The Transamorous Network - The Transamorous Network

April 27, 2016April 25, 2016

Our Podcast is freaking live

So, I’m pretty jazzed.

Yesterday The Transamorous Network Podcast went live with our first four episodes. Shannon and Remy, my co-hosts and I are super excited.

We’ll be publishing a show a week, probably on Wednesdays, starting next week. You can listen directly on SoundCloud or, in a little bit, on iTunes.

The podcast completes our first phase of growth, which includes this blog, the website and our YouTube Channel. On the podcast we’ll deepen our dives on material and content offered through our shop page, through fun, lively conversations with real people from the trans community. Everyone here at The Network is really jazzed about the podcast. Some who have been waiting for it to go live have been waiting too. A couple of people are expecting big things to come of it.

I think it, along with our other content, is going to help a lot of people. Particularly men, and by extension transwomen, then all trans people and their families.

The podcast would have been fun to do if I were doing it alone. However, it’s so much fun

having Remy Ilmatar as Co-host. Her totally take-no-bullshit-but-with a smile attitude livens an already lively conversation. That she is particularly jazzed about what The Transamorous Network offers is a big boon: as a transwoman herself, she can attest to how effective what we offer is.

Then there’s Shannon my other co-host. She brings a different, yet complimentary energy to our trio. I love seeing her, basking in all her positive energy. After reading straight through The Man’s Guide To Finding Your Transgender Partner on a flight home, she too is convinced we’re going to be changing lives with the podcast. If you have a moment,

check out what else Shannon is up to. She’s an impressive person in her own right.

So here we are, a nice threesome, wanting to make the world a better place. With our podcast now live, I have to say I think we’re off to a good start. I think you will do once you give our show a listen.

April 3, 2016February 26, 2016

We are all connected

Why do so many miss this obvious fact? Wait. Don’t answer. I already know. The question is: do you really know?

Beautiful case in point. This article tells Tracey “Africa” Norman’s remarkable story as the first transgender BLACK model. It’s a great read. The way Tracey tells it, she had a much less difficult life as a female presenting male than the stories I see and hear about. When she finally aligned her reality with what she knew inside, her intuition had her finding work among some of the most successful black models in the world.

That didn’t last. Once the industry found out – as was often the case – all doors closed. Still. Late in the story we discover how trans black icons today only recently discovered Tracey. But here’s the point: one of these people’s lives, Laverne Cox, includes this seemingly “bizarre” juxtaposition of events, which, really just are examples of how connected we all are in this world.

Tracey had modeled “multiple times” according to the article for Essence magazine right up until around the 80s. That’s when her secret got out. Her secret got out just as she was shooting her first Essence cover. She never got the cover and except some modeling opportunities overseas, Tracey’s modeling career ended abruptly.

Fast forward to 2014. Laverne Cox on her first cover shoot for Essence is tearing up thinking about Tracey and the trail she blazed, seemingly specially for Cox.

“I was like, ‘Oh my god, I’m doing a cover shoot for Essence and this is the magazine that 40 years ago fired a trans woman when they found out she was trans.’” She chokes up. “It just means a lot to me that history can be rewritten.”

Back then when the modeling industry canned Tracey, she had a thought about what she was doing. Rather than sue (she said in the article she didn’t have the presence of mind to even think of doing such a thing) she thought differently of events unfolding in her life:

“I’ve always said that the person that walks through the door first leaves the door cracked. There was a perception that a transgender woman couldn’t be passable and work in fashion magazines and land contracts. I proved that wrong. I left the door cracked for other [transgender people] to walk through.”

The door stayed open for 40 years before Cox stepped through. Not just once. Multiple times.

These kinds of events, these connections which span decades, are happening in your life every day. They happen every day. Some are decades old. Some open the moment you need them. Why don’t you see them? Why is your life not charmed like Cox or some other person you know?

Comparisons are futile.

What’s important is the nature of your stories. What stories are you telling yourself? Your stories are the access to events being organized on your behalf. You can tap in to them effortlessly, including that event where you naturally, effortlessly meet your ideal partner.

It’s not magic. It’s not miraculous. It’s just how the Universe works. Claim your share.

March 16, 2016March 16, 2016

Our podcast is coming

Our latest Transamorous Network Podcast episode is done. Just two more before we go live with the first three. Our co-hosts and our latest guest Christie (far right).

Stay tuned for our launch next month!

March 13, 2016March 6, 2016

Our Podcast is looking good

I’m excited this morning. I’m thinking about the first episode of The Transamorous Network’s Podcast, which we recorded last week. It was fascinating. Remy Ilmatar and Shannon Scott, my co-hosts and I were so in synch with our thoughts and ideas shared during the show. I’m eager to share it with everyone.

We’re going go get a few more episodes in the can though before we launch it. Still, I’m excited. Can you tell?

Remy is a dear friend I met while attending a trans function here in Portland. We hit it off, had tea, hit it off even more, then became friends. One thing lead to another and I asked if she’d be willing to help edit the Man’s Guide To Finding Your Transgender Partner. It’s funny, I asked five of my transgender friends to read it. She was the only one who completed it. I admire her for that follow through.

Anyway, not only did she do a great job on editing the work, the work had a transformational effect on her life, even though The Man’s Guide wasn’t written for transwomen (I’m working on The Transwoman’s Guide now). She talks a lot about this in our first Podcast Episode. It’s so cool.

So far, one of the best decisions I’ve made with Transamorous Network was to invite Remy as a (test) Co-host. Her views are a perfect complement for the show. Of course, her credibility as a transwoman is gold, so is her natural character, which is a “I take no shit from no one.” May I sum it up that way Remy?

Expect her to have colorful things to add to our upcoming interviews.

I met Shannon through a series of events, events which I describe in both guides. They were a seemingly “coincidental” string of introductions, activities and conversations which had us meet. Our meeting, over tea lasted three hours! Neither one of us wanted it to end, we connected that strongly. Shannon is launching her own motivational speaking company to help corporations become more sensitive to issues related to gender. I’m thrilled she’s doing that work because she’s a natural. She tells her story in this first episode too.

Together, Remy, Shannon and I riff off one another quite nicely. I’m excited to work with both to them as test co-hosts. I write “test” because at the moment, we only have one show in raw production. I don’t know how this will turn out. So far though, I’m smiling. I think Remy and Shannon are too.

I don’t know why we didn’t get a threesome picture together. We talked about it. Somehow it just skipped all our minds. It’s ok, there’s plenty of time to grab that pic. I’m just excited these two cool women are willing to play. It’s going to be fun. How do I know that? Because it already is.

March 9, 2016March 9, 2016

Next up: Lilly

Lilly Wachowski, sister of Larry, and famous director of The Matrix and Cloud Atlas may be the latest transwoman to embrace her authenticity. With the CONSTANT number of people coming out as transgender, I’m not so sure that’s the case. One thing is certain. She’s smart. The article chronicling her outing shows (to me) a thoughtful, deep personality who is questioning our collective reality. More people are doing this folks.

How many more must come out, Transamorous Men, before we come out in larger numbers? I think it’s fucking fantastic that now the Wachowski’s have both joined the ranks of the transgender community. But what is even more fantastic to me, is the quote Lilly references, a quote she keeps on her office wall:

Queerness is essentially about the rejection of a here and now and an insistence on potentiality for another world.

– José Muñoz

This quote is exactly how I see the community. We are calling from the future to ourselves in the present to have faith and courage as we guide humanity along a course where gender diversity, sexuality diversity, DIVERSITY OF ALL KINDS is beyond de rigueur. It is commonplace, the norm and accepted as such.

Congratulations Lilly. Who’s next?