Sunday May 2, 1999 (5pm – 7pm)

Introductions… There was a small turnout, of about 9 people. Jade mentioned her business of martial arts training, and offered discounts to fellow TransSupport members. International cross-dressing was discussed. Levels of acceptance from one culture to another. Debbie is starting some college courses, this session, for the first time, as a full-time female. Go Get ‘Em! Starting Saturday June 19th, is 'Gay Pride Week'. TransSupport will make an appearance in the PARADE, but how much of a showing depends on you, it's members... Instead of carrying a banner, this year, Antoinette has sugguested that if we have a MINIMUM of six people, each can carry 2 letters of "T-R-A-N-S-S-U-P-P-O-R-T". Those available to participate, should contact Antoinette as soon as possible, at 774-7029. The next meeting is scheduled for Sunday June 13, 1999, 4pm to be held in Standish at Jade’s house. First there will be a board meeting and then a barbeque for socializing. Those interested in attending, should contact Antoinette for driving directions, possible ride shares, and pot-luck coordination of the barbeque. The meeting wrapped up one hour early, at 7pm, because of ride-share conflicts.

Sunday June 13, 1999

We got together one hour early this month, to discuss board issues. The first order of business was the election of Jade & Tracy, together, sharing the duties and office of 'Secretary', with one Board vote for that office. The next topic was regarding the desire for another Summertime get together. It has been sugguested, by Charlotte, that Appleton, Maine would be a nice place to gather, although whether a restaurant, a member home, or someplace else to meet in Appleton, is an issue that is being looked into. A group 'day-trip' to Woburn, Mass. (home of the Tiffany Club), was sugguested. The Tiffany Group meets every 4th Tuesday of the month. As of Friday June 25, we have emailed the Tiffany Club, regarding this matter. Introductions (finally)..... Briefly discussed safe places, in the Southern Maine area, to socialize. Vice President, Jean T. read a letter, received from Senator Mark W. Lawrence, thanks TransSupport for participating in the "Quality Begins At Home" seminar, for gay / lesibian / transgender issues, held in Augusta, a few months ago. Since virtually nobody volunteered to march in this years "Gay Pride Parade", we decided to rethink our approach, for next year. It has been sugguested that we have a banner saying, "TransSupport & Friends", those who want to march, but don't want to dress-up, can blend in, undistinguishable from the family and or friends, who will also be marching. Rest assured, we did have a presence at this years "Gay Pride" events; our faithfull President, Antoinette gave a speech. When the 'meeting' part was over, we PARTIED! The barbeque was a SUCCESS! The conversation was EXCELLENT! And there were FOUR birthday cakes! NEXT MONTHS MEETING will be held at the Brunswick location, as usual. July 11, 1999 at 5pm. Hope to see you there!

Sunday July 11, 1999

No new faces at the table, no introductions needed. It was brought up that we need to take trips as a group, and suggested again that the 'Tiffany Club' in Woburn might be a good place to start. Robin, our treasurer has volunteered to gather information in this area, specifically as to an event called "The Fall Fling", held in or near Woburn, Massachussets. Discussion leaned toward 'Maine TransSupport' having one or two annual events, ourselves. Our community needs something like this as a social setting outside of a church basement, and not as intimate as someone's home because it would be open to the public, and hopefully HIGHLY publisized. A convention-type event held at a hotel or perhaps a club, in or around the Portland area possibly with a guest speaker (celeb), dancing, karyoke, food and drink; a safe enviornment to gather, socialize, teach and learn. .....Antoinette and Jamie will check into event places and rates. .....Some ideas for publicity included: flyers, Maine newspapers, word of mouth, public service announcements (radio & television). .....Some ideas for entertainment included: Real celebrities like Ru Paul, or perhaps a celebrity look-a-like contest, and it all could be a fund raiser type event, or a 'donations appreciated' type thing. All monies recieved would go towards projects done by Maine TransSupport, and projects that we participate in. Antoinette sugguested that it would be a good thing to put on a local theater production with TS community actors, but that such an undertaking would require an experienced, more professional director and producer. We recieved a request for reimbursment, from Jean V. of MGRESS, regarding the workshop given in Penobscott County. This should wipe out our grant from the M.D.C., intended for this purpose. Jamie has agreed to take on the responsibilities of 'Librarian'. We closed the group a bit later than usual this time, feeling that our time had been well spent with good company.

Sunday August 8, 1999

This month's meeting started with a short prayer to a 'Higher Power'. Introductions were made, and we found among us some members and board members of yester-year. Marty organized a gathering of TS members from our not-so-distant past, for this months meeting, in the hopes of offering leadership support to our groups current board members, as well as being available to the group as a whole for answering questions. It was very successful to that end, and appreciated by all who attended. Antoinette is working with the concept of starting a focus group in Portland, to address the needs of those in the TG community with disablities, preventing them from attending the support meetings in Brunswick. For more info, on the 'focus' of the new group, you should contact Antoinette. It was mentioned that the newsletter would be greatly improved if we could share some of the stories of our journeys. If you have a story you'd like to share, please contact Trey. Billie sugguested that a list be made up and handed out or posted on the website, of herbal hormones, along with a safety note which would reccomend usage ONLY under the care of a physician. We all discussed the health pitfalls of female hormones; gall stones, blood clots, hot flashes, and emotional disruptions, to name a few. Pearls of Wisdom: Most therapists need to be educated by the TG individual. Not all TVs are on hormones or awaiting surgery. Some, more often refered to as 'cross-dressers', choose to embrace their duality without the use of hormones or sexual reassignment surgery. Some dicussion around PR (TG community awareness), involved what's already in place, such as an ad in the Lewiston Sun Journal, and what's still needed. Some sugguestions included contacting other newspapers such as the Portland Press Herald, Casco Bay Weekly, and public service announcements. Antoinette sugguested that members write 'letters to the editor' to their local newspapers. There is a need for, at least a few of, our members to be 'out', in the sense of "the speak-out project", answering phone calls and letters and interviewing prospective new members. P.J. may be starting a 'female-to-male' focus group soon. Someone made a sugguestion of inviting the 'Tiffany Club' members to one of our meetings or events. Jade has been asked to be our 'Events Coordinator', and has accepted. The first order of business being a place, and theme for our 1st Annual Autumn TransGala, which will not be open to the public. This will be a private TS event. Included is researching TG celebs in our nearby area. Antoinette sugguested that some of our members might want to be trainned by the "Speak Out Project", and someday speak before members of the community; educating and sharing our stories. A short, 10 minute video was shown, addressing the "Speak Out Project". MEGRESS will possibly put on another workshop in November. Contact Jean Vermette at 207-862-2063, for informational/educational packets, or regarding MEGRESS. Email Next months meeting will be held at Marty's home, in Winthrop. Members should contact Antoinette for directions.

Sunday September 12, 1999

IMPORTANT NEWS FLASH... Southern Maine Pride presents the "Leather & Lace Ball", hosted by Lady Formica! The fund raising event will take place on Saturday October 9, 1999, at 9:30pm. The ball is being held in Portland at "Asylum" on Fore St.. Admission is $10.- at the door, or call: 774-7800 for more ticket information. There will be a 'pre-ball gathering' at the 'Speak Out Project' office, located above "Amigo's Restaurant" in Portland, beginning at 4:30pm (you may arrive as early as 3:30pm to dress there), on the day of the ball, 10-9-99. MSOP is at 9 Dana Street. At our up-coming October TS meeting, one topic of discussion will be responsibilities of our monthly newsletter. Members are asked to consider our secretarial team of Jade and Trey for this task. If you are interested in participating in 'Gay Pride 2000', it will be mid-June in Portland. Anyone interested in planning meetings for TS please call Antoinette. If you have time and interest in making a banner for parades, we need such volunteer work and will find money to help with materials. Knowing many of us are not 'out', we are encouraging people to turn out for "Pride", even not dressed up, and march with us. We usually have several dressed up members, Jean T. and myself in the past several years have carried the banner -- although we didn't march as a group this last year, due to not having a banner. I have an idea that is a bit more simple than a banner, if we can get 12 people, each to carry a letter of T R A N S S U P P O R T. But we really DO need a banner! Please get involved. We need people interested in doing some work programming. Our books and a video are now in the Old Port SpeakOut Project reading room - library, over 'Amigos Restaurant'. As always, your input, ideas, and editorials are always welcome for our newsletter. Next Meeting: Sunday November 14, 1999 The usual time, in Brunswick.

Sunday November 14, 1999

Letters To The Editor From: Debbie Purrington Re: New Year's Cruise I feel the idea of an event sponsored by TransSupport, for the transgendered community, is an excellent idea. I can see some people have been putting alot of time and effort into making the upcoming New Year's cruise possible. I wish, however, that the leadership of the group please take a minute and step back and think about the following ideas: I think the idea of a New Year's party is great. I question whether the expense of the cruise can be justified, at this time. It may make more sense to plan a less expensive New Year's bash, and plan a top notch transgendered cruise late next summer or early next fall. My reasoning is that, it will most likely be too cold to be up on deck and realize the benefit of $1000 3 hour boat rental. The water in Maine is much more enjoyable in the late summer and early fall. My research has found no takers for the New Year's cruise; the consensus is it will be too cold, New Year's is a family holiday, people want to spend time with spouses and family (not everyone has a supportive spouse), it is the wrong time of year to be out on the water, there are big parties at local clubs that members do not want to miss, etc. I have a real concern that the group may commit to a $2000 expense and not be able to cover even $500 in ticket sales. Remember this is the same group that can not get 12 members to attend a pride parade in warm weather, let alone 100 people to attend a New Years cruise. This is to short notice to properly advertise the event. Most major events start advertising a year in advance. I am not even sure the event notice could be printed in Tapestry prior to the event (remember, Tapestry is a quarterly publication, one issue every 3 months). My suggestion would be as follows; Scale down the event on New Years to a party at someone's home or a group of members to going and celebrating together. Investigate boat rentals in August or September right now. We could even look into an overnight at a place like the Chablique Inn (a gorgeous inn on Great Chablique Island with a deck and rocking chairs overlook- ing the water, private golf course, dining room and dance floor). Contact a group like Tiffany club that has sponsored an event before, see if they want to co-sponsor the event or help out on the event (The TransSupport name is not well known throughout the country. We have no track record for sponsoring an event. Co-sponsoring with a known group may give the event more credibility. Once we have a successful event, people will know who we are and what type of an event we sponsor). Get the groundwork done by the end of November and get a press release out so it can be printed in the first issue of Tapestry in 2000. Get press releases out to all the major CD/T.S. newsletters in December so the event is advertised in their January newsletters (This will allow repeated advertisements and also allow people to schedule vacation time, ect. If you have any experience with advertising a single advertisement is usually very ineffective. People will have to see ads in several months newsletters before they commit. This is the way ads work, people see an ad think it is a good idea and forget about it. The second or third time they think about the idea they act on the idea. Anyone who ever advertised an event or product will tell you that. This is why we see product X advertised 6 times during the Superbowl. They ain't paying $1,000 per second of ad time to repeat the ad six times during the same game for nothing). My concerns are that we commit to a $2000 expense and ticket sales top out at a couple dozen and we have to absorb a $1500 loss. We may have the money now, but will we go broke next year? We have lost a number of T.S. members to a T.S. support group, membership at meetings has been much lower this year (5 members last meeting). Yes, when we had 20 some add members we had a decent income, what if we have less than a dozen paying members next year? Remember, we do offer reduced or bartered memberships to certain members for a number of reasons. It would be a shame to spend all this money on a cruise that such a small percentage of the membership plans to attend. What would be even more discouraging is that after financing a $1500 loss on the New Years Cruise, we may not have the financial resources to set up a warm weather cruise, or other event that may have a greater chance of being a success, due to the warmer weather and longer lead time to properly advertise. I am also not sure if such a large monetary sum can be committed at a meeting with only 5 people in attendance. There was not enough board members present to conduct a board meeting that afternoon. I am not sure 5 people represents a quorum for a meeting. The members at the meeting did not vote on this idea. My understanding was that we were going to see how much interest there was and if we could sell enough tickets to cover the costs. I was a little disturbed to hear a statement that we should go ahead and have the event even if we could not sell any tickets. I think the idea of a Trangendered event sponsored by TransSupport is a great idea. I just question weather a cruise in January along the Maine coast is going to draw the type of interest necessary to cover the costs. The intent of this letter is not to pick on anyone or hurt anyone's feelings. I realize a lot of time and effort has gone into this. I just feel the input I have been hearing from people is it is a great idea, but I can not make it, or it is too cold, wrong time of the year to be on the water, there are major parties that some of us want to attend, I will be with my family and unavailable, etc. It would be a crying shame to bankrupt the group, or seriously deplete the groups financial resources, for a handful of members and guest to go on a 3 hour cruise. debpurr@megalink.net

Trans2000 Celebration! This will be the first official event that MTS has sponsored. Jade is our events coordinator, and has arranged for a New Year's Cruise, with a professional DJ, for music and karyoke, and there will be refreshments, as well as a cash bar. I would like to encourage all members to attend and to help get the word to the transgendered all over New England, as well as the gay and lesbian communities will be very helpful. Ticket Prices: $10.- members $20.- non members *After December 1, 1999 Tickets Will Be $25.- For Everyone. Public Awareness Push One of the big issues facing our group is the lack of publicity, or public awareness of MTS. It has been brought up at almost every meeting since August 98, when I first joined. Many members feel that it is important to get the word out to the whole of the transgendered community in Maine, and up to now, that has not been done sufficiently. In the past month, however, I have contacted many tv stations, newspapers, and other media in the southern Maine area, in an effort to find the best way to get the word out. This week I issued a press release to the fore- mentioned community resources. More public awareness news on page 2. Antoinette is looking into TV channel 4, a portland public access station, helping our group to make a public service announcement on video. If we can get a video psa made, most So. Maine television stations will be willing and able to air it. New Group Forming Standish: Focus On Transgender Couples Issues 3rd Saturday of month at 12 noon. Call Tracy, at 642-6023 for location. Next meeting scheduled for November 20, 1999. Thanksgiving Dinner Meeting Our next meeting will be Sunday November 14, 1999 at 5pm next door to usual place in Brunswick. Coordination of the pot-luck dinner is being handled by Tracy at 642-6023. Other News... We still need a banner, and help w/ programming. Call Antoinette if you can help out: 774-7029 From The Desk Of The President... Hi Debbie, TransSupport and TransSupporters, I agree that such an undertaking as we are attempting with the New Year's 2000 cruise is risky, yet I also believe we are a community who lives on the edge and our daily lives demand principled risks to who we are. If this cruise were only inviting TransSupport members - we could not do it. The only way we will pull this off is reaching out to transsupporters, those friends, relatives and acquaintances who we trust respect us and support us on our path. The fact that it is winter, and in Maine usually very cold on New Year's eve, I believe is not a major deterent - there is another boat going out an hour later. The only deterent is not having enough enthusiasm to pull this off, and I admit that all of your concerns Deb, are good. I will address the number one, the fact that the decision was made at a small meeting - however our board myself, Robin, Jean T. and Tracy are in agreement on this idea - risky as it is, we feel that this New Year is the time for us to make such an effort not only to reach out to our group - and we can draw members past and present together, but it is important to be with friends and allies in the GLT community on this special New Year's, one that comes but once in a millennium. I sugguest THAT WE SUPPORT THIS EFFORT WHOLEHEARTEDLY and all of us reach those who can be enthusiastic about it, or it will not work. I do want all of us to read Deb's e-mail and whoever needs to call her and try to if not win her over to coming with us, and I understand there are many reasons people will find not to attend, yet we need everyone to help find others sympathetic to our community who can and will, for this to be the success I am a believer that it can and will be. Finally, we need to come to the Thanksgiving dinner, all of us, with our enthusiasm, not merely our doubts and fears. I wish to thank Tracy and Seth for their creative energy putting things together, not only this difficult effort they can not do alone - must not do without our effort to make it a success. Perhaps others who get this reply should respond in type as well - we can share these in the newsletter. Perhaps it will be long but it won't be boring. Any way - see you all on the 14th when we hold our Thanksgiving dinner (that will be held in the next door building to the Bruns- wick church - upstairs in the nursery, so come prepared) and discuss TransSupport, its future and ours. I have a new telephone number - my old one is temporarily out, the new one is 772-1323, which I cannot use for messages (let it ring four times) if I'm home I'll pick it up, if not just try me again. I'm usually home around suppertime, the exceptions being Thursday and Friday nights when I'm at 797-8488, which you should call only in an emergency. So please remember my new number 772-1323 - but don't leave a message, as I can't retrieve it. Antoinette, TransSupport President 1999 All letters to the editor which are printed here, are the sole responsibility of the authors. This newsletter does not vouch for the accuracy of facts or opinions expressed therein. ONE LAST THOUGHT... Maine TransSupport has been trying, for months, to come up with ideas for a major event. The goal here is to bring in new members and get everyone interested in participation again. All MTS board members have been contacted and agree that the Trans2000 celebration is a good start.

Sunday December 12, 1999

For Your Information... MYTH: All transvestites are gay. This is a fear which haunts the "average" transvestite in his early stages of realization and development of his transvestitism. But this, like so many of the myths concerning transvestitism and the transvestite, is an oversimplification and generalization which is quite popular with law enforcement and judicial, U.S. Customs and Immigration authorities and with the general populace. Since the Drag Queen and transvestic prostitute are highly visible members of the social picture and dramatized on the evening television news, occasionally in television "dramas" and the print media the "average" transvestite is, naturally painted with the same brush even though in truth few "average" TVs are gay or engage in same-sex sex acts. In fact, MOST transvestites are hetero while only a small minority are Bi-sexual or exclusively homosexual. This latter statement is supported by the results of a study done by Dr. Wardell Pomeroy (director of the San Francisco based Institute for the Advanced Study of Human Sexuality) which found that 68% of crossdressing males are exclusively heterosexual while only 50% of non- crossdressing males are exclusively heterosexual. Starting next month (Jan. 2000), the newsletter will be mailed quarterly (Jan / April / July / Oct). Monthly updates will still be available on the website. -The Editor

Trans2000 Celebration! It's time to buy your tickets for the New Year's Cruise, with a professional DJ (music and karyoke), refreshments, and a cash bar, and fireworks, over Casco Bay, at midnight. All members are encouraged to attend and to help get the word to the G.L.T. all over New England. Ticket Prices: $25.- Per Person Public Awareness Push Antoinette is looking for help from one or two members, to make a video PSA (public service announcement) for TransSupport. If we can get a one made, most Maine television stations will be willing and able to air it.