Good Night Robin Williams

I'm sure by the time this has posted, you all may have received the news of actor Robin Williams passing, quite possibly a suicide.

Many of us in the transgender or cross dressing community will remember his portrayal of a family nanny in Mrs Doubtfire.  For me though, I grew up very close to one of Robin William's mentors- Jonathan Winters.  Winters actually went to school and shared time between Springfield and Dayton, Ohio before serving in WWII.

If you happen to catch any of the old skits Jonathan Winters did on Johnny Carson, you will see the similarity between the two and notice the thin line between brilliance and insanity.

Much later in my life though, Robin Williams found another special place.

The movie was the 1987 Good Morning Vietnam in which Williams played American Forces Vietnam (AFVN) DJ Andrian Cronauer.  As luck would have it, I served on the American Forces Thailand Radio Network (AFTN) some 4 or 5 years after Cronauer left "Nam."  When the movie was released, all my friends could not wait to go see it with me, so I could provide a running commentary on what was true (some) but most not.  Even though it was a movie, I built an instant bond with Robin Williams who portrayed a long gone part of my life which most people don't believe existed.  I just laugh and say it was a different life (more than they know) and "got stoned and missed part of it." (Hell, most of the younger people I run into now, have only vaguely heard of the Vietnam mess anyhow.)

Hearing the news about Robin Williams was similar to knowing you have a dear friend with a terminal disease. You just knew he had it in him with all the "voices" he could summon for a role but you never hoped it would happen.

So, when I heard, it was like having a piece of my heart ripped out (sorry Janis) - similar to everytime I learn of yet another transgender person who commits suicide. Such a shame and so sad.

Hopefully Robin Williams is in a better place now, knowing his legacy is safe with so many of us!

Coming Soon to a Cyrst's Condo near You!

It seems my transgender journey these days is similar to some sort of an off the wall reality show called Planning the NEVER Dull Moment.

On the next episode this week we will watch Cyrsti as she takes another huge step out of her closet in her home town by going to an Equality meeting.  This is significant how?  My old self used to be a very active person in certain social groups who gave back plenty to the 70,000 peep old rust belt town in Ohio. If it helps you, I live in Springfield. One of a zillions Springfield's the country and not the home of Homer Simpson.

Several famous people though are from here such as the late Jonathan Winters and Lillian Gish who never claimed the place.  I was determined my female self was never going to claim it either but I have mellowed. First of all, I'm working on moving which really has nothing to do about this place as much as it does being with a person I love in a city I've always loved- Cincinnati.  Before I go though, I feel I owe my home one final shot at giving back to it.

In many ways, Springfield is no more than a snapshot of similar towns it's size in the Midwest.  We took the recent depression as hard as anyone in the country and have retained that good old "it's a great place to raise a family mentality".  Well, we are finding again maybe that's not so true for the LGBT community.  Especially for the silent transgender segment of the "T" which is bigger than Dick Nixon's maligned Silent Majority.

I've had enough and I wrote here how I was astounded at how invisible my transgender woman friend and I were at a public Equality Springfield meeting a couple months ago. So I joined. Put my money down and I am headed to one of their monthly meetings this Thursday. Regular membership meetings for those of you who don't know are a quality way to make yourself known to a group.  If you sacrifice your time to show up at a boring damn meeting to bitch about no recognition of the transgender community around here- you must mean it.

Plus, in an astounding move for a short term thinker like me, I plan on seeking out a representative from the church I was supposed to have grown up in. I mean, we went as a family but Dad's snoring took away a bit of the spirituality! Ironically, the church now (Methodist) is one of very few with courage enough to come out in support of the LGBT community here in town. I'm actually thinking of going there for a service in the future.

So boys and girls, that's our look at the Cyrsti's Condo programming guide.  Who would ever thought I would write a post referencing both Richard Nixon and Homer Simpson? No comment!