Jaila Simms!!

Good morning all!! Just in case you missed it, Diddy (fka P Diddy, P, Puff Daddy, Sean John, etc) has a new reality show on the MTV network called "Making His Band". Unlike his previous series; "Making the Band" this show is requires Mr. Diddy creating his own back up band. Like all musical reality series, it starts with a hefty amount of contestants in a giant open audition. Some of the contestants are snooze-worthy, boring, even dull, however, one of these contestants is by far a superstar on the rise. Her name is Jaila Simms, she is a young transwoman from Chicago, IL and unlike many of the karaoke-superstars that appeared on the premier episode, this girl has some seriously trained pipes! Sadly, yet realistically, the judges on the show go in to some serious shock and awe and horrid pronoun misusage while discussing her identity during her audition (never, ever, ever use the term "it" when referring to us! when will the world learn? maybe when more phenoms like Jaila are live in the scene, in the flesh, and in your faces, ears, eyes, etc) Anyway, let us continue our celebration of another succesfull and talented sister in our community by watching the video of her audition!

180 days, 180 degrees.

Well for starters I really don't know if it has been 180 days since my last post but if it was then the coincidence is awesome, and I apologize for my absence. As for the 180 degrees, let's put it like this; my name is Zoe Renee which translates "life reborn", which is exactly what I have gone through. Long story short, I am full speed ahead in transition, completely open about my gender identity (::gasps:: even to the other DJs!), and I did it all without the previous feel for need that I had to move far away to do so! Granted, I still have yet to take the extra large step and live full time, and truth be told I still have no desire to stay here in Cleveland but the weight of feeling that I need to "hide" myself from the world is diminished forever. My coming out, actually has gone quite well in terms of acceptance, and the joy I get for being able to express myself is second to none. As for a little insight on exactly how I did it, it wasn't a gigantic public spectacle, on my most active and used social network site I changed my profile picture to the transgender flag and enclosed a status message simply saying; "if you need to know, ask." I have gotten a small amount of fuss from some of my fellow transisters for being so 'public' and not 'stealth' about transitioning and abandoning my male side completely, yadda yadda yadda. Don't get me wrong, I understand the need for some people to do it like that, hell, I even felt that was the way I had to do it myself. In my lifetime, I have never denied being transgender but never before had I openly expressed being transgender, and this next comment is only meant as a personal reflection (so this is not intended to say anything about anyone else except me); I am not ashamed of who I am! I feel that as transpeople we are misrepresented, misunderstood, and underestimated, and whilst everything I do in my life hereon may not be in the name of 'fighting for the people' I am on the front lines making myself and making our voices clear. If there is one thing I have learned from my coming out experience is that good or bad, people need to be aware, it is the only way we will learn and it is the only way we will grow. I am blessed for the friends I have made through here as well as the friendships I am maintaining from my "present past life", I am even grateful for the friendships that were lost due to my coming out; with that in mind I close on a quote I came across on the awesome Monica Roberts blog;

“No person is your friend who demands your silence or denies your right to grow.” -Alice Walker

For once throughout this over 20 year journey, things are in the right place and I have never felt more confident in my life about anything.

life 2.0

So I obviously am no champion at the blog game such as my sister Monica (your rock btw) and sadly it's not because there's nothing in my life worth writing about. It's actually quite the opposite, mylife has been frazzled, busy, and more frazzled in the past months. I never realized how difficult it is to balance two completely different personas, halfs, beings, whatever you want to call it until I began to take my transition to the next stage. While exciting, I constantly felt torn to either be myself or be the person that my contemporaries, fans, anyone else that knew 'me'. So often would I get the 'grow your beard back' talk by my fellow DJs,because sadly that had become os strongly attatched to my image of the DJ I am. It didn't and hasn't wound down to what you hear, but who you see. Needless to say, I'm stuck and I feel trapped, and need an outlet, friend, resource, something or someone that can relate to me and my constantly evolviong situation or just give me an insight...I don't typically depend on others in this gravity because I've always been a very autonomous person, I just don't think it will work this time.. :\

Zoe

well....

::sneaks around the corner slightly frayed and scared:: Hi!! remember me anybody?? I am so sorry I have not updated my blog in so long, life has been extremely crazy yet it has been quite a blessing! Transition is coming along well, still not ft but that is perfectly fine with me. I have been DJing a lot more and I am getting closer to acheiving that all mighty elusive doctorate!! In other news, I have adopted officially a name, and it was given to me by my mother! She stated that the name she has been thinking best for me was Zoe Renee, which I think is awesome! Which translasted means, reborn faith :) which in a way describes my greater sense of being. Anyway, I have moved back into the city and spending some time catching up with some old friends I grew up with, I have even come out with a couple of them and they were suprisingly accepting which was a huge relief. Anyway things have steadied out a bit finally and my life is resuming some order, I promise you I will be back to blogging multiple times a week now and look forward to talking with all of you once again very soon (oooohh and I promise to put a picture of me on here for once too haha). I have a lot to talk about in the upcoming days/ weeks and I can't wait to hear about your lives!! Oh yeah, and thank you all for the wonderful birthday wishes!!! XOXO

Happy Birthday!

To................................Me!!! 24 years friends and still going strong!! Have a great weekend friends!

Introduction to a Wish List

These are things, rather satirical, material, or just plain ole nice that I would like to see happen not only for the good of myself but also the world. This reminded me of a post over at Monica's blog and I just had to add this as one of my first wishes! **the wish being the fulfillment of the MSNBC prophecy with a little extra 'get the network shut down' to boot**



In other news, the first week of HRT is now complete, and I have never felt so sore but so good, ever! Stay tuned!

More Ground-breaking News!!

It is soooo great to see positive focused trans-women excelling in society! From Laverne Cox holding it down on the Diddy show, and to now what I just discovered; Isis! America's Next Top Model will feature the beautiful transwoman Isis (see picture) The 22 year old model is from Prince George's County, Maryland where she was a non-profit worker. I wish her the best succeess on this next season as well as continued success to Laverne and other members of our community shining a positive spotlight for us! Stay tuned for a certain trans-dj to make some noise too! :)