Hello my sweltering sweeties. It has been hot, hot, hot here in the northeast USA. Today the humidity has decreased so we are at last able to breath without respirators. And the constant sweat that mats our wigs down on our steaming heads and melts the makeup right off of upper lips has abated, a bit. It’s still hot out there but glamor knows no heat so hot it can keep a good drag queen down. If God had wanted to keep crossdressers from dressing up in the summer he wouldn’t have invented automobile air conditioners. You run from your air conditioned house to your air conditioned car and then into the air conditioned mall or cocktail lounge. Viola! You’re out and about in your summer fashions.

But that’s not why you logged in today. You want to read the TGF Monday Edition and we will not disappoint. Our News Editor, Ronnie Rho, is off this week for a bit of a vacation. (Details are in TWIT.) I myself was forced to swarm all over the World Wide Web and dig out all the nuggets of TG news to assemble that massive assemblage of links we call The Week In Transgenderism. There are stories about the TG widow in Texas, Kevin Kline in a movie with crossdressers, a young TG named Josie, TG tax collectors in Pakistan, TG news from the world of show biz and a whole lot more. I hope you find it adequate and please, Ronnie, come back! I’ve developed carpal tunnel and writer’s cramp. Read the fruits of my Twittery in The Week In Transgenderism.

Linda Jensen joins us with a tale from The Pines. While that sounds like a science fiction story title it will ring a bell with those of you who attended JoAnn Robert’s Paradise in The Poconos in the early 1990s. That was the name of the hotel/resort that served as the venue for her TG weekends. I attended a Poconos weekend even earlier than that while Joyce Dewhurst was still running them. It was held at a place called The Antlers.  She passed the baton to JoAnn and JoAnn traded The Antlers for The Pines. Linda’s tale from The Pines will surely resonate with anyone who has attended either the Pocono or Beach events. Don’t miss How I Lost The Miss Congeniality Contest — Part 1.

We are one column short this week. Christine Beatty’s TransActive was on the schedule but she has had computer problems all week and wasn’t able to get her column done. She will be back next month! Enjoy the TGF Monday Edition and let us know if you like it, hate it or have any suggestions.

It happens at least once a year. The weekly labors of our News Editor Ronnie Rho wear her down so much that we have to send her to a spa for a week where she can be waxed, pampered, painted, exfoliated and revitalized so we can overwork her from another 12 months. This week is such a time and so I, your Editor, am putting together TWIT. I’ve got links to stories on everything from the poignant story of the TG widow fighting her dead husband’s family to the repellent tale of the crossdresser who rogered a pooch in the castle moat. There’s news of RuPaul’s new Drag U show. We learn about the trials and tribulations of Elegant Elliot, find out that there’s a musical genre called Sissy Bounce making noise in New Orleans and meet a TG child, a TG candidate in a race with a conservative opponent, and learn about many TG activist groups coming together to build a national TG political movement. There’s all that and much more in today’s edition of TWIT. (more…)

“My God! Has it been twenty years already?” I exclaimed as my friend Rachel reminded me of the years we attended several of JoAnn Roberts Paradise in the Poconos events.

“It’s been twenty years and more. Those were the days, my friend.”
In the 1980s and 1990s JoAnn promoted and hosted twice yearly gatherings for the TG community. They were held in the Pocono region of Pennsylvania. I understand she used different venues over the years. Many participants came to the events twice a year, every year. I only managed to attend three of the events, all around 1990.

All the ones I attended were at a relatively small resort called The Pines. Rachel and I had met at one of these events.

It is great that JoAnn continues the Paradise tradition now every November in Rehoboth Beach, DE. The name has changed to Beauty At The Beach but the style and events remain the same after all these years. I enjoyed my time at the Beach but my heart remains at the Pines in the Poconos. (more…)