Cyrsti's Condo

Depending upon where you live, there was good news which came out of this years' Mid-Term Elections. Here in Ohio, predictably the backward rednecks in the state elected a governor firmly in the pockets of the big insurance and pharmacy companies but re-elected our incumbent Democratic senator. The senator who spoke via recording two years in a row to our Trans Ohio Symposium. In Massachusetts though: It became the first state to uphold protections for transgender and non-binary people at the ballot box by voting to preserve the state's anti-discrimination law. Voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the Question 3 ballot initiative to keep the current wording of the state’s anti-discrimination statute, according to news website  MassLive . Official numbers have not yet been released. And, in Vermont,   A candidate with Upstate New York roots made an unsuccessful run for the Vermont governor's seat Tuesday. Despite the loss, she made history as the first transg

Perhaps you have read or heard of Christine Hallquist. To refresh your memory, she won the Vermont primary, becoming the first transgender woman to win a major party nomination for a state governor. Of course any story of how a trans person can accomplish such a feat is amazing, but here is a bit of Christine's: In the fall of 2015, the thought of running for office was not even in the “realm of possibility” for Christine Hallquist, she said in an interview with The Washington Post. Hallquist, then CEO of Vermont Electric Cooperative, was in the midst of  coming out professionally as a woman to her employees and worried they might not accept her. The company’s website still indicated that the firm was led by a man, Vermont alternative weekly  Seven Days  reported at the time. Her emails were still signed by her former name. “Here I am, the transgender CEO of one of the most macho businesses,” Hallquist told Seven Days. Just three years later, Hallquist could become th

I have been following with interest the unfolding drama in my former hometown of Springfield, Ohio who finally has passed an ordinance to outlaw discrimination based on sexual preference. However, as I read with interest, I found the giant "religious loophole." Meaning, you can still discriminate for religious reasons. At least that is the way I read it. Also, I didn't find a word about "gender discrimination" ...or protection for transgender women or trans men. I suppose any movement in a very conservative old town is a good move, but it could have been better. Speaking of better, check this out, from Vermont's Seven Days : " Christine Hallquist is about to make history — or at least give it her best shot.   The CEO of the Johnson-based Vermont Electric Cooperative is poised to announce a run for governor as a Democrat. If she were to win the August primary, she would become the nation’s first openly transgender, major-party candidate for governor.