Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

"Kerplunk!" another Sunday Edition from the Condo has hit your virtual front porch! Well, kids, another week has flown by and swept up October with it and brought in some chilly weather in Southwestern Ohio! My hot cup of "Joe" tastes good this morning!

Page 1.- The week that was - or wasn't.  Of course the week that was, included Halloween-otherwise known as "All Halla's Eve" (Holla back) for cross dressers everywhere.  Three of the blogs I follow on a regular basis; Femulate, From "me" to Mandy, and Janie Black all featured some sort of Halloween experiences. I enjoyed the differing perspectives!

We also had a wide range of other "happenings" to reflect upon, such as the first Condo complete guest post ever from Pat, Helen Boyd's post on Trans Partners and our look at "Bob Seger" .

All in all, a busy week!

Page 2.- The Battle goes on.  The tragic discrimination faced by active duty transgender U.S. military members goes on and was brought to the public's eye this week yet again by Army Captain Sage Fox  shown left. Captain Fox essentially was told to go away after she was told she could transition and come back.

This continues to happen to trans military members and I think will, until these very key and vicious mid term elections are out of the way in our country.  Obama could do away with the injustice with a stroke of his pen, but continues not too and the Pentagon says it would be up for a study which is a fate worse than death for any issue.  What a "study" means is: We will sweep it under the rug and spend unneeded money until it goes away and we are working in some sort of other fat cat bureaucratic job.

Let's remember though, Veterans Day is coming up November 11th and it will; be a time to revisit the sacrifices of all veterans -transgender or not!

Page Three.-Positive success stories. 

Lynn Conway

MichellewhoisNovember 2, 2014 at 8:36 AM

There used to be a site that showed so many others that came out a while back. It listed the doctors, scientists, teachers and business leaders that had successfully transitioned. Many on that site were originally in stealth but came out to show the world who they were. I remember Gwen Smith and Melanie Phillips sites that showed us so much information and helped us weed through all the BS sites. Lynn Conway's site Allowed us to see others that were successful. It was these women that helped pave the way for so many to follow.

Absolutely Michelle and thanks!!!  I remember quite early in the game, I too found Lynn's extensive site and was positively dazzled and depressed at the same time.  Dazzled at the amount of transgender women who were so successful and living what I perceived to be the impossible dream. Which led to my depression. At the least though, she showed me what could be possible! 

Page Four.- The back page.  Well kids it's time to get to the store before the Sunday football games start.  I'm sending good vibes out to all of you along with continued thanks for stopping by Cyrsti's Condo!

Cyrsti's Condo "From the Hart"

Waiting For Joe is a Drag!

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Woman" of the Day

With all the flurry of gorgeous transgender women appearing in public now, it's easy to forget some who came out before them! Such as Jamie Clayton:

Cyrsti's Condo "From the Hart."

Trans Partners

Similar to a recent credit card commercial around here, let's give it time to let that comment set in for awhile.

....Time's up! A trans partner could be anything from a transgender man with a genetic, to a transgender woman with a cis man, to transgender men and trans women in a relationship. (I know I'm missing many other potential pairs, especially if you throw sexuality into the picture."

Fortunately for all of us Helen Boyd addressed the issue recently in her en/Gender Blog.  If you follow the link, you will see Helen's links to "Neither a Pity or a Fetish" or a huge Reddit "Message Bard" called "My Partner is Trans."

And of course, an excerpt from the blog itself from Helen Boyd:

"In the first set, there’s a list of the “allowable” types of partners – “boxes”:

1. Straight cis man is with a straight trans woman because she ‘probably’ still has a penis and, therefore, ‘he’s probably actually gay’.
2. Straight cis man is with a straight trans woman AND HE IS DECEIVED.
3. Straight cis woman stays with her transitioning partner, is to be pitied.
4. Straight cis woman is with a straight trans man AND WHERE IS THE PENIS, WE MUST ASK WHERE THE PENIS IS, CAN YOU FIND IT FOR US?
5. Gay cis woman is with a straight trans man, and that’s okay, because we all knew that ‘he’ was actually a lesbian woman all along.

And I wonder where these come from. When I was coming up, only #s 2, 3, & 5 existed, and I didn’t fit into any of them very well either, unless you see me as the “to be pitied” type, which I don’t.

Always useful to see/hear more partners speak up."

Indeed! Most of you regulars here in Cyrsti's Condo know my partner is a genetic/lesbian.  Which even gives a little different spin to our relationship with the world.  One of these days, I'm going to be able to convince her to write a post or two for the Condo about what she thinks of all of this!

My Phone, My Noggin and I

Just between you and me, I certainly have nothing against the sissy contingent in our community and I am reasonably sure most don't go on to a full mtf gender transition. AND  I understand the culture behind having a woman force you to cross dress. 

In the midst of everything else I try to squeeze in to my life these days, I use my phone to talk to myself. What I mean is when I have one of my ideas for "From the Hart" or Cyrsti's Condo, I message them to myself.

For example:  Similar to a note in a bottle, I have been tweeting my little "plays on words" out to the world and more than likely a "civilian" or two on Pinterest.  My assumption is, they would know little or nothing about what "transitioning" is, or how I am using the "sissies" word. My assumption also is, if you have a picture similar to the unidentified "sissy" below, somewhere perhaps there is a semi understanding spouse or girl friend. She is thinking, well I don't understand, but at least I don't have to do all the house work for a change.

WOW! How does this thing work?

Back in the day, I too would get dressed up (not like that) and do a bit of cooking and a smaller bit of cleaning.  I found what I already knew, I liked to cook and hated to clean.  I just couldn't reconcile myself I would "make someone a good wife" -in the ideal sense. Back in those days, I figured at the least, I could cook my way into a man's heart and never thought it would be another woman.

This was around the time my wife and I were having huge battles about what my cross dressing was really all about.  One day, when she was following up on her very effective theme "Be man enough to go be a woman!" I said something to the effect, did that mean I could be a woman and not clean like many I knew?  Not the right comment!

Which leaves me to my most important point of all, which is no secret:
"Transitioning is not for Sissies AND is a real BITCH!"

Cyrsti's Condo "Guest Post"

For whatever reason, rarely, have I just taken a comment or experience from one of you and passed it along-nearly verbatim. Here is quite possibly the first:

"Cyrsti, I hope you are sitting down because you and I are once again in total agreement. 

 I am a huge Bob Seger fan. My wife and I saw him several years ago at MSG and he blew the roof off the place. About 20 years ago I became addicted to "Like a Rock" I would play it over and over again until I ruined the cassette tape. I think that it had to do with the lyrics about "20 years, where did they go...20 years I don't know". Of course he would now have to revise that to 40 years since I was "lean and solid everywhere...like a rock." Obviously I still hold firm to what I think is right...like a rock. 

 A year or so ago I was in an LGBT bar for Karaoke night and I sang "Turn the Page". When I finished I went back to my stool at the corner of the bar (think of Norm in the anchor position at Cheers). I asked the regulars if they know why I picked that song. None of them knew. There were two girls sitting catty corner to my seat and the one closer to me said that she knew why I picked that song and she went right to the lyric "Most times you can't hear them talk, other times you can. All the same old cliches, is it a woman or a man..." She got it right, of course. She then took out her phone and showed me a photo of a guy with a shaved head, mustache and goatee. I damm near fell off the bar stool when she told me that the guy in the photo was her about two years prior. We had a very enjoyable and informative conversation for the rest of the evening. I have never encountered her or her girlfriend again. 
 I thought you would appreciate the Seger inspired conversation. 

 Regards, Pat

Pat it's obvious that I did love your experience and yes "Turn the Page" was a fave of mine too.  For clarity though , I should point out our disagreements are mostly political in nature which speaks for itself!

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Queen" of the Day

Our feature cover today is Puerto Rican drag queen, Jessica Wild

Chasing my Tail!

First off, we had a  major (no pun intended) moment in Cyrsti's Condo yesterday when Pat actually agreed with my comments on a post called The Toughest Trans Battle of Them All! The post centered on MtF transgender Army Captain Sage Fox in particular and spoke to the continuing tragedy of ruining trans lives one at a time in the United States military.  Which (as Pat wrote) Prez Obama  could fix with a stroke of his pen-but hasn't. I'm going to leave it at that, at the risk of getting too bitter and political. Plus, since Pat lives around the New York, East Coast area, she provided a little more insight into our Totally Transgender post and trans firefighter Brooke Guinan.  Please follow the links for her complete comments.

On a couple of lighter notes:  jen smithOctober 28, 2014 at 3:02 PM  commented:

Ooooh Cyrsti! You were quite the rebel-rousing, button pushing, devil may care one weren't you! Sounds like you had a heck of a good time!!!

Indeed I did Jen! Every morning, I take a moment and thank "Momma Karma" for enabling me to do all this living after so many years of darkness!

Finally, perhaps you have heard classic rocker Bob Seger is touring again at the age of 69.  I'm sure all of you have special groups and songs which have defined parts of  your life and Seger is one of mine.  I knew of him way back before he became "uber" popular because is is from the Lincoln Park, Michigan area and was rockin his arse off when I worked at one of the first "progressive rock" FM radio stations in Bowling Green, Ohio. (Not far from Toledo,  Michigan and Detroit.)  Our listeners also were fans of Iggy Pop and the Stooges from Ann Arbor, Michigan and any other Detroit "head bangin" rockers.  I credit those days to losing a good part of my hearing.  Another chunk went to watching the original Ozzy and Black Sabbath in Germany when I was in the Army.

At any rate, Segar seemed to stick with me through the years.  His "Hollywood Nights" song about a Midwestern boy being too far from home in L.A. became my "anthem" for a Midwestern boy in New York slipping too far away from his birth gender and of course "Running Against the Wind" which describes any transgender person searching for their true gender identity.

One of Segar's stops is going to be in nearby Columbus, Ohio in January.  Haven't given up on getting tickets!