Stephanie Marie

This is a reposting of an article I wrote for the the Kappa Beta newsletter, the Pink Slip, in June 2006. I will be posting an update on our last UNCC presentation soon. For several years, Kappa Beta has been a part of a sociology class at UNC-Charlotte taught by Dr. Lance. Several of our members speak before the class once each semester, and they take questions from the class afterwards. A big thanks goes out to Bobbie Long for starting and heading up the visits for several years. Pamela has recently taken over and has done a great job as well. I had always heard great stories from these classes, but I had never been able to attend until recently. That changed on May 31, 2006. We had a great group this time around. Along with Pam, we had Jennifer, Trish, Trish's wife Diane, and myself. Trish and Diane were also first timers, and it was one of the few classes where a wife had attended. We met Dr. Lance in his office at 12:30pm and went back down for the 1pm class. Dr. Lance was ver...

As we go through life, there are some things that we never consider doing. In many cases, we have very good and valid reasons. For example, I have no desire to go to Afghanistan anytime soon. There's a strong survival instinct that probably makes it wise for me to keep things that way. However, sometimes we keep doors closed that are worth opening or at least putting our foot in. Such is the case with a phone sex service. I had many times accidently typed in a wrong url or clicked where I shouldn't have and been lead to a porn site. Getting out in many cases proved difficult with the numerous pop-up windows. Such was not the case as I clicked on a call site from URNotAlone. It lead me first to Sissy School which I knew wasn't my cup of tea. Then I found FemPhone which seemed more up my alley. Women who feminize men sometimes even willingly. I was genuinely interested, but I had never called such a site. I was curious and emailed a few of the mistresses with my debutante fan...

I have a bad habit of downplaying compliments sometimes even from the best of friends who have nothing but good thoughts for me. I am getting better at simply saying "thank you" and appreciating kind words from both friends and strangers. I'm not totally sure why I do this except that I'm a fairly analytical person. I like to constantly evaluate myself. It's difficult to let go and accept the nice word from another person. That leads into the title... "I'm Getting There." I spent a wonderful Saturday evening with some good tg friends discussing life over dinner. I wasn't sure who was going to be at the restaurant that night, but I was pleasantly surprised with the quality of people present. There are some nights when it seems anything is possible. As the conversation flowed amongst each of us, I felt like this was one of those nights. Each of the women were at what the world might say a differnt stage of transition. Two were post-op and even admi...

Christine Daniels (formerly Mike Penner) is quite the talented sportswriter for the L.A. Times . She announced her transition in a column in the sports section on May 26. The response in the comments section was overwhelmingly positive. I have been yelling "you go girl!" ever since! Even if you have no interest in sports or even transgender issues, her blog is worth keeping up with. You should start from the beginning as there's still time to catch up. Christine Daniels' blog

I will try to post links to stories of interest to the TG community. Here is a good story on Susan (formerly Steve) Stanton who was fired as city manager of Largo, FL in February after the local newspaper outed her. The article is pretty balanced as are the comments unfortunately. St. Peterburg's Times - Introducing Susan Stanton

The first posting on my blog may seem rather trivial or frivolous, but I hope you'll find a deeper meaning in my choice of outfits. Those who know me know I have a love for prom, bridesmaid, and other formal dresses. I think they are the ultimate in feminine expression in terms of clothing. They feel luxurious and look so elegant. When I'm dressed to the nines in a social setting, I feel on top of the world. That feeling goes beyond the dress and the compliments. It is my symbol of a realized goal that I once considered unattainable. One of my earlest memories of realizing I was different was around eight years old. My parents and I were invited to my grandparents ballroom dance. My grandparents were an elegant and graceful couple to the point where they competed competitively after they both had retired. My parents and I on the other hand rarely dressed up, but we attended wanting to be supportive of them. Of course, this meant I had to wear the monkey suit complete with ruffl...

This past Thursday, I had my final fitting for my debutante dress. It went very quickly as the dress fit perfectly. As Jackie did a little adjusting, I had another one of those mirror moments. There I was just like the beautiful debutante girl getting ready to be presented to society. Vickie even came upstairs to give her approval. She was like a proud mother telling me how beautiful I was. It was nice being fussed over so much. I made a full girl's morning out of it buying some shoes at Nine West. If it wasn't for work commitments, I would have made a day of it! I'm still amazed at how easily I pass through the world as my real self. Only a couple years ago, it would have been a major undertaking. Now, I have truly come out, and maybe the debutante dress has a little something to do with that.

My latest dress that I'm showing in my pics has become very special to me, and I have not even worn it out anywhere! It is a debutante dress which for young ladies in the south is a dress worn at a formal gathering where the ladies are "introduced" to society (usually around age 17). This is funny to some because I came out as Stephanie nine years ago! One of the things on my long-term "to-do list" was to buy a dress at a full service bridal/formal dress shop. I had always bought my dresses from eBay, online stores, yard sales, or Good Will and then had then altered later. I had never had the experience of having someone pick out some gowns for me and help me try them on. This is something I very much wanted as most women get to do this either for a prom or wedding. I thought it would be a very feminine experience. I also knew I wanted a debutante gown which fit very well with this experience as it would require some extra help. I chose a place in Gastonia calle...