The Queer Geer Mk. II: A club for the LGBQT+ crowd and friends

[J. Wilhelm]

Dear people from all walks of life:  

Welcome to the Queer Geer Mk. II. I am you current moderator for the Meta Clubs section, J. Wilhelm, also known by his alter egos, Admiral Johannes Wilhelm, and Chief Engineer Officer Julin Wodinaz Bahlmann, both aboard the United States Airship Orca (Does this count as multiple personality disorder? Oh, well).

I have started this thread as the continuation for the original Queer Geer thread, started by Lilith Nighthawk in 2009, back when pterodactyls flew in the skies above your head.

This is not only a club for all those of you who belong to the LGBQT+ family, but rather, an open area for all other friends and people out there who support this community in spirit or companionship.

Another aspect, don't forget, is that this thread is part of a Steampunk forum. We also want to hear from you about all the Steampunk things you do, and how you mesh Steampunk with your identity, whichever that may be! How do you fit in the the Queer Geer Spectrum?

This is a very open community where you can come in, present yourself, chat about your life and tell your story, or just plain relax in a welcoming environment. On behalf of all the members on this forum I welcome all of you. Hopefully, many of you who made their appearance during the first thread will participate in the second thread.

If you belong to the LGBQT+ community and have a question, this is the place to do it. If you don't belong to the LGBQT+ community but would like to ask a question to those in the know about all matters LGBQT+, then this is also the place to do it. If you think that you might belong to the LGBQT+ community - you guessed it, this is the place to find out.

This is the value that this thread brings into your life: a forum where you can make the journey to self discovery. As sexuality and gender are things that emerge in one's life as a matter of self discovery, it is natural that people who are trying to find themselves will come and ask questions.

Don't let nomenclature stop you from talking about yourself. Names and terms come and go, but only you know what you are, and the LGBQT+ community will for sure continue evolving at a fast pace, as will the science that follows it.

I myself got my start in the thread in 2013, as I very carefully and succinctly began the process of coming out to the outside world as a gender variant person - and I use that term in the most generic of ways, because the truth is, I'm still discovering myself, and I'm not even sure about what to call myself yet.

Welcome again, and please begin your introductions! As soon as I can I will make my own introduction as I have many things to talk about, not the least of which is the project around my alter ego CEO Julin Bahlmann, a "3rd gender" charater which was developed in this very thread!

I remain at your service,
J. Wilhelm

[Mme. Ratchet]

Yay! *Waves to everyone* Iiiiiiiiiiiii'm Amanda, and I'm from South Dakota. <3 I'm a MtF Transsexual, mid-transition, and may be getting my legal name change soon

[J. Wilhelm]

Keep it coming folks! Don't be shy. I know there's a lot more of you out there!

[Cora Courcelle]

Greetings!

Count me in as a friend whose husband is a transvestite.
We are both steampunks, although I am probably a little more interested than him, but s/he has outfits for both male and femme modes.  Our big problem is that we don't have enough wardrobe space ..... (I love him to pieces but he's not getting any of my space!)
I like steampunk because it gives me an opportunity to dress up and be someone a bit different too.

Everyone does indeed have their own journey; it's nice to have a place to rest along the way.

[Miranda.T]

Hello all, I'm Miranda and to avoid repetition, please see my introductory post back in 2014 - http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,24351.msg903249.html#msg903249. Not much has changed since then although, to echo Cora's post, I now need even more wardrobe space than I did back then 

Yours,
Miranda.

[J. Wilhelm]

And I haven't really finished presenting myself.

I'm basically your garden variety hetero transvestite to be politically incorrect, or alternatively a "male lesbian" in the immortal words of comedian Eddie Izzard.

Eddie Izzard: Army

Perhaps that term is too non-specific and even improper (not to mention archaic); a more modern term is "gender non-conforming" or even "gender fluid."

My interest is not in crossing the gender line, but rather blending the feminine aesthetic into the masculine, taking advantage of my own body and my need for feminine presentation, which arose during puberty. The official psychiatric explanation, given to me as of 2005, being that cross dressing in me emerged as a "pacifier" to make up for the fact that as a lifelong Social Anxiety sufferer, I was (sometimes still am) terrified of those women (back then girls) whom I most fancied. A pathologically strong case of shyness, if you will.

Understanding I had done nothing wrong, I came out to my immediate family in 2005, and in public in 2013 right at the previous Queer Geer thread.  In the course of the last 3 years and as a process of my coming out, I developed a new Steampunk persona besides my "Admiral Wilhelm" persona, which I've had since 2009.

Specifically, in the last Queer Geer thread, I started a project for my first Steampunk costume (low quality picture below) representing an Engelfolk, , or a class of Germanic Elven-like "3rd gender" or "Two Spirit" people, who find refuge working as airship mechanics in the 2nd half of the 19th. C.

These mechanics, otherwise called Luftschiffengel (Airship Angels), form part of an alternate time line (perhaps the base for a future novel), which is heavily based on actual history, including the US Civil War, 2nd French Intervention in Mexico/ Maximilian Empire, and the Prussian/Austrian struggle for control for the German States, and which I have neatly rolled into a type of World War during the 1860s/70s (why not?). For a background read this post:

http://brassgoggles.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,20391.msg970394.html#msg970394

I'll formally present the character, name Chief Engineering Officer, Julin Wodinaz Bahlmann, outside of the Queer Geer in the Anatomical section soon, hopefully.

The costume is not finished, as it needs Lederhosen-style bracers converted into a harness. Also, I've been having really serious issues with lighting, and photographic equipment as of late, so I'm progressing toward better pictures. I may need a 3rd party to help me with that during day time in an appropriate setting...

Below I actually shift from my tablet's camera to a 5 Megapixel digital camera, which can take good (well, better) pictures, but does poorly in low lighting conditions, so the picture is more detailed but still not good... the brown colours from the belt and thigh high socks don't show very well, I'm afraid.

[rovingjack]

heads up folks, I was recently made aware that there is a new study going around that certain members of society are trying to use as proof to criminalize non-heteronormative lifestyles.

I read the 'study' and it's little more than a rant that contains a few of those phrases that set off warning bells. A bit of digging reveals that the American College of Pediatrics, the group who supposedly ran the study on twins to "debunk the existence of gender dysphoria",  has between 60 and 200 members most of whom are not pediatricians and meny of whom are not medical professionals of any sort (in comparison to the America Association of Pediatricians, AAP which has 60,000 members all of who work in the medical feilds).

In ACPs own words, they are a group "with Judeo-Christian, traditional values that is open to pediatric medical professionals of all religions [provided that they] hold true to the group's core beliefs: that life begins at conception; and that the traditional family unit, headed by an opposite-sex couple, poses far fewer risk factors in the adoption and raising of children."

And by that latter statement they mean the proven false claims they spread through pamphlets that homosexuals are a danger to children, and are supposedly more likely to be pedophiles. They have filed cases in courts to remove children from custody of same sex people, under the guise of protecting children from sexual deviants.

Many of the scientific studies they claim to use... the scientists who conducted the studies have come forward and essentially said "That's not what the study says at all." In fact in several cases the studies actually refute ACPs stance on the issues.

The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the group as a hate group.

Yet the ACP has released 'their new study' stating that supporting gender variant children and adolecents is child abuse. And a certain part of our current 'news media' is spreading this around among it's viewers/reader. And members of our populations have already made threats of calling child protective services on parents of gender dysphoric children as abusers of their children.

[J. Wilhelm]

heads up folks...*snip*

Nothing new here. Far right groups manufacture credentials, often stealing names of legitimate scientists, aim at soft (gullible) targets, and attempt takeovers of various school administrations, such as community college boards in the 1980s in California, and recently at the University of Texas, by stealing names from Biology Dept. faculty and reserachers, to support creationism in textbook regulations for K through 12th grade schools.

They may have, however, tacit approval and support from local (state/city) conservative government administrators. That is the real danger here.

[Mme. Ratchet]

heads up folks, I was recently made aware that there is a new study going around that certain members of society are trying to use as proof to criminalize non-heteronormative lifestyles.

I read the 'study' and it's little more than a rant that contains a few of those phrases that set off warning bells. A bit of digging reveals that the American College of Pediatrics, the group who supposedly ran the study on twins to "debunk the existence of gender dysphoria",  has between 60 and 200 members most of whom are not pediatricians and meny of whom are not medical professionals of any sort (in comparison to the America Association of Pediatricians, AAP which has 60,000 members all of who work in the medical feilds).

In ACPs own words, they are a group "with Judeo-Christian, traditional values that is open to pediatric medical professionals of all religions [provided that they] hold true to the group's core beliefs: that life begins at conception; and that the traditional family unit, headed by an opposite-sex couple, poses far fewer risk factors in the adoption and raising of children."

And by that latter statement they mean the proven false claims they spread through pamphlets that homosexuals are a danger to children, and are supposedly more likely to be pedophiles. They have filed cases in courts to remove children from custody of same sex people, under the guise of protecting children from sexual deviants.

Many of the scientific studies they claim to use... the scientists who conducted the studies have come forward and essentially said "That's not what the study says at all." In fact in several cases the studies actually refute ACPs stance on the issues.

The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies the group as a hate group.

Yet the ACP has released 'their new study' stating that supporting gender variant children and adolecents is child abuse. And a certain part of our current 'news media' is spreading this around among it's viewers/reader. And members of our populations have already made threats of calling child protective services on parents of gender dysphoric children as abusers of their children.

While I don't disagree with the label of hate group being applied to these people, I do put relatively little stock in anything that the SPLC classifies as a "hate group", since they have routinely put multiple groups on their list of "hate groups" which are not hate groups, and there seems to be no real transparency as to how they *determine* whether or not your group is considered a "hate group", and many left-leaning hate groups are totally ignored by the SPLC.

Just throwing that out there.

J. Wilhelm, there are grooups across the political spectrum, left, right, up, and down, which do that, so it's really just par for the course. Just throwing that out there, as well. A group being far-right does not necessarily make them bad any more than a group being far-left does, nor does being far-left necessarily make a group good.

I really wish people would stop referring only to negative groups on one side of the fence and ignoring or not mentioning groups on the other side who do the same crap. It's all garbage and it needs to stop, left, right, up, down, inside, outside, all of it.

[J. Wilhelm]

Mme. Ratchet :

Point well taken.  Though I was not specifically referring to hate group definitions made by the SPLC (if I'm not mistaken that line is taken or paraphased from the Wiki article on the American College of Pediatrics group)

Nor am I implying that only right wing hate groups can exist.  Merely, I was speaking from direct personal past experience at a local community college district in California in the late 1980s where I was a student, and the experience by my Australian roommate's ( post doctorate in biology's) experience at the Biology Department of the University of Texas, just 3 years ago!  So mine are very specific examples. And thus, please note, I'm not taking political sides here (I'm not even a registered member of any political party BTW) .

~ ~ ~
[mod hat]
Having written that, let me state that in matters politic, dear denizens of Queer Geer, and as a friendly reminder, please note political discussions belong in a Political thread, to be found in a forum other than Brassgoggles (!).  I won't repeat this warning again! This statement applies to everyone reading this, including but not limited to: lefties, righties, religious followers of any kind, greenies, tree huggers, hemp aficionados, naturists, survivalists, fascists, and anarchists as well! You have been warned!
[/mod hat]

[Mme. Ratchet]

I only mentioned it because it was mentioned by someone else... The implication, while unintentional, was there, so I pointed out that everyone is equally awful regardless of side.

Moving on, progress was made on my smoking cap.

[J. Wilhelm]

I only mentioned it because it was mentioned by someone else... The implication, while unintentional, was there, so I pointed out that everyone is equally awful regardless of side.

Moving on, progress was made on my smoking cap.

Pictures or it didn't happen! 

[Mme. Ratchet]

Picture is on the thread for it.

[J. Wilhelm]

Tomgirl?  I guess it sounds right.

Tomgirl: Short Documentary about a Gender Fluid Child

You go Jake! ...And thank you, so much.

~ ~ ~

EDIT...

So I like this kid's attitude on gender. Very much with my philosophy of using the part of masculine or feminine presentation you need to fit the moment.

So many adjectives though. Tomgirl? I've searched the term and I only read that in certain circles, and it carries the connotation of feminised behaviour, which may or may not exist in people like me (transvestites).

Transvestite? I guess that's old fashioned -and too non-specific. It also implies you are crossing completely (passing as a woman) in your gender presentation. I thought this business of non-binary means that we could unshackle ourselves from gender-specific norms.

And then what about purpose? Do you cross-dress because you think of yourself as a woman, but may be attracted to either (gender dysphoria)? Or do you cross dress because you're gay and want to attract men? Two very different things altogether.

Canadian bi cosplayer Francis LaPointe aka FrankWolf (RIP 2013)

Brazilian gay gender bender model "DYH Murder"

Because you want to create an impression as an artist (Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars)? Or create an over the top gay variety show like drag queen Divine? Or just because you externalizing your need for femininity coming from childhood psychological reasons?

Swedish Pop artist Yohio (cis/hetero stage gender bender)

See the problem?  Too many names and they can still be very ambiguous for all the variables involved.

Gender Fluid?  Alright, more modern I guess, but I don't understand why my gender must be in "flux" all the time. Sort of like saying that I have Multiple Gender personalities throughout the day - and I'm not shifting though.... I'm perfectly comfortable with my gender all the time. I may change gender *presentation* during the day to fit my situation (clothes from male to female, or mix both, but definitely not my identity).

How about urban dictionary words? Femboy? That carries even more connotations, basically pigeon-holes you to an underage person. Ladyboy? Let's *definitely* not go there (don't look it up on the Internet either), as that carries horrible connotations.

Still unclassified. Yours Truly. Middle-aged hetero gender bender (?)

Femdresser?    All these names make my head spin. *sigh*


~ ~ ~

Signed *Confused* Adm. J. Wilhelm / CEO Julin Bahlmann

[Miranda.T]

Dear Admiral Wilhelm,
I always think just saying transgendered is the simplest approach - it encapsulates the issue and covers a multitude of nuances.

Anyway, considering that everyone has some elements of female and male in their psyche, maybe the term should just be... human.

Yours,
Miranda.

[Cora Courcelle]

Anyway, considering that everyone has some elements of female and male in their psyche, maybe the term should just be... human.

Hear hear!

[J. Wilhelm]

An interesting article on the BBC news feed:

"Miss Fa'afafine: Behind Samoa's 'third gender' beauty pageant"

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37227803

[Mme. Ratchet]

So I've considered seeing about making a Facebook-centric group for the folks here because I spend a lot more time there than I do here, and I think there might be enough cross-over to warrant anything.

[J. Wilhelm]

So I've considered seeing about making a Facebook-centric group for the folks here because I spend a lot more time there than I do here, and I think there might be enough cross-over to warrant anything.

The only problem with that is that a lot of the people in this forum are somewhat averse to Facebook....

[Cora Courcelle]

I'm not on facebook and continue to resist all blandishment to join.

[J. Wilhelm]

I'm not on facebook and continue to resist all blandishment to join.

Blandishment has never worked well as a strategy, for it is too transparent an effort to join the madness  I regard Facebook to be far too schizophrenic for sustained conversation. Instead, I find all Facebook is good for is finding all acquaintances, and scheduling meetings... And receiving lots of SPAM and unsolicited political opinions.

[Gerry Hunter]

It's been a while, I'm not sure that it won't be a while again. My access is predominantly through a second hand tablet, using other people's access points.

I've periodically thought of brassgoggles as a pub I miss, even if I didn't make too many things to share.

For the queer veer set I most recently thought of this when visiting a friend whom I consider the best role model I know of a woman secure in her gender and unapologetically open and effortlessly accepting of everyone else's self identity.

She casually refers sexual excitement and how she handles it as if it was the same as discussing movies, or a picnic in the park. And takes my circumstances as though it is what it is. I'm not a unicorn, but it's not like pretending it's not a part of my existent or avoiding it.

It's amazing, refreshing.

She runs in the queer sphere, I knew she had big leanings, and enjoys a bit of cross dressing.

So I was conversing with her, and later talking with a mutual friend who said something about last time he talked to her he didn't ask her if she'd decided on a male name. When prompted to clarify, he said he thought she was transitioning.

I have more contact with her, had I missed something? No. I checked with her.

But interesting was the sense of loss, for the couple of days I thought it was possible that the person I'd most consider a strong female role model didn't want to be and didn't feel herself to be female.

I was ready and willing to support her completely, but I also felt both a sense of loss and like the admirable female qualities could not be considered female and thereby my admiration was some part mistake or delusion, which I couldn't rightly include in my inner archetype of a strong secure female as the example of it I had might not be female.

Now it's all thought experiment, as this all is not the case. But it brought to my attention a reaction within myself that I'm not sure I'm comfortable with. I want to think I will accept people unconditionally and embrace anyone's self identity and not having it be about me and my relation to masculine or feminine models. Just that a great person who I admire is still a great person I admire regardless of my learning an assumption I had was mistaken, the person hasn't changed, my awareness of their situation has.

Guess it's something to work on. Just because we might be a bit here and there, doesn't mean we always get it right when encountering someone's else's quietness.

[J. Wilhelm]

Welcome back Gerry!

I've seen it happen from the other end (sort of). I think is all about expectations, and as humans we want to live in a surrounding which is comfortable and which we understand well. The unexpected is a bit scary. It has nothing to do with whether you are a good person or not. It's really more what the way that you saw her and what she meant to you. The trick is remembering that said person is always the same, whether they have transitioned or not. It's just the outward presentation that is being changed.

I just came out to one of my roomates at the start of this summer. In his case, I think it was the danger of the loss of a "bro," so to speak, which affected him. I really can't hide in the closet all of the time, and I knew I'd had to admit my gender variance - at least to him at some point in time, because we are the two tenants renting here. We share a bathroom, and sometime I may have forgotten an article of underclothing after using the shower 

I don't want to say that he's taken aback, but there is a slight edge to his "bro-warmness" that has been taken off. He has many faults, but being narrow minded is definitely not one of them. He is what you'd call a liberal hippie tree-hugger with an Ozark mountain country background, and that made him one of the warmest and most benevolent strangers I have ever met. But as liberal and open minded as he is, I do feel, that even he had to "adapt" to the situation, albeit there's not much to adapt to, because I'm exactly the same person I was when I met him 2 years ago...

Another one of my closer Steampunk friends doesn't know either. He mostly attends local Steampunk meetings. I currently think of him as my best friend.  He is also a very open minded person (or at least I though he was). During some discussions at a Steampunk meeting earlier this summer, I heard him say that "being LGBQT is fine," but that he "disagrees when it comes to child rearing and the example it sets to children."  I realize he may be saying that because he probably doesn't know I'm gender variant... I mean, he hasn't mentioned anything about my gender presentation. Either that, or he is pretending to not have read my posts on Brassgoggles and playing real dumb when he looks at my hair

But the latter statement hurt me a bit because, not only do I consider him a good friend, but I also am urgently trying to fix my life so I can have at least a late-life stab at having a family of my own, which I'd like before I depart this physical plane. The "not being a good role model," statement can't be taken as anything else other than an insult from my perspective. Makes me feel like I don't deserve a family.

The thing is, in either case, I'm still the same "bro" as I was 2 years ago when I rented this room, and 7 years ago when I joined the Steampunk scene, and. I can still like - and talk about girls as I did 2 years ago and 7 years ago. I'm still the same person my grand parents reared with utmost care, and setting an example which is honestly, extremely hard to beat. They were the best parents in the world.

I still want a family like I wanted 2 years ago, 10 years ago, and 27 years ago, when I was 20 years old and deeply closeted. The only difference is I'm not hiding any more, because I refuse! I wish people could see that I'm still the same!

[Miranda.T]

The problem is people like things to be predictable, which includes other people. So they like to put others into nicely labelled mental boxes, and when that person suddenly jumps out of the box with the behavioural equivalent of a loud 'Boo!' it unsettles them. But, humans are wonderfully adaptable things - maybe they will just end up constructing a new mental box to use and in this way once again achieve their own mental equilibrium.

As for non-traditional families, so long as the children are raised with love there's no issue there - the problem is with the intolerant people around them...

Yours,
Miranda.

[J. Wilhelm]

Update: More exploration on the Luftschiffengel costume  

I ordered this garter belt / harness strappy-looking thing with large clips with the purpose of taking it apart and adapting it to the costume.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Beautiful-Sexy-Black-Bow-garter-belt-Harajuku-pastel-goth-harness-garter-stockings-sexy-lingerie-summer-style/32349055304.html

I wanted a set of garters I could actually attach to the shorts and be seen. Because it's practical, and the shorts which are belted are the ultimate way to hold the socks up. There's no way the garter clips will ride down, as a garter belt potentially could. The other issue was, that unless I wear knee socks, my legs are too short to actually give room for the garter straps to be seen between the shorts and the socks. So what better solution that to attach the garters on the exterior of the shorts?   The belt loops on the denim shorts were ideally located.

(Right click to zoom)

The straps themselves are hard to look at, unless you zoom in and squint, but the clips have decorative bows over them  

You know what they say, its the details and accessories that matter    The garter clips actually are attached to 4-inch elastic segments, and these in turn are attached to other elastic segments with very soft steel rings, which can be opened by hand. The whole "garter harness" is made that way. So it occurred to me I could simply open the rings and re-attach the segments to the short belt loops.

Noticing that the garters were black I asked myself: what would a standard pair of braces look over the shirt? Mind you, I still want the Lederhosen front "breast plate," but this photo has me questioning whether I want black or brown braces, and whether non-leather materials are acceptable (given that these are US Armed forces uniforms).  Those small details are actually making the costume look much better.\\


J. W.