Cyrsti's Condo Remember?

From CNN:  Before there was Caitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox or Jazz Jennings, there was Tracey “Africa” Norman.

In the mid-1970s, Norman was the face of Clairol’s Born Beautiful hair color (No. 512, Dark Auburn). She had an exclusive contract with Avon. She did several photo shoots with Essence. She was a house model in Balenciaga’s Paris showroom.

She had also been born male, although almost no one knew her secret, a story she told in the latest New York magazine.

An African-American model already facing discrimination based on her skin color, she knew that any hint that she was also transgender would have ended her career and could have led to her death.

When word did eventually get out, the work dried up.

“I was a model, so males and females were attracted to me, and when they find out that I’m not what they perceive me to be, it freaks them out,” she told the magazine. “That’s what I’ve experienced in my life, what I was getting from straight women and straight men.”

Read more of her story here.

Be Careful What You Say

Jackie Ryan was in high school when she first got involved in politics.

During a school board discussion in her small town of Sturbridge, Massachusetts, Jackie heard one of her representatives call transgender students—like her—a threat to their peers.

“I immediately sent him an email," she says, "and told him that what he was saying was completely untrue.”

When the representative ignored Jackie’s email, she decided to run for a seat on the school board.

“I think I originally got into it because I wanted to show him why my voice needed to be heard, but very quickly I realized that my campaign was about more than him—or me. It was about the Tantasqua school district.”

Jackie won her campaign, beating out a five-year incumbent for her seat.

Thanks Bobbie!!!

A "Red Ryder" for Christmas?

I am still being gentle with Liz about when the lap top will be "entrusted" to me to "rock and roll" on the web. Until then, I am moving fast in short bursts with posts! 

Recently, I posted about hearing an excellent live performance of Bob Seger's "Turn the Page" and received a couple wonderful comments back, believe me - I will get to them-thanks.

In this post I am turning to one of the all time Christmas Classics from 1983 "A Christmas Story."

In the show, "Ralphie" on the left in the glasses was peeing down his frozen leg (literally- the movie was shot on location in Cleveland) wanting a Red Ryder BB Gun. 

Didn't every boy???

Well no, I didn't and vividly remember trying to feel like I should in the 1950's. Something was wrong.

If you haven't seen the movie, it is a hilarious look at a family circa 1940's.


One of the best things to come out of the movie for me was the very simple imagery I can use from it to pass along to the transgender "uninitiated." I simply ask if they remember "A Christmas Story"   when every red blooded American boy wanted a BB gun.

I guess I should have accepted then, I was not going to live up to the standards of being that boy, and you know some of those girls clothes looked to be lots of fun! 

Oh well! Making up for lost time now.

Stand Up Straight Dammit!

One post we haven't readdressed here in Cyrsti's Condo is the power (and passing privilege) you can bring to your public presentation by simply standing up straight. 

I know in the early days of my cross dressing experience, I was increasing my height by wearing heels-then hunching over to hide it.

By the time I realized hunching over was hurting my confidence and presenting as a trans woman-wearing heels was pretty much out of the question. 30 plus years pounding concrete restaurant floors has pretty much taken any "resilience" out of the bottom half of my body. Plus the cis-women I am around just don't wear heels much. So I am OK being a couple inches short of six feet tall in boots or flats.

I am also very much OK with the increasing number of tall girls I see wearing heels and I don't have to worry about being the tallest in the room.

What I do have to worry about though is the thick upper man's torso I have. If I don't concentrate on standing up totally straight, I am exponentially cutting my chances of being busted as being born male. 

Now, if I use Friday night as an example at the restaurant we went to, no one gave me a second look. Just the owner and possibly our server knew I was transgender. Plus, I truly believe in some situations, certain owners consider it a compliment if "one of us"  chooses to make their operation a bit more diverse.

So, as we head into the holidays kids and no matter what you are wearing- remember what your "Mama" said "Stand up Straight Dammit!"!!!!

Turn the Page

No matter how I look at it-or want to do it-I feel like a kid again who can't wait for Christmas. This year though, barring pestilence and an/or extremely bigoted judge, I won't have to settle for the boys toys anymore.

Which brings me to the title of this post "Turn the Page"- a very popular song was done in the 70's by Bob Seger. Here is a little background from Wikipedia:

"We had been playing somewhere in the Midwest, or the northern reaches, on our way to North or South Dakota. [Guitarist] Mike Bruce was with us. We'd been traveling all night from the Detroit area to make this gig, driving in this blinding snowstorm. It was probably 3 in the morning.

Mike decided it was time to get gas. He was slowing down to exit the interstate and spied a truck stop. We all had very long hair back then – it was the hippie era – but Skip, Mike and Bob had all stuffed their hair up in their hats. You had to be careful out on the road like that, because you'd get ostracized. When I walked in, there was this gauntlet of truckers making comments – "Is that a girl or man?" I was seething; those guys were laughing their asses off, a big funny joke.

That next night, after we played our gig – I think it was Mitchell, S.D. – Seger says, "Hey, I've been working on this song for a bit, I've got this new line for it. He played it on acoustic guitar, and there was that line: "Oh, the same old cliches / 'Is that a woman or a man?' " It was "Turn the Page."^[1]"

If any of you have been through that part of the country, you can understand why the lyrics hit home. Hell in my hometown then, long hair (hitting the top of your collar) could get you shot in the wrong redneck bar.

Bottom line is my friend Ed from "Nighthawk" did a fabulous job with the song but I am sure little did he know exactly HOW much the music meant to me Friday.