At the very start of transition I felt that I was forced to perform femininity to be taken seriously as a woman. I felt that I had to wear feminine coded clothes, wigs and a lot of make up, more make up than any one woman should wear, before I was able to leave the house. Should I not wear prostheti
First, before I get on my pedestal for the month, I have to convey my sincere apologies to my regular readers for my recent hiatus. You may well remember that this time last year I spent a month in India having some surgeries; well, with nine months to allow myself to heal, I have just spent the las
Transitioning with Sugar – Going Stealth and being outed, by Ms Sugar Swan. When asked why I waited until my mid-30s to transition I tell people a myriad of lies; “It wasn’t the right time”, “I couldn’t afford it”, “I wanted to get X, Y and Z out-of-the-way first”.
Sugar, still in the midst of surgical recovery, asks, is it all worth it? As I sit at my desk on a hot mid-June’s day, already five days behind deadline (oops, sorry ed and design), feeling somewhat overwhelmed with my scar management and post-operative care, I’ve spent the last week plagued by wri
The Munchkins, a good witch, a wicked witch, and ruby slippers. A yellow brick road, a paradise, an all-seeing entity that can grant us that which we are lacking. We all know the story, we can all relate. As a lifelong ‘friend of Dorothy’ I have always felt close to this story, and in this month’s ‘
Ms Sugar Swan looks at drug use and asks if trans people are overlooked as an at-risk group within the LGBT+ communities. PARTY drugs are a problem, they always have been, and whilst I think some members of our umbrella communities are well looked after and catered to when it comes to party drugs an
Ms Sugar Swan explains what the internet means to her. I love the internet. It has saved my life. Quite literally. Without the internet, I would be dead. I remember being in my early teens when we got a PC at home. I was one of the first of my friends to have one and therefore was suddenly very popu
Community News
This month’s Gscene theme is community and having lived, worked and volunteered within the local queer community for the last 17 years I have very mixed feelings about the community and what it means to me.
Features
Firstly, I need to apologise to my regular readers. I’m sorry there was no January column from me, I’ll be open and honest as to why. A lot of people look up to me and I get a lot of positive feedback from my work, other trans people are glad to see trans representation in Gscene and strangers get i
Features
This year has been one of the toughest of my life, and I’m no stranger to tough years. December marks the first year of being without the best and most consistent person I’ve been lucky enough to have had in my life, having lost them after 17 years together. Next month also marks the 20th anniversar
In The South
Ms. Sugar Swan tries out the latest update from the (until recently) gay hook up app for men, Grindr. When people ask me, “Do you miss anything from your old life?” the only answer I ever have for them is simply, “Grindr”. Now that may sound odd asking a trans woman if she misses anything that she h
Features
I’ve been HIV+ for the majority of my adult life. I was diagnosed in my early 20s shortly after the death of my mother. I didn’t take her death very well and ran away to Europe for three months where I undertook some risky sexual practice as I was in a dark depression. Most traumatically I was gang