Hello and welcome to the August 2003 edition of The Tranny Tribune, the official organ of the Trannyweb community. As usual, please let me apologise if you have received this in error. The most frequent reason for receiving it by mistake is when friends or colleagues register you as a prank.

This situation helps nobody. If this is not your thing, we urge you to unsubscribe using the instructions at the bottom of this page. You must follow the instructions carefully though, or you won't be removed from the list.

Having said that, for the first time ever, The Tranny Tribune is now available to people with an interest in TG issues, outside of Trannyweb.

This is our Ten Thousand Member Special issue and the largest edition to date, in which we're joined by our most famous member - Angie Bowie, for our celebrity interview, below.

Also, this is also our special hosiery edition. Trannyweb is joined by Shirley Feeney from TightsPlease.co.uk, who's our new hose specialist. You'll find loads of useful information in this issue on all things pantyhose.

TRANNYWEB APPEAL

The two things we really need from our members are the following:

• We need more paid memberships. With ten thousand members you'd think we'd be fairly solvent by now. WRONG! The wolf is just outside the door and he's licking his lips.

The truth is that the vast majority of our members have 'Basic' free membership. Everyone loves something for nothing but things are really starting to get out of hand now.

Since the beginning of August we have had exactly zero paying members signing up but well over 200 free members. So come on girls - we're only talking about US$14.99 here, for a whole year!

Your small contribution will make a real difference.

Please click here to see what you get when you upgrade to higher level of membership (you'll need to log in).

• We also need you to post in the forums which are the backbone of our community. The numbers of posts has dropped considerably over the last few months, so please make an effort and start some new threads.

Enjoy. Hugs, Katie xxxx

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Our long-standing search facility, TrannySearch (or Mabel as she's sometimes known) has just been upgraded. The search engine has indexed well over twentyfour thousand transgender related web pages, making it the largest search facility of it's kind on the internet.

Some users, who may have had problems using the search engine recently, will now find it works perfectly with their browsers too.

The index has also been completely revamped. All of the pages have been visited in the last week and those which no longer exist have been removed. Several thousand new web pages have also been added.

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Former wife of David Bowie, writer and musician, Angie Bowie is Trannyweb's most famous member (as far as we know) and she is our celebrity interviewee in this edition.

TW: You've been associated with transgender people on many occasions in the past (not least with Trannyweb) and we all love you. But why the interest in TG folk?

AB: Gender interrupted my life at the Connecticut College for Women in 1966. Once rejected by respectable America and its college I felt empowered to be whatever I could be. Kingston Polytechnic and it’s closeness to London provided a place to meet and talk with diverse people, including those with different sexual persuasions. I was fortunate to have some friends who were considering taking cross-dressing and gender transformation a little further. I believed in visual make-overs as a way to focus interest, Gender transformation was the highest and most exalted of make-overs.

When we visited New York in the early 70s, the Mainman crowd (the cast of “Pork”) was friendly with Jackie Curtis, Candy Darling, Hollywood Lawn and Jayne County or Wayne as he was at that time. I was stimulated by the idea that there were options in the confusing gender issues which had already clouded my life.

TW: Have you ever had leanings in this direction yourself? As a woman, have you ever felt you may prefer to be a man sometimes?

AB: Well, 50% of the time, but I never wanted to make the physical change. I wanted to be able to do it ALL! That’s why I have worked at so many physically demanding jobs, to build up my strength and to push the envelope of how strong I could be. And I had selfish motives, I wanted to have a boy and a girl; children of mine. No point in considering a sex change when one’s body comes set up with the equipment for reproduction!

TW: Your book, Bi-Sexuality is available in the Trannyweb bookshop. How close is this subject to your heart?

AB: Extremely close to my heart. Bisexuality enabled me to dignify my interest in men and women and before I thought I had reinvented the wheel I was made aware of how many bisexuals had influenced the history of man. I thought it would be useful to have a handy pocket guide so that one is a little more informed than whispered scandals in the back of an English Literature class, which is how I began to study Oscar Wilde. Alexander the Great was more accessible through the archaeological digs and ruins we visited in Cyprus.

TW: How much does your marriage to David Bowie still impact on your life now?

AB: I have forfeited the relationship I enjoyed with my son, Duncan/Zowie. I have not seen him or since he was 13, that will be 20 years. I have not heard from David Bowie for 25 plus years so the marriage per se was never a critical issue. The working partnership with Bowie in the 70s is a more difficult issue. Sometimes I just want to throw my hands up in disgust at some Bowie camp insult. It’s a double-edged sword, sometimes cutting out a blessing and other times wounding me in the process.

TW: I once came to one of your gigs. I saw you appearing at Dingwall's in Camden, London, in about 1983. I was most impressed. Do you still perform?

AB: Thank you for being there! A couple of pen pals from www.angiebowie.com have mentioned the show at Dingwall’s. I am so glad you were there and we have the pleasure of chatting now! Yes, I do still perform, at the drop of a hat! No, I’m just kidding.

TW: You've just had surgery to remove a benign tumor from an ovary. Tell us about your recent health scare.

AB: It is a shock to discover that we too have physical ailments! Being in hospital; I didn’t like being helpless, in someone else’s hands and very grateful to have been surgically rescued from the Alien Invasion!

Confronting one’s mortality is balancing, kind of like balancing the wheels on your car.

I had to write a will and wonder how the people in my life would fare and how much I had left unresolved!

My friend, Cyrinda Foxe’s last words to me were “I have so much to do.” Cyrinda fought a brave fight with brain cancer and succumbed to the disease about a year ago.

I thought of her as they prepped me for the operation. “Mom let me live through this and I swear I will go visit my brother, organize a trust fund for my daughter’s house dowry, I will move back to your home land and I will finish all the chores I have started.”

TW: Have you any plans for another book in the near future?

AB: “POP.SEX—Popular Sexuality” is the title of my new book. It is a history of sexuality and the characters whose writing and/or lives illuminated different sexual issues.

TW: Are there any other projects you'd like to mention?

AB: I would like to congratulate you at TRANNYWEB for expanding the consciousness of “transgenderism”.

We are all sexual beings. The success of your website reflects the intelligent curiosity voiced by your visitors. In the 21st Century, we can dispel prejudice and discrimination by acquainting ourselves with the cultures and sexual persuasions of the entire planet. We have the ability to communicate, travel, learn and entertain. Thank you for your interest.