Summer Programming

Lifetime is airing the Gwen Araujo story tonite in a made-for-TV movie called "A Girl Like Me". From what I can tell, it's mainly going to deal with the family coming to grips with 'Eddie' becoming Gwen/Lida (I use two names because she was known as those names with different groups of people) and then conclude with her death.

I'm hoping this will be a very valuable movie, because it may, for once, deal more with the family's reaction to the transitioner, similar to what was partially seen in the movie Transamerica. The Transamerica reaction was, unfortunately, dramatized so that it all came down at once, but the Gwen Araujo story should show reactions over time. The stages of acceptance will probably be seen similar to the Denial-Anger-Bargaining-Depression-Acceptance line. It's also going to show the view of a young transitioner, and not only that, but someone that isn't white. In the LGBT world (I'm starting to use 'world' more so than 'community' since the word 'community' has become very construed and the word 'world' makes it sound more diverse), minorities seem very under-represented. A lot of people only see White gay America, and not Asian, Latino, or Black gay America. Of course, I also think that, unfortunately, many people within ethnic minorities, don't understand that the issue of 'coming out' has it's own problems regardless of race or culture. There are cultures that seem more tolerant of transitioners, but perhaps those strides are made when the LGBT world starts standing up for itself a little more.

Either way, I'm hoping this show will provide a real-life look at a young person going through transition and the obstacles one faces. It should provide a real life look at a family dealing with a very hard topic.

On a side note, the locker room, nor the hot-tub, happened this past weekend...setting up worlds to collide this coming weekend with San Francisco's Pride.

After our sporting event, a number of the teams gathered at a local gay bar to hang out. I noticed one young man playing pool. He didn't appear to be gay, and I kinda wondered why he was there. After hanging out with my team for a while, and following them back to the bar for 'refills', I motioned at the now empty pool table. None of them were really interested in playing, but the man who had been there before appeared and asked if I was interested in playing. I told him sure. We chatted for a little as we set up, and when he told me his name, I realized that he wasn't a he afterall...he was a she. She had a shaved head and basically no breasts. She looked like a guy. After we hung out for a while, I even asked her if she was mistaken as a guy that often. She said she was, but that she didn't mind. At that point, I seriously wanted to ask her if she thought about transitioning....but I didn't.

One of my teammates came up to me as we were playing and asked about 'him'. I said, "you mean, her?"

"Ohhhhh," they said, which was basically my same response.

R, as I will call her, and I chatted more throughout the evening. I could tell she had something for me, especially after telling me that there was something about my aura that she liked. Could she tell? Hard to say. But she might have picked up on some of my masculinity and just couldn't put her finger on what she was sensing. Or, she might have simply read me, and was politely trying to tell me such...in a way that she was also possibly T.

She gave me her phone number, and told me that she would be in San Francisco for Pride. I'm not sure I really want to get involved with her, though, since she had contacts with many of the teams we were playing...which could cause a whole other fiasco. I'm very hesitant about dating players on my own team...let alone those on other teams. I just don't want to bring any relationship drama to the playing field.