Welcome to The Trib...

Lots to tell you about this month girls.  The big news is that Trannyweb has been nominated for an award in the forthcoming Sparkle TG Awards in Manchester, UK, in June. All the details are on the right but the final choice of winner is down to you, so please go and vote now and help Trannyweb win.

Here's the URL...

http://www.sparkle.org.uk/TG%20Awards.html

I’m very proud to tell you that this month’s Trannyweb celebrity interview features the famous Dr Marci Bowers.  It seems like she is never off the TV these days.  For the few who don’t already know her, Dr Marci is an SRS surgeon who practices in Trinidad, Colorado and in Seattle, Washington.  Listed among 'America's Best Physicians' she is also special for another reason.  Dr Marci is herself, a transsexual woman.  I must say that I found her to be most personable and friendly and very professional and I’m sure you will enjoy reading what she has to say. The interview is at the bottom of this page.

Anna Marie Trindall’s Trannyweb Photo Competition has now finished and between us we have come up with three winners.  I know it sounds like the usual stock phrase but the standard really was very high and that made it very difficult to choose the winners out of a fairly large number of entries.  If you’d like to know who won, all is revealed elsewhere on this page.

In the UK Sparkle is getting closer and I have been in talks with the organisers to try to come up with a spectacular stand at Sparkle in the Park on the Saturday.  We hope to have our own TrannyTent  which we will use as a hospitality area for our Full Members so if it rains you won’t get wet. 

We’ll have a stall too, selling some of our Trannyweb goodies, and perhaps a few other attractions.  We really need people to volunteer to help though because I can’t do all this stuff on my own.  So if you are going to Sparkle and think you can give up a couple of hours (or more) on Saturday to help out in the park, then please drop me a line at katie@trannyweb.tv. Look out for Bella Jay's Sparkle Update (below right) for the latest Sparkle news.

If you run any kind of business that sells to tranny people or if you have a tranny web site, then you will be interested our article about using Trannyweb to reach your target audience.  There’s more on this below.

I know a lot of our members are here to find friends and sometimes love and even more. This month we have a short article that should help you to find what you want by getting your profile right.

Hugs, Katie xxxx

Dr Sakura's Tranny Book Bundle

All four of Dr Mina Sakura's Downloadable Tranny Books are now available for one very heavily discounted price if you buy them together.

Buy "The Weekend Woman" and "Beyond the Weekend" and get "Steppin' Out at the Weekend" and "Day to Day Women" FREE!

Just click here to download them now

Trannyweb Photo Competition

The Trannyweb Photo Competition started by Anna Marie Trindall, has been a great success and we will definitely do this again next year. The judges, Katie Glover and Anna Marie, had a very difficult task in finding just three great photos from all the wonderful entries that appeared since the contest started on the 19th February.

Anna Marie came up with a shortlist of ten and Katie chose the three winners from among them.

The Third Prize of a Trannyweb Mousemat goes to Karen and Danique Tate from Assen in the Netherlands, for their photo of Monet's Garden (below)...

Monet's Garden

The Second Prize of a Trannyweb Coffee Mug and Mousemat goes to Gemma Hodgkiss from Bromsgrove in the UK for her photo taken inside a church (possibly in Munich).

Gemma Hodgkiss's Church Picture

And our First Prize of a Trannyweb T-Shirt, Coffee Mug and Mousemat goes to Marsha Ann from Savannah, Georgia, USA for her great photo of a female form in silhouette gazing up at the Lincoln Memorial.

The Lincoln Memorial being admired by a female silhouette

The standard of photos entered was extremely high but there could only be three winners.

Let's do it all again next year though. Put a note in your diary and remember to remind Anna Marie and Katie that February is Photo Competition month. You've got ten months to come up with next year's winner!

If you can't wait till then to get your hands on a Trannyweb mousemat, coffee mug and t-shirt, just go here and order them from our little tranny shop.

Please click here to see all the entries

Creating a great Trannyweb profile

Would you like more replies to your personal ads or perhaps attract more Trannyweb friends? Well, here are some ideas for creating a great Trannyweb profile that will get you noticed…

By far the most important thing about your profile is your photo. It really doesn't matter if the only pic you have not very good. Anything is better than nothing. Profiles with photos receive about 10 times as many responses as those without. The same goes for personal ads. So...

• Make it a good one! If you can, get a friend to take it. Take loads with a digital camera and pick the best two or three. Think about what your best features are and concentrate on those. Perhaps you could have your hair done or dress as if you’re going out on a date – this will help to set the mood. Remember, Trannyweb Full Members have their own profile photo gallery and soon you'll be able to include video too.
  
  
• Take some time out to have a look at other people’s profiles, and decide which ones you like. What is it you like about them? Note down their plus points or their catchy titles; try to avoid things they have done badly.
  
  
• Turn off your computer, grab a notepad and start writing. People often find it easier to write than type, so why not write your answers out and type them up later? You may find you write a better description without the pressure of a computer monitor in front of you.
  
  
• Be honest! This is very important – you will only attract the people you truly want to be attractive to if you are honest with them and yourself. If your profile describes somebody you are not, your prospective friends will be interested in that person and not you.
  
  
• Think about how your friends would describe you in three words. Better still, ask them! Think about your best qualities and sell them.
  
  
• Don’t just tell people about your qualities, show them. Don’t just say “I love music” – what kind of music do you like? Instead say “I love British hiphop – I went to see Roots Manuva last week”, or “There is nothing better than listening to Rachmaninov on a rainy day”.
  
  
• One of the biggest turn-offs, according to some of our users, is bad grammar and incorrect spelling. Double and triple-check what you write, or the next person reading it will be some who liked the look of you.

So get out your notepad, be honest and be positive. Be specific about the things you like. But most of all – upload a picture!

Is that Katie on the red carpet? No it's Kirsten Dunst!

http://www.sparkle.org.uk/TG%20Awards.html

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Sparkle 2008 - Update...

Sparkle Coordinator, Bella Jay

I am pleased to say that plans for Sparkle in June are now really starting to take shape. We have our speakers finalised for the Saturday afternoon, entries for the photographic exhibition/competition are going really well and we are getting lots of enquiries about having trade/info stands in the park too!

Many of you will already be aware that voting is now open in the Sparkle TG Awards 2008 and if you haven't voted I would encourage you to do so and have your say in recognising the best of our community. The winners will be announced on the Saturday night at Sparkle, in true Oscar style, as envelopes are opened and results revealed - I know Katie will be waiting
nervously with the other nominated people to find out who gets to collect the fabulous trophies!

This week also sees the opening of entries for the Miss Sparkle, Miss Golden Sparkle and (for the first time this year!) Mr Sparkle (f2m TG) competitions. So if you are interested in taking part then make sure you visit the Sparkle web site to find out more. The prizes include photo shoots, a weekend in the South of France, a luxury weekend in Manchester, shopping vouchers, breast-forms and more besides. Entries close at the end of May and the contestants will be on the Sparkle web site prior to the weekend. It should make a great climax to a fun-packed Sparkle Saturday on 28th June.

www.sparkle.org.uk

Bella Jay
2008 Sparkle Event Coordinator

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Please support transgendered business owners

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Help For Your Business from Trannyweb

At Trannyweb we've always tried to support businesses that are run by transgendered people, like Copykatz the printers for example. If you run a business that could benefit from selling to the transgender community, then we can help in a number of ways.

Advertise your wares to Trannyweb's audience

The most obvious way we can help you to succeed is by offering you advertising space for your business and/or products on our well visited community web site.

Some of our advertisers have been with us for many years and some even pay for their advertising on an annual basis, in return for a hefty discount. If you want to reach transvestites, crossdressers, transsexuals and transgendered people in general, then advertising with Trannyweb is the way forward. We know you will not be disappointed.

And new advertisers who are also Trannyweb Full Members will receive a 20% discount on all their ad purchases by simply entering a coupon code at the checkout.

For more on our advertising with TW please click this link

We can also offer a number of other ways for you to raise your profile in the transgender community that will cost you nothing but a little of your time. For example, you could easily get your business listed with TrannySearch, the largest dedicated transgender search engine on the web.

If you have a TG web site or a business web site that's aimed at TG people then for maximum exposure you should submit it to TrannySearch. However, before you do, think about adding a Trannyweb Banner to each of the pages on your site that you would like to push the most.

Then when you submit your web site to TrannySearch, our spider will visit your site and index your pages. Any pages it finds that contain our banner code will be given a significantly higher ranking, pushing your site up through the results listings that users see when they conduct a search.

It's easy to do and this is a very useful way of putting your business head and shoulders above the rest in what is becoming a very crowded niche. What's more, it won't cost you a penny and your higher ranking will remain for as long as you keep our code on your pages.

To do this right now, please click here

The Trannyweb Celebrity Interview - this month Dr Marci Bowers

KG: Tell us a little about yourself, where you're from, what you do now?

MB: I'm Marci Bowers, Trinidad, Colorado. I am a trained Ob/gyn, delivered babies for 20 years, mostly in Seattle (between 2 and 3 thousand by best estimates). Transitioned myself in 1996-98 while department chairperson in Seattle. Took up the work of Dr. Stanley Biber here in Colorado in 2003 and now change penises into vaginas and clitorises into penises, briefly speaking.

KG: Which came first for you - was it medicine or being TG?

MB: I was TG but consider that a finite moment in time. I am a woman first, parent second, doctor third, etc. TG plays no role in my life other than being a motivating factor to help those that struggle through transition.

KG: What can you remember about the first time you realized you might be different?

MB: I am NOT different nor have I ever felt that way. I have had friends, been successful professionally and creatively throughout my life and have never considered myself different ever. If you mean, when did I consider myself to be freakish, also never. I felt myself to be male when it mattered but have always lived by intuition and played my cards accordingly. My parents would never have tolerated transition or even androgyny when I was young. But I knew who I was by the earliest of childhood memory and that my life would be played out largely as a woman eventually. That is the road I took when it was possible, personally and professionally.

KG: How did your own transition differ from that which may occur today?

MB: I waited longer than I would have today, largely because there are so many more resources available to those who transition these days. I left college at 19 specifically to transition, leaving the University of Wisconsin to live in San Diego, California. But I met no one who could help me and did not have any idea where to turn. There was no internet and no support groups. I also knew I might need money to transition and so chose medicine as a career first which allowed me to both help others and myself when transition was practical. Then again, although I have no regrets, it was a career, marriage, 21 years and 3 kids later but throughout always knowing from age 12 that I would be female someday even if that were from the bed of my nursing home.

KG: What about the surgery - has that changed much over the years?

MB: MTF vaginoplasty has changed drastically over the years. Some of the changes, oddly enough, were echoes from the feminist movement. Before the 1970's (and even '80's) a woman's role sexually was for pleasuring their man. Thus, when the first attempts at surgery were engaged upon, pleasure and sensation were not even considerations. Basically, if you could create a hole where you could accommodate a penis, the surgery was considered a success. Then from the 1990's pleasure and sensation were at least honored, recognizing that the bar for 'success' had been raised and that things like orgasm were important to post-ops. Since I began performing SRS/GRS in 2003, as a gynecologist who appreciates vulvar beauty, I added visual appeal as an important criteria for 'success', again raising the bar still further. I also think it was important to do the surgery in just one stage, rejecting the notion that transpersons have endless time and money to return for multiple procedures.

KG: Correct me if I'm wrong but you were the first TG person to perform SRS and have been referred to as the "Rock Star" of transgender surgery. How does it feel to be so well thought of around the world?

MB: No, really, there was at least one other person, also a gyn tg that performed the first GRS/SRS (Sheila Kirk, MD). Sheila practiced at the University of Pittsburgh ,did several GRS procedures although I know of no one who claims to have had her work. Nonetheless, she was really the pioneer and I am just another Joanie-come-lately, so to speak. I was younger than Sheila though when I did my first and also committed myself to improving the quality of the procedures performed. The 'rock star' designation is funny. Somebody called me the Barack Obama of gender and I think I like that better. Besides, I can't sing well and only learned to play the cello. You really can't be a rock star with a cello.

KG: What achievements are you and your team in Trinidad most proud of?

MB: Well, I think we are proud that we really have formed a 'team' here. We get so much support now in Trinidad with so many that have rallied around what we do to help, work here in our community and make it better. Quality people. Amazing people really from the nurses to anesthesia to my technical help. Their support has allowed me the time and latitude to think about what we do technically, make changes to the procedure and improve the quality of the lives we serve. Most of all, this is an exquisitely artistic procedure. Living here in such an artistic community with such amazing physical and spiritual beauty around me is inspirational and has added to the flair that I feel I've brought to the work.

KG: What plans do you have for the future? Write a book? Make a movie? Invent a new non-invasive way of changing sex?

MB: If my health holds out, I'd like to work for another ten years or so. These are productive years for surgeons and I don't want to give that up yet. The media stuff comes and goes but does help people understand from the privacy of their living rooms. We are slowly reaching people, sick as some are of seeing my face on TV. Also, the surgery for FTM's needs to get better. I think I'm on the right track to master that as well but we aren't there yet. Once that is done, I want to teach the procedures so that they are widely available anywhere and that all who need the procedure can have access to surgeries that are safe, functional and aesthetically gorgeous. In 2007 I was also chosen to be trained to perform clitoral reconstructions for those women unhappy with ritual circumcision (also known as FGM: Female Genital Mutilation). I am privileged to have trained with Parisian physician, Dr. Pierre Foldes in learning the FGM reversals. We will be performing these surgeries shortly. I am particularly interested in FGM as the addressing of this issue has potential to broaden the discussion of women's rights around the globe. It has potential, like transgender surgery, of bringing men and women of the world closer together and who knows, maybe even peace.

KG: Did you ever see my short article on changing gender called Sex Reassignment Without Surgery? It may seem far fetched today but perhaps in fifteen, twenty or thirty years from now, do you think it is something that could possibly work?

MB: This sounds a bit comic bookish but I'm game for anything. Same with pregnancy for men and uterus transplants. I'm open but think there are larger issues to tackle. Like animal rights, hunger, poverty. The big stuff . I will comment tho, because it is commonly asked, "Do hormones and surgery really make you a woman or a man?" The answer, of course, is "no" but, on the other hand, the goal of hormones and surgery is to add enough to one's gender expression (what the world sees) that the package that one presents makes the world treat you as woman or man. In other words, it is society that tells you that you are one or the other. And what happens, once you've got the goodies and look the part, you find yourself playing by the same rules as other women and men with the same tools and emotions that other women and men of the world play by. All of us are the sum total of our life experience and male upbringing does give a person some advantages and strange assertiveness but also some disadvantages and we all bring that junk, like an accent, with us. So finally, if you are willing (and that is a big if for some) to play by society's rules and spirit of engagement, you really do become the other sex.

KG: If you had one single piece of good advice for a TG person who's just starting out on this windy road, what would it be?

MB: Above all, be kind, turn the other cheek and live by intuition. There is no one path for transition and everyone does it differently. I see impatience so often. I see old attitudes bulling their way forward and others who fail to respect the discomfort some hold for the in between stages we all go through. Lighten up, smile and enjoy the ride. It is an incredible experience but one that comes with loss and great pain.

Dr Marci Bowers web site can be found at www.marcibowers.com. Her SRS page is here: http://marcibowers.com/grs/gender.html and don't miss her recipe page here: http://marcibowers.com/recipes.html. Her New Year's Black-Eyed Cheesy Peasy Dip is incredible!