Displaying 61 To 82 Of 82 Comments Thoughts on The Fourth Of July…from an American Transgender Woman’s Perspective Thanks. I do what I can. Mostly, what I do will no longer benefit me. Too much of the part of my life that matters (where you can work and earn money) has been laid waste. I can only hope those that follow, will not have to endure what I have…and will have the life that should have been mine. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On July 9, 2019 @ 10:56 am Josephine, You are precisely the sort of hateful person that holds back my rights. It is NOT a sin to be transgender. And I am going to prove this to you. I had these feelings of being a female since I was five years old…that I am aware of. My earliest reliable memories begin around that age…as they do for most people. And this is one of MY earliest memories: Playing “London Bridge” in kindergarten. 1976, Illinois. Remember that game? Picture it. Little five year old Angela (in the wrong body) is playing London Bridge. DELIBERATELY times her walk around the circle so as to be the one caught…so that she could be “my fair lady.” AT FIVE YEARS OLD I KNEW I WANTED THAT…that it was RIGHT…for me to be “my fair lady.” I got caught…and they screwed it up…and called me “my fair gentleman.” I was crushed. Little five year old Angela refuses to EVER play London Bridge again. That was as clear a statement as a five year old could make…asserting a female gender. This was LONG before I knew about adult relations, long before I even knew of the physical differences between boys and girls. OK, I could see my mom had something my dad did not…but I always assumed I’d grow up like Mom. I knew nothing of the physical differences downstairs. In girls my own age, the only difference I saw was that they had long hair and wore dresses…and I wanted that for myself, as it was what I felt was right for me. And this is at five years old. This brings me to a conclusion: Then it is obvious that God created me just as I am…just as I was. A transgender girl. Now how could any all-knowing, all-seeing, all-loving, all-caring God…create me thus…and then condemn me for being that which I was created to be? And if I was NOT – as you will doubtless argue…created to be the way I am…then why didn’t this all-knowing, all-seeing, all-loving God…take these feelings from me? Did people like you ever stop to consider that…if there IS a God…maybe…just maybe…people like me were created…TO TEST YOU?? Will you REALLY love everyone, as I have commanded you to? How about THIS person? Will you love them? Will you treat them with compassion and dignity…as I treated the woman who washed my feet with her own tears…in the home of the Pharisee Simon Peter? WILL YOU?? I believe, Josephine, you fail that test. I have nothing further for you. Because I am TRYING to be nice. And my capacity for niceness towards people who are deliberately NOT nice to me…is being stretched to it’s limit. Have a nice day. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On July 9, 2019 @ 12:53 am New Developments in the HB-142 Court Case (Carcano et al vs Cooper) It’s worse than that. Transgender women are attacked, raped and KILLED in men’s bathrooms. But I guess that’s okay with Carly Sue…as long as she is NOT made just a wee bit uncomfortable, sharing a restroom with someone who ABSOLUTELY IS NOT INTERESTED in peeking in on her or anyone else…someone who legitimately is wired like a woman, and not a man. I can honestly say the following FACTS,.. 1. I have used nothing but ladies bathrooms for the past twenty five years. (In fact this recently happened to me at the bus station, when a black woman came out of the stall with her skin tight pants halfway down her ass, and she was pulling them up in front of the sinks…just as I was coming out of my stall…and I could see the top half of her freaking bare ass, before I was able to look away, and get the hell out of the bathroom…I did NOT wash my hands. If only I’d stayed in my stall another minute, I could have saved a bunch of brain bleach!!) 4.In fact, the only thing I have ever seen in a ladies bathroom that was remotely interesting to me…was the occasional super-cute pair of shoes or boots…and then the only thing I want to know is where did she get them? So speaketh the Transgender Tarheel. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On June 19, 2019 @ 12:04 am History is Made In North Carolina!! Thank you for your kind words. More of the credit to Janice on this one, she started building this long before I even came to be in North Carolina, she started pushing for this in 2012. I was just happy to be able to do my part! » Posted By Angela Bridgman On June 29, 2019 @ 12:12 am Who said anything about Alabama? I would not set foot in Alabama if ya paid me! This is North Carolina we are talking about. And while I am here, I might point out…all my life, I have known I would have to fight the GOP for my rights. I never imagined I’d have to fight my own Party. Then I came to North Carolina. And then HB-2 happened. Eleven Democrats voted for it…including one who I have now come to respect and like…Rep. Billy Richardson. One month after HB-2 passed, Richardson wrote a lengthy op-ed in The Charlotte Observer, expressing regret for his vote. Six months after that, I was in Billy’s office, speaking with his Legislative Assistant, and saying, “Billy Richardson does not get a pass, here. Regrets, publicly expressed aside, he still voted for it.” And Billy overheard this, as he was returning into his office. He said to me…”I do not blame you for feeling that way.” So that was the ice-breaker, and I introduced myself, and we spoke at length. And he recalled my testimony on the House floor the day HB-2 passed. And he told me…”do you want to know what really got to me…the very night after the vote?” And I said sure. He told me it was the testimony of my friend Maddie..and asked if I could put him in touch with her! This was when I knew he was sincere. Because otherwise he would have tried to butter me by telling me it was MY testimony that had moved him…and he did not do that. I agreed to pass along to Maddie HIS info, and a request from him to connect. I have been in a very long battle with the North Carolina Democratic Party…both before I was elected a Precinct Chair, and after. I continued to point out the inconvenient truth that we had been offered a better repeal under McCrory that we turned down..than the one Cooper brokered for us…and that I was sorry…but I was NOT going to stop pointing out this inconvenient truth. I am now not the only openly-trans Precinct Chair in Wake County, but I was the first. We now have two serving at the same time. And both of us are also members of the State Executive Committee (SEC) of the NC Democratic Party. Kathryn is NOT a transgender separatist, as I am. I believe we have the same desire and goal…but we believe different roads will get us there. I have also been appointed, by our State Party Chair, to the Platform and Resolution Committee…meaning I am one of thirty people in the State…who receive Resolutions coming from the grass roots…and determine how to apply them, act on them, and incorporate them into our Party platform. I am on the Subcommittee that deals with Civil Rights, Criminal Justice and Guns. So…I have a voice now, in the Party…at many different levels. And I have consistently used it to tell my Party that being slightly less terrible than the Republicans WAS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. That just because they were terrible..it did NOT excuse US from trying to be our best. Aspirations alone were not sufficient if we did not also attempt to achieve those aspirations. As Precinct Officer, member of the SEC, and the P&R Committee…I have consistently done my duty for my Party, and done everything I have been asked to do…and worked very hard to get our nominees elected. I am duty and honor bound to do so. They understand that I am NOT bound to refrain from holding them to a higher standard…and pointing out when and where they fail. There was many a time, over the past two years…when I really felt disappointment in my Party…never moreso than the day that HB-142 was passed. Because it was a horrible deal that was not a true repeal…and it wrote discrimination into the laws of our state for the next four years. Mockingly, I called it the “Please Let Us Be Bigots For A Little While Longer Bill.” All that said…the action of the NCDP on Saturday, to grant us this Caucus…is a bright spot…one that gives me some hope and faith again in my Party. It will remain to be seen how responsive they are to us. But for now…I at least have reason to hope, and to begin the healing that may lead, once again, to renewed faith – that will depend on how well my Party makes every effort to reach the aspirations we speak of, and claim to cherish. The values we claim to have. This was a very important first step. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On June 10, 2019 @ 8:23 pm I do not think you can thumbs-up stories…only comments to them. But I will take your post as an attempt to do so! Yeah…I told this story before, on Yabz…but, while I was waiting for the big post (about the transgender caucus) I thought I would do a few things just to get started. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On June 13, 2019 @ 4:08 am UPDATE: Did not manage to get to him. Supposedly he had back surgery recently, so they out him up to speak early and then whisked him right out. Never had a chance…especially not from where I was in the nosebleed section. One of these days, though…I JUST want him to look in my eyes and see my pain. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On June 13, 2019 @ 4:05 am That is the objective, anyway. I hope I am successful. I have tried for over two years to get Cooper to agree to meet with me, so that he could see my real and raw pain…and know that he caused it. And then ask him what was he going to do about it. I will need to try to remember to be nice, and this is NOT going to be easy. I have a lot of hurt I am carrying. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On June 6, 2019 @ 1:08 pm I can try. My main desire on Saturday…is to get with Roy…and ask him to look into my eyes and see my pain. And then to ask him WHY he did what he did to us trans…and what he is going to do about it. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On June 6, 2019 @ 1:48 am Well…let’s just say I am NOT very enamored of Mr. Cooper. It is an INCONVENIENT FACT that we trans were offered a better repeal by McCrory, which was turned down…than the one Cooper “brokered” for us!! Had we took the deal in Dec of 2016, the fucking moratorium would be over already. Instead, we have no rights now till at least Dec. 2020…so remind me to thank Roy for that bullshit. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On June 6, 2019 @ 1:46 am Have barely scratched the surface of what has been an incredible life. I have a longer series of articles, chapters if you will, from my life. I may bring them here at some point. As to Art…I NEVER refer to him as “Art Pope.” – not anymore. Once, I was typing his name, talking about him, and, as luck would have it…a typo and I added an extra “o” – and so it resulted in a funny and fortunate mistake I now do all the time, and that man is “Art Poope” to me now. I am sad to say much of the garbage still lives on Jones Street. And you need to understand what Cooper is. He is NOT a progresssive liberal as I am. He’s a Down East boy (you seem familiar enough with Carolina to know what I mean there) – and it is very common knowledge in the NCDP that I am NOT happy with Gov. Cooper. Incidentally, I will be having dinner with him on Saturday night this week. Along with about 300 other Democrats. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On June 4, 2019 @ 9:11 pm For the Planet’s Transgender Columnist: A First Post Yes. Reid would be a transgender male, and should be referred to in male pronouns always (even in the part of his life before you knew he was Reid…and that can get tricky, so practice and be patient) Additionally, you should not have revealed Reid’s former name. This is what we in the trans community call our “dead name” and it often is triggering and carries a lot of pain. My own dead name is like that. There are some in my life who know it…since they knew me before I was out as Angela. They also know never to use that name. I did have a political opponent here do “oppo research” on me and come up with my dead name…a name I had not, at the time, used in 22 years, and which had not been my legal name for 18 years. I had never legally used that name in this state. And that political opponent deliberately used that name on me…in front of three other politicians. She was, of course, doing it to be mean, and trying to trigger me and cause me to lose control in front of the other politicians…and I was hip to what she was trying to do…so I just put my forehead in my hand, shook my head slowly, and said…”just wow.” Did not give her the reaction she had wanted. It does not mean I did not feel all the horrible things…because I did. I was also in a situation where I was not able to allow those true feelings to show, nor react to her cruelty as I might have otherwise. My point – if you use Reid’s deadname around him…he may not react, because he is trying to spare your feelings….many of us do this. But I promise you it hurts him a lot. And please never tell anyone else who did not already know it…Reid’s deadname. You did not know this, so…now you do, and this is meant as a gentle correction and educational opportunity, so I do hope I was gentle enough. You can’t be me for twenty five years without knowing the difference between someone making an honest mistake…and someone being deliberately cruel. I am 99 44/100ths percent sure yours was an honest mistake (actually 100 percent…I just like the 99 44/100ths thing…showing my age if you can figure that one out…the reference) » Posted By Angela Bridgman On May 31, 2019 @ 12:12 pm Glad to see you here as well! » Posted By Angela Bridgman On May 31, 2019 @ 12:03 pm May I assume the Reid is a transgender male? I do not like to assume anything, but that is what I am getting from what you wrote. It is not, by the way, uncommon for those we love to really bungle the pronouns, and struggle very hard with them. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On May 30, 2019 @ 11:12 pm Fair enough. But this is the document that founded our nation…and the principles and values we claim to cherish as a nation. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On May 30, 2019 @ 11:10 pm I can’t get Gravitar to work. I uploaded a picture. It does not show here. Never mind. It worked now. I logged out and then logged back in and it worked. No idea why I had to do that but it worked. Gotta love technology… » Posted By Angela Bridgman On May 29, 2019 @ 5:21 pm Thank you, I am glad to be here, and sharing news and information on the transgender community. As you know, this is a very difficult time, in America, for the transgender. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On May 29, 2019 @ 5:20 pm Once I start my column, I will be, yes. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On May 29, 2019 @ 2:57 pm Thanks. I am actually holding out for a bit over a week (June 8 to be exact) for a first article, because something VERY HUGE is going down in the transgender community…here in North Carolina. I say no more now, we want this to hit those who stand against us like a ton of bricks, and they won’t know what hit them. It will have implications and long-term benefit for transgender people across America who seek to have our own voice. I go no further than that…this is your taste of what is to come. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On May 29, 2019 @ 2:56 pm Actually, that took a bit of developing. Story behind this is that, after Pat McCrory, our infamous former Governor was defeated…a lot of people were wishing him ill…one person wrote me wishing he would get cancer. I had to put my foot down, and told this person that, as badly as Governor McCrory had hurt us…wishing cancer on anyone was not cool. Then I got thinking…Cancer is the Zodiac sign represented by the Crab…and the rest is history. The wish I gave to transphobes in my article…was first wished on Governor McCrory…as an irreverent way of addressing the expressed wish that he would be stricken with cancer. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On May 29, 2019 @ 2:53 pm Devin Nunes Files $500M Lawsuit Against Mirrors Indeed. One thing I have learned in my life is that the only thing a bully understands is a good punch in the nose. I was bullied horribly as a child. Never fought back. Never defended myself or stuck up for myself. Ironically…I never had balls…until I didn’t have balls. » Posted By Angela Bridgman On May 31, 2019 @ 3:46 pm Heyyyyy…I like Veruca Salt! She was the one child in that book that I actually understood! » Posted By Angela Bridgman On May 31, 2019 @ 3:45 pmComments Posted By Angela Bridgman
If there even IS a God (which I am doubtful of anyway) and if that God DID create me (again, doubtful, but for the sake of argument I will go with it)
2. I had my surgery just under seventeen years ago, Carly can do the math.
3. I have never seen a thing in the ladies room that someone did not want me to see…and on those rare occasions, I assure you I DID NOT want to see it.
5. A transgender woman…is the most likely to be the first one to come to the defense of a cisgender woman in a bathroom, against an actual perv…I know I’d be the first one on the guy pounding him into hell. And I am NOT a violent person…but where pervs are concerned…because of ALL THE BULLSHIT we have been accused of as transgender women BECAUSE OF THEM…I will pound the living shit out of any perv that steps out of line by so much as a millimeter.
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