Here it is, folks! The first television advertisement for a unisex dress for men and women!

http://www.wearabletowel.com/

It's shapeless, ugly, and terrycloth, but hey.

I found this article about raising medical professionals' awareness and sensitivity towards gay and trans patients. On the one hand, it's encouraging that there are efforts and energies afoot to do this. On the other hand, it's sad how ignorance and discrimination can exist in the medical community, just as elsewhere. The third paragraph of the article is of particular relevance to our little community here.

I have access to this through a subscription from a free Medscape blog site for Med students entitled "The Differential" (no, I'm not a med student -- I lied when I signed up for the site.) I found copies of it adapted for other websites, so I'm going to assume its copyright is either absent or permits that. Rather than post a link that probably won't work for anyone not subscribed, I'm posting the full text here.

I've seen this before, somewhere. I think someone here may have posted it already, but I haven't seen it in a while, and today Andrew Sullivan posted it on his widely-read blog at The Atlantic magazine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEaGbTr8B2o

The state legislature of Vermont has voted to override the veto of their governor to a bill allowing same-sex couples to marry. The bill now becomes law. Vermont becomes the fourth state to legalize same-sex marrige, and the first to do it through legislative action.

I always liked Vermont. There's something honest about the place. With this new law, they renew their dedication to their state motto. "Freedom and Unity," indeed!

I injured myself last Friday. Nothing of the usual home injuries. Didn't take a fall, step on a pin, hit my thumb with a hammer, pick up the business end of a soldering iron, or bang my head on an open cupboard door. No, I executed a sudden maneuver. I was outdoors, testing a type of lightweight fabric used for roofing, when my sample started blowing away from me. I lunged for it after chasing it across the roof a few feet, to catch it. Something happened in my ribcage and knocked the wind out of me temporarily.

Just found this Wikipedia article on Fictionmania:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fictionmania

For anyone who doesn't know the history of the site, it's quite informative. One can't help noticing, though, that in its current form, it reads rather like the obituary of a well-loved senior statesman or other notable person.

Let's hope it needs amending soon, and because Fictionmania rises from the ashes.

Dating from pre-Colombian times, native people in parts of Mexico recognized a third sex, men who believed they were women, and accorded them an accepted place in society. Despite the efforts and attitudes of their Catholic conquerors, pockets of this acceptance still survive.

An article in the Sunday New York Times "Week In Review" section, dated tomorrow:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/weekinreview/07lacey.html

*mumble* *grumble* I should have known this would happen. *mumble*...

I never knew that the funny, irreverent Margaret Cho had her own online blog, but I'll be watching it from now on!

Here, she laces into homophobes who claim "Christian values" as the basis of their hatred and "righteous intolerance":

Treated myself to a pedicure today. I was dressed in standard random male street clothes, sneakers, socks. Just picked a random nail salon, went in, asked about getting a pedicure, with polish, was greeted with a bit of a giggle, but directed to a pedicure station in the back of the shop. "Great," thought I, "at least I won't be on view from the street."

Interesting story from a business news source that occasionally publishes human interest or sociological trend stories. It's about a new government regulation in Thailand to outlaw elective castration for those under 18. Gay rights campaigners support the new restrictions, while the medical establishment opposes it, citing the rights of transsexuals to be who they are.

Been suffering with a peculiar pain in my abdomen this past week, which I seem to get periodically and no one has been able to diagnose. One doctor thought it might be a hernia. Another thought it might be diverticulitis, or a kidney stone. I, being something of a pessimist and phobic hypochondriac was thinking "cancer! gangrene! invulnerable flesh-eating parasites! that thing from Alien! you're going to die!" (I really, really need to work on my optimism and positive mental imaging, don't I?)

Just found this great bra reference page [click here] in the online Macy's catalog. One link has information on measuring size, which might be of great interest to crossdressers and stories about them, especially as it has the "formulas" for dealing with larger band sizes.

Palestine

Alyssa Plant has written one of the most sensitive and affecting tales of emergence. I just love the way it's developing. Anyone who hasn't read "The Road To Haifa" yet, is missing out on a beautiful story, at least I can say that through part 3 which is all that's posted so far.

A couple days ago, someone posted a link to an NPR program on approaches to treating TG children.

Here's part 2 of the series:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90273278