52 Things You Can Do for Transgender Equality

#8 Start an online community or a blog that deals with an issue that is important to you

2/21/2006

The internet has created so many new ways for people, including transgender people, to connect. The world of blogs provides an avenue for new voices to be heard and opinions to be shared with others.

This week's idea is:

#8 Start an online community or a blog that deals with an issue that is important to you

You can create a blog easily through many different portals available on the internet. You can set up a blog for just you or create a space for others in the community to share their perspectives. You can also create bulletin boards on a website for people to dialogue about their ideas or set up an e-mail list serve that covers a topic you'd like to talk about. With all of these, you'll need to keep up with them to be sure that content stays current and that folks have a topic to talk about in order to keep your presence vibrant.

An excellent example is the website, www.myhusbandbetty.com , run by Helen Boyd who is the wife of NCTE Board Member Betty Crow. The www.myhusbandbetty.com site includes blogs, message boards, and regular columns from Helen.

Speaking about her experience, Helen comments, "Although Betty and I first created www.myhusbandbetty.com for the sake of publicity, we've been pleased to see both the blog and the message boards on the site thrive. The message boards provide a useful place for interaction, nearly a think tank, and in fact have been part & parcel of an in-person monthly group forming here in NYC. Other people on the boards have met when they travel, on business trips, and at conferences. My blog has shown up everywhere from pro-choice websites to queerday.com - which means that many feminists and queer folk of all stripes know somewhere they can learn more about trans issues. Online communities end up facilitating not only in-person communities, but make transness more visible to other sympathetic people online. It takes a lot of work to moderate the boards and write the blog, but increasing trans visibility on the 'net is worth the effort."

What do you have to say to the world? Consider creating an online community to lift up your voice as well as the lives of others.

For other things you can do for transgender equality, visit the NCTE website at http://www.nctequality.org.