Rachel's Pages

I've been interested in gender and sex studies for quite a while, largely because of some personal reasons. Located here are some of the best sites and information I've found on the Web and elsewhere or which I've written myself.

I should note, though, what my predispositions are. I prefer sites that are of direct, quality use to transgendered people, especially transsexuals, and most especially East Asian and Chinese-speaking folks. Not because of any preference for a specific heritage, but because I happen to have lived in Taiwan for quite a while and to be able to understand Mandarin, so this is the area in which I can be of the most use. I also prefer non-profit sites over profit ones, and sites by the people concerned than about the people concerned. Thus, you will not find a lot of pictorial-heavy or corporate sites here; neither will you find lewd gawkers' pages. Many of these sites are available through the links I have given, though, if that's what you're interested in.

Finally, if this isn't abundantly clear: Everything on this webpage is purely my opinion. If you're looking for treatment, or surgery, or even just thinking about joining a group, check it out first. Don't take my opinion as gospel. Don't take the opinions of any one other person to be fact. Do research. Think critically. Find out for yourself. Sad that I need to say that, but nonetheless true.

The main categories of this page are in the list to the left.

I have a separate page which has info about gender stuff in Minnesota, which I consider my home. I also have page of information for transsexuals in Chinese.

As you look at the different sections of this page, remember that few pages fit clearly into one or another category! Look around.

Also Note: Chinese Version available

This page also has a Chinese version that requires a Chinese, Big5 equipped browser to view. If that didn't make any sense, please check what I've written about displaying Chinese with your computer. The information contained there is slightly different from (and also less than) what you'll find on this page. If you speak English but need Chinese gender-related information, please contact me and I'll be happy to help you translate what you need (free if it's for personal use, and you don't mind a somewhat hackneyed translation).

Back to the top of the page or back to

Personal Pages

From a really friendly and cool Taiwanese woman, there's Winnie's House of Beauty. She's very nice -- give her a visit! Winnie also has a copy of a very good article about hormone treatment located on her site.
The homepage of Andrea James. She has written relatively little about herself here; most of the site is her excellent TS Roadmap, which gives tons of great advice and information for transsexuals.
A CD from Taiwan has her own page called Jessie's Hut. She hasn't updated her page recently, but she's got some very good crossdressing resources on her English page. Her Chinese page, if you can read it (with a Big5 equipped browser, that means), has a lot more personal information. If you can read Chinese but don't have the equipment to do so, please check my information about displaying Chinese with your computer.
A very good source of information in Chinese is Juliana's Secret Garden. She has clippings of almost every TG related article that's appeared in Taiwan on her site, as well as some other things. However, most of her site's in Chinese (Mandarin), so unless you understand Chinese and have a computer equipped to display it, you may not be able to access much of the information on her site. If you need me to, I'd be quite willing to translate anything on her site for you, for free if you need the info for non-profit reasons -- just contact me about it. Also, if you can read Chinese but aren't sure how to get your computer to display Chinese characters, I've got a little essay about it.
An American girl of Chinese descent, Amber has a lot of really wonderful information and ideas on her site, amberspace. Certainly much better than my hackneyed babblings!
Of course, the number of TG folks on the Web is vast. There have been many attempts to present a list of all of them; Susana Marques' Directory is one of the best. It appears that she is no longer keeping the site up to date, but perhaps I'm wrong.

Back to the top of the page or back to

General (But Useful!) Pages

Andrea James' excellent TS Roadmap, which gives probably more information than any other single page about the subject on the Web. I also especially recommend her pages about electrolysis, which probably represent the best collection of practical information about the topic on the Web.
Anne Lawrence's Transsexual Women's Resources. An excellent site with lots of information, second only to Andrea's page, if that. However, Lawrence has been a proponent of some very controversial theories in the past (specifically the concept of "autogynephilia"), and there have apparently also been some problems with her practice. So, her site comes with an even bigger requirement than most to judge carefully and critically.
Jennifer Diane Reitz's Transsexuality has a lot of very intelligent emotional and spiritual advice for those who have gender dysphoria or are transsexual, as well as a lot of good general material. Plus, she's interested in manga and stuff too! (Would you like to see my own page about manga?)
Another very good site with lots of information is Diane Wilson's page for transsexuals. Well worth checking out.
The International Foundation for Gender Education (IFGE). IFGE has published quite a nice magazine, Tapestry, and offers many services to the TG community.
One of many corporate/for-profit sites is Transgendered Network International. It has a fair amount of resources, mostly web-based. TGNI is not, as you could probably guess, any more more international than Canada and the US. I think geocentrism is possibly as large of a problem as sexism.
An internet-radio program that's pretty good is GenderTalk. Listening to it requires the RealAudio program, though. They also have a good list of books available.
Another general site which has news and general fun stuff is the Transgender Gazebo.
Another for-profit company is Transgender Forum, which offers a huge amount of resources (on-line shopping, advice, library, contact list, etc.) for transgender people, especially crossdressers.
A wiki for transgender-related resources seems natural. T-Vox is such a place. (And they have a forum, too.)
Web forums come and go. A few notable ones these days are the GenderLife forum, founded by Calpernia Addams; NuttyCats, which appears to be based in the UK; the My Husband Betty message boards, which include all sorts of transgender people, not specifically focusing on transsexual folks; TrueSelves, specifically for generation X and Y people; and the Transgender community on LiveJournal.
A fairly useful web-search is at Pridelinks.com. Another good BLTG (bacon, lettuce, tomato and gay) search engine is at Rainbow Queery.
In Minneapolis, there's the University of Minnesota's Program in Human Sexuality. The doctors there seem quite good -- not hung up on making anyone into an idealized or stereotypical man or woman, neither hung up with "primary transsexuality" and "secondary transsexuality" and stuff like that, just helping everyone to find a gender in which they can feel comfortable and to deal with their issues. They're also pretty expensive, though, and like all professionals in this field, they have at least a little reputation as gatekeepers rather than helpers.

Back to the top of the page or back to

FTM, Intersex, Youth and Family Sites

Maybe the leading Web organization for TG folks who were born female but live as or are moving towards being men: FTM International. (By the way, any handsome guys reading this, please write me a line!)
The Intersex Society of North America. They seem to be the main Web-based group for intersexual people, with frequent updates and lots of information.
A UK organization devoted to dealing with the troubles of the families of TG young people, Mermaids. I wish there'd been something like this in Minneapolis when I was growing up...
The AntiJen site has a lot of good information for TS young people.

Back to the top of the page or back to

Treatment Sites

If you're considering surgery, electrolysis or other treatment, probably the first place you should go is Andrea James' TS Roadmap, which has excellent guides and information about all aspects of treatment. I especially recommend her pages about electrolysis.
You may also want to check out Anne Lawrence's Transsexual Women's Resources, with the provisos I mentioned above.
At one time, I had a link here to a wonderful page with information about hormone dosages and regimens for transsexuals. The page is no longer there. If anyone knows where it went, or where there's a page of equal utility, please let me know.
Melanie Anne Phillips' How to Develop A Female Voice, while being a for-profit site, does give some very good tips about, well, developing a female (or should that be feminine?) voice.
Amber has some very good advice about voice training. Plus, it's free. (I haven't linked directly to her voice section, due to the structure of the site, but navigation is very clear once you get there.)
Although it's a commercial site, TransGenderCare.com is pretty cool: a single site that discusses psychotherapy, hormones and electrolysis in depth. The specialists behind the site appear to be quite legitimate, but as always (and especially with commercial sites), think critically.
One of the few established and continuing TG treatment centers out there is the University of Minnesota's Program in Human Sexuality. I briefly saw one of the doctors there, and I can vouch for the program's high quality.
There are a ridiculous number of e-mail lists out there that also give information about surgery, hormones, etc. Try, for example, Yahoo! groups. Many of them, however, are populated by kooks and flakes. Wherever you go for information, be careful. Maintain reasonable skepticism.

Back to the top of the page or back to

Surgery Sites

If you're considering surgery, electrolysis or other treatment, probably the first place you should go is Andrea James' TS Roadmap, which has excellent guides and information about all aspects of treatment. Really. She has far more information than I could index here. Some other useful sites follow, though.
As I mentioned above, there are some possible problems with Anne Lawrence's Transsexual Women's Resources, but a lot of the information there is still useful. As always, take care and be cautious.
The PAI site is the main web presence of Dr. Preecha Tiewtranon, who performs SRS in Bangkok, Thailand. Read about my experiences in Thailand with Dr. Preecha, if you'd like.

The PAI website currently has a complete copy of my webpage hosted there. This is against my wishes, and is infringing on my copyright, as well as being a dangerous step towards editing clients' testimonials. I was certainly satisfied with my experience in the clinic, but this is a clear flag: caveat emptor.
A former student of Preecha's, Dr. Sanguan Kunaporn, has his own practice in Phuket.
Another quite famous Thai SRS surgeon is Dr. Suporn Watanyusakul. Dr. Suporn's website gives quite a bit of information, as well as links to a lot of women who've had SRS with him.
There are also many other Thai surgeons who are not quite so famous. Some of them are listed below:
- Greechart Pornsinsirirak. A friend of mine in Taiwan recently had her surgery done with him. She seems satisfied, although the post-op care left a lot to be desired. Among other things, he was very vague about dilation methods and time requirements. Also, he doesn't have a website, so I've linked to his e-mail address.
- Chettawut Tulayaphanich. He was trained by Dr. Preecha, and his website gives a lot of good answers. However, I haven't heard any reports, good or bad, from anyone about him.
According to many, the best SRS surgeon out there is Dr. Toby Meltzer, late of Oregon but soon moving to Arizona. He's one of the best, but also one of the most expensive.
The web page of Drs. Menard and Brassard, who perform GRS surgery in Montreal. Many people have said they're excellent.
A long time ago, I wrote a short article about one of my own surgical experiences in Taiwan. It was not SRS, but nonetheless my experiences might be informative. And, like I mentioned above, you might also want to check out my page about SRS in Thailand.

Back to the top of the page or back to

Romance

Trying to find love is difficult for anyone, much less a TG person. There are tons of porn and pick-up sites around, but is it possible for a TG person to find true love through the Internet? A few sites seem to have promise:

A good place to start is OK Cupid. Like most personals sites, they don't really allow for transgender-identified people in their system, but it's easy to explain who you are.
TransgenderRomance is well-designed, with TG folks in mind, but there are very few members as of now. Maybe we can change that.
Craigslist, interestingly enough, has trans-specific personals ads. (I've linked here to the Minneapolis version of Craigslist; there are specific sites for a huge number of different cities.) Well, as long as you're looking for a guy. If you're looking for a woman, you're too miscellaneous for them, I guess. Better than nothing, though, and it's free.

There are definitely lots of places to go for "hook-ups", casual encounters, etc. But I tend to find them highly disrespectful of trans people, so I'm not going to link to any of them. If you really want to find that kind of thing, you're just going to have to work for it.

If you know any more good places for trans people to find respectful romance, please let me know!

Other than that, there isn't a lot more that I can say... although, I should note that I am in fact looking for a boyfriend myself. Hey, a girl's gotta dream.

Back to the top of the page or back to

Specifically Asian Pages

Note: Some of the sites referred to below primarily use languages other than English. If you understand Japanese, Korean or Chinese languages but don't know how to access them (i.e., make them show up in readabale form) on the Web, please see the section of my pages devoted to displaying East Asian writing on your computer.

The sections here are divided as follows:

Chinese and Taiwanese-related sites.
Korean sites.
Japanese sites.
Thai sites.
South Asian sites.
General Asian sites.

Back to the top of the page or back to

Chinese and Taiwanese-related sites

Unfortunately, there isn't much in the way of resources for Chinese-speaking people in English. There are quite a few useful sites out there with very nice information in Chinese, though -- for these, please see my Chinese-language gender page.

Well, okay, it's actually all in Chinese, but the Intermargins website has a great page for transgender folks in Taiwan.
Another great resource that's all in Chinese is Phinnie's TS Circle, a Yahoo group. It's one of the best local support groups, so it's worth checking out if you're TG and in Taiwan. The knowledge contained in this group is vast.
Another one that's all in Chinese but very worthwhile is Xia Shilian's page. This site is vast: news, forums, how-to, articles... It's got everything. It's easily the single best Chinese transgender-related site. It's from mainland China, if that's important to note.
National Central University of Taiwan has one of the intellectual hotbeds of transgender research in Taiwan, the Center for the Study of Sexualities. The director of the Center, Josephine Ho (He Chunrui, 何春蕤) is probably the best scholarly expert on TG issues in Taiwan. The Center is primarily academic, though; they shouldn't be the first place you turn for advice on surgery, for example.
The Chinese Society for the Study of Sexual Minorities is still in its infancy, but holds great promise. The actual information here is all in Chinese, whether accessed through their English language page or their Chinese language ones (Big5 or otherwise). If you're not sure how to display Chinese characters with your computer, I've got a little write-up to help.
A nifty site which is by another Chinese-English bilingual person in Taiwan is Nicole Darcy's site. She's a really cool musician and activist in Taiwan (and sometimes in the US).
An article I wrote to communicate the problems that TG people in Taiwan face, which I call simply My Friend's Life. Transgender people in Taiwan have to deal with a lot more crap from society than TG people in the US, for example. Trust me, being transgender in Taiwan is a very difficult thing. This is why I want to collect all the information you see here on this page.
I wrote an article called Being Transgender in Taiwan, which was published in Transgender Tapestry #94. This article is more generic than the above, and less to the point, but maybe a better general introduction.
I also wrote an article more specifically about my own experiences, called Being Transgender in East Asia, Part I. It was published in Transgender Forum (now hidden behind a membership login) soon after I came back from my first visit to Taiwan. It's about my experiences that summer and in 1992 when I lived in Beijing for half a year. I haven't yet scanned part II, about my experiences the first time i came to Taiwan. Perhaps one day... But other things I've written here largely take the place of that article, so I may never get around to it.
And finally, please don't forget that my pages contain a Chinese-language gender page which includes some links to good sources of gender-related information in Chinese. If your system is equipped to view Chinese characters, and you understand them, please check the page out! And again, if you need any help with translation or even displaying Chinese characters on your system, please contact me.

Back to the top of the page or back to

Korean sites

The excellent Pauline Park has told me about a couple good Korean-related GLBT sites:

First is Solidarity for LGBT Human Rights of Korea, who look like a great, transgender-inclusive group with lots of useful resources and accomplishments.
Second is the Dari Project, primarily aimed at giving Korean and Korean-American GLBT people a place to share their stories. Cool stuff.

Back to the top of the page or back to

Japanese sites

A good Japanese site to start at is Eon/W.
gid.jp looks like a very helpful organization. They sponsor a yearly all-Japan conference and appear to be very politically active.
Another good Japanese support site is Trans-Net Japan (TS to TG wo Sasaeru Hitobito no Kai). It seems quite diverse and well organized.

Back to the top of the page or back to

Thai sites

The Transgender in Thailand website is now down, but some of the original articles are hosted on Sam Winter's site.
There appear to be several academic articles by Peter A. Jackson on the Net. Probably the one that interests me most is Male Homosexuality and Transgenderism in the Thai Buddhist Tradition. Another is Non-normative Sex/Gender Categories in the Theravada Buddhist Scriptures (however, the location of this article is not current). His scholarship may be problematic at times, but at least for now, it's about the best there is (or rather, the best I could find).
Another article about transgender and queer folks in Thailand is "Whiskey is Whiskey; You Can't Make a Cocktail from That!": Self-Identified Gay Thai Men in Bangkok, by Jillana Enteen.

Back to the top of the page or back to

South Asian sites

A very good South Asian organization for queer folks is Trikone (I have linked here to their San Francisco chapter's page.) They publish a self titled magazine, offer support and do all kinds of things.
A Western hijra (a Hindi term, somewhat equivalent to transsexual) has her own page, The Sampark Project. The idea was to have an exchange between American TS's and Indian hijras.

Back to the top of the page or back to

General sites

One of the best collections of general Asian TG links out there is Dr. Sam Winter's TransgenderASIA page. He has a lot of good general information -- the legal status of transsexuals in various countries, personal webpage links from TS's all over the world, and a lot of good research papers.
There doesn't appear to be much by about warias (Malaysian transgender/transsexual people) yet. There is, however, a very nice collection of photographs of waria.
Now here's a class I'd love to take -- Gender and Historical Anthropology: History of the South Pacific, taught by Margaret Jolly.
A site which offers lots of general queer-related (but unfortunately not TG-inclusive) information about countries in Asia is Utopia.
A very nice, though unfortunately rather small, list of Asian, queer-related books is available. The list is, however, specifically disinclusive of transgender sources (it's mainly gay, a little lesbian and nominally bisexual). Oh, well, it's still a good list.
As soon as I have the money, I'm going to buy My Sisters: Their Stories, by Leona Lo. It details the lives of TG/TS women in Singapore; this is a subject that hasn't been treated with enough attention, so it's good to see a book written about it.

Back to the top of the page or back to

Political & Legal Pages

A good TG-related law center is the Transgender Law and Policy Institute.
One of the most effectice organizations is the National Center for Transgender Equality.
The Transgender Law Center is mostly focused on California, but still has lots of useful resources.
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, a major political organization in the US which is very inclusive of TG folks. Please note that this page is graphics-intensive and takes a while to load.
The GenderPAC homepage. GenderPAC was once one of the most important transgender-related organizations, fighting transphobic hate crimes and other shit that happens to transgender people. (Sorry for the bad language, but that stuff really makes me ANGRY!) However, in recent years, they've broadened (or, some might say, weakened) their focus to include pretty much all hate crimes, bullying, etc., as well as general oppression of poor people, GLBT people, etc.
Probably one of the coolest people campaigning for the liberation of transgender people is represented in Leslie Feinberg's site. Feinberg is an amazing speaker, and in my opinion is one of the better forces working in the TG liberation movement. The site is rather bare, but contains some good links and a lot of access.
A UK-based organization which provides support and activism, Press for Change, is mostly focused on helping the legal status of transsexual people in the UK. (Although the UK recently passed laws making post-op transsexuals eligible for marriage in their target genders, I think that PFC is continuing to work for the betterment of transgendered people's lives.)
The major political GLBT (Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgender) organization in the US is The Human Rights Campaign. They have at times appeared to be transgender-inclusive, but they recently pushed for the specific exclusion of transgender people from the Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), when it looked just as likely to pass either way. So, the HRC no longer has my confidence; it appears that, when it really gets down to it, they consider transgender people expendable. They still have a fairly good page about job issues (especially transition) for transgender people, however.
My own personal protest to lodge here is against McAfee Software and their parent company, Network Associates Incorporated. A few years ago, they ran an ad equating transsexual women with computer viruses ("Be careful, or who knows what you might get!"). So far as I know, they have never issued a suitable retraction or worked to combat the transphobia they fostered by doing so. In addition, I personally have had quite bad experiences using their anti-virus software -- when I tried it, their VirusScan suite didn't work well with other programs and had many internal bugs. I finally decided to go with PC-Cillin, at least when I'm not using Linux.
Another problematic company is Sky Publishing, who put out Sky & Telescope magazine. They fired (scroll down for story) an employee for being transgender, and when she sued them, not only did they not repent, they tried to eliminate the local law against anti-transgender discrimination (several paragraphs down)! In e-mail, they've told me that "...Sky has not admitted any guilt in the settlement and we did not discriminate against anyone," which to me seems patently false. I've recently gotten back into astronomy in a big way, and it pains me to see fellow hobbyists being such jerks.

Back to the top of the page or back to

Academic and Religious Pages

The best site around for transgender research done in Taiwan is the Center for the Study of Sexualities, located on the campus of National Central University. The director of the Center, Josephine Ho (He Chunrui, 何春蕤) has done a lot of research about TG issues in Taiwan, and is a really nice person to boot.
There are many academic programs in queer or GLBT studies out there. One good place to start is the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) at the City University of New York.
Another good academic program is the one at the University of Chicago, called the Lesbian and Gay Studies Project.
Yet another good program is the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Program at UCLA.
A good directory of academic queer studies is John C. Younger's page at the University of Kansas.
The International Journal of Transgenderism, an academic journal, peer-reviewed with lots of good, well researched information and some pretty good links, too.
The World Professional Association for Transgender Health, Inc., originally known as the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, aka The Gatekeepers, are the people who decide the Standards of Care, which will affect your life very directly if you are considering any kind of professional treatment related to transgender issues. The Standards of Care detail the diagnosis and treatment of gender dysphoria, and, for example, set the conditions under which people may undergo hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or sexual reassignment surgery (SRS).

Back to the top of the page or back to

Especially Important Sites

We must never stop Remembering Our Dead. Let us not forget, many transgender people have been killed for their identities -- just for being who they are! In memorial of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, I've added a bit of freeware memorial art to my site.

Back to the top of the page or back to

Gender Links and Thoughts.

Also Note: Chinese Version available

Personal Pages

General (But Useful!) Pages

FTM, Intersex, Youth and Family Sites

Treatment Sites

Surgery Sites

Romance

Specifically Asian Pages

Chinese and Taiwanese-related sites

Korean sites

Japanese sites

Thai sites

South Asian sites

General sites

Political & Legal Pages

Academic and Religious Pages

Especially Important Sites