Professional "Women's Night Out"

Last night, my partner Liz and I went to a small Professional Woman's  Dinner "Meetup".  I have not been excluded from this one like the lesbians have from the "Loki" group here in Cincinnati.  It's an incredible time hearing how these other women approach their professional lives.  Of course each get together such as these have the initial "introductions."  As quickly as my old noggin could think, I thought I am not going to introduce myself as transgender with all the carnival barkers jumping on the trans band wagon.  So, I went with the "Two Spirit" name. 

Of course, my introduction confuses many "civilians" more, but it's simpler for me to say very little more and chat later-if anyone cares.

I have found many trans people don't know of, or don't embrace the Two or Dual Spirit ideas at all.
From the U.S version of the Guardian comes a look: This week's guest editor, Antony Hegarty, is a fan of the book The Spirit and the Flesh. He asked its author, Walter L Williams, to write a feature for guardian.co.uk/music on the 'two-spirit' tradition in Native American culture:
Native Americans have often held intersex, androgynous people, feminine males and masculine females in high respect. The most common term to define such persons today is to refer to them as "two-spirit" people, but in the past feminine males were sometimes referred to as "berdache" by early French explorers in North America, who adapted a Persian word "bardaj", meaning an intimate male friend. Because these androgynous males were commonly married to a masculine man, or had sex with men, and the masculine females had feminine women as wives, the term berdache had a clear homosexual connotation. Both the Spanish settlers in Latin America and the English colonists in North America condemned them as "sodomites.



Above, We-Wa, a Zuni two-spirit, weaving US national archives


Rather than emphasising the homosexuality of these persons, however, many Native Americans focused on their spiritual gifts. American Indian traditionalists, even today, tend to see a person's basic character as a reflection of their spirit. Since everything that exists is thought to come from the spirit world, androgynous or transgender persons are seen as doubly blessed, having both the spirit of a man and the spirit of a woman. Thus, they are honoured for having two spirits, and are seen as more spiritually gifted than the typical masculine male or feminine female.

Therefore, many Native American religions, rather than stigmatising such persons, often looked to them as religious leaders and teachers.

In my next post, I will tell you why many transgender elitists won't accept the idea at all.

Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

KerPlunk! Another version of the Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition" has hit your virtual front porch.  Get your hot cup o joe, curl up in your fave jammies and lets get started.

 

Page One-The Week That Was -or Wasn't.  Perhaps you regulars around here noticed I missed posting two days in a row for maybe the first time in a year or so. None of it had to do with personal illness, just other factors.
In the world as a whole, quite by accident, I stumbled across an intense episode of a show truthfully I never have watched called "Love thy Sister".  From Autostraddle comes this excerpt:

Transgender representation on TV is slowly but steadily getting better. Last year, Laverne Cox became the first openly transgender actor to snag an Emmy nomination. This year, Transparent, the first show to feature a transgender woman as the lead character, won two Golden Globe Awards. And just a few weeks ago, WEtv premiered a new reality series called Love Thy Sister, which features Londyn Smith de Richelieu, a black transgender woman who is longtime friends with one of the show’s three sisters. This week’s episode focuses heavily on Londyn, her relationship with Ione Rucker and her experiences as a trans woman.

While I know some will automatically want to dismiss the show and Londyn  for being too gorgeous-the fact remains the show spoke directly to most of the lives of transgender women and men.  First of all Lyndon had a giant problem and discussion with friend Ione who was having a huge problem with using the proper pronouns with her...much like my problems with my sister in law.  Then, Londyn was going with her friends to a "woymn" only sex toy party and was asked to leave because she was "still a man"...much like me being denied admission to a lesbian "only" group here in (Loki) Cincinnati. I was surprised the show did such a good job.  If you find it to watch, be patient. The real content comes after quite a bit of early fluff!

Page Two: And Then There was Bruce?  I have to tell you, I cringe every time I see an update on Bruce Jenner's transition "to a woman".  Very simply, I'm afraid of the Kardashian media circus doing just that to a transgender Mtf transistion: making it a circus.  So far though, all seems to be pretty calm on all the talk shows and of course Bruce is supposed to be coming up with her own story soon.

Page Three:  "D" Says it All?  I guess it had to happen soon or later-the much feared diet.  So, a week ago Liz and I embarked on one.  No need to mention which one, because unless they work for you and are good for you-who cares? Unless I am paid to be a spokesperson (hint!)  At any rate, what is a diet with out a goal?  My goal is next summer, when I really am looking ahead to the warmer months as a true coming out time. The reason being, my muscle mass should be at an all time low, and my exterior feminine HRT development should be at an all time high. Why not do yet another one of the ultimate in woman life experiences? The diet.

Page Four: The Back Page.  Well kids, it's time to put the wraps on another Sunday Edition! I'm going to try to get a special post together including your comments and maybe even a very prejudiced Super Bowl prediction!

Don't I HAVE to Have Lists?

Well, sure I do!  The problem I have is remembering 2014 because it was a blur and it is easy to get stuck on tons of individual events.

Easily though the #1 Worst happening of the year was when I was gender slurred at the LOKI Group dance near Cincinnati. My partner Liz identifies as lesbian and she wanted to go so I did and for all intents and purposes got bounced. Later I got this message:  "An Organizer removed you from this Meetup Group. Check out other LGBT Meetups near you." As I said at the time, I ran into an obvious radical feminist protecting her pile of sand in the girls sandbox.  It just brought to me the reality of bigots in the world.

Easily, the #1 Best happening of 2014 came on the night Liz and I went to a big sports bar/tavern close to her to watch our "The Ohio State Buckeyes" play Wisconsin in the Big Ten Championship Game. Sure, the Buckeyes won big (an incredibly tough task coming up against Alabama this week) but even bigger was the fact absolutely no one gave me a second look.  Groups of guys playing darts, families, other women-no one. 

(Don't ask me to speculate WHY the most likely transgender bigots come from within the LGBTQ community?)

The biggest surprise of the year actually came recently in the month of December. For some reason, my HRT hormones went into hyper-drive. I became moody, my breasts were sore and other minor changes happened.  Often I am not the sharpest tack in the box and after I was whining for probably the thousandth time to Liz, she said relax, you just had a period.  You couldn't bleed of course, but the rest of you had a period.  It's taken a while and normal is difficult for me to relate to; I'm getting back there now.

Looking back at 2014 though, I have to toss you a cop out.  Without question, the year was the most exciting, scary and satisfying one of my life.  I am sure I will think of other "additions" to this post later. Maybe 2015?