Kappa Beta Serving the transgendered community since 1988

Dear Walter:

I hope you can help me here. The other day I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching the TV as usual. I hadn't gone more than a few hundred yards down the road when my engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt. I walked back home to get my husband's help.

When I got home I couldn't believe my eyes. He was parading in front of the wardrobe mirror dressed in my underwear and high-heel shoes, and he was wearing my make up.

I was giving some thought this week to the many issues we face while co-existing on the planet with non-transgendered folk. While we aren’t perfect in how we deal with these issues, it always seems to come back to the issue of “tolerance”. What an incredible country we live in, where we so often hear about diversity and tolerance, but find that those traits are so often not available to us.

It almost seems that our conservative pilgrim heritage never grew up, and became hardened over the decades by a combination of religious hardheadedness and rugged frontier justice. Thinking about tolerance and intolerance led me (as it so often does!) to the internet, where I found the following quotes about Tolerance. Some of them are really fantastic, but I think that all of them foster thinking and discussion. I hope you enjoy...

Ladies, you may or may not have gotten the word by now, but here is the real scoop on our June get-together. Forget about doing your laundry or your hair that weekend, and join us for a really different meeting (If you have to remain home to do one of those things, please don’t get them confused).

When you think about it, it really makes a lot of sense to have a special party in June, because this is the midway point from our annual Christmas party. By the way, for any of you who may have missed the Christmas party last December, it was truly special. We were favored with "entertainment" from several of the girls, and I was in awe of the talent — and the guts that it took to get up there and sing and dance for the party. Really, really special and I think that it set a high mark for expectations in ’07!

Anyway, back to June. First of all we have moved the meeting weekend to June 23rd (NOTE: do not show up on June 16th, the usual meeting date -- you will be very lonely… ). This was done so as not to compete with Fathers’ Day.

What else is different you might ask? I’ll tell you that this meeting is a once in a lifetime event. And the lifetime that we are celebrating is that of Dyana Lea, our resident Charlotte queen of the “Queen City”. Dyana Lea has been a longtime member and supporter of Kappa Beta and of T-girls in general. She has made many, many friends over the years, and we are asking any of you who can make it to this event to come and help us honor her.

My topic for this month is stewardship at Kappa Beta. This topic is of great importance for every current member of KB, but also for the new members that will join our group in the next year or two.

My definition of stewardship is human resources contribution. This contribution is different than our contribution of annual dues, or of the monthly meeting fees that help to pay for the hotel room. A human resources contribution is our contribution of our time, our brainpower, and ourselves. It's also the contribution of our problem solving skills, and our logistical and planning skills. In short, it's a bit like the skills needed to run a household, or perhaps even a small company!

Girls of Kappa Beta: I lifted this from Wikipedia; my comments below.

"Saint Patrick's Day is celebrated worldwide by Irish people and increasingly by many of non-Irish descent. Celebrations are generally themed around all things green and Irish; both Christians and non-Christians celebrate the secular version of the holiday by wearing green, eating Irish food, imbibing Irish drink, and attending parades.

"In many parts of North America, Britain, and Australia expatriate Irish, those of Irish descent, and ever-growing crowds of people with no Irish connections but who may proclaim themselves "Irish for a day" also celebrate St. Patrick's Day, usually by drinking incredible amounts of alcoholic beverages (lager dyed green, Irish beer and stout, such as Murphys, Smithwicks, Harp or Guinness, or Irish whiskey, Irish cider, Irish coffee, or Baileys Irish Cream) and by wearing at least one article of green-coloured clothing."