*PHEW* Catching up finally …

Let me just say, I finally have time & passion for this blog again.

(Trigger Warnings: Cancer, Surgery, neglected plants, exciting things you may not be able to go to ;P )

The past (idk how long it’s been, but let’s stick with 3 weeks!) 3 weeks have been long, exhausting, and pretty depressing. While my Mom’s surgery went as well as it could have gone cancer and a surgery involving taking/cutting out/redistributing parts of your esophagus and stomach are no easy task. I cannot imagine how much this affected her from being relatively health (except smoking for 20-30 years) and now relearning what and how much to eat. Howevvaaahhh, she just received a blood transfusion/infusion thingy and now she’s doing a lot better! She’s been in the garden the past couple of days, tending to her neglected plants. So while she has another  month of recovery she is doing very well and things are looking up!

Now on to some REALLY exciting stuff! If you weren’t aware SexTech 2011 is happening in SF, right now! I am fortunate enough to attend tomorrow and will be attending some super dope breakout sessions which, I am hoping will help my work with this new non-profit. (upcoming plugs warnings!) After SexTech though I get to go watch The September Issue with the girls from T-LISH! (Trans Ladies Initiating Sisterhood) I’m super excited for this because I actually have TIME to go to T-LISH and feel a part of it. Because ….

*drum roll please*

My parents are ok with me starting hormones!! I’m not in a huge rush to start, although I definitely can’t wait for the results and since we’ve come to this conclusion I’ve been like 10x happier!

On top of all that, I will be attending CUAV’s SafetyFest 2011!! Check out the schedule, donate, or volunteer here.

I also joined TransQueer Nation! It’s basically this Trans*, (gender) Queer safe space for folks to socialize, talk, network, and just be themselves! Find it here!

Now I’m proud to announce my secret-not-so-secret project, The Maven Project!! We are an emerging non-profit that wants to centralize and build bridges between all the existing orgs and work that is being done around LGBTQ (Queer) youth and tying it all into a larger social justice movement! We will be having an info session at the Pacific Center (Berkeley, CA) on Thursday April 21st from 6:30-8:30 PM. RSVP here or email us at info@mymaven.org

I can’t tell you how excited and cautiously optimistic I am for this month and for my many projects!! Yayyyyy!!

xoxoxo

sistahmamaqueen

Lexi

Taking time for myself & family …

As you may have noticed, if you read my blog at all. I haven’t posted anything really since this weekend.

That’s mostly because I realized I needed to take time for myself and deal with a lot of feelings I’m dealing with around my mom.

She has cancer, in her esophagus. Her surgery is Monday the 7th of March and I’ll be with my Dad for the 8 hours while she is getting this tumor cut out of her.

I didn’t really take a lot of time to deal with my feelings around the cancer since I had been told about it back in December so I have decided to take about a week, maybe more, maybe less off from blogging and a bunch of other things to really be able to focus on my mom.

 

Please keep her in your prayers and hopefully everything will go well.

 

Thanks for understanding.

Thursday/Fri & LINKS!!!!

Ooph. After an exhausting night at the Crib last night, I am getting all snuggly into my bed at home in the East Bay tonight as I am spending the weekend at home with my parents.

My Thursday/Friday reflections don’t include much except for my commentary on articles, politics, movements, and thoughts …

 

Decolonial Feminism & The Privilege of Solidarity

Six Documentaries Not on the Oscar List, But That Should Be On Yours

How Arizona’s New Anti-Immigrant Bills Target Women

And Finally, from Creating Change (which I’ve decided I’m going to write a big-ass blog on, which will probably include some ranting/blogging about the ‘LGBT’ community/movement / equality movement in general … Chrystos! Providing some real elder fierceness

 

 

Tuesday/Wednesday Reflections!

So it’s already been a couple of days and I’ve fallen behind! D;

which is probably expected … and typical, just because I always procrastinate and am always busy and having to reorganize my priorities.

 

Anywho, I should also reiterate that I think this blog is going to serve as a journal/diary/record of where I’m going and where I’ve gone.

So to catch you all up on Tuesday I wrote a status on facebook: “projects for this semester: facilitate 2(+) workshops, organize 1 conference, work on 1 national campaign, help start 1 non-profit, oh and school. can’t wait for summer!!”

to talk more about these: some friends and I came up with this trans-awareness workshop of young adult struggles and I am fortunate enough to be facilitating it at least twice more this semester, one at the Western Regional Conference in Berkeley: Session 3 so be sure to check it out! ;] http://wr2011.wordpress.com/

The conference is being organized by me along with my Pride Committee here at school which is a committee of LGBTQ identified individuals but also allies who are working to make our campus a better place. So anyways as a part of my Counseling class we had to submit program proposals for the group we worked with, and I work with Pride. So, I submitted a proposal to do a one-day leadership summit and we kind of ran with it from there and so now we are organizing a one-day conference for the Queer Community! Exciting and exhausting, I know.

The National campaign I’m working on is with the National Youth Advocacy Coalition (NYAC) and we are starting a YouthKicks! Against Big Tobacco campaign, bringing awareness to how tobacco consumption affects our community and liberating ourselves by taking better care of our bodies.

The Non-profit I am starting is all kind of hush hush right now, but keep an eye out because we will be having an info session in April and youth-only spaces throughout the summer!!! So get juiced! (Also youth is 13-24, but we will be announcing that also!)

So my general feelings from Tuesday was that I was really overwhelmed and things get stacked up quickly. I didn’t even mention school! But, as always I know I can do it and I’m really not all that worried even though I am looking forward to Spring Break and Summer vacation!

 

Now as far as Wednesday, it was just a really long day.

 

Links:

“NCAA’s First Openly Trans Player Kye Allums Gets Benched, Says Mom”

http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/02/mother_of_transgender_player_kye_allums_says_he_cant_play.html

 

Monday Reflections …

As I’m watching time slip into early Tuesday morning, I decided I’d reflect on how Monday went. Lately I’d been feeling extremely depressed, burnt out, detached, bitter, hateful, and unnecessarily sassy. Part of it’s due to a lot of personal stuff with my family I’ve had to go through and some of it’s just been dysphoria that I’ve been putting off because of that family issues that I wanted to fit back into my old role as the ‘good son’ to appease my parents. I also know part of it’s because I feel alone in the MTF community just because I haven’t been to the support group that I should be going to and all my friends are FTM, which isn’t a bad thing…I just need to hang out with more MTF’s.

Then there’s this stuff with Libya and Egypt and all the other fierce activists who are standing up to their countries. When I begin to reflect on it, I feel like there is such guilt because I like to claim to be educated and informed about how our government affects the larger international community and I think I just never really thought about the Middle East. I had been socialized to think they were doing these horrible things on their own 2 feet, when in reality it’s our government who has backed these dictators for 40 years! And it’s not that I have a hard time understanding that, it’s just the hypocrisy behind it and the feelings of guilt and depression that come over me when I think that as a voter and U.S. citizen I need to think of the consequences of what happens when I go to the polling place.

Segwaying into my next section … movement building! So, for my class we are organizing a conference for the Queer community here on campus and the larger community at-large. My original vision was a simple structure of a few workshops on intersections of queer living, discussions on oppression within the LGB(TQ) community, social hours, and visioning of what we want and need for this campus to be a safer and better place for Queers than it already is. When I first proposed the idea to my break out group for that class, I really didn’t think they would be down for it just because we basically have a timeline of 2 months and after our preliminary discussion today, a LOT to get done. But I am excited and I really think this is something that can be revolutionary for the Queer community in our organizing and movement building efforts.

 

With that, I think I will leave you with a suggestion to call someone tomorrow (today) and tell them that there is a genocide happening in Libya and that the Gaddafi Regime is committing horrible crimes against their people. My heart goes out to them. Don’t just spread the word, voice your own concern!