A Woman Driver?

I believe about a week ago I posted here in Cyrsti's Condo about a fender bender wreck I had at a gas station. As I suspected immediately, he did not have car insurance as about a third of the people around there don't have.

At any rate Liz's 17 yr old son and I deducted my "Rolls Royce" wasn't heavily damaged and I was prepared to let scratched fenders be  scratched fenders and move on- after I took pictures of his drivers license, car tags etc. During that time he was busily calling me "mam" and we exchanged phone numbers.

A couple days ago I sent him the bill from my mechanic's fully expecting not to hear back-but I was wrong.  He called today.  The problem is/was I have a terrible voice presentation on the phone and I was expecting a call from my insurance company.  So I was doomed to be Cyrsti's brother (which I hate) on the phone before I even got started. Later on though, we found the car was slightly damaged and suffered a broken strut.

After I answered, he said, he hit a female last week and wanted to meet up with her so he can pay the bill. I said I would have Cyrsti call him and set up a place. Then I had to beg Liz to call for me. Of course she will go with me for safety to get paid, but I get to collect.

What a tangled gender world we weave!

Tipping the Gender Scale

When someone asks me a specific question about attempting to go full time as a trans woman, I have a simple answer for an ultra complicated deal: Get your "pretty in pink" rear out of the mall and into real life. After a while you learn if you really want to tip your gender into where you always considered it to be. And then cross the magical, mysterious and highly scary line from being a cross dresser into living as a transgender woman.

Before I put myself up on a pedestal, my journey was hugely pushed along by friends who refused to accept than anything I was-trans and a woman at that. I was pushed into situations such as an NFL Monday Night Football game, a "lesbian wing girl" and of course, a trip to Mardi Gras.  Even still, all of those were just experiences and not everyday life. 

Recently, I have read several posts calling for cross dressers to come out- be counted and how do CD's fit in with the transgender community. In my never humble opinion, totally. With reservations of course. 

My easiest example to relate to all of you is the story of my deceased wife calling me a "terrible woman" back in the mid 80's. I thought she was nuts and said the public didn't think so. She explained (bluntly) she wasn't talking about how I looked at all. Fast forwarding thirty plus years, I searched, searched and ultimately ran like hell from the fact I was indeed transgender. Since she has passed of course I have no problem with saying she was right!!!!

But-in no way is cross dressing a "gateway" process to becoming transgender. All cross dressing will do is provide an avenue to explore your own "genderality." Plus, there is absolutely nothing wrong with expressing yourself as a cross dressing male! After all, what is the real harm?

So, good luck with tipping your "gender scale." For years I knew which way mine was going and was afraid I could never get back. Then I discovered I didn't want to.

Who Be You?

I picked this up off of Stana's Femulate blog and decided to pass it along. 

"A glance at any list in Facebook will easily reveal many obviously made-up names. So why are only some people losing their accounts? Because Facebook uses their reporting system to identify accounts that users think are fake. Why would a user report a fake name account? One is that they are a troll. They hate people with opposing views and want a chance to find and harass them in real life.

Another is that they are a transphobes. 

By using pictures, posts and memberships in trans-related groups, transphobes have identified and had suspended hundreds, maybe thousands of accounts of people who self-identify as trans. This is embarrassing, humiliating and potentially dangerous for those closeted, part-timers and others requiring a level of privacy from those who wish to do them harm."

Follow the link for more!

Caitlin "Cruz"

With all the right wing Republican candidates out there in the primary, it seems I have a bunch of names yet to tie in with our girl Caitlin Jenner. Actually, I may have been to quick tossing "The Donald's" (Trump) name into all of this-indeed he maybe the one the least likely to spurt out homophobic or transphobic comments. Just a guess. As far as Cruz goes, from the first time I saw the Evangelical Tea Party Senator from Texas, I thought why doesn't he come out of the closet and get it over with?

To the point-here is Paula's comment from the UK:

"We should not be surprised that some transgender people have views we find difficult, that they have politics other than those we understand. Apart from that one single factor of being trans we are just like everybody else, just as likely to be intolerant, stupid, vain, and ignorant as anybody else. Being trans does not (necessarily) make somebody a nice person, any more than it makes then well informed or intelligent.

Sometimes I rejoice that there are now more trans people in the public eye, but we do have to remember that they are not in the public eye initially because they are trans, they are often first and foremost celebrities so it is unreasonable to expect them to be reasonable, articulate and compassionate people if they were not before coming out."

You are right Paula! But as a community? We are well known to "eat our own." Unfortunately in this instance with the Kartrashians it is much more difficult to separate fact from fiction-or ratings.

And no...no amount of hormones or surgery changes a person's basic personality. A jerk easily can be a bitch too. In Caitlin Jenner's case we can only hope she becomes more informed about all the true problems in the transgender community.

Caitlin Huckabee?

As I expected, many of you did me proud with your responses to my "Caitlin Trump" post. This post I chose the name of perhaps the most neo religious Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Huckabee just might be the one most likely to have all transgender people burned at the stake-or stoned to death. Enough of my political "drama" It should be noted I was a History and Political Science major in college. None of that makes me right-except to myself!

First, I am going to pass along an edited version of Connie's comments:

"It should be no surprise to anyone that this is just another "reality" show - heavily produced, calculated, and edited. I am only watching it to see if it might be doing some good for the Trans community, despite the circus it is. My hope is that Part II of this road trip will be Cait's awakening, and that all of her obsessiveness with the girly things and her totally misguided "political" views will be crushed when she meets the "disadvantaged ones". and-

"These (sex workers) are stereotypes that the general public has, and the best use of all of the production, calculation, and editing would be to use Caitlyn as the foil who is perpetuating those stereotypes right now - only to see the light later and work to dispel them. If not, then this is just a luxury bus trip with the Transdashians on their way to go slumming - for Cait, anyway"

Connie, I was jumping for joy when Candis Cayne was first through the door. Of course she was!!! The hook has been set by the Kartrashian marketing machine. After all which gender would Caitlin cling to after the change and doesn't everyone's ex Olympic hero look better flirting with one of the most gorgeous trans women out there-rather with some macho guy?

Finally, my solution to all of this is Caitlin is entitled to her political views - but- donate all of the shows proceeds plus her speaking engagements to a foundation for transgender youth. She (Jenner) is one of a very few who can put her money where her mouth is concerning social programs.

Our next response comes next from "across the pond."