[Adrian]

Quote:

Despite all the discussion around these topics we DO love to perpetuate the old sex/ gender duality don’t we?

I suspect the more polarised your views on gender and sex are, the more everything has to be black or white, then the more attracted you are to a discussion with a topic like “Are you interested in men?”.

In the last TgR survey respondents were asked to rate their gender anywhere between MMMM (MAN) and FFFF (WOMAN). Surprisingly 79% of the members rated themself as being somewhere in between, but yet in this community, most people like to talk as if they are a man or a woman.

Then when we look at sex the situation, even though based on physical attributes, is equally confused. Members choose to modify their body by cosmetic procedures to place themselves outside the duality of male body / female body. Yet we try to live in a simpler world where man has sex with man or man has sex with woman.

If this was just fantasy in our community then it would be harmless… but the instance on viewing life through the irrelevant gender / sex duality sends a message out to society that gender diversity is all about being a man or a woman. That is so much a misrepresentation that it makes me angry….as a community we should be ashamed of ourselves!

[Adrian]

I’ve moved this article to a serious/moderated forum – because it is a question I’m surprised to find has not ever been specifically addressed in these forums.

Many years ago I attended a talk given by a police officer to Seahorse NSW. And as a result wrote a “position paper” for the members which I (and I suspect Seahorse) have now lost.

From memory, back then, the legal position was that the law was a grey area. But on balance you were slightly safer using the ladies, as a police officer could arrest you for soliciting in the Gents. I remember in those days the advice was, if in doubt, look for a disabled toilet. But of course I’ve never felt that I have a disability so that did seem a bit wrong.

Times have changed since then I think. There is growing awareness in society and government of intersex and the challenge this presents to the male/female dichotomy. The relationship between intersex and transgender is now receiving greater attention – and I think provides a basis for to respond if you are ever challenged about using the “wrong” toilet.

So, practically, where does that leave us?

Well, firstly, I would suggest that you need to ask how likely your gender expression is to cause offense or discomfort to others. If your chosen expression is leather hotpants, 4″ heels and a beard – then I think the “look for a disabled toilet” is your best option.

Similarly, if you find the thought of visiting the ladies sexually exciting rather than physically relieving, then too you may be best advised to go elsewhere.

But for the vast majority of us, the best option is to be discreet, find a quiet toilets without a queue through the door, and get on with what has to be done. Resist the temptation to talk to others in your bass tones, use the facilities in the same way as others use them, and if you feel someone else is disturbed by your presence don’t hang about.

As with just about everything you do in public, the thing that will carry you through is not looks but confidence. And confidence takes time to build up. Just work at it slowly.

I’ve been out and about in Sydney a long time and I’ve only ever heard of one toilet related drama. No bashing-up in MacDonalds, or arrests and a night in a prison cell. Just someone being thrown out of a private club for causing a stir in the ladies.

[Adrian]

That just about summarises everything – Mardi Gras got greedy.
Well actually it went bust a few years back and the new management is probably trying to avoid a repeat.

But although I agree with Penny that it is a big event for “A Community” – it isn’t a big event for any community I feel part of.

So I won’t be doing anything personally on Saturday unless any gay friends of mine drag me out.
Because that is the crux of the issue – it is a beautiful celebration of our right to express our sexuality in any way we like.
It is a celebration by the gay community, and I’m not part of that celebration – because I’m not part of that community.

This topic has been discussed in the forums : http://forum.tgr.net.au/cms/forum/F319/1980-980 – but resulted in one of the worst threads of personal abuse in TgR’s history (the thread is now tidied up a bit!). So I don’t want to go there again in a hurry…..
…but…. I still think it is a big mistake including T in the GBTQI label for the Mardi Gras.
It confuses the heck out of the public and just makes it harder for us to explain gender to them.

OK that’s a bit serious…..

So, of course if your sexuality falls under the MardiGras umbrella – don’t miss the chance to get out there on the streets. Enjoy and be proud!

Nice to see “A community” presenting such a positive public image.

[Adrian]

Quote:

I think I should clear the air here , before any shit hits the fan . I was merely asking a question ‘ would you buy hormones from overseas ‘ it was purely a ‘ yes or no answer that I was looking for ,

I’m not sure what sort of “shit” there is round here… or where someone stored the fan in these forums. But there should never be the need to have to apologize for starting a serious thread.

However….. far from asking for “yes” or “no” – which would have been rather a lame survey question – you did say

Quote:

Any knowledge or help would be muchly appreciated .

Which I think is what everyone is taking the opportunity to contribute.

[Adrian]

Another happy evening!

Maya, Amanda, Kirsten, Penny, Caroline – and also Christina (who had to leave earlier)

[Adrian]

I have plucked my beard for coming on 4 years now. I don’t have to wait for it to grow out – unlike waxing which needs something to “grab hold of”.

Obviously I never was a particularly “hairy” person = or this time spent in front of a mirror would have been a pointless futile exercise. And the fact that what would be my beard is turning white with age makes the coverage less critical (though the white hairs are thicker and feel disproportionally worse than they look).

After all these years I can say that there is absolutely no pain associated with the process – those little hair cuticles have got used to letting go now. But it is time consuming – but far less time consuming now than when I started.

Over the years I have kept a rough audit of the number of hairs involved.
I was curious to see if the numbers of hairs actually fall.
But the data I have is sparse and a bit inconclusive.
I suspect there are somewhere around 2,500 active hair folicles…and about 300 ‘new’ hairs each day. That represents about 30 – 45 mins plucking on average – though I hardly indulge myself every day.

Personally I enjoy the time for reflection associated with a repetitive task like this – and I know I’m saving myself a lot of $$$ by not trying to “fix things up” permanently.

I hope this helps information helps others.

[Adrian]

OK – firstly a disclaimer. This thread isn’t discussing the wisdom or otherwise of self-prescribing HRT – what I am writing is equally valid if you have a prescription from a GP in your hands or not.

To have an informed discussion it is essential I think to separate the two issues. The thread was started with a question just about the practicalities of purchasing medicines from abroad.

Quote:

Please Please don’t go and buy hormones overseas, they are not controlled or tested the the same standard as those here seek help here,

Amy, With all respect this is just scare tactics.

Quote:

not to mention the fact it may well be illegal to import any drug from overseas

And unless we are talking about prohibited drugs like LSD – that fact is a non-fact.

Firstly Australia only manufactures about 1/4 of the drugs it uses… the rest are imported from overseas. The issue is who does the importing and what is imported.

There are two sources of medicine over the Internet – branded and generic drugs. The branded drugs come mostly from Europe, made in places like Switzerland, and are completely identical to anything you might buy here. The pricing can be lower because of lower costs in the retail chain – the same advantage that all on-line retailers have.

Secondly, generic medicine is available for common drugs. Generics are sold under the name of the chemical name. Once again you can buy generics through pharmacies in Australia – they are not fundamentally “unsafe”. Having bought Generics in India – all I can say is that the price mark up between there and your local pharmacy here is nothing short of criminal. But they are cheaper than brand drugs (both here in Australia and on-line) because the companies who make them (for instance in India) do not actually bear the cost of drug research. However the authorities even in “third world” countries like India insist on the generic product having chemical equivalence.

There is absolutely no issue that I can see of quality being of concern. The possible issue is that if you don’t pay the high price for brand drugs then the big drug companies may not have enough money to fund the very expensive drug research process. And if you don’t prop up your local chemist you may find that one day there aren’t so many pharmacists to give free advice. But those are questions of ethics that would need a separate thread to discuss.

Moderator

Quote:

WARNING
TgR is not a medical forum and any comments you may read in TgR forums are only the opinions of the member posting. You should not assume that a posting on TgR implies any verification or independent review and whilst the advice is honestly offered it is made without knowledge of your particular medical conditions. You should always seek professional medical advice before taking any action that might affect your health.

[Adrian]

Quote:

I saw hormones for sale on ‘ Transformations ‘ website Jasmine

Under UK law it is, I understand, illegal to advertise prescription medicine.

As TransFormations is based in the UK I think you find anything they sell as hormones is just pink or green coloured creams and from talking to others the major risk will be to your wallet and not your health.

The only coloured creams I bought from them years ago had absolutely no information about their content (and also no effect!) – and so I repeat Lisa’s advice – if you don’t know what is in something and where it was made – then don’t touch it.

[Adrian]

Jasmine,

If you look at the latest TgR survey you will see that over 10% of TgR members have at some time self prescribed hormones. By definition, these hormones must have been shipped into the country through customs.
http://forum.tgr.net.au/cms/forum/FXXXXXXXX/4536-536

I have for some time used inhouse pharmacy to purchase generic drugs as they are usually cheaper than my local chemist sells them.
http://www.inhousepharmacy-europe.com/default.aspx.
They ship from the South Pacific and arrive in Sydney very promptly (~3 days).

As I understand the rules you are allowed to import personal medications in quantities for 3 months use. I have only known a package be opened by customs once – and that was when the customs staff were on work-to-rule or worse. So i suspect the rule is only loosely enforced.

Moderator

Quote:

WARNING
TgR is not a medical forum and any comments you may read in TgR forums are only the opinions of the member posting. You should not assume that a posting on TgR implies any verification or independent review and whilst the advice is honestly offered it is made without knowledge of your particular medical conditions. You should always seek professional medical advice before taking any action that might affect your health.

[Adrian]

Quote:

For any member having issues with the form in Microsoft Office, here is the URL for downloading the free office suite, OpenOffice.org – http://www.openoffice.org/

Jenifur Charne

I have a vision of sledgehammers and nuts….

I think perhaps I would recommend just printing the form and using a high-tech pen to fill in the details.

I should add that other than the original poster I have heard of no one else with difficulties using Office and the form.

[Adrian]

As you can see, sadly this seems to be an ongoing issue at the moment…
Amanda v The nerd!!!

Too early to score it.

But for obvious reasons I can’t post what I’m doing to fix things up.

Anything broken let me know please.
Any suspicious links on TgR – don’t follow them!

[Adrian]

Looks like it’s fixed already.

For the tech-heads here is the reply I got:

Quote:

Hi Amanda,

I saw this ticket earlier and would like to let you know that I am also aware of this issue. Specifically the apache server had an issue of seg-fault error after a graceful restart. We have a system to automatically check apache every X minutes so after the graceful restart and it died, the other process checks and restarts it – that’s why you only noticed a brief downtime whenever a graceful restart happened.

I have found the cause of the problem for this and fixed it, so that a graceful restart will no longer kill apache. You won’t see the downtime problem again. As for the other busy site on the server, we are keeping a close watch over it and we have also informed the site owner. We are going to move it to a separate server so that it won’t cause any problems to other sites.

Thank you for your understanding.

Jimmy

[Adrian]

Thanks for the feedback

Quote:

Downloaded the Word doc file, and whilst I can open the file in OpenOffice.org 3.1, can click on the Input Fields and enter text in popup windows, and save the resulting file successfully. Entering the text does not visibly alter the Input Field.

With all respect I expect that the number of people using OpenOffice is so low – that my chance of getting the hotel to test with it is….. 0.00000000. So in that case… just print the form (I’m assuming OpenOffice can do that?)

Quote:

Problem with the doc file version of the form:
Missing field: Number of People has no Input Field.

Not a problem. There are THREE fields for Number of People depending what type of bedding arrangement you want in the room. The mind boggles what the hotel would do if you asked for a single room for 3 people…. moving on….

Quote:

Problem with both versions of the form:
For anyone wanting to arrive before May 18 or stay after May 19, you’re going to have to contact the Carrington anyway, to get the rates and make a booking, as the form is only for May 18 and 19.

That is entirely correct – though you will find the hotel does extend their attractive rates for longer stays. Basically it is only weekends that are at premium rates in the Winter. So a phone call to the hotel to get a quote is essential if you are staying longer.

That said… and at great danger of repeating myself…click… this is a repeat… click… this is a repeat…

To get a room on Fri/Sat night you have to fill in the form and return it to the hotel… at some point.

(well that is the agreement I have with the hotel)

Enjoy… come for the weekend… or stay the week… why not?

[Adrian]

I’ve added a PDF of the form to the website which you can just printout if Bill Gates is giving you a hard time.

[Adrian]

If anyone else encounters problems with the booking form can they please contact me first.
Phoning up the hotel is not a short cut to get a room released out of the large block of rooms that I have held only for TF guests.
If you do end up phoning the hotel without completing the booking form, then the hotel will (eventually) ask you to complete the form to confirm that you are entitled to one of our rooms.