Deprivations - At the Sparkle Transgender Festival

So today (Sat. 8th July) I went to the UK Sparkle transgender festival in Manchester, UK.  It's the thirteenth such festival, the main organizers have changed but it's very similar to the previous ones.  That's no criticism. 

I've been to all these events. (My PhD strongly focused on part of that.)  I know I'm THE expert on Manchester transgender issues.  Definitely one of the PRIMARY experts on transgender social issues in the world.  It's interesting how Manchester Metropolitan University ('MMU'), where I did my PhD, had Prof. Stephen Whittle OBE working at that university.  (He got a OBE as the leader of the team creating the UK legal Gender Recognition Act [2005].)  Yet MMU was not a sponsor for the Sparkle events (except for donating £50 about three years ago - yeah, I know that amount's almost an insult). Oh, and the University of Manchester can't be bothered either. 

(You can bet these universities  will ignore my PhD and claim some new research even though mine was 'ground breaking'.  It felt it was literally  ground breaking considering the hassle I had to go through to get my research accepted.)

Instead, the 'lesser' Salford University is one of the main sponsors.  (Am fine with that considering my film 'The Devil's Ring' was made at that university.)

That university recognizes the sponsorship for the Sparkle events have become more significant.  No longer does it seem that the organizers are depending upon very generous individuals.

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I look at the friendships I've made in Manchester's transgender communities and how I've personally become less paranoid about gender.

Let's face it.  We're all paranoid about gender.

Note I didn't mean sexuality.

I remember when I saw Eddie Izzard on Sunday the 2nd July.  He was wearing a female style jacket and top that obviously suggested he was wearing a bra and 'falsies'.  By his own admission he has breast envy.

In many respects so many men have breast envy.  Or perhaps I should more accurately express reproductive envy.

Men are more expendable than women.  Look at the lack of long term effects from the millions of men killed in World War I and II.  Within a couple of generations, the male and female sexes are about equal numbers.

Are men really expendable?  Some men are certainly.

This kind of paranoia is in my novel Deprivations.  There is a deeper gender paranoia in many religious texts.  And that connects with my other novel The ruler of Hell: The Devil's Sister. 

And once again I'm showing how my novels link to reality.