A transgender couple finds an audience with the Wilton Manors-based TransitionRadio.net.

South Florida transgender couple reach out to others in the community through their online radio show TransitionRadio.net

By Rod Stafford Hagwood, Staff writer - 6:47 p.m. EDT, March 28, 2013

He used to be a she. She is a he, but not for much longer.

They are Mark Angelo Cummings and Jessica Lynn O'Donnell, and the engaged Wilton Manors couple are trying to help other transgender people deal with issues of gender transition through TransitionRadio.net. The site features videos, a health and fitness blog, a chat room and live online-radio broadcasts every Friday starting at 6:30 p.m. and live video broadcasts every Sunday starting at 4 p.m.

Mark Angelo Cummings and his fiancee, Jessica Lynn O'Donnell, host an online radio broadcast for transgender people on TransitionRadio.net starting at 6 30 p.m. Fridays from their home in Wilton Manors.

"When I transitioned in 2003, there was hardly anything to help out there," says Cummings, a licensed occupational therapist who was born Maritza DelCarmen Perdomo in Havana.
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Launched from their home in September, the site regularly attracts viewers from all over the United States (especially in the South, according to Cummings and O'Donnell), as well as Canada, Australia, Germany, Indonesia and Uganda.

Their timing could not be better, as transgender issues routinely make national headlines. This month, Colorado and Arizona grappled with transgender-rights issues. Pop-culture depictions are also more common, with transgender characters appearing on scripted TV shows such as "Glee" and on reality series such as the National Geographic Channel's "Taboo," which this summer will feature Cummings and O'Donnell in an episode on unorthodox relationships.

O'Donnell, 38, a homemaker, was born Shawn Michael O'Donnell in Fort Lauderdale. She says she began to investigate changing her gender in 2010, after two failed suicide attempts and going "back and forth my whole life." She hopes the website will help others avoid the confusion and pain she experienced.

"We just want to be considered normal like everyone else," she says. "We let people tell their story the way they want to tell it. It's a safe place where people can feel comfortable."

TURNING IT UP

On the "Transition Radio" program, O'Donnell and Cummings interview people in gender transition from across the country and from various backgrounds. Guests have included a member of a heavy-metal band, a standup comedian and an adult-entertainment star. The show dispenses information on everything from legal issues to bathroom concerns.

"[The show] is good for people who maybe live in the middle of Hicktown, U.S.A.," says Cummings, 48. "Maybe there's no GLBT Center, or even if they do have one, theirs is no 'T.' People can chat among themselves anytime."

Deborah E. Grayson, an Oakland Park-based therapist who has specialized in gender issues for 25 years, says isolation can be deadly.

"It's a huge hurdle. Many of them are not getting support from their own families, so they find a family of choice. The transgender population is the most-ostracized of all populations," she says. "Even within [the gay and lesbian community], they are the least understood. They are often the victims of horrific hate crimes, and the suicide rate for transgender youth is unbelievable: 44 percent attempted or committed suicide."

Grayson, who teaches human sexuality at Lynn University, says pop culture is helping to increase awareness of transgender issues. Her cousin Jazz, for example, is a transgender child who has appeared on ABC's "20/20" and in a documentary on Oprah Winfrey's OWN television network. In 2011, the transgender Chaz Bono, the only child of Cher and Sonny Bono, appeared as a contestant on ABC's hit "Dancing With the Stars."

Perhaps as a result of such attention, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) last year began to revise its recommendations for gender markers on state and federal identifications.

"This is already in play," Grayson says. "It used to be that you had to be of age and have two letters of support from a medical professional. Then, you had to get a court order and hire a lawyer to change your name. What WPATH is suggesting in their revisions is that changing the sex on, say, a birth certificate be done through the Vital Statistics Agency rather than the court system."

The topic likely will be addressed by the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists when it meets June 5-9 in Miami.

STATION TO STATION

O'Donnell and Cummings met in May 2012 at the Castle Lounge, a self-described "tranny bar" in Hollywood where O'Donnell was working as a bartender.

"It was instant attraction," Cummings recalls.

Five months later, they launched TransitionRadio.net.

"I'm very technologically savvy with computers. I had an IT career for 15 years. I'm very good with audio visual stuff," O'Donnell says. "At first, we were doing it four days a week. Then, we realized, 'This is getting tiring.' We didn't have guests then. But we had listeners. We had an audience right away."

O'Donnell began the process of her Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS), or Gender Reassignment Surgery (GRS), in 2011 by seeing a medical doctor after going to a therapist who advised her to stop self-medicating with hormones. She complied. "The worst two months of my life," O'Donnell says.

"I started transitioning on Dec. 2, 2003," Cummings recalls. "I had a double mastectomy and a full hysterectomy ” a seven-hour procedure. I didn't know if I would wake up, but I didn't care. It was do or die. It took me 38 years to find myself. Then, I went on 'Maury' and 'Montel,' and I wrote a book, 'The Mirror Makes No Sense.' "

Cummings says that despite transgenders' increased visibility in recent years, the media tends to portray them in a negative light.

"I know this, having been on 'Maury Povich' and having them ask, 'So what's going on beneath your belt? ' " he says. "My comeback was, 'I could ask you what's going on below your belt.' But that whole situation was very disrespectful. They are always trying to sensationalize us."

"Sexuality is ever-changing for a lot of people," Cummings adds. "I think a lot of [transsexuals] are pansexual. But that allows us to fall in love with the person no matter their genitalia. It's more spiritual. Everything we have done has been spiritually guided."