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OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar – Trans Positive Healthcare

Ms Sugar Swan October 25, 2018

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 last two months away having some more work done.

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Features

OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar – Going Stealth and being outed

Ms Sugar Swan July 27, 2018

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”.

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Features

OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar: Trans healthcare and the Gender Recognition Act

Ms Sugar Swan July 4, 2018

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 writer’s block. 

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Features

OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar – Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Ms Sugar Swan May 29, 2018

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 ‘Bears’ edition of Gscene, its narrative is one that mirrors many aspects of LGBTQ subculture.

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Features

OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar – Drugs and the Trans Community

Ms Sugar Swan April 26, 2018

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 and picking up the pieces when things go wrong, I fear that, as with many things in the community, trans people are often overlooked.

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Community News

OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar: Ms Sugar Swan asks what the LGBTQIA community means to her

Ms Sugar Swan February 27, 2018

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. 

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Features

FEATURE: Transitioning with Sugar – A year in her life 

Ms Sugar Swan November 28, 2017

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 anniversary of my first partner’s death so I’ve found it particularly hard to write a positive ‘end of year’ piece.

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Features

FEATURE: Transitioning with Sugar – HIV & Me

Ms Sugar Swan October 25, 2017

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 raped by four men who took it in turns to rape me multiple times which left me not only with mental scars, but physically torn.

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Features

FEATURE: Transitioning with Sugar – I love men, what can I do? asks Sugar Swan

Ms Sugar Swan September 27, 2017

As Eartha Kitt sang during the disco revival of her career in the 1984 title track, ‘I love men, what can I do? I love men, they’re no good for you’. Never have song lyrics felt more relatable right now. Pre-transition I was never the ‘gay man’ that I was often perceived as and regular readers of this page will know that I have identified as bisexual since my earliest sexual experiences.

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Features

OPINION: Transitioning with Sugar – My Pride experience

Ms Sugar Swan August 29, 2017

Last month I wrote about my Pride experiences over the last 20 years and how I never quite felt like I fitted in. I was always troubled with poor trans representation. I surmised by hoping that trans folk, and the less represented minorities of the LGBTQIA+ umbrella, would be better respected and represented at these events. Brighton Pride 2017 confirmed my worst fears about the current state of the Pride celebration.

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