For the Trans Kids

As promised, I went to the downtown Cincinnati rally Thursday night protesting the 45's administration handling of the school transgender restroom ban.

Even though the weather was chilly and blustery, a nice turnout showed up for the rally. One of the city commissioners attended as well as four or five other speakers from LGBT organizations around the metro area. For most in my mind was the representative from the Cincinnati Public School Board. She made a strong point of telling the crowd the school board was going to enact it's own inclusive transgender rest room legislation.

Photo: Raya Schweitzer

I just wish more trans kids could be pulled back from under the bus they recently were tossed under-without a say.

Don't I Know You?

Last weekend, one of the classic movie channels showed the movie Some Like it Hot with Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmons and Marilyn Monroe. The 1959 classic is based on Lemmons and Curtis trying to elude the Chicago Mob in drag after witnessing a hit.

Throughout the movie mostly Curtis who appeared more predominately as a man and woman was asked "Don't I know you?"

Which brings me to a point from my last post "Oh No She Didn't" when I mentioned being recognized when I was cross dressed before I went 24/7.

Taking the subject a bit further was Mandy Sherman:

Oh, but as we know, they CAN and WILL recognize you! 

IMHO the only way to"possibly" avoid it is to NOT wear your hair the normal way when dressed. Mine "is what it is." All the time. Dressed or androgynous. And I'm recognizable. I don't care... 

A couple of years ago, I went into a restaurant on the other side of the Chesapeake, about 60 miles from home (in a congested shopping area), fully femme. A safe thing to do, right? Ummm...not so much. Our current next door neighbors were having dinner there. Oops. And I didn't see them.

I'm still not sure if they got an eyefull...but they could have seen everything! They didn't say hello till AFTER I was seated, and they both were on the way to the potty before leaving. It's hard to hide earrings, painted nails and a skirt when you're trapped at a table in a restaurant.

Those same folks invited my wife and I to a party at their house later in the season. I was nervous, but nothing was said...so I'll never know for sure what they saw. Yes, they've seen me running around the house in one of my house-dresses, so they DO know...

The makeover I sat for a couple years ago proved that the only way to possibly "not" be recognized is a drastic change in hairstyle. I have long, dark, wavy and somewhat flyaway hair with dishwater blondish ends, and the wig the artist put on me was a dark chin length bob, rather short and with uniform color. (You can see it in my posts "The Marvelous Weekend", parts 1 through 3 from August of 2014) 

With that wig, even my own mother can't recognize me in a picture! Yes, Mom knows I dress and isn't overly fond of it, but with dementia she doesn't remember (though she normally does recognize me in pictures with my regular girl clothes...) Fortunately, the memory disappears before I hit the door on the way out.

Hang in there, girlfriend!

Mandy

Thanks Mandy! I have provided a link to her blog above :) As far as "hanging" goes, these days I try to not let the noose get too tight!

Oh No She Didn't!!!

I know I criticize many different people and ideas I run into here and there in Cyrsti's Condo, so this post I'm criticizing several of the more questionable decisions I have made over the years.

1.- Walking urban streets late at night by myself. Not only did I do it, but I was not dressed to NOT attract attention. I am lucky I got by with nothing major happening except paying out a few bucks to pan handlers once. It was back in the day when I used to patronize a couple gay venues. Very unsafe and not recommended- the reason you don't see cis women do it alone.

2.- Driving a couple cars which were very sketchy. They were safe...when they were running. One had an electric fuel pump which sporadically would cut out on it's own and the other a gas gauge which would decide to stick. Both of which caused me immense pain a number of times. Again, late at night.

Daisy Dukes

3.- Thinking I looked great in completely inappropriate clothes and then walking through the neighborhood. The worst was when I fashioned an old pair of jeans into "Daisy Dukes" shorts. While perhaps I had the legs back then, that was it. Plus with my stomach, I most certainly couldn't tie off my blouse and show any skin!

4.- Clown wigs. I went to a rather lengthy and expensive phase when I thought every time I was busted as a guy, my wig was to blame. Often it was because I was not patient enough to save my money for a good wig and/or listened to a wig salesperson who was just interested in a sale. Notable mistakes were long curly wigs in black, red and blonde. When they brushed out, they resembled Bozo the clown. Another platinum blonde straight wig I had would have looked great on a teen or twenty something, but was totally inappropriate for me. I wore it one day with an extremely short skirt prompting one of my bar tender friends to comment "A little over the top aren't we?"

5.- "Flashing Semi Trucks", or pulling my short skirt up to the maximum height showing as much nylon clad leg as I could as I slowly passed a truck. This could be expanded to just wearing the wrong outfit at the wrong time. A time when I thought being validated as a woman came from looking sexy (trashy) rather than passing from within.

6.-  Burning bridges, for the longest time I thought people couldn't recognize me if I was cross dressed which proved to be wrong.

There are so many more mistakes I made, I will have to think of them and write another post someday. But, in the meantime, here is a small list of the stupid things I did...and yes. I mean stupid.

I was fortunate to have been able to get out of the situations I found myself in as I grew to understand my transgender woman status.