Playing by the Numbers.

Without getting too political, one of the presidential candidates recently referred to a certain 47% of the population he wasn't concerned about. Unfortunately, I fall into his "47". I'm on Social Security and I receive Veterans Administration health benefits.
Then I read this huge Gallop Poll tossing me into the three percent or so of Americans who are LGBT. I really don't know what all of that means to me or that I should care.
I was curious about the 3 percenters this morning when I stopped by a thrift store on the way back from my daughter's.
The reason I was curious is this store is huge but was almost empty. I estimate there were only ten or so shoppers in the whole place and three of them were men shopping exclusively in the women's clothes. Hmmmm- Now I will give you the fact that a guy could be shopping for an outfit in one of the large women's retail stores but not so much in a thrift store. Here honey "happy birthday" -check out this deep discount used sweater! Now there are great clothes and values to be found in these stores and I shop them a lot. I do not think a man just happened in to shop for women's clothes there.
Also this morning, one guy was going through the dress rack in earnest and even stopped a clerk to inquire about a size. The other guy had a whole arm load of clothing-was wearing shorts with hairless legs. I know it's just Halloween?
My only point is from my own personal survey this morning, maybe Gallop missed a large segment of the population who identify as cross dressers and normally are very deeply closeted.
If they added a "C" to the LGBT count, maybe all my numbers would total up to over 50 percent!
Oh wow! I'm finally validated!!!! Yay!

Gender Not Important?

When do you reach a point where gender isn't all that important anymore?
I'm guessing when you reach a point where you do care or not that society views you as your chosen gender. You just live it.
The only reason I bring this up is (for my enjoyment) I once again jumped into the transgender versus rad fem debate on a blog.
Being the contentious person I am, I just said don't all of you have a real life? Of course I was labeled a troll and told to crawl back under the rock I came out from under.
I was devastated! I have spent years making my area under the rock liveable and I have most of the comforts of home such as running water, electric and of course the all important computer access. It was not easy kicking all the snakes, spiders and snails out of here!
Actually, the whole affair saddens me- but not enough to realize they all are sitting ducks on the pond. So easy to stir up when I am bored.
I've taken 63 years to get to the point of just being comfortable with me-transgender or not.
I know that on occasion I'm naive. I was fairly certain most peeps come to some sort of peace with who they are even if they aren't transgender or transsexual or whatever.
I guess I was wrong. Excuse me while I clean the cave!

Your Transition Tube

As you all know, every now and then I like to pass along a YouTube Video which seems to stand out from the rest of the huge number of transgender transition vids. I so wish the medium would have been around in the "dark information" ages when I grew up!

Anjali Lama

Anjali...Nepal's first transgender model!

"Trans-tainment Tonight"

From the UK: "X-Factor's" Rylan Clark kissing a transgender model who looks suspiciously like Andrej Pejic. (She isn't)

Transition on Duty

More and more stories are coming out considering transgender and transsexual veterans.
Most of course are from veterans who are no longer in the service. We are still deemed unfit for service by the US Military.
Recently, The Army Times ran a story about a trans man who is beginning his transition on duty-in Afganistan.

Here's part of the story:

"She’s a lesbian, and almost everyone in her unit knows it. She wears her hair cropped short and has a distinctly boyish appearance. And she’s becoming manlier by the day, now that she’s started taking male hormones. Call her Keith. That’s the name this 26-year-old specialist, now deployed to Afghanistan, plans to take when she completes a transition begun several months ago when she started giving herself testosterone injections every other week, under the direction of a civilian doctor who specializes in gender changes. “It’s going well. My voice is deeper, I’m getting more muscle. I feel more energy. I feel more like myself,” she told Military Times in a recent interview via Skype from her containerized housing unit in Afghanistan. Keith declined to be identified by her real name because under military policy, troops diagnosed with “gender identity disorder” are deemed medically unfit for service and face administrative separation. The repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in September 2011 cleared the way for gay troops to serve openly but did not address transgender individuals, def
ined as people who don’t identify with their birth gender."

Of course there is so much more to this story and you can read it here.

Plans A, B and R

As I think back on the last four or five days, I would be remiss in not bringing this up from my trans girl road trip.

First of all, forget about plan A and B- lets go straight to the "R"...for rest room of course.
Going into this venture I thought I had one pretty secure plan"R". The bus of course would have a unisex toilet. As in the best laid plans of transgender folk everywhere-the bus restroom was pretty much declared off limits and the driver would pull into rest stops along the way. Scratch that plan!

My added problem is I take "Spiro". For those of you who take or have heard about Spiro. it's a drug which is commonly prescribed in HRT as a testosterone blocker. Well it also is a blood pressure drug which also makes you pee- a lot on occasion.
So here I was, stuck between the bus and the "R" place- down the road.

I felt another factor would be the average age of the women on the bus who were older than even me. My theory has always been the older the woman the less understanding they are about a transgender girl in the rest room. However,  it was time to hitch up my "big girl panties" and get with the program as alternatives were basically none. (The men's room or the woods?)

So here I was, not only using the women's room with at least 35 women who had to pee as bad as I did but standing in line with them.  I tried to not show the abject panic I was feeling as minutes turned to hours waiting for a stall to open.

Amazingly enough, I lived through the first experience and the second, third and so on. The reasons were very simple actually: extreme need and new hair. I can't and won't tell you wearing my own hair makes me this beautiful creature but it does give me relevance.

I also can't tell you I ever lost my rest room paranoia on the trip or perhaps ever will but I was able to not let it ruin the rest of the experience. In itself a major victory!

Horror Scope

I knew my run of crazed "Horror Scopes" in Cyrsti's Condo would continue somehow- even though this one goes in an opposite direction!


Don’t ignore the obvious, no matter how sweet you want that someone or something to really be. Facts don’t lie. Just own up to it now, as the price to pay only disrupts others and you’re already in the red in terms of karma coming to save your ass from your current turmoil. So, message of the week: Reboot! Reboot!

Really? I need my ass saved a lot!
Sort of reminds me of the one of the old WWII Submarine movies. Dive! Dive!

As always, "Horror Scope" is my term. You can do to Friskyscopes to get yours!!!

Getting "Weepy"

Damn hormones! Here I was actually needing my soft sweater jacket not for fashion-I was getting chilly. The next thing you know I will be jumping from the summer furnace I experienced into the winter freezer I really never have.  Over the years, I have loved cold weather. Be careful what you hope for? Kidding, I love I'm experiencing what I hoped for but never really understood. Specifically unexpected weepiness in this case.  I don't even really know if it's a word but it sure visited during a show we went to on the tour.
The show was country/gospel and mountain orientated which sort of fit where we were in the mountains of West Virginia (DUH!) Certain musical numbers for some reason sent me into an elevated emotional state and yes a few tears followed.
Fortunately it was dark in the place and I really didn't want to be the only person in the place crying-female or male or transgender. All was good...until:
At the end of the show, the performers wanted to thank all the veterans in the audience. Please hold your hand up if you are a veteran. My friend jabbed me in the side until I did raise my hand. OK, no big deal. I survived until..."all you veterans stand so we can thank you!" Well, I really didn't want to stand for not the reason you think but guess what-I did-to stop the abuse to my side.
Oh, one more thing I neglected to mention. Not only did the transgender girl end up sitting in the front row, I was in the middle of the front row. Where the hell was Jimmy Buffet when I needed him? But I digress.
I'm sort of funny about my Vietnam Vet status for a number of reasons which I won't bore you with. Mainly my deal is that as a group we were swept under the rug like the war itself and don't get me started on the mistreatment of Viet Vets affected by Agent Orange.
So being singled out and thanked for my service is as foreign to me as going in the first place and you thought standing as a transgender person would bother me.
I had to say, standing was easier than being drafted and I only had one very elderly lady thank me for my service in WWII. (Kidding-I hope!)