Anthony Berry

I have always loved Anthony Berry as Shania in this Coronation Street video from YouTube! Found it again and thought I would pass it along on the Cyrsti's Condo big screen:

Oh No Canada!

From CBC News Saskatoon:

"A transgender bride who was not allowed to try on wedding gowns at a shop in Saskatoon says she will be filing a formal human rights complaint. Rohit Singh said her experience, at Jenny's Bridal Boutique, deeply affected her, in part because she had higher expectations of Canada. "I like to say Canada is so acceptable [with] equal rights for everyone," Singh told CBC News. "At least they should learn a lesson, so after seeing this no other bridal store — or any store — will do this in the future like they did with me." Saskatchewan's human rights commissioner David Arnot told CBC News Friday any discrimination, whether it is direct or indirect that a transgender person experiences as the result of a store's policy or rule, is still a human rights violation."

I just can't wrap my mind around the thought pattern of not letting this young trans woman at the least spend money with you?????? Then again  I'm assuming this bridal shop is run by women. Over the years, I have experienced much more transphobic behavior from women than men.

35 years of Cross Dressing Photos

From Behold the Photo Blog comes this very good article about a photographer you may have already heard about or have seen her work:

Kay, ex–Green Beret by Mariette Pathy Allen 

" Mariette Pathy Allen’s 35-year journey documenting the transgender community had a serendipitous beginning. In 1978, Allen and her husband went on a trip to New Orleans and happened to stay in the same inn as a group of cross-dressers. One morning after breakfast, the group began taking pictures by the swimming pool, and Allen, already with her camera equipment, gently asked if she could take a few shots as well. “I lifted the camera to my eye looking at these people and one person standing opposite me looked back at me and I felt I was looking into a soul, not a man, not a woman, but the essence of a human being, and I thought, I have to have this person in my life,” Allen recalled. That person, Vicki West, ended up living about 20 blocks from Allen in Manhattan and started introducing Allen to parties, friends, and conferences of people involved in the cross-dressing community. “I found it beyond fascinating,” Allen said. “I discovered I had something I could contribute. When I started doing portraits of transgender people, no one was doing it and I had to figure out what would be the most helpful way of doing it, what would be the meaning of it?”

To the right is another of Allen's photo's featured in the article which you can see by following the link above.

An interesting sidelight I'm noticing when I feature excerpts from other blogs is I have noticed my Google spell check is now highlighting "transgendered" as a miss spelling.  I took the liberty of correcting it twice in this excerpt.