Monday Monday?

It's days like today I struggle to find something to write about. Life goes on, transgender or not. Which still seems to be of some interest to many and often tedious to me. I "yam what I yam" Popeye said it best!

Last night was different though. An example was the young transgender guy (Schuyler Bailar) who switched from the Harvard women's to men's swim team in (I can't help it) mid stream. Of course, much of the key to his successful transition was an accepting family and coaches at Harvard.

Then there was the story of Martine Rothblatt on a later show. The ultra successful CEO just happens to be one of America's highest paid C.E.O's and a transgender woman-sort of:


Martine prefers not to limit herself to available words: She’s suggested using “Pn.,” for “person,” in place of “Mr.” and “Ms.,” and “spice” to mean husband or wife. But “trans” is a prefix she likes a lot, for it contains her self-image as an explorer who crosses barriers into strange new lands. (When she feels a connection to a new acquaintance, she says that she “transcends.”) And these days Martine sees herself less as transgender and more as what is known as transhumanist, a particular kind of futurist who believes that technology can liberate humans from the limits of their biology—including infertility, disease, and decay, but also, incredibly, death. 

Martine and her partner were on an episode of Nat Geo's God , the story of the Ftm swimmer is called "Switching Teams" on 60 Minutes

After watching both of these shows, I understood again why the rightest red necks can't understand us. You only have to try.

Schuyler Bailar

.

Renee Reyes

As a follow up to our Cyrsti's Condo post on successful transgender woman exec Martine Rothblatt-  we received this comment from J.AlanaS:

Hey Cyrsti, while searching for tips on transgender makeup I came across Renee Reyes  (left)  She's made a few fortunes and had the experience of being outed in the board room. For those who haven't been to her website or viewed her profile, I'd recommend it. Also, she has links on other sites that cover transitioning.

Thanks so much J.Alana!  I followed the link (as you can too above) and agree it's a wonderful informational place to go for transgender women who are transitioning -or are considering it!

Also, I used a quote and sent along a link on the same subject (Martine Rothblatt) from Helen Boyd.  Here is a partial comment from Jen Smith. from here in the Condo:  


I guess in short, someone who transitioned had to be able to overcome some serious obstacles to get there. I'm sure that people that can accomplish that can accomplish many other difficult things. Maybe to them most other obstacles look a lot easier to overcome?

Thanks Jen, and In my case, I wish I could reclaim all the time and energy I wasted being part of a person I wasn't. How much more could I have accomplished? On the other hand, some people just have a knack for making fortunes or being in the spotlight and I agree - after transitioning genders, much in life is a cakewalk! 

Martine Rothblatt

 If you missed the story, the highest paid female business executive in the United States is Martine Rothblatt. She earns $38 million-a-year as head of United Therapeutics,  married parent-of-four and underwent SRS in 1994. Now she has been named top in New York Magazine's list of the 200 most successful entrepreneurs - one of just 11 women on the list.

I wrote at the time I hadn't had much of an opportunity to read about the expected backlash to all of this but Cyrsti's Condo regular Jen Smith did:

There were a couple of links on this, and I read some of the comments on one of them. There were a bunch of negative ones, but there were few that were "battling back" :-)

Just seeing a trans person in such a powerful position, dominated by older males mostly, is what I though was the real takeaway. I guess she made her money before transitioning. But rather than fade into privacy after transition, she kept going with her career fully in the public eye. 

It's just so encouraging to hear and read about things like this in the press.

Indeed Jen! and thanks!  One of the links which caught my attention came from the always topical en/gender blog from Helen Boyd  (here's an excerpt which should get your attention!)   

I (Helen) just LOVE that, the idea (finally!) that trans is perhaps an ASSET, that it implies an individual’s ability not just to be self-made, but to be determined. Overall, interesting article about a highly eccentric person – eccentric because she’s rich, natch – and some passing mention of cyborgs and AI and the robot she made of her wife.

Follow the link to read more!

Here I "Is!"

Math has never been one of my strength's but it seems to me I have spent a couple of days away from Cyrsti's Condo which may have been a record for me since I started the Condo.

The simple answer to why is, life got in the way.  I headed down to Cincinnati to spend the weekend with Liz and my car had yet another malfunction- this time with the brakes. Over the past three months it has decided it has wanted nothing to do with holding fluids...oil, power steering and now brakes.  It's now getting past the point of diminishing returns.

Buying a car right now for me ranks right up there with digging my own grave, jumping into it and shoveling the dirt in on top of me- myself.

But (and I hate this saying) it is what it is.  Dammit!

On the bright side, I have plenty to chat about with all of you seeing as my life is nothing but a blog post anyhow.  Starting with this headline:

The highest-paid female CEO in America used to be a man. (from the New York Post)

Martine Rothblatt, 59 — who founded the $5 billion pharmaceutical firm United Therapeutics and also co-founded Sirius — had sex reassignment surgery in 1994.

“I can’t claim that what I have achieved is equivalent to what a woman has achieved. For the first half of my life, I was male,” Rothblatt, who has four kids and is still married to her wife of more than 30 years, told New York Magazine.

Rothblatt made $38 million last year as head of United Therapeutics, which she launched to create medicine for her daughter, who suffers from primary pulmonary hypertension.

First of all I haven't even had the chance to read any of the reaction to this "Jerry Springer" style headline.  But, then again it did come from the "New York Post." 

After a good night's sleep I will get back to you with it in the morning! (Tuesday)