Amiyah Scott

Amiyah Scott is a transgender actress, model, and dancer. She is best known for her role as Cotton on the Fox drama Star.

Teddy Quinlivan

Michelle was kind enough to respond to the post concerning the first transgender Sports Illustrated swimsuit model by reminding me of the time Chanel hired it's first transgender model back in 2019. Her name is Teddy Quinlivan 

 At the time, she remarked:

The model and activist has announced she is the first openly transgender model to be tapped by Chanel Beauty for an advertising campaign. Quinlivan shared the news on her Instagram account, posting a video and image from the campaign along with a heartfelt quote on the significance of this role.

She then went on to detail the familiar pain most transgender people go through growing up:

“I find I don’t cry anymore when things are sad, but isn’t it interesting when we shed tears in moments of triumph?” she wrote. “This was one of those triumphant cry moments for me. My whole life has been a fight. From being bullied at school consistently, kids threatening to kill me and going into graphic detail how they were going to do it, my own father beating me and calling me a f–got, to receiving industry blowback after speaking publicly about being sexually assaulted on the job.…This was a victory that made all of that s–t worth it.”

Thanks Michelle!

How Did I Get Here?

This morning I made a very quick socially distanced safe trip to the attorney to drop off paperwork. To do it, I wore a simple white tank top, jeans and tennis shoes. No big deal and the only makeup I wore was eye makeup since the mask covered the remainder of my face.

As i drove the short distance to the office, I thought back to the early days of my feminine development as a transgender woman and wondered if I ever had any idea I would ever get this far. I even have another mammogram coming up in early August which I consider a feminine right of passage.

On occasion too, I get so desperate for new blog posts, I have been known to journey back through the old dusty Cyrsti's Condo blog posts for ideas. What I discovered was I was far more interested in the outward impression I was making as a transgender woman than my inner self. Probably much of that has to do with me having a strong partnership with Liz in public. I can't begin to tell how many times I have benefited when Liz has called me "she" or "her" to strangers. 

Of course I owe the acceptance of others to even begin to get to the plateau I have achieved today. My daughter led the way in opening her in laws acceptance of me. Leading the way to replace the family I lost when my brother rejected me.

And then there were Kim and Nikki who I parted with heavily early in my coming out transgender days  who introduced to the lesbian lifestyle and how eventually they led me to my partner Liz. I also learned I didn't need a man to validate me as a woman.

The trip this morning was very brief as I wrote, so all too soon I was back home and writing this blog post. I think I figured out how I got here...somewhat.