Taking Pride

Around Cyrsti's Condo niche in the universe it's the time of year for all the LGBT Pride celebrations.  Dayton, Ohio's was almost a couple weeks ago, Yellow Springs is next weekend and the "bestest" of them all around here- Columbus, Ohio's is still a couple weeks away.

This is always a good time of the year to pause and try to reflect on where we "silent T's" sit in the overall scheme of things.

Ancestrally, we do have a tie in of sorts with the Drag Queens who were the original instigators at the Stonewall Bar in 1969. (right)

So many years later, it seems transgender women and men are finally beginning to make a case to be heard.

My own sense of participating in Pride this year is one of liberation.  I'm arriving at a point where I can stand alone and be recognized for what I am- a trans woman and for once not be lumped into other categories. Perhaps more importantly now, I can respect my cousins (drag queens and cross dressers) for what they are and feel good about it. As I hope they respect me.

Before I wrap this post up, I thought I would pass along another "historical" video from WigStock in NYC circa 2001.

Kristin Beck Speaks Out

CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 seems to have cornered the first Kristin Beck interviews I have been able to see.

Go here for an inside look how Kristin was able to live her life as a Navy Seal. Much of what she says sounds very familiar. If you were a transgender vet or not!

Gender Surfer

 62 year old Westerly Windina- One of Australia’s most iconic former surfers recently completed a six-year journey to become a woman, and has recovered from gender-reassignment surgery.

Definitely riding the "wild transgender surf"!

Coming Out to Yourself

What do all of these comments have in common with me?

"Just what we need, another old guy on hormones."
"If you waited until you were 60 to start transitioning, you are not a real transgender person."
"Isn't it too late in life to transition?"



What they have in common is all of them have been messaged to me here in Cyrsti's Condo.

Everyonce in a while, I find a very well presented answer:

"Realization that one is trans can take anywhere from a few moments to several decades. Usually, trans people have an inkling early on in their lives that their assigned gender feels out of sync with their bodies. The self-realization process is extremely complicated. The human mind does its best to help us survive, which can translate into triggering intense denial. Because of societal constraints, it is common for a person to try to ignore signs pointing toward transgenderism, whether consciously or unconsciously."

This is only one of several enlightening, educational thoughts on transgender women and men from a Huffington Post article here

Not so incidentally, the page also includes this link

to Outserve Magazine and a chance meeting between a transgender vet and  President Obama.

Much To Do - About Quite A Lot

Quite a week. Last night I attended the second of two hometown Equality meetings.

As I have written here in Cyrsti's Condo, this week I stepped from the shadows of my local stealth. Bottom line is, I have lived stealth in my home town for the last several years as I set out to build a whole new life in nearby larger cities. Nothing earth shattering about that but as my feminine life evolved into HRT and beyond- the more I walked the trans woman path the more I detested remnants of my former life in the shadows.

None of that mattered though as meeting time approached. Again I was suffering my usual amount of trepidation- for two reasons. Number one... I'm relatively certain the number of years I have dealt with the inner turmoil of gender dysphoria has left me scarred to a point I will go to the grave with it. In essence a deep fear of public rejection.  Number two... I have a deep inherent shyness around strangers which I have learned to cover fairly well but I have a tendency to come off as a real bitch. Luckily though I'm also a good actress in the sense the more nervous I become, the bigger my tendency is to chatter. A remnant from too many crummy business meetings over the years.

The good news is, as it turned out all my fear was a waste of energy.  I seriously can't remember a group of people going out of their way to make me feel welcome. As with most of my ventures, I was again the "token trans girl" in the room but it was cool. As I tried to tell them, I wanted and needed to bring a transgender view to the group. To "unsilence" the "T" in LGBT.

They were lucky! Last night, I was fairly quiet as my mind raced to interface my thoughts with their very active agenda-knowing full well I can make some sort of an impact-over a space of time.

So all in all, this week was another wonderful attempt to connect the dots in my life. Plus,  I finally feel better about "walking my talk".  I have to tell you I found the experience to be wonderfully liberating!

Thanks, to the Equality Springfield Ohio folks for helping it happen!