New Life Transgender Outreach
Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2008 3:06 am
Saturday night was the start of something new for me. Last month at the TDOR service, I met a number of people from group loosely affiliated with the New Life Metropolitan Community Church. I was a little leery of anything to do with a church, but they told me that the church was simply where they first came together. The group is not religious in nature. They have their meetings the first Saturday of the month, and this was my first.
The meetings are largely informal, held at one of the members' apartment over in the Ghent section of Norfolk. There were about seventeen people there, which is almost twice as large as any regular function for either of the groups I met with in Charlotte.
The group is largely MTF, but not exclusively. A lot of the members are college-aged, though the youngest I met last night is 15 (she came with her grandmother), and the oldest are in their 50s or 60s.
At the beginning of the meeting, we went around the room introducing ourselves and discussing our preferred pronouns. I met a couple of people who prefer gender-neutral pronouns. After that came discussion of a couple of upcoming events: a transgender health conference in Philadelphia, and a local event they're calling the "Transgender Day of Hey". This is planned as a celebratory counterbalance to the TDOR, and is tentatively scheduled for July 2, which is the birthday of Sylvia Rivera, who was in the frontlines at Stonewall.
The meeting broke up a couple of times so people could go to the bathroom or smoke (outside). During one of these breaks, a lady named Kathy pulled out a selection of breast forms that she used to wear. She had brought them to show to a couple of the younger members. She ended up gifting each of them with a pair, then gave a set to me. They are Transform triangular forms, and they're a good size for my chest. Unfortunately, they're about a cup size larger than the homemade forms I wear most of the time, so they don't fit into most of my bras. Lucky for me, I get paid this week. I might splurge and buy myself something from Victoria's Secret.
After the meeting "ended", most of the attendees sat around chatting about "stuff" for another hour or so. We talked music, books, video games, all kinds of stuff. Eventually, everyone went home. I'm already looking forward to the next one.
The meetings are largely informal, held at one of the members' apartment over in the Ghent section of Norfolk. There were about seventeen people there, which is almost twice as large as any regular function for either of the groups I met with in Charlotte.
The group is largely MTF, but not exclusively. A lot of the members are college-aged, though the youngest I met last night is 15 (she came with her grandmother), and the oldest are in their 50s or 60s.
At the beginning of the meeting, we went around the room introducing ourselves and discussing our preferred pronouns. I met a couple of people who prefer gender-neutral pronouns. After that came discussion of a couple of upcoming events: a transgender health conference in Philadelphia, and a local event they're calling the "Transgender Day of Hey". This is planned as a celebratory counterbalance to the TDOR, and is tentatively scheduled for July 2, which is the birthday of Sylvia Rivera, who was in the frontlines at Stonewall.
The meeting broke up a couple of times so people could go to the bathroom or smoke (outside). During one of these breaks, a lady named Kathy pulled out a selection of breast forms that she used to wear. She had brought them to show to a couple of the younger members. She ended up gifting each of them with a pair, then gave a set to me. They are Transform triangular forms, and they're a good size for my chest. Unfortunately, they're about a cup size larger than the homemade forms I wear most of the time, so they don't fit into most of my bras. Lucky for me, I get paid this week. I might splurge and buy myself something from Victoria's Secret.
After the meeting "ended", most of the attendees sat around chatting about "stuff" for another hour or so. We talked music, books, video games, all kinds of stuff. Eventually, everyone went home. I'm already looking forward to the next one.