Old and New Friends

Liz's spiritual get together Sunday was great for the soul. Plus, I was able to reestablish old friendships and hopefully begin several new ones.

It was actually the second of two meetups we had to go to. The first was our monthly meeting for the Cincinnati Witches Ball which is coming up in October. The best news was we have a new venue since the old one was sold. It will be held in the party room of one of the bigger craft brewers over the Ohio River in Kentucky. It's all very exciting and our theme this year is "Steam Punk."

As I said, it was nice to see several old friends again who live a distance away. Among others, it was good to see Debra,Mickie, David, Ernie, Monica, Don, Casey and others. I also had a chance to meet a couple of other new attendee's Nikki and Katrina. 

After the ritual, we all sat down to eat and chat. It was nice when a couple people asked me about my weekend of experiences at this years' Trans Ohio Symposium. Liz was fueling the fire when she had to describe my drunken attack by a guy at Club Diversity when I was leading the conversation towards being interviewed for a book on transgender history. It was interesting trying to describe how the person doing the interview preferred pronouns were "they, them and their."

All in all, the weather was very nice and the day was outstanding.

The Effects

I fear not many really care about the effects of the senseless transgender military ban instigated by the "liar in chief" in the White House. To spotlight the issue, I found this article from the Annapolis, Maryland Gazette and Selene San Felice 

Alice Ashton and Deidre Hendrick

It concerns two transgender women struggling to fight the ban as it goes into full gear.

The article provides great insight into the timing and struggle around the ban and is worth a good read.

Follow the link above to read it.

A Busy Sunday

Saturday was a typical day, running errands and thinking about our transgender - cross dresser social on Friday night.

Friday night was fairly normal too, with the usual suspects attending. Approximately fourteen mixed in with a transgender guy, and a couple cis women. Ironically, for once, there were almost as many cross dressers as trans women. It didn't really matter, as everyone conducted themselves in a respectful manner.

Saturday, per norm, I accompanied Liz to her martial arts class and ran into one of her co-horts whom I know to a fact is a member of my support group. He must be a part time closeted cross dresser. I don't know what was wrong with him (or me) yesterday. For once I tried to be nice and speak to him but was repulsed by his head to toe inspection of me and a scowl. So much for that idea. However, he was counter balanced by Liz's instructor who said hello with a big smile.

As always, grocery shopping and other errands went on without incident. Maybe the closeted cross dresser was jealous I am living my real life, or he didn't like I was not dressed "up" to his standards.

Today, Liz is hosting a ritual circle for our group. A chance again to see my "adopted" Mom. I doubt today if my hair will pass her inspection since it has been awhile since I have been to my hair dresser. But again, we will see.

Jen Richards

Jen Richards is a transgender activist, writer, actress, and producer. Richards was born in Mississippi and resides in North Carolina. She graduated from Shimer College with a BA in Philosophy, and studied at Oxford University.

Are You a Pioneer...or Just Old?

As I have mentioned before here in Cyrsti's Condo, one of the pleasant surprises coming from this years' Trans Ohio Symposium was the influence of transgender history. And yes, my age made me all of a sudden relevant again. My experiences with many of the younger transgender women and men I had met had led me to feel otherwise. So it was good to feel accepted again.

Surely though, even with the current setbacks from the Liar in Chief in the White House, our present has changed considerably. Check out this comment from Connie which came from my Grand daughter's highly androgynous Prom outfit which basically was a tuxedo with heels:

"Well, there you go! Give yourself some credit for raising an accepting daughter, as well as finally being your true self - which has certainly served to break down some of the barriers that used to stifle gender expression. Although I don't see myself as a pioneer or hero within the trans community, I do take solace in the fact that living completely as the woman I was born to be has led to more acceptance by most of the people with whom I've had contact. It's the same for you, I'm sure. Oh, but such changes we've seen over the past seventy years or so!"

Thanks for the compliment! Needless to say, I am so proud of her! :)

 Of course, advances in the LGBT culture are more likely to occur in more liberal areas of the country than others. For example, I live in a fairly liberal suburb of Cincinnati but if you travel a mere ten miles or so East of us attitudes definitely change. 

On a bigger scale, if you live in an area such as Seattle where Connie lives is decidedly more liberal for transgender individuals than say, Arkansas where trans minister Elijah Walker

Elijah Walker

is trying to make a difference. check out the story here. Thanks to Bobbie for sharing.