Other transgender forums

The two Press for Change mailing lists have a very focused purpose: the Forum is a place where we can discuss how to campaign for our rights, and the News list is for PFC announcements and other news.

However, there are a lot other reasons to use the internet to discuss trans issues: for personal support, to examine theoretical perspectives on gender, or to assist in academic research.

The PFC lists are not an appropriate place for such discussions, but there are many other resources available, including Mailing lists and Usenet Newsgroups.

For links to other web sites of interest, see our links section.

Mailing lists

There are an increasing number of mailing lists covering transgender issues, each with a slightly different purpose or a different regional focus.

• Transgen is by far the biggest TG/TS mailing list. A global list for discussion of transgender issues, it’s open to all. It has a large active membership, and can be very busy, with 20-100 messages a day. At its best, Transgen can be wonderful, with support and insight from all over the world; at its worst, it can get quite heated. The membership is predominantly American.
• Phoenix is a list for transsexual people only. Theoretical discussions are banned. As with Transgen, Americans predominate. For more information, send email to phoenix-request@lists.best.com.
• TGS-PLFLAG is a mailing list for partners, families and friends of transgendered people.
• MtMInfo is for Transsexual and Transgendered men. Subscribers to the list provide peer support and share news and information of interest to the FTM/MtM community.
• GLB-NEWS is a great information repository for various news items related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered issues. To subscribe, just send the command SUBSCRIBE GLB-NEWS Your Name to listserv@listserv.aol.com.
• StoneBB is open to the public.  The only requirement is that you have read the Leslie Feinberg book, Stone Butch Blues, since the list is for discussion of that very piece of literature. Subscription info is available.

If anyone knows of any other transgender lists out there, please tell us, so we can list them here. Send an email to editor@pfc.org.uk.

Usenet newsgroups

Newsgroups don’t actually carry any news: they are unmoderated discussion forums, open to anyone with internet access. There are three covering transgender issues:

• alt.transgendered
• soc.support.transgendered
• alt.support.srs

But beware! These newsgroups are unmoderated, and open to all. So there is a lot of flaming, abuse, and no privacy — anything you post can be read by anyone on the ’net. Because of the lack of privacy and the amount of flaming, many people find the newsgroups next-to-useless.