Cyrsti's Condo

 I would like to take a second and thank the professor and nearly twenty students who joined in for a virtual class I recently participated in. At he last minute the other day I was asked to step in with a couple younger transgender women and men to share our life experiences including dealing with trans discrimination. I found the class from Mt. Saint Joseph's College here in Cincinnati to be attentive and curious with good questions.   Most of the questions revolved on how the proper way transgender people should be approached and treated.  For my input on discrimination, I recounted my rest room experiences back in the day when I had the police called me, when I was called a pervert to my face and finally was asked to leave a couple venues.  The professor then asked me if I thought times had changed for the better as far as the transgender community is concerned.  I answered yes. Regardless of the previous administration in Washington, we have made strides to fight forward. Afte

It seems like everytime I turn around I run into another rump supporting old cross dresser on Facebook. The ones who always are so into showing only leg and crotch shots on their profile pictures.  I guess I shouldn't get so upset. Not to aggravate any cross dresser more than I have already done, really you don't have a dog in the transgender discrimination race. After all, you have a vested interest in keeping your white male privilege alive as long as you can. Ignoring completely the future problems of transgender citizens under a thoroughly negative administration in Washington. Perhaps too, I should look at it the same way a dear transgender man friend puts it: He says they are wearing their wigs too tight which is cutting off the circulation to their brains.  It proves once again you can put an old white man in a dress but you can't make him think like a woman or care about the LGBTQ community. Enough of my rant.

RALEIGH, North Carolina -- Despite Republican assurances that North Carolina's "bathroom bill" isn't hurting the economy, the law limiting LGBT protections will cost the state more than $3.76 billion in lost business over a dozen years, according to an Associated Press analysis. Over the past year, North Carolina has suffered financial hits ranging from scuttled plans for a PayPal facility that would have added an estimated $2.66 billion to the state's economy to a canceled Ringo Starr concert that deprived a town's amphitheater of about $33,000 in revenue. The blows have landed in the state's biggest cities as well as towns surrounding its flagship university, and from the mountains to the coast. North Carolina could lose hundreds of millions more because the NCAA is avoiding the state, usually a favored host. The group is set to announce sites for various championships through 2022, and North Carolina won't be among them as long as the law is on

WYFF, SC, USA Conventions leaving Charlotte, citing House Bill 2 UPDATED 6:50 AM EDT Apr 09, 2016 CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) —Controversy over North Carolina's new law blocking anti-discrimination rules covering the LGBT community has made national headlines and now the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority (CRVA) says conventions are pulling out of Charlotte. The CRVA says four conventions that were booked in Charlotte have now canceled the event in the Queen City over House Bill 2. WBTV broke the story Friday afternoon after a source gave WBTV's Molly Grantham the information. The CRVA later confirmed the numbers. HB2 repealed Charlotte's non-discrimination ordinance, which was passed in February. The Charlotte City Council voted 7-4 to add sexual orientation, gender identity and marital status as attributes protected from discrimination when it comes to public accommodations including restaurants, retail stores and other businesses. Public schools would not have been affected

LEXIE CANNES STATE OF TRANS — I (Lexie) put together this list of major NC businesses and organizations for everyone to contact and voice your concern about yesterday’s sneak attack by the North Carolina legislature and governor banning trans people from using bathrooms. Urge them to press the NC state Republicans legislators into repealing their unjust law. Some companies make it harder to contact them than others. American Airlines (large presence in NC) 1- 877-390-3077  Email:  https://www.aa.com/contact/forms?topic=CR Bank of America —   1-800-432-1000 , 1-888-550-6433 Email: https://www.bankofamerica.com/contactus/contactus.go Carolina Panthers (NFL team) — 704-358-7000 Email:   feedback@panthers.nfl.com Carolina Hornets (NBA team owned by Michael Jordan) 1-704-688-8600 FAX: 1-704-973-9411 Email: info@hornets.com Charlotte Chamber of Commerce — 1-704-378-1300, Email: Staff directory (click on staff name to email) http://charlottechamber.com/about-the-chamber/staff-lis

It seems the war against the gender bigots will never end, even when it seems to be increasingly senseless. Currently, states like Kentucky, Florida and Texas are the latest to attempt to pass discrimatory restroom laws against transgender citizens. The only one of those states I can speak to personally is neighboring Kentucky as well as my hometown of Springfield,Ohio.  I don't hang around my hometown much anymore, but can tell you for a fact, anti LGBT local discrimination laws have been defeated by white and black church coalitions-in concert with conservative GOP leadership which goes all the way to the state legislature in Columbus. Now, Kentucky.  To a person who only knows the state from coal mining stories and a few reality shows, there is much more than meets the eye. Far away from the "hollers", snake worshipers and moonshiners are the cities across the river from Cincinnati, Louisville, Lexington and other places which realize LGBT diversity is a key to dev

Sorry for the delay in answering my mail! First of all- our Cyrsti's Condo post on the Sak's transgender discrimination debacle stirred up several great comments: The first from Mandy Sherman who mentioned her trips as a youngest with her Mom to Saks and then commented:   Saks management apparently doesn't believe that we, as a group, have sufficient disposable income to patronize their stores. Thus they make it known of their scorn for us, and they can't see that they are suffering any harm from their actions.... If they treated us right, I (for one) would prefer shopping in the manner Mom did, with all the attention she got from clerks. (Obviously not as often as she did, but then, I'm not an executive's wife!)   The second from Alana Jane:  I suspect that it's because of Texas and their neo-con far right evangelical beliefs. I say if you want a good shopping experience go to Nordstroms or Bloomingdales. You can get a personal shopper to assist

"Ker Plunk!" Look out! Here comes another Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition" Page1.-  Equal Rights for All?   Well, not quite, but it looks as if "Prez Obama" is  set to sign a LGBT nondiscrimination executive order on Monday.  What it means is federal contractors will be prohibited  against workplace discrimination as well as prohibiting discrimination against transgender federal employees.   Obama will amend Executive Order 11246, which prohibits federal contractors from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex and national origin and was first issued by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, to include sexual orientation and gender identity. He will also amend Executive Order 11478, which prohibits discrimination against federal employees on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability and age and was originally issued by President Richard Nixon in 1969, to also include gender identity. That executive order wa

All of the sudden if you look around, there are transgender women and men who are jumping into the spotlight simply because of who they are . Take Kristin Beck , the Navy Seal and now Jennifer Pritzker, 63, formerly James, who officially changed her listing to female and has become the world's first transgender billionaire. Only 12 percent of the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans are female, but in 2013, the ranks gained one member from the other side of the list. Or the South Dakota woman who just reached a landmark transgender discrimination settlement, keeping in step with a growing trend of cases that say transgender discrimination is applicable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.  The $50,000 settlement is bringing transgender workers one step closer to federally recognized equal opportunity in the workplace. Transgender Discrimination Settlement Cori McCreery , 29, was fired in 2010 after telling her employer at Don's Valley Market in Rapid City, S.D. that

From the Washington Blade: "Mia Macy" "Transgender victims of workplace discrimination are for the first time finding restitution in a pair of decisions handed down from the federal government finding anti-trans job bias at two institutions — one a federal contractor, the other an arm of the U.S. government.  The two decisions — first reported by Buzzfeed — are the result of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is charged with enforcing laws against workplace discrimination, finding last year in a historic, unanimous decision transgender workplace discrimination amounts to gender discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. One of the decisions is the culmination of litigation in that very case, known as Macy v. Holder, was initiated by the Transgender Law Center after the plaintiff was told she wouldn’t receive a job at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives’s crime laboratory in Walnut Creek, Calif., after she a

Most of  you Cyrsti's Condo readers know I'm from Ohio but probably fewer of you know the Governor is Republican John Kasich. The good news is at the start of his term in 2010, Gov. John Kasich renewed an executive order to protect gay state workers.  The bad news was he  removed language about gender identity. For the life of me, I can't understand why emotionally.  Why would Kasich on purpose exclude the transgender population of Ohio? At that point, I started to try to redirect my thinking to what politics is really about- behind the scenes  power. It's no real secret in Ohio and probably elsewhere opposition to equal transgender rights in any form comes from the social right which includes a huge entrenched religious base. So I tried to connect the dots between them and Kasich's desire to deny us with basic rights every American should be entitled to. I don't know of course which group Kasich was catering to on this move. Perhaps it was a last ditch &q

Recently I mentioned the challenges to transgender discrimination which is inherent in most major health plans as ObamaCare takes effect. This story comes from the " Pink News ": "In a July letter to trans groups, Leon Rodriguez, the director of HHS’s Office for Civil Rights, said that HHS considers discrimination based on “gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity” in federal health programmes or activities receiving funding under Affordable Care Act-covered programs to be illegal. The news was first reported by BuzzFeed. Maya Rupert of the National Center for Lesbian Rights said in a statement:”Transgender people face severe discrimination in healthcare settings and are often denied care completely. “This announcement affirms that all patients in federally funded health care settings must be treated equally and may not be denied care simply because of who they are. “We are grateful to HHS for clarifying this imp

Columbus, Ohio is very close to me geographically and a couple years ago was ranked as one of the top ten Gay cities in the country. In many ways the outcome of   Savanna DeLong's (pictured right)  story didn't surprise me as much as it happening at all. This story comes from the LGBTQ Nation : "A municipal court judge in Columbus, Ohio, has ordered owners of a private dining and business networking club to pay a $1,000 fine in the city’s first-ever transgender discrimination case. Franklin County Municipal Court Judge H. William Pollitt Jr., on Monday levied the fine against Columbus Hospitality Management, owners of the Capital Club, for retaliating against Savanna DeLong and denying her work at the downtown club. Savanna DeLong Image via WBNS-TV It’s the first-ever case brought by city prosecutors against a Columbus business for discriminating against someone who’s transgender, since gender identity was added in 2008 to local anti-discrimination laws."

In another sign of better times for the transgender community comes this advice from a recent "Dear Abby"  column: "Dear Abby: Last night at a restaurant, my husband and I were surprised to see a male server wearing a blond wig and full makeup. I was, to say the least, shocked and very glad we hadn’t brought the children, ages 11 and 14, with us. How do you explain something like that to an 11-year-old? The 14-year-old would be able to “get it.” What kind of policies are in place for restaurants in cases like this? What if customers are offended? Could I request a different server or just leave? Your comments would be appreciated. — Taken Aback In California Dear Taken Aback: In California, people have the legal right to dress in a style not typical of their gender without fear of discrimination or retaliation. That right is protected by state law. If customers find it offensive, they can either request a different server or take their business elsewhere. Presumab

NEVER eat at a "Chick-fil-A. If you didn't, read on: After years of masking anti gay policies and affliliations under a guise of friendliness, Chick-fil-A  is boldly embracing the discrimination of LGBT American's. Which is not exactly an earth shattering announcement if you ever knew anything about this radical right company. Now,    I believe it is their American right to have any belief they want at Chick-fil-A and I believe in my right to NEVER give them a cent of my money and to tell others about them. Plus I don't believe in their Un-American right to discriminate. Here's an example of why: When questioned about Chick-fil-A's donations in a recent interview, COO Dan Cathy replied " Guilty as charged" Cathy continued: "We're inviting God's judgement on our nation when we shake our fist at him and say we know better than you what constitutes marriage." Obviously Cathy knows better than God to make that statement. W

A headmaster tried to ban a transgender schoolboy from sitting an exam dressed in girls' uniform - until the pupil slammed a copy of the Equality Act on his desk. Ashlyn Parram, 16, wore girl's tights, a skirt and blazer to her first GCSE exam but was told she could not sit the paper, because she was not in correct uniform. Incredibly, the furious teen had printed off a copy of the law governing discrimination in Britain and marched straight to head teacher Chris Wall's office for a showdown. More from the " Huffington Post" "Ashlyn pointed out the law to the gobsmacked head - a former Olympic diver - who then admitted he could not stop her taking the test. But when Ashlyn reached the exam room she was forced to sit apart from the other pupils on the other side of the sports hall - in segregation. The year 11 has openly lived as a girl at home for two years but has sensitively toned down her appearance at Giles Academy, Boston, Linco

Transgender In The Workplace: An Idea Whose Time Is Now It’s a remarkable moment to be openly transgender and working for a living.  Extraordinary progress has occurred in this timely area of business interest over the last dozen years or so.  For example, in the year 2000 there were only three Fortune 500 companies with anti-discrimination protection for transgender employees.  Today, nearly half of the Fortune 500 organizations have adopted policies that protect transgender employees from discrimination. Despite various political efforts to pass a transgender-inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), there is still no federal statute that protects transgender workers.  However, in an amazing turn of events, in April of 2012, the federal government’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects transgender workers from on-the-job discrimination. The ruling formally took effect on May 23, 2012, and the nation'