Another Transgender Pioneer Gone

 At my age, transgender pioneers mean a lot. After all, they had the courage to come out and live an authentic life during a period of time when it was exceedingly rare to do so. 

Jan Morris (below) was one of those people. 

Here is what "Wikipedia" wrote about her:

"Jan Morris CBE FRSL (born James Humphry Morris, 2 October 1926 – 20 November 2020) was a Welsh historian, author and travel writer. She was known particularly for the Pax Britannica trilogy (1968–1978), a history of the British Empire, and for portraits of cities, including Oxford, Venice, Trieste, Hong Kong, and New York City. She published under her birth name, James, until 1972, when she had gender reassignment surgery after transitioning from male to female.

As James Morris, she was a member of the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition, which made the first ascent of the mountain.^[3] She was the only journalist to accompany the expedition, climbing with the team to a camp at 22,000 feet on the mountain and famously having the successful ascent announced in The Times on 2 June 1953, the day of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation."

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire?

The transgender woman I have written about here in Cyrsti's Condo who said she went through genital reassignment surgery via Medicare and I met up by accident yesterday at the Dayton VA hospital... by accident.

I asked her if she was there to see the therapist we both have and she said no, she was there to see her endocrinologist. She is a talker and went on to tell me she was requesting more estrogen because her breast development was lagging behind.

Warning bells went off again with her because past a certain point, extra estrogen just can hurt you, more than help feminization.  Plus she said her request was twice what I take, but I let it go.

The conversation went on for awhile, until she said her testicles were holding up the estrogen effect too. Unfortunately I wanted to get going so badly, I didn't follow up on her thought until later. Because I was zeroed in on going to the attorney.

Unless I am missing something huge about GRS, the testicles are removed, so she shouldn't have any...anymore.

At any rate, as suspected, her GRS maybe/probably is just a ruse. Sad.

Jazzin' It Up

If you follow Jazz Jenning's television show, you will know she has reached her sixteenth birthday and is actively searching for a surgeon to perform genital reassignment surgery on her. Without getting too technical, Jazz has run into several problems. First of all, Jazz has been on male hormone blockers since puberty and while she is completely passable, she now doesn't have enough penile material to create a proper size vagina.

She is also pursuing information on a procedure I had never heard of, when a vagina is fashioned out of a piece of the colon which has it's problems too. The doctors are telling her about excess mucous and even an odor for the first eight months or so.

At any rate, the show has really delved down into what a few of the problems with GRS can be.

Also, Jazz has a trans friend on the show who did not start with puberty blockers and has a harder time presenting as a woman. Both of the transgender girls provide an interesting backdrop and look into a trans teen's life, including dating.

Noelle

 
I am Jazz is on the "TLC" Network where I would hope you can stream back episodes.

Gender Reassignment Surgery

As I continue to "catch up" on all the back comments here in Cyrsti's Condo, I thought this one from Paula in the UK was highly significant, especially in the midst of the health care battle going on now in the U.S.

"Here in the UK our treatment is part of the NHS, certainly GRS is available, with top surgery also available for many MtoFs as well. Our medication is funded, yet electrolysis and other "cosmetic" treatments can be hard to get or not available depending on just where you live. 

Nobody will get NHS treatment before everybody is happy that they are ready, and that means socially and physically, after all this is major surgery and your need to be fit and healthy to get through it; there is also the "real life experience" which mean that we are expected to have lived in our true gender identity for some time (usually a couple of years) before being referred for surgery. It is worth noting that although the surgery is funded not all us will opt for it, taking the financial burden away makes it easier to focus on exactly what it is that is really needed."

Thanks Paula! 

I also know some individuals who don't think Medicare should cover Gender Reassignment Surgery at all in this country and they have their valid points too.

As far as the person goes who started this discussion, I won't see her until again until the latter part of July to garner any more information. In the meantime, I did ask my therapist and all she could say was she thought the person started with a doctor in the Indianapolis, Indiana area who did the surgery and took Medicare...then worked her way backwards from there.

I will try to find out more (as I said) from our next  LGBT transgender veteran meeting.

Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Morning Edition"

KerPlunk! and welcome to another Sunday morning edition! It's building to another very warm 90 plus degree Ohio summer day around here, so the "joe" (coffee) is going to being iced today. Let's get started:

Page One-The Week that Was-or Wasn't. Not much ultra new or exciting last week. The usual suspects populated our transgender world such as Caitlin Jenner, Jazz Jennings and yes even Zoey Tur. Plus, we picked up a discussion on Trans woman Carly from the ABC Family Network. Even though we know "reality" is not often "reality" on American television, the discussions often are-after the cameras are off out here in the real world.

Page Two-Of Interest: As you regulars know, my choice of pursuing gender reassignment surgery is no. I understand the drive for so many others to have SRS but at the age of 65 what is between my legs does not define my gender. But-I do not hold it against others who desire the operation deeply. However, what has been happening little by little is others are feeling that way too-many in the younger generation who identify as gender fluid, agender or whatever. As always, I can't help but wonder how I would have felt "back in the day" when I was young and the same info would have been available. 

Page Three-It's Raining Men- in Skirts? Yes, yesterday was the Dayton, Ohio Celtic Festival and more than a few of the men showed up in their finest kilts. If you are not sure what a "kilt" is all about, follow the link. Rest assured kids, these guys weren't cross dressers-at least yesterday! I do have some pictures (no not in a kilt!) around somewhere on Liz or I's phone to pass along later then again you know what I look like.

Page Four-The Back Page: Before we take off, I am going to pass along a story from the other night  when Nikki, Kim and I got together for an adult beverage.  As I have mentioned before, both of them are of the "lesbian" faith. After we had been there awhile, it became evident a couple others of "the faith" across the bar were having an emotional moment. Nikki, who is never shy about buying others a "beverage" had the bartender sent the person across the bar (who was crying) a drink. The bartender said "from whom?" Nikki just said "from the team. How sweet!!!

Thanks as always for taking your valuable time for stopping by! Luv's ya!!!

Best of the Best?

From Gay Star News


A 22-year-old Venezuelan on Saturday night was crowned Miss International Queen in Thailand at the world's biggest beauty pageant for transvestites and transgender women.

Isabella Santiago beat 21 other contestants from 18 countries to win the title and 440,000 baht (US$12,500) in prize money in the resort town of Pattaya.

The winner can also opt for a free cosmetic procedure, including gender reassignment surgery. Miss Thailand Nitsa Katrahong was named first runner-up and received 150,000 baht (US$4,575) and second runner-up Piyada Inthavong from Laos took home 95,000 baht (US$2,900).

Too Old for a "New Car?"

I have been remiss in not taking the time to thank Bobbie for sending in a story about the federal government finally listing gender dysphoria as being a "pre existing" condition and paying for SRS.

The article called "Obamacare Now Pays for Gender Reassignment"  Here is just a brief excerpt from the "The Daily Beast" which is linked above:

 The federal anti-discrimination regulations have yet to be written, but California insurance regulators have said that companies must treat transgender patients the same as other patients. For example, if plans cover hormones for post-menopausal women, they must also cover them for transgender women. Medicare, the program for the elderly and disabled, lifted its ban on covering sex reassignment surgery earlier this year. 

“The law and policy are on a transgender person’s side for the first time,” said Anand Kalra, program administrator at the Oakland-based Transgender Law Center. 

To me personally, I will be fully 65 and eligible for Medicare in early October, and the ramifications to me are huge.  So huge, that my partner Liz and I are taking part of this long Labor Day weekend to discuss them.  Quite frankly, as I have written here in Cyrsti's Condo, I never thought SRS was even a possibility for me.  Like so many other transgender men and women it's not financially feasible.  Of course now, it may be. I know though, I still have so many other hoops to jump through before I would or could undertake such a major move.  I do know my genitalia does not define my gender, but I'm still intrigued about going the "final mile" so to speak in the final miles of my life.  

Seemingly, I have never done anything in the right order in my life and SRS could be yet another.

What Came First?

Or maybe I should say, what should come first, FFS or SRS assuming you are like many and can't afford to drain your 401K and savings and head to Thailand?

In a couple of many chance encounters I have had recently on this enormous thing called the internet,  peeps have bemoaned the fact they went through SRS but then in the next sentence said they were booking FFS as soon as they could.

I guess it's just me, but I think I would reverse the process and do he FFS first and do a bit of living as a woman and then consider gender reassignment surgery.  Then again I think too many transgender women consider SRS the end of the gender journey when indeed it's just the beginning.

I have no idea if the transgender woman featured on this Cyrsti's Condo big screen video has gone through the change but she definitely did go through the facial surgery.  One way or another, she does have the benefit of a body which lends itself to the gender change.

Cyrsti's Condo Featured Trans Woman of the Day

There is no way I could simply call Veronique Renard our Cyrsti's Condo Cover Girl of the day.  She is so much more!

Read on! (From Wikipedia)

"Véronique Françoise Caroline Renard (born 26 May 1965 in Jutphaas, the Netherlands) is a Dutch author and visual artist. She is also known as Pantau, a name that was adopted after meeting the Dalai Lama at an audience at his home in McLeodganj, Dharamsala, India in 2000.


In 1982, at the age of 17, Renard transitioned to being a trans woman with the support of her family, friends and people in her hometown. Renard's mother renamed her Véronique. In 1983, Renard was granted permission by a court in Utrecht to change her legal name, she added her second name Françoise (after her best friend), and third name Caroline (after Caroline Cossey, a British model who appeared in the 1981 James Bond-film For Your Eyes Only with Roger Moore).

Initially unaware of the phenomenon of transsexualism and gender reassignment surgery (GRS), Renard conveyed in her 2007 memoir that the international media attention around Cossey in 1982 regarding her transition helped Renard to self-diagnose her own gender dysphoria. The day after reading about Cossey in a Dutch tabloid, Renard consulted her doctor and shortly after, the Amsterdam Gender Team. Renard was diagnosed with Klinefelter's syndrome, having 47 chromosones (XXY). Females have an XX chromosomal makeup, and males an XY. Renard started hormone replacement therapy soon after. She completed her physical transition 18 months later in 1984."

As a side note, for some reason the picture of Veronique in the bikini took me back to yet another Cleveland, Ohio Tri-Ess meeting I attended so many years ago.  One of the main "gossips" of the evening centered around a member who wasn't there who was reported to be so accomplished that she could wear a bikini to the beach with no problems. She was also "rumored" to have been on the verge of "going all the way" and transitioning into a full time woman. But the story went on she had found the love of her life, an understanding genetic woman and now she had put her decision on hold. Plus there was another very accomplished and attractive "participant" at the meetings who for all intents and purposes put the rest of us to shame in the looks department. The last time I saw her at a meeting, she too was telling everyone she had met a genetic woman and was "hanging up the dresses."

I have always wondered what happened to the two of them. Were they actually able to "pull back" from the transition brink and lead lives as guys?  More than likely I will never know but I have theories.  I believe whatever gender switch is thrown in our noggins can never be turned completely off.  Of course how far the switch is thrown, say from cross dresser to transsexual sex change does vary. But in one way or another the "urge" is always there.

Gender and Sexuality

"Nikki Sinclaire" , Britain’s first transsexual parliamentarian, has revealed how she became a lesbian after a brutal rape on a London street.

Sounds like just another headline sensationalized to attract readers and it is, except for one key phrase.  The headline comes from The Herald Sun News:

"Sinclaire, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), was born a boy but had gender reassignment surgery in 1995 at the age of 23. Until then she lived as a gay man and even after the operation she continued to date men. But in 1999 she was attacked walking home in central London. “My arm was gripped and my leg kicked. I gasped, overbalanced and landed painfully with a suffocating weight on top of me.

 “It was the most horrendous experience of my life. I had grown up in London but I felt so vulnerable.” Following her sex change she found herself being attracted to women. But why would she go to the trouble of surgery if in the end she was going to date women? She told the paper: “That’s mixing gender with sexuality. I’ll admit that at the time I didn’t know if I could cope with being gay again - I wanted to live an ordinary life.” 

Sinclaire said she had her first lesbian experience after meeting a woman at a bar in Liverpool. “We were playing pool and got speaking. One thing led to another, which is unusual in the lesbian community. It was a wow moment, the best sex I’d had in my life.” In the aftermath of the rape she became “very anti-men” and after one more sexual encounter with a man which she said didn’t feel right, she began dating women full-time."

The true worth of the story is how she mentions to the world that gender and sexuality are different and shouldn't be mixed.  It's one of the main misconceptions the world has of the transgender world and beyond- into our own culture. I've seen statements from transsexual women doubting the sincerity of any transgender woman who may still be attracted to genetic women. Really?

Of all the people in the world, trans women and men should be able to understand completely the difference in gender and sexuality brought up in Nikki Sinclaire's story.

Taking the "Girls" for a Bike Ride.

From the News Telegram: When Stacey Schnee took a bike ride from her Webster Square neighborhood, down Route 9 to Leicester earlier this month, heads turned. Drivers slowed down, stopped, leaned smartphones out the window to take pictures. Some honked. Some shouted that they were calling the police.
But there's something else to Ms. Schnee's background that no one seeing her ride that day could have known by casual observation. In fact, a lot of people don't know. Ms. Schnee used to be a man. She had gender reassignment surgery in June 2011 and breast augmentation last year. Prior to that, her topless ride would not have likely created any stir at all. The transition, Ms. Schnee said, saved her life, although it ultimately cost her her marriage. Before the transition she struggled with her identity and had gone as far as to plan suicide, she said. But having lived as both a man and a woman undeniably gives her an uncommon perspective on the topless equality issue. "This puts me in a unique position to fight for topless rights since it is a right that I lost when a single letter was changed on my driver's license — from 'M' to 'F,'" Ms. Schnee said.

Yet another transgender person fighting the system in a highly unique way.

I look at it this way. If Stacey wants to ride topless with the girls, why not? She's wearing her helmet!