Asian Montage

On the Cyrsti's Condo big screen a montage of Asian transgender and cross dressing women:

Keeping Abreast of the Situation

To have or not to have - is a huge question in the transgender as well as the mainstream cultures. Specifically, trans women can't wait to experience the thrill of developing their own breasts trans men the exact opposite. None of this is a big secret.

The Times of India though recently ran an article called "The Booby Trap". Interestingly "The Booby Trap" starts with the recent news of Angelina Jolie's New York Times piece on how she underwent a double mastectomy to reduce her risk of developing breast cancer and then begins to look at the process from a transgender man's point of view. Here's an excerpt:

"Selvam, a 27-year-old transgender male from Tamil Nadu, lists the usual ruses preoperative men like him have to resort to conceal their breasts so they can pass off as men. "I started binding my breasts with bandage from the age of 18, but it restricted blood circulation and bruised my skin," he says. "I've now started wearing tight vests and multiple layers of clothing." He has also fashioned a prosthetic penis of cloth to make the semblance more credible. "There are some transmen I know who drink a lot of beer to develop a beer belly that will make the breasts less prominent."

This is just a short look into how "the other trans half" is subjected to the physical pain of transition. I can only say- with my very brief knowledge of having my own developing breasts, binding them would be no walk in the park. All of this proves once again trans men or trans women are so different but so similar in our paths we are taking.

To take a look at the rest of the article, go here. In the meantime, lets talk about that "beer belly"!

Military Support

Well not so much in this country.

Maybe a little more so in the UK? I'm sure my friend Paula from "across the pond" can shed quite a more light on the subject. I suspect as in this country, acceptance is mixed...not specifically in the military.

 In the meantime The Guardian recently ran this piece from Ayla Holdom. (right)  Ayla is a transsexual  search and rescue pilot in the Royal Air Force.  But when she began her gender transition, she was supported by friends and family and by her employer. Yet again she, like teacher Lucy Meadows, who killed herself in March, has had to endure articles full of hurt and spite. She argues for all transgender people to be treated with the dignity they deserve

 There is quite a bit of depth to this article which you can read here.

By the way, you may remember Ayla when she flew with Prince William's Crew in the RAF and made news when she was invited to the royal wedding! On the left, I'm sure you will agree is a very dramatic "before and after"!

Coming Soon to a Cyrst's Condo near You!

It seems my transgender journey these days is similar to some sort of an off the wall reality show called Planning the NEVER Dull Moment.

On the next episode this week we will watch Cyrsti as she takes another huge step out of her closet in her home town by going to an Equality meeting.  This is significant how?  My old self used to be a very active person in certain social groups who gave back plenty to the 70,000 peep old rust belt town in Ohio. If it helps you, I live in Springfield. One of a zillions Springfield's the country and not the home of Homer Simpson.

Several famous people though are from here such as the late Jonathan Winters and Lillian Gish who never claimed the place.  I was determined my female self was never going to claim it either but I have mellowed. First of all, I'm working on moving which really has nothing to do about this place as much as it does being with a person I love in a city I've always loved- Cincinnati.  Before I go though, I feel I owe my home one final shot at giving back to it.

In many ways, Springfield is no more than a snapshot of similar towns it's size in the Midwest.  We took the recent depression as hard as anyone in the country and have retained that good old "it's a great place to raise a family mentality".  Well, we are finding again maybe that's not so true for the LGBT community.  Especially for the silent transgender segment of the "T" which is bigger than Dick Nixon's maligned Silent Majority.

I've had enough and I wrote here how I was astounded at how invisible my transgender woman friend and I were at a public Equality Springfield meeting a couple months ago. So I joined. Put my money down and I am headed to one of their monthly meetings this Thursday. Regular membership meetings for those of you who don't know are a quality way to make yourself known to a group.  If you sacrifice your time to show up at a boring damn meeting to bitch about no recognition of the transgender community around here- you must mean it.

Plus, in an astounding move for a short term thinker like me, I plan on seeking out a representative from the church I was supposed to have grown up in. I mean, we went as a family but Dad's snoring took away a bit of the spirituality! Ironically, the church now (Methodist) is one of very few with courage enough to come out in support of the LGBT community here in town. I'm actually thinking of going there for a service in the future.

So boys and girls, that's our look at the Cyrsti's Condo programming guide.  Who would ever thought I would write a post referencing both Richard Nixon and Homer Simpson? No comment!

Reflections on the Water

Aren't words fun?
I was going to start this post off by saying I was on my back deck here in Cyrsti's Condo with a "hot steamy cup o joe" enjoying the view of the snow capped peaks in the distance.  Well, it's difficult to find much of a snow capped peak here in Ohio and during our humid summers we already have plenty of  steaminess to go around!

What I was going to do is catch you up where my life is right now.  I'm going to call this phase a very uncool "the elephant in the room" phase. Examples are as abundant as one of the not so dainty beasts coming through your living room.

Yesterday was my Granddaughter's birthday. I had the interesting choice to come as my real self (who everyone knows about) or my old self. For reasons I will get into, I chose my old self. For the most part I stayed with the old because of my youngest two grandson's (9 and 5).  They had friends at the party and my rule of thumb is to never cause them undue stress because of me.  My daughter, as I have mentioned many times and son in law, have done an amazing job informing grand kids of my transgender status. The other reason was less positive and more just me.

I have a genuine inherited deeply embedded streak in my personality which drives me to "play" with people's sensibilities at times.  Yesterday, among the people who knew I was trans-maybe three or four out of ten had ever seen the real me.  But, the others are seeing the changes of HRT and you can bet I was the subject of more than one or two conversations on the way home.  Something to the effect of my softer smoother skin, hairless arms, ponytail to the middle of my back and pierced ears. I dressed in my own "boy friend" jeans and a t-shirt which gave just the slightest hint of breast development and always stayed in the circles of women at the party.

Sure, I wanted to and could have tossed on some basic makeup to further the process with them.  On the other hand it's fun for me to play with whatever expectations they had or didn't have of seeing me again.  Far be it for me not part of their entertainment. I just thought they should be part of mine.

I guess being the elephant in the room is not so bad except I better step up my diet!

Quote of the Day

"A chance to fail on your own terms-is all you can ask for!"

Paraphrased:  Clint Eastwood

Androgyny in Vogue?

Well at the least,  androgynous super model Andrej Pejic Is posing almost nude in the Brazilian Vogue magazine!

That's in vogue - right?

Doll Love

Another kid who really missed not getting dolls for Christmas growing up! On the Cyrsti's Condo big screen:

Is Cross Dressing Addictive?

Is cross dressing the equivalent of a "gateway" drug? Can it be compared to  the "supposed" connection between marijuana and more addicting drugs?
No! Just as the greatest majority of partakers of the weed never venture into the destructive worlds of cocaine and heroine-just as many cross dressers never take the step into transsexualism.

Just for the sake of discussion though how would our lives have been if we presented as well as the "CD to TS" transition video I'm going to present on the Cyrsti's Condo big screen. Here is my disclaimer though...in no way do I think appearance leads to a transgender or transsexual life. It's much deeper than that. Now on to You Tube: