Fall Festival Time

Years ago, I used to view fall as the bittersweet season of the year which symbolized the possible end of my male existence and the beginning of a feminine one in the spring. I used used to sit for hours and watch strong winds strip the trees of their leaves and imagine what my future could be.

These days as I continue to transition, I can actually enjoy the fall season for what it is. Today especially, (Saturday) as Liz, Missy and I head out to set up at a near by fall festival to sell her handmade items and a few of my vintage ones.

Interestingly, I will be more than a "pretty face" in that we have set up my Android phone to accept debit or credit card payments at our booth. It will be interesting how much the process will be used and how my " up close and personal time" with potential buyers will work.

I'm not real worried since the festival we are going to is in a close proximity to several upscale suburbs of Columbus.  Quite the change from when I spent a day this week at a Cincinnati hospital with Liz (for tests) then a couple hours in her Dad's doctor's office that afternoon.

I have mentioned here in Cyrsti's Condo that Cincinnati is quite the different animal than Columbus here in Ohio.  "The Nati" has come a long way with the TGLBQ community but the potential is still there to run into those who worship snakes or speak in tongues. After all, It's not so far away from a Southern Ohio "holler" or  the hills of Kentucky.

Fortunately, we are in for a fine cool, Ohio fall day and I will let you all know how it goes! My plans are to post Sunday a more in depth look at the week and even the rare picture-if I can remember!

We Are NOT Related...But...

Referring back to the recent Cyrsti's Condo post I wrote about my interaction with the young gay boy the other night, I received a quick comment from Paula of Paula's Place  concerning her first visit to a local Pride event and thinking almost the same thing. She said: I was in Brighton for the biggest Pride event in the UK at the weekend, and there were an awful lot of boys there (Gay and Straight) who could do with learning that lesson... (left).

As I always do, after my impulsive outbursts die down along with the emotions and passions- my biggest misconception continues to be that in any way I am "related" to the rest of the gay and lesbian community.  I suppose dots could be connected between how I identify as my  gender and my relationship with a lesbian woman but that's it.

"Back in the day" I'm sure, we as the transgender community had to be lumped into a bigger group for identification and political reasons.  We became the "T" in the LGBT which is populated now with lots of other letters.

I suppose what I don't understand about the human critter and groups in particular is why when the groups become successful,  they forget their origins and become inclusive or even enabled. 

Of course the most "enabled" group of all are the cis gay males.  For the most part they are working the system wonderfully to their advantage (good for them!) but like any cis man- just don't have the empathy to reach out to those they don't understand.  The other night, It did my soul good to watch gay television personality Andy Cohen use the transgender word with Laverne Cox. Perhaps with enough exposure my "little buddy" from the other night will learn - I wasn't cross dressed any more than Laverne Cox was.

I guess I shouldn't be so surprised - of the the town I'm from and unfortunately still live in part time. Yes, it's the same city only 50 some miles from Columbus where I had to introduce myself to the local Equality Group as the only transgender woman  They only use the words gay and lesbian and the newly elected female black city commissioner is now the deciding vote to keep  discriminatory TGBLQ laws on the books in the 6 th largest city in Ohio.

Maybe I'm asking too much?

Politics

I am a political critter by nature and every now and then I use my soap box here in Cyrsti's Condo to bring up a point or two. This morning, as I was checking my Twitter account, I was pleased to see a Tweet by a politician with a very in depth idea of how to stem the tide of violence directed against women.

I was even more surprised the tweet came from Ohio (David Pepper) who is running this fall for attorney general.  Currently we have a career politician- conservative dinosaur as our attorney general in Ohio who needs to go.  I'm sure violence against women to him is when his wife breaks a heel on the steps of the statehouse.

As I checked out Pepper's web page there was even a spot to check if you were a GLBT person and I signed up-with the added comment:  "When you consider the rampant violence against genetic women, just don't forget how much worse it is for transgender women."

My politics anymore are fairly jaded, but there are several interesting issues and races coming up here in Ohio which has a constant tug of war between the religious right and progressive ideas.  Issues such as legalization of marijuana and gay marriage have sent the right wing preachers scurrying to their pulpits to brain wash the faithful.

I find it extremely sad there seems to be no place left for me in our increasingly polarized political system. I'm certainly a fiscal conservative but I can't find one in politics who believes I should have rights as a transgender citizen.

Dammit! Who got me started on this!!!!