Cyrsti's Condo

Author Debbie Martin recently sent me an email asking me to review her recently published love story which crosses the frontiers of transsexualism. For what ever reason I was not able to open the file on my computer. Since she went to the trouble of finding me on the world wide web, the least I could do was pass along the info to all of you from Goodreads .com.  Here's an intro of sorts: " Even with the sexual revolution of the permissive seventies and eighties, men remained men. But as childhood friends Tom and Will enter adulthood, for one of them maturity isn’t just growing from boy to man. He develops into someone completely new as surely as the butterfly emerges transformed from its chrysalis, irrevocably and chaotically also transforming both their worlds in the process. Through battle ground bravado in Northern Ireland, drugs, sexual betrayal, IVF, transsexualism, and ‘forbidden’ love, they each search for courage to live life their way. Can love be strong enough t

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

Jenna Talackova is proving once again she is so much more than a beautiful transsexual face: Canadian beauty Jenna Talackova knows firsthand the affects of prejudice toward transgender people. Most will recall her triumphant battle with the Miss Universe committee earlier this year, eventually being allowed to compete in the international beauty competition, after much debate about her eligibility given her status as a transgender woman. Now Talackova is tackling larger issues in this vein by asking the World Health Organization (WHO) to remove transsexualism from its list of mental disorders. Her petition, at Change.org, has gained over 40,000 signatures thus far, and joins an international initiative backed by celebrities including Vladimir Luxuria and Maxwell Zachs. Sign the petition at www.change.org/notsick , and after the jump check out the international video in support of the campaign. http://yout u.be/3qomHE9qkG4 Read more here at Passport Blogs

I spend a lot of time here in Cyrsti's Condo dwelling in the past. After all I'm an historian by degree and believe in what happened yesterday may help us to understand today. Recently, I ran across an article called the Subtle Process of Transformation by Eva Hayward . She goes through an in depth look at the physical changes which occur when you start changing such a basic human trait such as gender: "Like the change from summer to autumn, changing sex is more than a conscious choice or an act of will. It may be that change comes on a scalpel of desire or along a hormonal riptide, such that the body is legibly sexed, but this describes only a fraction of what is at play. Hormones, for instance, have ranging impacts. Taking estrogen can cause fat deposits to uproot and travel to new sights of colonization so that hips widen, breasts grow and lactate, and musculature softens. Estrogen can also alter the eye's structure, affecting vision. It can modify the body

Every once in a while here in "Cyrsti's Condo", I head to the library and dust off a volume of the "Trans Stealth Diary's" None of the entries are mine. I have ran the entire spectrum of thoughts on the subject. From envy to disgust, I have thought them. How could my transsexual sisters run off and disappear? Then again, if I had the chance wouldn't I? Here's the easy answer. No I wouldn't. In fact I'm thinking of jumping off the deep end and getting my first tattoo ever-with a trans logo-in a visible place. Then again, I will be truthful and say this is a relatively new thought pattern with me. As I so love to do, here's a little stealth history and perspective from another source: The Women Born Transsexual" Blog. As always, I'm going to throw you some teasers and give you a link for more from Susan. "Some folks have claimed the Doctors expected transsexuals to go absolutely stealth after they had SRS. That absolu

Then again it may be to you but not to the person next to you. Sure, we are all humans and all different. No real problem with that until someone decides to not respect your difference For transgender or transsexual folk-this is particularly true. We live it. Jillian Page writes a very interesting blog for the " Montreal Gazette " . Her latest post "My Identity, My Right" (in a round about way) addresses the "It is what it is" dynamic. Jillian begins with a mention of recent progress made in Argentina — which allows people to change name and sex based simply on how they feel, without any forms of approval from anyone else. Here's the good part:  " I wish to remind all of my trans readers and their supporters that you don’t owe the general public any explanations or apologies for your transgenderism or transsexualism. Religious fundamentalists, RadFems et al are entitled to their opinions about trans stuff — to a point — but those opin