Thanks Michelle-Halloween II-not the Movie

Michelle commented on my "Halloween Post"

" Sorry to disagree, but I have NEVER tried any sort of "drag" halloween costume. It has ALWAYS been a big joke for halloween when any male dresses as ANY form of female. Halloween is my favorite holiday because I put on a huge display in my yard for the neighborhood. Except that hurricane Sandy killed that this year. I have had very sincere friends ask if I had ever done "drag" before and I NEVER have. I NEVER want my female presentation to be even the slightest fodder for humor. This is my life and it is not funny in any way."

 Number one...I agree with you too. I guess I should have offered a little more information.

 My costumes were never designed as being "drag".  Looking back on all the experiences, most were an attempt at presenting myself as a convincing women to the public for the first times in my life.
Ironically, I met my first wife at a Halloween party and ended up coming out to her a couple weeks later and she is the mother of my daughter who so accepts me today. My second wife and I's first big date or so was a Halloween block party. At yet another party, I was approached by a fledgling politician and wife to "go partying with them" at a few other places. That was after they found out I was a guy. They didn't know. Of course he went on to a long and successful political career. They went to Washington and no I didn't go with them.
Another time Halloween happened to fall during a week I was out of town training for a new job and I went to a big straight club's party to see how well it would go and I seemed to fit in quite well. After all, if I was spotted as a guy in heels and mini- it was my costume! Outside of hands straying places on my rear as I walked through the crowded room- the only major reaction was from the girl at the door who carded me.

Halloween just offered me a door to get out and see what I was about...I went to the parties to see how well I could do as a girl and found there was a chance...

Back to you Michelle, I have often wished I too could enjoy Halloween more for the fun although I did used to do some real scary haunted houses as a Santa with a chain saw character.
By the way, your "two cents" is worth quite a bit more!

It's just that I never wanted my presentation to be one of humor either...and it turned out it wasn't!

The True Meaning of Halloween

Yes, it is the official Halloween.
Time to look at the defacto top annual holiday of most trans and cross dressers  I have known-including me.
Unless you are one the transsexuals who knew from an early youth without a doubt who you were in the gender world, Halloween presented a rite of passage for most of the rest of us.
Parties of course provided the chance for us to open the door and check out the world from a gender perspective we had only dreamed of. Some of us were sly and even used the opportunity to have genetic women around us unknowingly "show them the ropes" leading to the night of their dreams.
Countless others of us learned how those sexy heels you just had to wear became very uncomfortable- as much so as explaining how long it took to shave your legs and who did your makeup.
But through it all, so many of us just knew this felt more than good- it felt right.
The true meaning of Halloween!

I Ru The Day

Very few things make me recoil as bad as RuPaul. To me the "thing" represents a huge part of what I'm fighting against as a transgender women in today's society and specifically in the LGB world.
Ever the one to joke at our expense to make a ratings point or an extra buck...the thing did it again last night:


Last night, October 29th 2012, on RuPaul’s All Star’s Drag Race, gay male entertainer RuPaul once again used his show as a bully pulpit to mock and misrepresent what the medical condition transsexualism actually is, despite the last few years of transsexual and transgender advocates protesting his use of offensive pejoratives such as “tra**y” and “she-male” . Comedienne Vicki Lawrence asked, “Hey Ru, what’s the difference between a drag queen and a transsexual?” RuPaul laughingly replies, “About twenty-five thousand dollars and a good surgeon.” Ha ha Pauly...old joke buddy...ha ha...have a sense of humor Cyrsti. I do. But I'm tired of this jerk even having a platform to open his clueless mouth at the expense of us. This fake makes my skin crawl and has for a while!

.Here's what you can do.
TAKE ACTION In 3 Steps:
 1: BOYCOTT RuPaul’s Drag Race: - Urge your friends and family to stop watching this show -
 Post MAGNET’s boycott announcment in your social networking sites and email to ally groups: Link
2: JOIN CONVERSATION: - Join Facebook Group: ‘Boycott RuPaul’s Bullying, Transsexual-phobia & Misgendering’ :
 3: WRITE & CALL RuPaul & His Production Company, World of Wonder Productions: - EMAIL World of Wonder Productions CEOs Randy Barbato and Fenton Bailey: Barbato: rbarbato@worldofwonder.net Bailey: fbailey@worldofwonder.net - ADDRESS (World of Wonder): 6650 Hollywood Blvd # 400. Hollywood, CA, 90028. - TELEPHONE (World of Wonder): 323-603-6300

 For more information/press inquiries: Contact MAGNET: MAGNET.Advocacy@gmail.com Media Advocates Giving National Equality to Transsexual & Transgender People (MAGNET) is an anti-defamation organization dedicated to educating the media about transsexual, transgender & intersex issues, as well as pushing for more authentic and positive portrayals of transsexual, transgender & intersex people in the media.

I would call for boycotts or protests of Vicki Lawrence's career but if she is on with thing there is nothing left of her career to boycott.

Stepping Up In India

Kalki Subramaniam is a journalist, writer, actor and activist. She holds two masters: in Journalism and Mass Communication and International Relations. Now, she is an entrepreneur. She is also a transgender. That makes her, she says, India's first transgender entrepreneur.

Rediff.com recently published an interview with this great transgender role model. Read it here.

Trans Kids Update

Way back in the year of the force 2007, Barbara Walters and ABC produced a show which focused on the lives of transgender children such as Jazz (above).
From Transgriot:

"This Friday Barbara will visit the trans kids and their families that were interviewed for that 2007 show and find out what is transpiring in their lives five years later. One of those adorable trans kids was Jazz, and she'll be part of this broadcast. It's slated to be televised November 2 from 10-11 PM EDT on your local ABC station. It is sweeps month, so count on the trans themed programming to flood the airwaves for a few weeks."

Monica Roberts (Transgriot) has the videos from the previous shows here.

Is the Transsexual Grass Greener?

Every now and then we see a story where a transsexual person has decided the "change" wasn't for them and want to try to move back to their birth gender. Normally they are older people and even the most insensitive of us all are right to think "well good luck". When the extreme gender dysphoria occurs in a younger person then my heart goes out to them.
From the UK and Parent Dish comes the story of Ria Cooper:


"Britain's youngest sex-swap patient has decided she want to go back to being a boy – because she experiences too many mood swings as a girl. Ria Cooper, 18, from Hull, has had thousands of pounds worth of NHS treatment involving hormonal injections to turn her from a boy into a girl. But the hormones affected her so badly that she attempted suicide twice. Ria, formerly known as Brad, lives her life as a female. She has developed breasts, wears her hair in a feminine bob and has dated several young men. But now she questions whether she was too young to be allowed to swap sexes in the first place."


She started hormone treatment when she was 17, making her the youngest ever patient in the UK to receive such treatment. But she says her decision has had disastrous consequences. She has fallen out with family, got into dangerous situations with men and even worked as a prostitute. She is booked in for the full transgender operation in January but now says she will no longer go ahead with it. She said: "I just can't be what I want to be. My mum Elaine loves and supports me as much as she can, yet she doesn't allow me to live at home any more. My dad barely speaks to me and says I'm an embarrassment. "I think as the only boy in the family he thought I'd follow him into the steel business and pictured us working out together at the gym. "Obviously it s not turned out like that. I don't know who I can trust as friends. I feel really, really alone." The Sunday Mirror said that critics warned two years ago that Ria's tender years meant she was too young to make the decision to become a woman."

All of this begs the question, where does she go now? No family or friends? Hopefully this publicity will enable her to reach out to people who can really help her.

Quote of the Day

"It's a great plan till someone punches you in the face."   Mike Tyson
Words to live by from a great philosopher!

Are We All Transgender Activists?

In this age of extreme media in every area of our lives it's easy to be a trans activist- or be confused with one.
Then again, what exactly defines a trans activist? Let's use transgender broadcaster Eden Lane as an example.
She was interviewed recently by Michelangelo Signorile:

“Once in a while, I may be asked to identify myself and make a statement in a certain way, I think that would undermine the meaning of my work, not just for my work's sake, but for the very reason they're wanting to identify me as a transgender broadcaster. If I were to make political statements, then that undermines my credibility as a journalist. And if that's the point, that I'm a journalist first, and that people are tuning in to watch my program not because I'm talking exclusively about LGBT issues, but all sorts of things, then for me to step up and try to be a political figure would undermine that work and really rob us all of a chance to have a different kind of example available.”

So of course in certain circles in the transgender community I have seen Eden criticized for not being a trans activist...Really? Isn't she the type of positive example we all need? She is a non stealth person just living her life as a real person-the perfect activist!

Take Care!

If you international friends don't know, a whole bunch of the USA is getting hammered hard by a combo monster hurricane mixed with an Artic cold front.

My message is to all of you in the grasp of Sandy, I wish you the best.

I'm on the very edge of it here in Southwest Ohio and we are still expecting 50 MPH winds.

Hopefully, Sandy will be nicer to you than expected- thinking about you!