Random thought: I, of course, share myself here as well as on Flickr, Facebook and YouTube. I get tremendous positive feedback and support. But I am not immune from the haters. Fortunately, I get very little. Maybe 200 positive responses to anything negative. And even the negative comments are what I would call mild (“delusional” or “puke” being recent ones). When I do, their hate simply gets blocked and deleted. Again, this is infrequent. It never happens here and usually it is on Facebook and YouTube, where I do get much greater exposure and an obviously larger potential audience. The videos do get these responses; I really don’t get them on pictures.

But what I find interesting is how do these haters, if they are truly haters, find my posts or videos? I know my feeds are mostly only things I have actively expressed an interest in or have clicked on, the algorithms feeding me things it thinks I want to see. My guess is these haters LOVE transpeople, not love in the sense of support, but love to look at them. They definitely have an interest and are small enough to denigrate not simply shut their mouths or God forbid, support. They are probably obsessed and hateful of themselves, so they lash out.

The rest of the pictures…

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I Am a Woman

From a few years back…

I am a woman. Now you can get a dictionary and argue that I am not. You can run a DNA test and argue that I am not. You can ask a doctor and argue that I am not. And I am not interested in arguing with you.

Allow me to make a analogy. Was Michael Jordan an NBA player? Yes. Is someone who sat the bench in one single NBA game and never did so again, an NBA player? Yes they would be. Are they comparable as players? Of course not. Well, that is me in this discussion, I am a woman, much like that bench warmer is an NBA player.

I comport myself as a woman.

I present myself as a woman.

I do not act like a “tranny”, I am not a “gurl” or “tgirl”.

I have definitive proof, in thousands of public interactions, that I am accepted as a woman. I paid particular attention to how others have interacted with me at a few events I worked for The American Heart Association and The Arthritis Foundation recently. I was treated as if I were a ciswoman. Is it the situation, with more enlightened people around me at these events? Possibly. Are many of the people simply more comfortable around me, having gotten to know me? Maybe. Is it a general change in society that others may be more sensitive to the gender presentation of those they encounter? Could be.

Watching people at Pride, it is apparent many have no interest in presenting as women. They wish to achieve some type of femininized version of themselves. Non-binary, along the spectrum, all things I simply cannot relate to. Of course, all TG folks weren’t necessarily there and there is nothing wrong with doing this. Nothing at all wrong with it, but it seems to be more of the current generation that defines themselves as non-binary.

It’s just not me, not my goal, not what makes me happy. I accept them for who they are and will support them in any way possible, as I recently did at the Queer Prom. I do put my money where my mouth is, walk the walk, talk the talk, so to speak. I felt completely out of place at Pride this year. I also felt horribly out of place at the Miss Gay Cleveland pageant. I was the square peg, many of the others were the round ones. We are all pegs, I’m just not the one that fits in there.

I will always continue to be the best woman I can be. To represent my sisters and leave a positive impression everywhere I go. But I am what I am and it appears that isn’t going to change anytime soon.

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Originally posted on Julie’s Facebook page September 1, 2026.

“Went out 5 times in the last two weeks. These pics are from night 4 – I’m posting out of order if you’re following the series. On this particular night, I was definitely not solo. I went to a meetup hosted by the Chicago Gender Support Alliance (CGSA). It was a good group that night, probably 15-20 in total. CGSA hosts tons of events every month. The cool part is that they have events for all “skill levels”. From total public events at restaurants and theaters to very private “safe space” events. If you want more details, go to my bio, check out my link tree and find the link to the CGSA website. Maybe even join as a member so you can get emails about upcoming events. If you’re unsure about what event would be best for you, just shoot me a DM and we’ll figure it out.

Julie “