To quote Austin Powers…”Allow myself to introduce… myself!”
I’m Autumn Sandeen, the newest contributing author to the Ex-Gay Watch. It looks like I’m going to be “unique” to the XGW in a few ways, it appears. Probably the most significant “uniqueness” is in how I identify — my primary identity is as an M2F transsexual — a transgender woman (or transwoman). I’m fairly well known in transgender activism circles as a transgender new archivist, a GLBT news archivist, and as the Secretary of the Transgender American Veterans Association (TAVA).
And hey, I’ve been forwarding articles to the editors/contributors of XGW for awhile now, and as many know I’ve been a frequent commenter on the XGW posts.
My personal history includes being raised as a Pentecostal. In the late seventies, I saw Christian psychologist Galen B. Larson, Ph.D. (though his affiliation with the Foursquare church my family attended) about my cross-dressing and gender identity issues. These days, the kind of therapy I received would be called reparative therapy, although we didn’t call it reparative therapy back then. (It appears from Dr. Larson’s website that reparative therapy isn’t currently a primary focus of his practice.)
Why do I care about ex-gay issues, besides my own experience with reparative therapy? Well, Exodus International a sees gender identity as a relevant issue to them:
Homosexuality is not the only issue facing youth today. Riding on the coattails of the gay movement, a challenge is being made against the very concept of male and female.
The TVC sees transgender people as part of the homosexual agenda, and the NARTH authors have been recently been commenting on gender variant youth and genderqueers. Ex-gay issues are now very much transgender issues too.
For those interested in some online background info on me, I have a Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell profile on the Documenting Courage: Veterans Speak Out project — a combined project of the HRC, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN), and the American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER). Also, syndicated columnist Jacob Anderson-Minshall recently wrote an article about me entitled Everybody Loves a Whiner.
So, allow myself to welcome… myself! 😛
Welcome! I have been working with transgender singer, Alexandra Billings, for the past couple of years and it’s really great to have a trans voice here in ExGay Watch.
Thx Steve. :)And thanks to Mike Airhart, Steve Boese, Daniel Gonzales, Timothy Kincaid, Joe Kort, Dave Rattigan, David Roberts — the whole XGW team — for wecoming me as a contributing writer to this forum. It really is an honor to be here.
Autumn Sandeen, are you a lesbian? If so, what’s that like?
Hey, Audrey,
See you tomorrow after church during Westboro coffee hour. I have a book to loan you, “Reading For Comprehension.”
XOXO
Jay
Another Pentecostal!! Now what would Sister Aimee think? 😉
Again, warm welcome to you Autumn. I won’t hold the Pentecostal part against you. I have Assemblies of God in my early history, but much therapy and prayer has helped me escape the effects 🙂
Welcome to the site Autumn. I look forward to seeing more of your posts and learning a few things along the way.
There is a new bill that has been crafted by Senator Inhofe that will allow tax exempt organizations to endorse specific politicians. It is called S.3957 and it needs to be killed in the Senate before it goes for a vote. Tell everyone you can about it and contact your Senator to have it shot down before Falwell, Dobson and Robertson can tell their flock who they are to vote for.
Moderator Note: These comments are totally off topic and inappropriate for the purpose of this thread, which is to allow Autumn Sandeen to introduce herself as a new writer. Please show respect for the writers and commenters here and post your comments to an open thread if you wish. Thank you.
This will provide a perspective the X-Gay boys just can’t provide. I look forward to reading your contributions!
Greetings, Autumn. I grew up in the Foursquare Church, too! While I am not in Pentecostalism any longer, I am thankful for many things I gained from that involvement and despite the negative.
Dear Jay, I comprehend what Autumn wrote just fine. Many MtF transsexuals are lesbians.
Audrey, being transgender and lesbian creates a difficult challenge for me. I identify more strongly as transgender than lesbian — I find that the way I identify impacts my ability to form relationships.
Basically, I think it would be easier for me to form lesbian relationships if I were less out of the closet as trans, was less of a researcher/teacher about trans issues, and was less of a community transactivist. My concern about issues I’m passionate about; however, are too important for me to put aside for a more relationally satisfying personal life.
Does that make sense Audrey?
Sooo…do you like men or women?
Women. 🙂