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| Your Innvestment | |
Vol. 8, No. 8 & 9 |
April & May 2000 |
April found Innvestments celebrating it's eighth birthday. This year's party was a change from our traditional venue but was made after many requests by family as well as members. The party this year was celebrated at the Ramada Inn in the main dining room and lounge. We had a total of 25 folks in attendance which was an all time high for the birthday party. In addition to selected choices off of the menu, we had a special oriental dance performed by Cheri and then had a wide array of music provided by April Ashley and her partner. The party lasted until well after midnight. Reports indicated that a very good time was had by all.
The May meeting brought our legal friend, Terry Sweeney down from Braintree to speak to the group about some legal issues and questions that have been raised by various members. Terry last spoke to us about 2 ½ years ago primarily about the legalities of name changes and related subjects. His talk this month about things to do and not to do should you ever be apprehended by the police went along with the take by Michael a few months back on situational awareness and things to do to protect yourself in bad situations. The primary point made was do not put yourself in detrimental positions. If you are in a place where things could very easily become trouble, then you should not have been there in the first place. Protocol while in police custody was also covered. One thing that everyone should carry is a card or something with the name and telephone of a trusted friend or lawyer that you can use should you unfortunately find yourself in such a terrible situation.
Your Innvestment is a publication of
Innvestments, P.O. Box 2194, Orleans, MA.0 2653-2194. Innvestments
is a non-sexual service organization founded to support and to
provide a socially acceptable outlet for the crossdressing, transvestite,
transsexual, transgendered community located primarily in Southeastern
Massachusetts, Cape Cod and the Island. All rights reserved. Permission
to reprint any article appearing in Your Innvestment is hereby granted to similar non-profit organizations
provided that publication and and authorship credit is given.
Any commercial use of Your Innvestment material is hereby
prohibited. Some material may have previously appeared in print.
Publication and authorship rights of material reprinted
from other sources remain with its originator. The
editor/s of Your Innvestment are not under any obligation
to accept information and advertisements. Information and advertisements
may be published in any form deemed acceptable. Any information
about services, products or sympathetic locations published in
Your Innvestment is not considered an endorsement of such
by the staff of Your Innvestment or the Board of
Directors of Innvestments. Innvestments is also known in
open source publications on Cape Cod and the Islands as
Cape Cod Cross Dressers (Triple C-D).
Julie W..(stimpyl@capecod.net)................President
Denise S.............................................Vice President
Brenda L. (Brrendaa@aol.com)...............Treasurer
Liz W..............................................................Board
Candy Scott....................................................Board
PO Box 354
Sagamore, MA 02561-0354
Tel.: 508+563-3160 (Keep trying)
Fax.: 508+563-1240
email: candyscott@capecod.net
Membership (including newsletter) is $30.00 per-year (pro-rated after January) with a $15.00 meeting fee. Meeting fees payable only for those attended. This pays meeting location fees charged to the group, and for pizza and soda for all. Subscription only rates are $12.00 per year.
At the request of many, Innvestments had it's first Movie Night. Movie Night took place on Monday May 15th. We met at a local sub shop and after a quick dinner off we went to the new Cape Cod Mall Cinemas. We saw the movie "Frequency" staring Dennis Quaid which was a very thrilling show. We hope to do this on a regular basis. Any excuse to get dressed up and out is a good one. Please send an E-mail to Brenda L. (Brrendaa@aol.com) if you are interested. Next Movie Night is scheduled for Monday night the 19th of June.
I was able to attend the Tiffany Club's Spring Fling on the weekend of May 11 -14. I arrived on Saturday and after checking in to the Provincetown Inn I met up with a friend and spent the afternoon shopping in town. This town is known for their acceptance and it is evident everywhere that you go.
We had lunch at the Stormy Harbor Restaurant, one of my favorites. There have been rumors that the they would be closed this year but that was not the case at all. We learned that it will be moving just a few doors down the street to a larger building with an ocean view next year. Good luck to them.
The banquet Saturday night was a big hit. I made several new friends and saw a few old ones. After the meal the entertainment consisted of music and kareoke. Many of the girls performed their favorite tunes. Everyone there looked very pretty in their finest dresses and gowns. All in attendance had a great time.
In the morning there was a full buffet breakfast and then all went their separate ways. My spouse and I, however, were able to spend an extra night in Provincetown. We strolled through the many shops at our own pace in the afternoon. In the evening we attended an early show at the Crown and Anchor called "Two Fags and a Drag." The performance consisted of comedy and singing. One of the men did a Pee Wee Herman impersonation. It was hilarious!
By the way, for those who remember the big fire in Provincetown almost two years ago you will be glad to know the Crown and Anchor is completely restored and the Merchants building is coming right along.
A wife asked her CD husband, Doris, "What would you most like for your birthday?" Doris said "I'd love to be ten again."
On the morning of Doris's birthday, she got Doris up bright and early and off they went to a theme park. She put Doris on every ride in the park -- the Death Slide, The Screaming Loop, the Wall of Fear. Doris staggered dizzily out of the theme park five hours later, her head reeling and her stomach upside down. Into McDonalds she took her, where she ordered her a Double Big Mac with extra fries and a strawberry shake. Then she dragged her off to a theater to see Star Wars -- accompanied by popcorn, soda, and licorice.
At last she carried Doris home, where Doris collapsed into bed. Her wife leaned over and asked, "Well, dear, what was it like being ten again?"
One eye opened and she groaned, "Actually, I meant dress size."
One poor chap went into the hospital for a circumcision, but because of a bad mix up, he ended up having complete sexual reassignment surgery (SRS). All the doctors and nurses had gathered around his, now her, bed as she was waking up so they could give her the .....bad....news.
Naturally, the poor individual went to pieces and started crying after they had explained what had happened.
"Oh no!" she moaned. "This means I'll never be able to experience an erection ever again!"
"Of course you will," one of the nurses soothed. "It'll just have to be someone else's, that's all."
BALTIMORE - The practice of surgically ``reassigning'' boys born without penises is being called into question by a new study that suggests gender identity is determined in the womb.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Hospital on Friday said the study found that such boys, raised as girls, had masculine behavior and most declared themselves to be boys.
In what is believed to be the first study of its kind, researchers tracked the development of 27 children born without a penis, a rare defect known as a cloacal exstrophy. The infants were otherwise male with normal testicles, male genes and hormones.
Twenty-five of the children were sex reassigned, meaning doctors castrated them at birth and their parents raised them as girls.
But over the years, all of the children, currently aged 5-16, exhibited the rough-and-tumble play of boys. Fourteen declared themselves to be boys, in one case as early as age 5, said Dr. William G. Reiner, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and urologist at the Hopkins Children's Center.
``These studies indicate that with time and age, children may well know what their gender is, regardless of any and all information and child-rearing to the contrary,'' he said. ``They seem to be quite capable of telling us who they are.''
The two children who were not reassigned and were raised as boys fit in well with their normal male peers and were better adjusted psychologically than the reassigned children, Reiner said.
He called for a thorough review of the practice of sex reassignment of children.
The study was presented Friday at the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society Meeting in Boston.
The results contradicted a Canadian study published in the journal Pediatrics in 1998 that suggested gender identity develops after birth. In that study, researchers found that a boy who was raised as a girl after his penis was mutilated during circumcision continued to live as a woman.
``This has very profound implications for the development of gender identity,'' said Michael Bailey, an associate professor of psychology at Northwestern University who studies gender identity and sexual orientation. ``This suggests that hormones' effect on the brain has a major impact on gender identity.''
Dr. Marianne J. Legato, a Columbia University professor of clinical medicine who studies the differences between men and women, said sexual differentiation occurs in the first trimester of pregnancy.
``When the brain has been masculinized by exposure to testosterone, it is kind of useless to say to this individual, 'You're a girl,''' she said. ``It is this impact of testosterone that gives males the feelings that they are men.''
K Was sorry I could not make it to the Birthday Party. Due to a death in the family, we were out West. I want to thank the members for the many condolences that Elaine and I received.
L It is with heavy heart that we have to report that Dawn R. passed away. I want to thank those who sent cards after our last request in the newsletter. Markie Robin and I attended the memorial service. Terry is hanging tough but it will be a while. God be with her.
L We also want to report that Charlynn was recently back in the hospital but is now home recovering J . Charlynn, one of our original members, has been having a very difficult time this past year. Our prayers are with her.
L After returning from out West, I had a bad computer freeze out. I had to get Tracy over to empty out the hard drive and then reprogram it all over again. It still is not fully recovered. We saved all the vital data on CD Rom disks and when we loaded them back into the hard drive, we found that the problem was probably in the CD Rom drive as we lost all the information we had saved on the CD Rom. In fact, we lost 2 disks of information and jammed up 2 more. Oh well. Live and learn......then we got very sick. Elaine came down with whatever and a week later I got it. We are just now getting over it (3 ½ weeks later) but now have to return out West for another week. Should be back on the evening of the first of June.
J Definition: Baloney \buh-lo'-nee\: Where some hemlines fall.
J Phyllis F. was also having a difficult time and was in the hospital again but came out and recovered enough to attend California Dreaming. Can't keep a good girl down you know.
J Was glad that the first Movie Night went as well as it did. Looking forward to going to the next movie night.
J Received a nice letter from Suzzane Anders, one of our members from Austria last week. Now retired, she is hoping to get to the States later this year for about six weeks or so.
J Three Englishmen were in a bar and spotted an Irishman. They decided to have fun with the man. One of the Englishmen walked over to the Irishman, tapped him on the shoulder, and said, "Hey, I hear your St. Patrick was a girly-man." "Oh really, hmm, didn't know that," said the Irishman. Puzzled, the Englishman walked back to his buddies. "I told him St. Patrick was a girly-man, and he didn't care." The second Englishman remarked, "You just don't know how to set him off ... watch and learn." So, the second Englishman walked over to the Irishman, tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Hey, I hear your St. Patrick was a transvestite!" "Oh really, hmm, didn't know that." Shocked beyond belief, the Englishman went back to his buddies. "You're right. He's unshakable!" The third Englishman remarked, "Boys, I'll really tick him off ... just watch." So the third Englishman walked over to the Irishman, tapped him on the shoulder and said, "I hear St. Patrick was an Englishman!" "Yeah, that's what your buddies were trying to tell me."
J Hope to see you all at our June meeting. Remember....Barby Ann's. Come one, come all. And wear something pretty!