Cyrsti's Condo

Ker Plunk! Another Sunday edition has hit your virtual porch and it's time to get started. Page One.- The Week in Review.   Last week we covered the fact the transgender community has an unemployment number twice the national average. Now though, it is possible the light at the end of the tunnel is not the train and certain groups are trying to help the situation. In fact there were actually TGLBQ job fairs recently in San Franscisco and Salt Lake City which sort of tied in with our mention of transphobia in rural America.   Shelle was kind of enough to detail her experiences concerning the lack of resources many TGLBQ women and men have in smaller less populated areas-including job fairs. Slime Paul Allyson Robinson Of course my favorite slime ball Rude Paul was back in the news with his show's use of the She Male term. Supposedly   Glaad backed down the producers of the show and they made some sort of half apology. Similar to the vague tripe GM's top person is

We have bounced the idea's of how we "renamed" ourselves here in Cyrsti's Condo more than a couple times and I promise not to bore you again with this post.  (Better said than done!) Many of you have sent in comments about how you came to choose the feminine moniker you now use. Idea's such as, family names, women you admire or even the sound of the name are equally as relevant.  I have written how I impulsively chose Cyrsti one night (pronounced Krysti) when I was at the very beginning of considering transitioning from a cross dresser to a transgender woman.  The name caught on before I could consider the ramifications of what I was doing because it is simple enough for the public to use ...if they don't have to spell it plus (I never considered) how the unique spelling allows it to be found in internet search engines. I have also have written here about my desire to choose another name, which comes from a respected family member from my youth. The name i

It was bound to happen, as we all know, life is not all kicks and giggles. The weekend began innocently enough. I packed up my dog and we made the two hour trip to Cincinnati to spend and extended weekend with Liz.  Of course Thursday, I was running slightly ahead of yet another super storm spreading across the country.  All I had to deal with was rain.  Friday we had a mix of every winter moisture Mother Nature could come with...UGLY. Saturday, we relaxed and worked around the house until it was game time and we headed out to her nearby neighborhood tavern to watch my Buckeyes LOSE.  It has always been an idea I could never wrap my mind around...but last night, they simply got out played.  However, we were enjoying each other until   drunk guy #1 shows up at our end of the bar and begins to stare...at me.  Of course I knew he wasn't placing me at the top of the most desirable women he had ever seen list.  Then, it got worse. Drunk guy #2 appeared and drunk guy #3. I suppose

It's been a minute since I've seen the "transvestite" term used.  To my knowledge transvestite is not considered a gender slur such as tranny, gurl, shemale etc....it seems to be a term that just kind of "lost it's buzz". In remembrance, I'm passing along a video on the Cyrsti's Condo big screen from July of this year called "Transvestite Musings" to see what Helen has to say:

When someone who doesn't know any better on line calls me a "gurl", I just have to set them straight.  I have always thought a "gurl" was a gender slur not unlike the "T" word or tranny.  Or, at the least it ties me in with someone like a fetish cross dresser or even "she male". For the most part though, most are very understanding when I tell them my reasons for disliking the term. In my regular life I'm fortunate.  My close little circle of friends just call me Cyrsti, she or dummy and life is good.  In the chance though that someone does call you or I a "Tranny", I'm passing along one person's idea of how to handle it on the Cyrsti's Condo big screen:

All right kids, it's time to catch up on a few of the loose ends here in Cyrsti's Condo and in my noggin. The first concerns my recent barrage of "catfishers" on Facebook. If you haven't heard the term, "catfishers" use a variety of fraudulent measures such as profiles, pictures etc to establish relationships and even get money or gifts. About a month or so ago a message to myself and a group of other transgender women was posted asking if any of the rest of us had noticed an extreme upsurge in men who wanted to be added to our friend lists. At that point in time I hadn't and I believed in an "open gender door". Mainly because the rare men who did befriend me became disinterested quickly when they learned I hated the "gurl" term and I was  NOT the desperate lonely  shemale stereotype they desired. The process became a non issue so I resisted changing my profile. Another reason I didn't change was I don't interact with

Perhaps you have heard of the protests in our community in Portland, Oregon over a production called Tranny Thursdays.   These excerpts come from PQ : "Criticism of a new Portland play (read: sex) party called “Tranny Thursdays” is exposing tensions in the trans community over language, identity, and public image. Promotional materials for the monthly event promising “private, intimate, discrete time with Trannys” have sparked confusion regarding the intended audience, objections to the use of a word considered a slur by many, and concern with the “Ladies Night Out” take on gender dynamics. “No more grubby bookstores or seedy adult theaters!” writes promoter and host Sasha Scarlett (aka Joshua Ryan, who identifies as a drag queen/gender illusionist). Scarlett, who also produces the Portland Erotic Ball and runs a media company, says she launched the play party after some of the “‘straight’ men” she’s dated asked her to do more “trans/gender-flexible events.” “I have been ex

Very few things make me recoil as bad as RuPaul. To me the "thing" represents a huge part of what I'm fighting against as a transgender women in today's society and specifically in the LGB world. Ever the one to joke at our expense to make a ratings point or an extra buck...the thing did it again last night: Last night, October 29th 2012, on RuPaul’s All Star’s Drag Race, gay male entertainer RuPaul once again used his show as a bully pulpit to mock and misrepresent what the medical condition transsexualism actually is, despite the last few years of transsexual and transgender advocates protesting his use of offensive pejoratives such as “tra**y” and “she-male” . Comedienne Vicki Lawrence asked, “Hey Ru, what’s the difference between a drag queen and a transsexual?” RuPaul laughingly replies, “About twenty-five thousand dollars and a good surgeon.” Ha ha Pauly...old joke buddy...ha ha...have a sense of humor Cyrsti. I do. But I'm tired of this jerk even h