Supor Dad

On Father's Day I would be remiss in not passing this along if you haven't seen it:

"Filmmaker Sharon Shattuck hailed from a conservative Midwestern town where everyone knew everyone else’s business.  But she thought she had a secret: her dad was transgender.
Project Dad (working title), a Co-Production of Wicked Delicate Films (Co-creators of King Corn; The City Dark, The Greening of Southie), follows the filmmaker’s quest to understand her dad’s side of the story through a two-way dialogue.  At turns humorous and heartwarming, the film uses a mix of footage shot by the filmmaker, and point-of-view flip-camera footage shot by her subjects, to answer the question, “What does it take to be a family?”  Springing from her experiences growing up in a supportive family surrounded by outside misunderstanding, the filmmaker seeks out other children of non-traditional families, expectant LGBT parents, family law experts, and politicians from both sides of the fence, to craft a film that is national in scope, and centered on hope and redemption."

Here's the link for more!

Hey Dad!

It's Fathers Day and Dad you have been gone for almost a decade now. You had a life to be proud of, all 86 years of it.
You and the family survived the Great Depression and WWII. In many ways you were the "self made man."
No, you never really knew me but hey that's OK. It's hard to say where you would have taken my transgender status and it doesn't really matter now.
I guess you can say I followed in your footsteps to a degree and am making myself into the "un made man".
Right or wrong your genetic gifts sent me down a fierce path of perservance and discovery.
So on another Father's Day, I sit here thinking about you. In your own way, I'm sure you did love me but love was a four letter word in our family. (Never spoken.)
So the best I can hope for is that you would have seen I took the only path which felt right for me and at the least you would have been a little proud.

Behind Door Number 3....

I'm always flattered when somehow I trigger an intellectual response to the gender intensive lives we live.
In a second I will direct you to one such example from Sherri Lynne. 
I  asked her for her ideas on various life forms under the transgender umbrella.
First, a disclaimer/explanation of the evolution of this form known as Cyrsti's Transgender Condo.
Two years ago this whole exercise started as a documentation of my trip down gender lane-nothing more-nothing less. Not surprisingly, I found out a percentage of folks found my stories interesting and of course (more than a few) not so much.
As I started to be a bit of a Reader's Digest of our culture, of course I thought I would add a few of my own thoughts which pretty much brings us to where we are today. Of course I have my passions. Fortunately for all of you, I don't have the inclination or the background to embark on long in depth clinical discussions.
My goal has always been to provide a common look at our culture. Often it is not so easy. Pause for a moment and consider the problem of loosely describing a person's "genderality". Imagine adding transgender, transsexual, gender queer or cross dresser to every person's descriptor which you aren't sure of. Yet, here we are.
Now, I'm going to direct you here to Sherri Lynne for her take on the labels.
I love it when she calls me a muse instead of one that amuses!

A Bit of History

As she does so many times on her wonderful blog, Zagria's A Gender Variance Who's Who-
She really sent me down memory lane with her feature on female impersonator star "Kim August".
For those of you "more mature" trans readers, you may remember her. She was one of the few performers who made it main stream enough so even I had heard of her in my conservative pre internet world.
Go here 
to check it out!

When you Hot-You Hot!!!

Just had to pass along this photo of "Carmen Carrerra", the transsexual woman involved in the "Cake Boss" fiasco on TLC Network.

Carmen Carrrera

New Post over There!

Just posted a new post over at "TG Reporter"!
If you would like to check it out, go here.
Just go to the bottom left of the page for my column.
Thanks!

Transsexual Courage Under Fire

Surely it seems the path to coming out as a transsexual firefighter would be an exceptionally difficult journey.
Recently the "Fire 20/20" site featured an article by Lana Moore.
Here's an excerpt:

"On the wall at my engine house hangs a large framed photo featuring the silhouette of a firefighter against vivid flames. Underneath is a caption that reads: “Courage comes from a reserve of mind more powerful than outside circumstances.”  As emergency first responders we are often lauded for our courage following some bold public act, yet I believe that the hardest courage is sometimes being brave enough to be honest with yourself.

Coming out as a male to female transsexual on the fire department wasn't easy. Wow, that's an understatement if ever there was one. In fact, for the longest time, not only did I think it would be extremely difficult, I believed it impossible. Having been on female hormones for two years, my physical transformation was well under way. I had recently separated from my wife and our marriage dissolution was pending. I decided that it was time to make my announcement and begin living socially and professionally as a woman, but I was convinced that there was no reality for me where I could be true to myself and also keep my job as a Fire Captain."

Check out the link for more of this wonderful story!

"Title of the Day"!

Internalized Transphobia: Butch Worship and the Misogyny of Femme Bashing.

No comment-"I doesn't know it?"

Never Too Old!

From the Shanghaiist comes this story called
"Man enough to be a woman". Here's an excerpt:

"Qian Jinfan (钱今凡), a 84-year-old calligrapher, art critic and retired government official based in Foshan, has become China's oldest openly transgender individual, after outing herself in an an exclusive interview with the Southern Metropolitan Daily, in her bid to promote understanding of transgenders in China."

Although I know many  in our community scorn so called "late bloomers" such as Qian (and I) it's a tribute to transgender individuals of any age to finally be able to persue their gender quest and it's a bigger tribute to those who go public with their lives!