimen...it is becoming harder and harder to pass as male), I am still looking at the world from inside a closet that I would just like to go ahead and get out of already. However, I do live in Arizona and while I have heard tale of other teachers here transitioning and keeping their positions, I am fairly confident that due to the nature of my job in particular, there is little hope that my position will still be available to me once I live full time as a woman. So I am working on my second Master's (the first is an MA-T in Secondary Education) in creative writing so I can possibly get work as an adjunct instructor at a community college or online school once my career here as a high school teacher comes to an end.
Beyond all that, I am excited for my future. I have always been politically active from the sidelines. While I've worked for a few local campaigns and blogged on and off for years, I've never felt like I was part of the game in a meaningful way. It is my goal to become politically active in the Trans community. While we have some wonderful women and men out there speaking for us, we do not have enough. We need to have our voices heard and our stories told. I hope that I can be a part of that effort.
So thank you for inviting me to be a part of this new community. I am grateful for the opportunity.
Welcome Gin! I am so pleased we have a number of folks here from the Trans community participating. I have a favor to ask of you and Robyn once we get more folks chiming in with their brief bios. If we manage to get the community diary series up and running as I envision them, I'd like to reserve an evening each week to trans- community issues and chat. I'll send out more feelers on this and ask for feedback. But at this point, the community diary series are something I very much want us to get to work and be actively participated in. But more later... Thanks again for joining us and again, Welcome!!!
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