Transgender Conversations

It is very heartening to me to see and hear all the discussion and discourse about transgender. If you are a blogger or blog follower  just go into your favourite blog platform and search for transgender support. You should find lots.

Here is a great post from polymic : THE FIRST TRANSGENDER NAVY SEAL

"If you would have met Chris Beck back when he was a Navy SEAL you would have thought he was an ordinary guy. To everyone around him, he was a warrior, a fighter and also a hero. Albeit living up to all those titles, he also struggled with a secret that he tucked away deep inside himself. He wasn't actually Chris, he was Kristin.

In his tell-all book Warrior Princess Beck reveals that just like the the panty hose hidden in the back of his drawer, while he was serving in the military, he was concealing the fact that he was actually transgender.

In what has been called "one of the smartest and most important books of the year," the retired Navy SEAL explains that her journey hasn't been painless. Kristin Beck, formerly known as Chris Beck, served her country for than 20 years but she was never able to share her secret with anyone within the military.  She was deployed 13 times and fought in seven combat deployments being honored with the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star for her outstanding work. "

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE

Here is a booklist for Trans Youth in case you need to find some supportive reading

sexy sweat

When a guy is aroused, his sweat activates the female brain, study reveals

The researchers speculated that if humans do produce and respond to sweat pheromones, then a woman should respond to a guy's sexual sweat differently than she does to his normal sweat.
Chen and her colleagues asked 20 heterosexual guys to stop wearing deodorant and scented products for a few days. Then they told the men to put small pads in their armpits as they watched pornographic videos and became aroused (the researchers confirmed, using electrodes, that the images did the job). Later, the guys were asked to exchange those pads for fresh pads to collect the sweat they produced when they weren't aroused.
Then the researchers recruited 19 brave women to smell the men's pads while undergoing brain scans.

Go here to read more

NOW LETS SEE A STUDY DONE THATS NOT HETEROCENTRIC

Christmas is coming!

BOOKS OF INTEREST


Two books that you may find interesting which you can get through the SHineSA library are the 'Quartely essay' issue 22 2006 - Voting for Jesus, Christianity and Politics in Australia and "The Male in the Head" young people, heterosexuality and power.




The first of these: 'Quarterly Essay" says this on the back cover.
" From the Hillsong Church to the Family First party, Australia appears to be experiencing an evangelical revival. In the second 'Quarterly Essay' for 2006, Amanda Lohery investigates that revival - its shape and scope, and what it means for the mainsttream churches and the nations politics. She talks to young believers and analyses the machinations of the Christian Right. She discusses with humour and insight, the appeal of the megachurch, the changing image of jesus and the political theories of Geaorge Pell and Peter Jensen

Voting for Jesus is also an essay about the use and abuse of religion in party politics."

I found this book to be easy reading entertaining and definately thought provoking. If you want to know what young believers think about, abortion, same sex attractedness and other issues this is definately worth a read.


The other book 'The Male in the Head' by Janet Holland, Caroline Ramazanoglu, Sue Sharpe and Rachel Thomson covers a discussion about social construction of sexuality. In particular sex, gender and power - and the gendering of sexual knowledge and "the collusion of young women with thier sexual partners in a reproduction of multilayered male power."

This is a fantastic book for anyone interested in gender, power and the roles our young people adopt.



PODCASTS

In addition you may wish to hear what young people have to say about sexuality, sexual health issues and thier thoughts re life. If so go to the SHineSA youth podcast and listen to them yourself through your windows media player. There are plenty of other topics to hear in the podcast as well.
Listen here for an example

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SE&X COURSE

AND - DONT FORGET The 2007 SE&X courses are taking bookings now. Below are 2 SE&Xers from 2006. One of the podcast recordings has them talking about their thoughts re the course.

2006 participants