Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"
"Ker Plunk!" Another Sunday Edition has hit your virtual front porch! Get that hot "cup o joe" of yours ready to go and lets get started.
Page One: Is the Third Time a Charm? Yes, and no-last night I attended my third Leelah Alcorn vigil in the area in which I live. The one last night was in Dayton, Ohio and oddly was a different take in many ways on the same tragic circumstance. Outside of a few "more mature" speakers, the evening was for the transgender youth packed into a small church. Afterward, my transgender woman friend Racquel talked with me about the changes she has seen just over the past years. Here is part of her Facebook post:
Many Ohio trans people have been brutally murdered in the past couple years. In Cleveland, Betty Skinner—a disabled trans woman—was beaten to death. Brittany Stergis was shot in the head. Ce Ce Dove (referred to as an oddly dressed man) was stabbed several times, tied to a cinder block and thrown in a lake. In Toledo, Candice Milligan was called "tranny" and "a dude in a dress" then beaten unconscious. Police said, "This may have been because of his sexual orientation."
In the first reports, they were all treated as defective freaks. The right pronouns weren't used and the word "transgender" never came up. To be fair, eventually the stories got partially updated. But I think we owe Leelah for really bringing the issue out in the open.
We also discussed the racial aspect to all of this, which I am going to write about in a future post.
Page Two: The Good News or the Bad News? Last night, I walked away from the vigil last night with many, many positives. However, being a veteran of many corporate brain washing meetings over the years- I just wonder if weeks, months and years later, how much of the Leelah Alcorn story will be remembered? I know a group in her hometown Cincinnati, Ohio is attempting to raise money for a memorial for Leelah. Being the cynic I am though, I know a couple high schoolers who don't even know who John Hancock was and why was the guy in the statue dressed funny? How's the memorial working for John? But- One of the reasons I think Leelah just won't fade away as quickly as many would like her too, were the youth I saw stand up and speak their peace and define their young transgender lives in Dayton (last night) and Cincinnati (a week ago). I was so impressed with how so many people are working in the trenches such as GLSEN who are trying to do such a difficult job!
Page Three: Steve Harvey. Steve Harvey has become a huge media personality and like so many others, came from extremely humble roots in Cleveland, Ohio. This morning, I heard an interview with him. Along the way, he spoke of the ten or so jobs he found and quit before he began the struggle to be a comedian. One in particular I remember. He said, I was working this assembly line job but I was putting more time into entertaining and telling jokes, so I quit. The job just wasn't him. Doesn't that describe our lives as transgender women and men? The same as Steve Harvey, we just got tired of entertaining the world as someone we weren't?
Page Four: The Back Page. As always, I appreciate you all for stopping by Cyrsti's Condo-with out all of you- nothing else matters!!!!! (Well, maybe nothing else!) You don't have to be good-just be safe Connie!
Page One: Is the Third Time a Charm? Yes, and no-last night I attended my third Leelah Alcorn vigil in the area in which I live. The one last night was in Dayton, Ohio and oddly was a different take in many ways on the same tragic circumstance. Outside of a few "more mature" speakers, the evening was for the transgender youth packed into a small church. Afterward, my transgender woman friend Racquel talked with me about the changes she has seen just over the past years. Here is part of her Facebook post:
Many Ohio trans people have been brutally murdered in the past couple years. In Cleveland, Betty Skinner—a disabled trans woman—was beaten to death. Brittany Stergis was shot in the head. Ce Ce Dove (referred to as an oddly dressed man) was stabbed several times, tied to a cinder block and thrown in a lake. In Toledo, Candice Milligan was called "tranny" and "a dude in a dress" then beaten unconscious. Police said, "This may have been because of his sexual orientation."
In the first reports, they were all treated as defective freaks. The right pronouns weren't used and the word "transgender" never came up. To be fair, eventually the stories got partially updated. But I think we owe Leelah for really bringing the issue out in the open.
We also discussed the racial aspect to all of this, which I am going to write about in a future post.
Page Two: The Good News or the Bad News? Last night, I walked away from the vigil last night with many, many positives. However, being a veteran of many corporate brain washing meetings over the years- I just wonder if weeks, months and years later, how much of the Leelah Alcorn story will be remembered? I know a group in her hometown Cincinnati, Ohio is attempting to raise money for a memorial for Leelah. Being the cynic I am though, I know a couple high schoolers who don't even know who John Hancock was and why was the guy in the statue dressed funny? How's the memorial working for John? But- One of the reasons I think Leelah just won't fade away as quickly as many would like her too, were the youth I saw stand up and speak their peace and define their young transgender lives in Dayton (last night) and Cincinnati (a week ago). I was so impressed with how so many people are working in the trenches such as GLSEN who are trying to do such a difficult job!
Page Three: Steve Harvey. Steve Harvey has become a huge media personality and like so many others, came from extremely humble roots in Cleveland, Ohio. This morning, I heard an interview with him. Along the way, he spoke of the ten or so jobs he found and quit before he began the struggle to be a comedian. One in particular I remember. He said, I was working this assembly line job but I was putting more time into entertaining and telling jokes, so I quit. The job just wasn't him. Doesn't that describe our lives as transgender women and men? The same as Steve Harvey, we just got tired of entertaining the world as someone we weren't?
Page Four: The Back Page. As always, I appreciate you all for stopping by Cyrsti's Condo-with out all of you- nothing else matters!!!!! (Well, maybe nothing else!) You don't have to be good-just be safe Connie!
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