Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"Page

KerPlunk! Welcome! Another Sunday edition is hitting your virtual front porch. It's a mellow Sunday here in the Cincinnati, Ohio area with overcast skies and temperatures near 55 degrees. It still time for a nice hot "cup o joe" and get started:

Page One-the Week that Was or Wasn't: Once again last week, Momma Karma took a bit of time out of her busy day to knock me off my pedestal. As I was basking in the glory of finally getting my name and gender to sync up within the VA (I am a trans vet and receive my medical care there). It's obviously working because the next day I was contacted to reschedule one of my appointments. They lost my former self in the system. 

I know some of this was to be expected and I need to say the Veterans Administration has been very good to me. As a bureaucracy goes, this process has taken only 30 days or so. If you happen to be a transgender veteran too and want to compare notes-feel free to email me-or contact me in the "comment" section.

Trans Vet (Navy Seal) Kristin Beck (left) and Lana Wachowski

Page Two - Yesterday's Coffee-Opinion: I am burnt out on opinion this week. Of course politics is really just getting started with all it's hoopla. The state of Iowa citizens just have to be sick of the process-except taking the money of the candidates campaign coffers. My problem so far has been no candidate has spoken to the violence, civil right denials, health care, and economic problems of the LGBT family-except Hillary Clinton. Let me say I'm not a huge fan of her's either but, on the other hand:


Page Three-The Back Page: Well kids, this is going to do it for today's Sunday Edition. The dogs are wanting a walk in this weather. As always, you are the best for stopping by Cyrsti's Condo. Love you all!!!!

Out and About

Two transgender women who forsook the stealth closet in 2013 have made the news again:

Fallon Fox, the Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighter who came out transgender in March, said in a GQ profile that passing is everything. The 5-page story follows Fox, 37, as she prepares to fight Ashlee Evans-Smith. Along the way, we learn that Fox wasn't always sure she wasn't a boy. “There was no time to think about that back in East Toledo, Ohio, in a house where fearing the Lord was a full-time job,” GQ wrote. 

As early as 5 or 6, Fox experimented with girls' clothing. “I stood in front of the mirror, and I knew it was right,” she said. “But it also meant I was damned. I mean, that seemed totally logical to me. You feel that way and you think you've got the Devil in you, just like they say.” “Where I came from, it was more shocking to be an atheist than to be transgender,” Fox said. In 2006, Fox boarded a plane to Thailand to undergo sex reassignment surgery. She went alone. 

“Passing becomes everything, everything,” Fox said. “Every time you go into a Starbucks and there's nothing in someone's eyes, it feels great.”

And there was  Lana Wachowski, (right) who transitioned in 2002. She's one of the most influential directors in Hollywood, having inspired a generation of filmmakers with her Matrix trilogy. Quite the outfit! 

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Echoes of our Lives

Perhaps by now you have heard the story of the transsexual Matrix co-director Lana Wachowski who reemerged in Hollywood this past July.
Over the years. Lana and her brother Andy have been notoriously solitary. A fact Lana recently said had nothing to do with her gender.

Recently, Wachowski was awarded the Visibility Award by the Human Rights Campaign, after her recent decision to end a long-standing policy of ignoring press and public appearances and to instead openly acknowledge her transition to womanhood. Which opened the opportunity for wide reaching public relations benefits for the transgender community.

 While accepting her award, Wachowski gave a moving 25-minute speech about her painful past growing up transgender, being bullied by a nun at her Catholic school and why she nearly committed suicide. I began to believe voices in my head -- I was a freak, that I am broken, that there is something wrong with me, that I will never be lovable. After school I go to the nearby Burger King and write a suicide note. But it was addressed to my parents and I really wanted to convince them that it wasn’t their fault, it was just that I didn’t belong... When I see the headlight I take off my backpack and I put it on the bench. It has the note in front of it. I try not to think of anything but jumping as the train comes. Just as the platform begins to rumble suddenly I notice someone walking down the ramp. It is a skinny older old man wearing overly large, 1970s square-style glasses that remind of the ones my grandma wears. He stares at me the way animals stare at each other. I don’t know why he wouldn’t look away. All I know is that because he didn’t, I am still here... I am here because when I was young, I wanted very badly to be a writer, I wanted to be a filmmaker, but I couldn’t find anyone like me in the world and it felt like my dreams were foreclosed simply because my gender was less typical than others.

A video of her entire speech is available here.

Transsexual Matrix

As you have probably read "Cloud Atlas" co-director Lana Wachowski this week publicly embraced her gender switch from Larry for the first time -- with bright pink dreads. Her sex change was long rumored, but never confirmed as Wachowski had previously avoided interviews and publicity tours by insisting on no-press clauses in her film contracts. Suddenly last month a promotional video showing her in pink dreads went viral and in a New Yorker magazine interview she described how in school Larry didn't know whether to stand in lines with boys or girls, and opted for the middle ground, "exactly where I belonged, betwixt."
I love this picture of Lana with Tom Hanks for all it could be saying:
First of all, what the hell was she saying to Hanks?  Second of all. what was he thinking except Oh Hell! and the best thought of all is what was the woman sitting behind them thinking?
Classic!!!
I know someone is going to mess this up and add some sort of caption to it but this is better left to the imagination!