Carry on Trans Baggage

We are now officially in the holiday travel times from Thanksgiving to Christmas. In whatever mode you are traveling this season, normally baggage is involved.
All of the commotion started me thinking of the amount of baggage we carry between genders as transgender women and men.
Some have suggested we shouldn't carry any of it. But is that possible? I suppose your amount of baggage is somewhat dictated by the amount of life you have lived.  I'm not suggesting the transgender experience is easier at any age but it's true at a later age families, jobs and a myriad of other responsibilities do add a ton more baggage to the process.
But go ahead and say it-I'm biased because I represent the older edge of all of this.
Bottom line is however I do believe at what ever age you decide to transition as a man or woman, your baggage is coming along. As time goes by you have a choice to sort through your past belongings to see what you want to keep or throw away.  Less and less of it remains.
On a positive side, your experience as your birth gender has the potential to make you a better human being. What could be better if those pieces of baggage you are combining as both genders do provide a unique view of what life could be.
If you are the "glass is half empty" type of person, you could say the negative baggage you brought with you will always affect your life.
During this holiday season, I hope you have a chance to reflect on the baggage you may be traveling with.

Aussie Transgender Story

This is far from a new story. In fact it is from 2010 but it bears revisiting.

It actually came from "AsiaOne's" Diva site for women and features Ms Chelsey Mikimoto who was born in Singapore to a Malay-Dutch mother and a Chinese- Japanese father. She migrated with her family to Australia in the mid-90s at age 10.

Much of her story sounds familiar: "Although born biologically male, Ms Mikimoto said that she never identified with being one. Growing up, she liked girlie things. She dreamed of parading in beautiful gowns and experimented with her mother's make-up and clothes. One Christmas, she placed her name on the Barbie doll meant for a female cousin.
 She had visited a psychiatrist who diagnosed her with gender identity dysphoria - a condition in which individuals identify emotionally and psychologically with the other gender. For five years before the surgery, she lived as a woman. During that time, she underwent hormone replacement therapy to feminise her facial and bodily features. Other than physical changes, she also took the time to "greatly reflect" on what it meant to have the gender change."

I haven't been able to find much recent information on her, so I hope all is well!

Cross Dressing Rocket Man

Over the past several months I have featured pictures and more here in Cyrsti's Condo from a Japanese site called Rocket News24. 

Recently they ran a long and detailed post called "16 Things I Learned from Dressing in Drag". Confessions of a one night crossdresser.

The post in itself just tells most of us transgender or even genetic women what we already know such as lesson #10:

 It’s more than just the clothes You might think that getting feminine airs is as easy as putting on a dress and a wig, but it turns out there’s a lot more to it. Even something as simple as the word “I” is different from males to females in Japanese, so I had to constantly think about how to refer to myself. Or sometimes, I would sit down in what I thought was a ladylike way, only to find my knees popping open. Or my walk would get very bowlegged if I wasn’t paying attention. There’s just so much to think about! Femininity is hard.

Or the final lesson #16:

Dressing as a woman was unexpectedly intoxicating, but I couldn’t stay like that forever. Going back to my usual self was kind of sad, though. I took off the makeup, removed the wig, traded my dress for my usual men’s clothes, and thought, “Well, that’s that.” It was rather dreary to look in the mirror and find the usual boring face reflected back at me. I almost wanted to cry. So if on the street one night you should happen to meet a man in drag, so long as he isn’t doing anything bad, please just let him be.

If you haven't been to the Rocket News 24 site it's worth the time to check it out!