Vogue Evolution, Family & Pronouns, Etc....

Greetings all!! Well if MTV keeps up just positive representation of transwomen, I may have to buy stock or something! As you are currently witnessing Jaila Simms blow everyone out the water on Making His Band, I advise you to also direct your attention to the hit show America's Best Dance Crew. Hosted by Mr Randy Jackson, this show is another reality competition show focusing on dance crews across the country, you may remember the famous Jabbawockeez crew (pictured top right), that have rightfully propelled to the top, that were season winners of the show. Well in this new season, there is another crew on the rise that is just amazing and will hopefully reach the same pinnacle as previous champions. This crew is known as Vogue Evolution (pictured top left) they hail from NYC and are simply amazing. They draw influences from the house/ballroom scene of the 1920s during the Harlem Renaissance, and making their national/international debut on the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, their timing couldn't be any more impeccable. They are determined to bring the house/ballroom scene to the mainstream eye and I wish them all the success in the world! This groundbreaking openly gay/trans dance crew is nearly impossible to describe in words so I will allow the following video to speak for me.


The next thing I would like to express/ask of my readers is this; How did you handle family situations with proper pronoun uses during the beginning of your transition? Is it so much as right for me to ask my family to practice and use proper pronouns for me or should I just continue to allow them to slip until it becomes a more serious issue within my transition (living full time) I'm honestly grateful to have my family accept me and acknowledge my transition, I have recently given my mother a copy of the book True Selves and she has actually started reading and enjoying it so maybe that will give her insight before I have to. I only ask this question because me and my non-biological little sister were out dancing the other night and my biological big sister was in town and met up with us. My 'little sis' who only refers to me as Zoe and uses female pronouns with and about me (and she has known me before transition) asked me why my big sister still called me 'little brother' and the only truthful response I could think was "it's family, they can slip for now, as long as their on my side". I stood for a moment in my own confusion as I said that and began to over think, per usual. I honestly don't know how to feel about the situation, like I said, my family accepts me and loves me as my true self (well of who they know me to be, we haven't actually all formally met yet) so is the pronoun thing a big deal right now when it comes to family or not, any insight/experiences would be more than helpful, thank you all so much :)

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

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! :)