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Has anyone seen the documentary "Erasing David"? It was broadcast in the UK several months ago and has just come out on DVD. It's about one man - David Bond - and his concerns about the amount of data that the government and other agencies were holding on him. So he decided to disappear for a month, leaving behind his pregnant wife and child, and trying to leave no traces of himself that anyone could pick up. He arranged for a top firm of private investigators to try and track him down. All they had to go on was his name and a recent photo. The documentary takes you through his life on the run and the investigators' attempts to find him. I won't say what happens in the end, but it is completely engrossing and well worth seeing.
The documentary left me wondering just how private my life as Catherine was. I would regard myself as transgendered by inclination, but not really in practice, because the few people who knew about me as Catherine are no longer part of my life, and I have to live my life in secret. If I was outed it would be devastating for my family, and very embarrassing at work. Could anyone identify the real me from the traces Catherine has left on this site (more particularly on the older TrannyWeb site, where the blog that I used to maintain contains several clues). I think that people who knew me well would make the connection, if they ever came across the site and happened to find details of Catherine. On the other hand, people who didn't know me probably wouldn't be able to identify me, as I'm not well known in public life. But it is an unsettling thought.
What am I going to do? Well, I might de-personalise some of the material about Catherine. I've already tried to make my profile as unspecific as I can. But I'm torn between my desire to protect my privacy, and my desire to join in as fully as possible, in a community of people who share something that matters very much to me.
I wonder how other closeted TG members deal with these issues.
It's interesting to hear about the DVD though. I agree that you do have to be careful in what you say about yourself online, especially if you have some dark secret that you do not want made public.
One thing I really want to do with our forums and the site in general, is extend the amount of private areas we have. A lot of our members are very shy about contributing to the forums and other areas in case their little secret is discovered.
In reality, I think it would be very unlikely that a colleague or member of your family could just stumble upon your posts here. They would have to be really searching for them. However, for some time now, we have offered Full Members only forums and galleries. Anything you post in those is only available to other Full Members.
That means that Google and Yahoo and other search engines do not have access. It also means there is a zero percent chance that friends or family could just come across your stuff (unless they too are paying members).
In effect, part of what you pay here as your membership fee is for extra privacy. You can post in the public forums too if you want but your can also live your clandestine life online, inside our well protected Full Member's area, safe in the knowledge that whatever you post cannot be accessed by outsiders.
There will be more private areas here in the future.
Hugs, Katie x
