Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Fear and the "Immoral Right".

Stories like this just have to send denizens of the "immoral right" scurrying in fear. From the American Conservative:


"The billionaire retired U.S. Army colonel James Pritzker has announced he is a woman — Jennifer Natalya Pritzker. (left)  According to Crain’s Chicago Business, a memo dated Aug. 16 and sent to the Pritzker Military Library and Tawani Enterprises announced Pritzker’s name officially had been changed. “This change will reflect the beliefs of her true identity that she has held privately and will now share publicly,” the memo stated. “Pritzker now identifies herself as a woman for all business and personal undertakings.” Pritzker’s father was the late Robert Pritzker. Robert Pritzker founded Marmon Group, a manufacturing and industrial conglomerate. Her uncles founded the Hyatt Hotel chain."

For a hot second the right must have thought when Bradley Manning hitched his blond wig to the transgender coat tails they had a chance to gain on us again.

Thanks to Jennifer though, who decided to step up and not to be a "stealth queen", the immoral right was struck another blow. Plus, she is yet another transgender veteran.  Thanks Jennifer!


Cyrsti'sCondo "Quote of the Day"


This morning I was stuck in a huge line (not moving) waiting to pay for my coffee and I sent out a "S.I.S" alert:

S.I.S = Stuck in Stupid.

Cyrsti Hart

Tuesday, August 27, 2013

"TranSexy" Model Call

US clothing brand American Apparel put out a casting call for transgender and transsexual models in New York over the weekend for an upcoming campaign.

The open call for  ‘Transexy models" was posted on the companies  Instagram page  and said:  ‘American Apparel is looking for transgender/transsexual models. Ages 16 and up. No experience necessary. Wear simple fitted clothing that exemplifies your personal style and no visible makeup or hair products.'

I thought the last sentence was very interesting and love the "transexy" term which finally gives credit to the inner beauty of a transgender woman - taking a step away from the boy/girl runway models and stealth queens.

To Be or Not to Be Vietnam's Transgender Top Model?

Vietnam has a version version of America's Next Top Model which of course accepts transgender participants like Isis King and Virgg. (right)

Vietnam also has a problem now that transgender women such as Phuong Tran (below) are trying to break the trans barrier and compete on the show.

Here's the problem: So far, candidates have been excluded but the Performing Arts Agency will still have review and handle the cases.

The organizers of the Vietnam's Next Top Model are alleged to have violated the rules of their own. According to the rules of the program, the contestants must not be transgender. But there is more fine print:

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nhan, from the Performing Arts Agency, said the Decree 79 on performing arts, fashion shows, beauty contests and modeling, in beauty contests--the contestants must have natural beauty, meaning no cosmetic surgery but the modeling contests do not have this provision. So the above rules on transgender participants are stipulated by the Vietnam’s Next Top Model organizing board.

What this means is The Performing Arts Agency has asked the organizers of the Vietnam's Next Top Model 2013 to explain about the participation of transgender contestants, which is a violation to the contest’s rules.

There of course is more on the VietNamNet Bridge site here.

We Got Mail!

I grabbed my hammer and screw driver and went down to out fancy high tech Cyrsti's Condo mailbox and found several quality comments- including one that said a post was "a load of crap".  That's cool, the bathroom here in the Condo is down the hallway on the left.

The others though were more informative and covered a couple different topics.

The first was on a subject near and dear to many of us, Halloween from Michellewhois:


"Ah Halloween that time of the year that so many look forward to. I for one used to look forward to it when I was younger. My first attempt to dress on Halloween was when I was 9 and dressed as the Fairy from the show Rocky and Bullwinkle -Fractured Fairy tales (talk about dating myself). The second years was as a princess. It was my female friend that helped me that year and she showed me how beautiful I was. Talk about memory lane."

Michelle, rumor has it I might remember Rocky and Bullwinkle! What a great costume idea and memory! Thanks!

Michelle also is a transgender veteran and weighed in on the Bradley Manning debacle:

"I spent 24 years in the military and lived with my Gender Dysphoria and not once ever felt the need to expose military secrets that I was aware of. I lived with fear of discovery, several beatings that I could never report and being ostracized by my "supposed" compatriots. I just recently read a news article, written by a a reporter who transitioned in the 90's. The article, brought out a very valid point of how Manning's declaration of being trans may hurt trans-folks that are still serving. Many of us were starting to see a glimmer of hope but now it may be the smoldering fire that will consume us. He (and I for one will never acknowledge HIM as anything but a HIM) has done more harm than just the release of classified information. He has solidified the trans community as something to be feared. The latest name is "TRANS-TRAITOR". It's hard enough for a trans-vets to get help while serving. Let alone having the military to use HIM as an excuse to further persecute trans on To "She" or not to "She" Chelsea"

As did Hailey:
"In all honesty, I think this story is doing much more harm than good to the trans community. The sooner it fades from the headlines, the better."

As you ladies know, I agree and I can think of nothing recently which has infuriated me more. I would suppose separating the gender issue completely out of the process, the scariest part of this to me was "back in the day" I encountered troops who were intellectually or emotionally unable to even cover me on a live practice range.  Now for one of those people to turn up and be a Bradley Manning was just too much.

He tried to take down TWO cultures, the military and now the transgender nation. Tragic.


Monday, August 26, 2013

Cyrsti's Condo "Horror Scope"!

Or should I say The Crysti's Condo Horror Scope since I am one those insufferable, overbearing fans of THE Ohio State Buckeyes and college football starts this week. Another huge fan of the Buckeyes, Bobbie, has been pushing me to mention them! She lives somewhere in the hitherlands of upstate New England and also is a groupie of one of the Mountain Men guys from Maine!

Before this whole post goes down in a ball of flame, here's the "scope" from theFrisky:

Libra (September 23-October 22): Be too busy with your friends to worry about where and what your relationship is doing. Not that it’s going to be so bad, but you will be best in group settings and it’ll make that special someone realize how vital you are. Avoid thinking of anything too personally, as intimate environments can get a bit smothering and could cause you to act up. Spread your love.

Ironically, this is about the third "scope" in a row that I'm "taking the fifth" and not commenting or telling you all what kind of "fifth"it is!

The next knock on the Condo door would be Bobbie with her shot glass wanting to share!

A "Lucky" Break?

This story proves my theory that in order to be "Lucky" you have to work hard to make it happen!

From The Hindu:

"For Lucky (left), life changed after a call from the channel, offering an opportunity to anchor the 30-minute crime news bulletin. “I was surprised at the chance to appear on television and was very apprehensive initially,” says the transgender who resides near Dhoolpet."

She went on to comment:


“This is an opportunity to prove that we are also equally talented,” says Lucky who has also participated in fashion shows at the national level. “There is no need for society to look down upon transgenders,” Lucky says, adding, “I hope my appearance on television will inspire my community to look at life and opportunities differently.”

You do indeed make your own luck!

Flying High with "Skyler"!

From Georgia and the Transadvocate comes this story about a young transgender girl by the name of Skyler. (left)

Unfortunately she doesn't represent the majority of transgender youth but she does symbolize what can happen in a loving understanding family with the resources to help. Here's a little background:

Skylar, is a twelve-year-old transgender girl in Georgia, who earlier had been denied use of the girls’ restroom at her school. (of course) But sometime later,  the administration had listened to reason and reversed the school’s decision. A few days ago, Skylar returned now is back to school and is being treated the same as the other girls in her classes.

From the article and the pictures, it seems Skylar is doing well and has gotten out ahead of the "puberty curve" with blockers which keep her from developing male characteristics. Which I understand are not permanent if later she decides the male to female transition process was not the right move.

In the meantime her story brings to mind a comment a person sent along to me recently about the feminine imprint genetic girls naturally receive early in life. The picture to the right of Skyler (center) her younger sister Sylvie and Jazz (another trans girl) seems to show a strong imprint.


Interestingly, the idea of the permanency of gender imprinting has come up in other discussions I have seen and been in concerning SRS transsexuals later in life. Do they indeed revert back to their male past on occasions? Is it bad and does the imprinting slowly fade like a bad tattoo?

Who knows? Depends upon the person.  The only certainty is having the freedom of gender choice and the resources to pursue the journey with care and guidance is special.  Unfortunately the door is closed so tightly to so many.

The "Bearded Stalker"

I decided to write a small follow up post to my "Queen" epic here in Cyrsti's Condo.  Which by the way elicited a comment from Brianna Austin about the quest to be a princess rather than a queen!

Depending on who you talk to, beard removal is one of the unpleasant, rather costly undertakings of transitioning male to female.Therein lies two of my problems and explains why I have not gone down the path of electrologist or laser treatments.

First of all, I don't have the spendable income to start the process and secondly I have a huge adversion to pain or discomfort!

Again, Momma Karma has dealt me a fairly decent hand.  I have never been a "Grizzly Adams" type person. The best facial hair I could ever really muster was in the "before" picture of me here in the blog. Now of course much of my facial hair is gray too which means laser removal wouldn't do much.

Now I view the process as a necessary evil of my transgender status and am careful to keep a smooth face. I have not however ruled out "hitching up my big girl panties in the future" and seriously getting involved in an electrologist program- when funds permit.

In the meantime, I just wanted to pass along a bit more information about my "bearded stalker".


What Would Mom Say

Image from Jenna Norman on UnSplash This week my question to answer on the year long bio I am writing for my daughter and family as well as ...