Battle Scars

Trend setting young transgender woman Jazz Jennings has always been in the fore front when it comes to publicizing her own life. Her most recent landmark came when she went under the knife and completed genital realignment surgery.

The picture of her in a swimming suit dramatically shows the extent of the surgery.

This is just another instance of how Jazz has stepped up and showed the world yet another slice of transgender life!

Plus, another very accomplished and talented transgender woman is appearing in another very visible television role...Laverne Cox is a judge on the Bravo TV's design show Project Runway.

As always, Laverne is an articulate, gorgeous representative of the trans culture.

Before you head off thinking all I am doing is glorifying the very attractive upper portion of our culture, I am not. The greatest majority of us struggle to achieve our own level of femininity at all.

My only point is to show those who have achieved it and put their efforts to good use!

What Was I Thinking/

I still can't get enough of the decade just past. The more I think of it, the more I remember doing crazy things. A few I remember vividly.

When I first started seriously down the feminine road, very early I decided I really didn't like the gay bars I was going into. It was about that time I discovered two small lesbian bars I began to frequent. One of which was the equivalent of a dyke biker bar. To say the least, they hated me there. The other was a different story and was the venue where I was strongly encouraged to sing karaoke by a super butch lesbian in a cowboy hat. I was also told one night by another lesbian I was pretty cute and maybe I should go home with her.  The major problem was I had a spouse to go home to!

Them again, there was the one evening I will always regret not being able to experience. That night  a group of stripper were supposed to entertain at the bar one night. Unfortunately, my wife was due home and I had to get back and change back into my male self.

Along the way, a few guys (including one trans guy) did enter my life. It was quite the adjustment and one it turns out I didn't have to accept. Every time I turned around, it seemed my life pushed me towards lesbians.  One of the highlights was acting as a "wing person" for one of my lesbian friends.

About this time too, as I have written about before, is when I met Liz. I was coming out of an intensely sad period of my life. I had just lost my wife of twenty five years and three out of five of my closest male friends to heart disease and cancer. I met Liz on an on-line dating site eight years ago and we have been together ever since.

Here is a New Years Eve picture:

The final point I need to make was, how difficult the decade really was. As with anything else in life you remember the upside and have a tendency to downplay the downside. Like the time I went to a downtown urban summer festival one night in Dayton and another time I went to a Christmas festival in my favorite boots, leggings and sweater. I remember the excitement and satisfaction of living the feminine experience but not the loneliness of doing it alone.

The only words of wisdom I can offer are, no matter how lonely and lost you are, if you don't keep putting yourself out there, nothing will change!

   

A New Decade

I suppose at my age (70) it's not good to measure my life in decades but then again age teaches you to do just that.

In my last Cyrsti's Condo post I said I would hitch up my big girl panties and show you all the hated "before" picture. It's the only picture I know of me and goes back over a decade to circa 1997.

Naturally enough, since I have been living full time as a transgender woman for over seven years now, there are no pictures of me as a guy.

So, here is a picture taken last summer in Columbus, Ohio at Club Diversity.

But hey!!! So much for me. May the New Year and new decade be safe, healthy and prosperous for each and every one of you!