Labored Day

Hard to believe but the last summer holiday of 2013 is rapidly drawing to an end.

My Labor Day this year is bittersweet in many ways.  Over the past 8 years or so, I've been instrumental in setting up and running a food concession at an historical reenactment. In essence, historical drag.  At the beginning of all of this of course I was younger and the whole two day event proved to be very fun and very profitable.  As with everything else over the years, things change.

To make a long story short, this very strong attachment to my past life is almost over, and it's time.  I've become a believer that Mamma Karma leads us in more than a couple ways.  Shock and awe- in what she can do in a short period of time is one and an even push in the back is another.  She pushed me this time to a point where even I can see the writing on the wall, in no uncertain terms.

The good part is my daughter's family (including grand kids) have an opportunity to continue this venture if they desire and there is a huge waiting list for any kind of a spot in this festival. The other plus is I don't have to worry again about any connections to a previous life and gender which is shrinking in my rear mirror.

The irony isn't lost on me either.  After 33+ years in the restaurant business, all of the summer holidays were no fun.  Often I worked all of them and they were extremely difficult to staff and plan for. Good weather you were slow and bad weather you were busy.  The rule of thumb was your guests were aggravated the last day of the weekend because they had to go back to work and the crew because they had to work it. Not a match made anywhere close to heaven.

So here I am, working the last summer day holiday of the season in the food business for the last time.  Plus it is the last hurrah for my life as be all do all male in that business.

Should I shed a tear? Perhaps, but then again, it's true that an end is just a new beginning and to be sure the tears may have flowed a bit as I wrote this.

I have to finish this though with one well worn line from my business past: the bottom line is "can the drama queen" effects Cyrsti,  this beginning happened a long time ago and the future looks so bright I have to wear shades!

Halloween Idea!

"Transgressive"

Any of you who have spent anytime around Cyrsti's Condo know I'm a transgender veteran and a huge fan of trans vet Autumn Sandeen.  Autumn is always modest enough to play down her role as a transgender veteran trail blazer within the VA. But she IS and uniquely qualified to speak on navigating the VA system. Often very different than "civilian health care".

Recently she wrote a post called Transgressive Health Care for the San Diego LGBT Weekly, centering of course on the VA and trans vets. Here's an excerpt:

"Even though I’m a kind and joy-filled person, I’m always prepared to deal with inappropriate comments or behavior from the government-employed health care services workers. I’m always ready to ask why a medical doctor, nurse or technician’s bigotry is getting in the way of treating a veteran with respect to their service. Yet, I’ve never had even one treat me with anything but the purest of professionalism at the Veterans Health Care Administration (VHA) or at the Navy Medical Center, and I’ve never had to challenge anyone on their bigoted speech or behavior.
Here in San Diego, I just haven’t experienced that kind of inappropriate behavior. That I’ve never had difficulties with those who provide health care services to veterans, that I’ve never had anything but positive experiences with those health care professionals, actually makes me a bit proud of those VHA and of those Navy Medical Center, San Diego employees. Here in our city, these folk have all served me as a retired and disabled service member with honor, respect and professionalism."

I agree with Autumn's description of the system. My VA center (Dayton, Ohio) is probably much smaller in scope than some. Because of that my only problems have come from Dayton not having a full time endocrinologist in the center.  I had to get permission to go outside the system.  My dealings with the people have been remarkable. I do know that all you trans vets do not have the same story.

Autumn's latest post was very important to me as it describes her experiences with a mammogram. You can read it by following the link above. A mammogram needs to be in my future because my maternal grandmother died from breast cancer.

Not that I'm surprised but when she went in for the mammogram, the questions such as "when was your last period" or " how many times have you been pregnant" , had no other options than a number.  By the time she left though Autumn had voiced her concerns about not including options for transgender or intersex persons and she was getting the form changed.

Indeed I probably will face the same issues with the intake form when I go for a mammogram and I will make the same suggestions.

In my own small way, my goal is to try to change the system for the future.  From the way it's looking, there could be many more trans vets coming soon!

I Loved Mud!

In my youth, the term "mud roller" was yet another term for certain girls that would...well...roll in the mud with you. Or so we thought.

Over the years, I became an admirer of mud rolling girls from afar. They carried a mix of independence, plus a touch of bad and a whole lot of attitude!

During all my pre transition relationships over many years, I was never able to really get to know a "roller" up close and personal. Oddly though, I always thought that deep down inside she was part of my soul.

She began to manifest herself in public during some of my earliest cross dresser meetings. Normally, I was the only non genetic girl there without a skirt or dress - much to the curiosity of the other participants. The comment was "I can wear pants all week long. Why would I want to wear them now?"  True, but as I came to realize, I wasn't cross dressing. I was expressing myself. I just didn't need the hose and heels to feel feminine. Jeans and boots were just fine!

Finding her wasn't easy.   But along the way, the more I transitioned the more the "roller" hung around for the ride and was very persistent today!

Here's what happened:


Approximately a week ago, I passed along a new fashion site I had discovered called Free People . I subscribed to their site and this morning on the first email I received, up pops a real live "mud roller" model.  Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I thought I would pass her picture along here in Cyrsti's Condo! (above right)

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

"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.