It's a "Boo ti Ful" Day in Cyrsti's Condo

Well, it's Boo-ti-ful" in and outside too.  Gray skies, storms and high winds tonight to the extent the kids Trick or Treating my be canceled.

I will have a final "Best of" Halloween experience to pass along, but first a couple comments too:

From Billie: I also got stoned and I certainly did not miss him, either! His was THE message for the times! Especially, "Walk on the Wild Side"! He will be greatly missed by me and hopefully his message will be passed along.

 RIP Lou!!  You are so right Billie, the first time I heard part of the verse which said "shaved his legs and then he was a she" I was driving and about wrecked the car!

Plus a costume idea from Pat:  " I plan to dress and do a bit of a pub crawl for Halloween. One place that I will hit will be having Karaoke tonight. In the past I have done songs such as Lola by the Kinks and Dylan's Just like a Woman but I have shied away from trying "Wild Side". Perhaps tonight?"

Sure why not!!! Just remember the old bar saying, "You can judge how fast the beer bottle is coming at you from the sound of it's whup, whup!"

Finally, under "it's a small world" thought from Paula in the UK:

Oh no, now you have said that you have reminded me of doing my paper round early in the morning when no one else was around, wearing tights (pantihose) and a gym slip which I had "acquired" , If only Id known then what I know now.  You got me on that one, woman!  I don't recall adding the extra "fashion" accessories you did!

Paula, from bathroom wall graffiti to paper "rounds" we seem to share a lot of common history.

As always, thanks for the comments and we will do Halloween in the next post!

Stuck in the Middle with "Exy"

One of the more androgynous individuals around, is Exy Davis. Even I had a difficult time saying "Exy" was cross dressed for either of these pictures!

Walked on the "Wild Side"

Of course I noticed immediately the passing of Lou Reed, of the Velvet Underground fame. Lou Reed appeared on the scene as I was questioning my gender identity seriously for the first time.  I say seriously because down deep I knew cross dressing was just not going to be an end all solution for me but I was afraid to look at other alternatives which would effectively change my life forever.

Lou Reed

Reed's biggest hit "Walk on the Wild Side" hit the charts in 1972, and homosexuality was still classified as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association In the middle of all of this  "The Wild Side" hit the airwaves and was.famously written about a gay hustler and several trans people, including his friend and Warhol-muse Candy Darling.

It is important to note Lou Reed had more than a commercial or passing interests in transgender women. He  had his own personal trans muse in the form of Rachel, a Mexican hairdresser variously described as transvestite and transsexual by her contemporaries. Rachel and Reed appeared  to have been lovers for much of the 70s and fans suggest she inspired some of his greatest work.

Quite possibly though, Lou Reed's greatest gift to the transgender community is he outed us all to the world.  All of a sudden we existed.  Plus, many of us were very exotic and even cool!

At the time,  Lou Reed was yet another exciting influence for me during a time of flux in my life. I was graduating college and into the Army and I most of the time I joked and said, "I got stoned and missed him"- but the opposite was true.

 I hope his final "Walk on the Wild Side" is a good one!  RIP Lou!

Read more on Lou Reed courtesy of Paris Lees ... here.

Halloween Cross Dressing Caption

DAMN Dad! Isn't November 15th a little late for a Halloween Party?
I'm getting tired of shopping with you every day for a costume!  

You probably have seen the different cross dresser "caption" sites here and there.  Personally I have never been a big fan of captions because for once, I'm into to more of a reality look at transgender women and transgender men than fantasy captions.

I was however going through my older pix and found this one which I thought would make a great Halloween caption.  The blond is rumored to actually be a Dad spending quality time with daughter.

Cyrstio's Condo "Trans Beauties"

Kendra Mondragon:

We "Gotz" Mail!

Thanks as always to all of you who sent in your usual wonderful thoughtful comments to the high tech Cyrsti's Condo mail center!

Paula, along with Vicki is one of the girls from the UK who commented on the differing use of Tranny across the pond. She said she always thought first of a transistor radio. I could comment Paula of a kid doing his paper route with a transistor radio rocking the Beatles but that would age me!

Paula also commented on the "Beeb" (the BBC) being a more reliant news and information source due to no reliance on advertisers. Speaking of our own network with very little advertising (PBS), for some unknown reason my quirky mind has become addicted to their opening news sound.  It's aired at a pre butt crack of dawn hour of 6 am and is a shorter version of the "Beeb" channel I get on my satellite provider. My dog has not adjusted to me "beeping" along with the opening sound. I have not adjusted to being up that early for no real reason.

Leanne commented on my "Don't Hate me Post":

"Please do not dwell on those that do not understand you be they cis, trans, or in between (which is probably where I fall). For each person that doesn't want to understand you, there are ten of us that not only want to understand you but most also love you as a sister. As difficult as our journey is, we need to learn to accept the good and ignore the rest."  Thanks Leanne, I really don't dwell on them, that one though caught me by surprise!

On Passing Comments, Vicki for some reason I don't think that is her hair so we can both pull in our claws. I will have to go back and check a few of her other videos! If it is, I may have to find other ways to dislike her in my passive aggressive set of weapons! (Just kidding!)

Again and again thanks to all of you and Mark for your comments!

What Does Transgender Mean to You?

Many times we miss the forest for the trees as we go on a trip of gender self discovery. Plus, if you are "more mature" like I am, it was literally years before a term such as transgender became well known at all.

Today though, the term transgender has become a "catch all term" for gender fluid women and men all the way to transsexuals. In a rare moment of clarity, I stopped my world and thought, was does transgender mean to me and am I correct in applying it to myself.

Very simply, my own personal definition is transgender means exactly what it implies, "neither male or female but somewhere in between." I'm in transit between the genders something like this - when I'm not forced to crawl around and fix plumbing in my house, I yearn for a pair of fuzzy slippers to keep my feet warm. Similar to any other genetic male or female, I'm doing what I have to do to keep this place and my body together.

I fielded a question today from a person from another site who sought me out for advice, of which I'm always flattered. Very quickly as a point of reference, the conversation turned into a discussion of percentage. How much did I live as a woman versus how much she did and how did HRT effect the whole process. We actually were exact opposites. My "time as girl" was very high and hers was very low.

I consider "chats" such as these are a good way to reassess who I am. At the same time I have a chance to give a person who is thinking about seeing a therapist as the first step towards HRT, a little insight into the process. I continue to feel the true tragedy within the transgender community are people who never really learn their true spot in the gender world, until it's too late. Indeed, the landscape is dotted with those who went under the SRS knife only to learn the ultimate cut just wasn't the right one for them or the older folks who will forever wonder if they should have tried.

So, I know the transgender term is a comfy place for me to hang out because no matter how the outside world is viewing me, I know what my head is thinking.

Recently too, I have several visitors here in the Condo and other places ask how I knew I was trans and not a cross dresser or transsexual.  The answer was quite simple as I look back on it. I never felt whole just putting on women's clothes but once I did begin to feel whole, I knew SRS wouldn't make my situation any better. As I said, my head tells me I'm a trans woman, not what the configuration is between my legs.

I'm fond of saying I don't have any therapy shingles to hang up anywhere and the best advice I never got was the most important one: You really have no idea of how the other gender lives until you have the chance to peek in and live it and the process better go deeper than just prancing around in a mall. (Did that too!) Just a guess but before you label yourself, it would be a tremendous idea to learn what the label is all about.

Oh by the way, no charge for this session!

"Dragging" Down Bigotry at Westboro

From the Huffington Post Gay Voices Site:

"The Westboro Baptist Church, everyone's favorite anti-gay zealots, were in for a big surprise over the weekend when their lawn became the epicenter of a drag event titled "Drag Down Bigotry." As reported last month, Equality House planned to host the event and utilize it as a fundraiser for anti-bullying programs. The show occurred on Saturday and drew out an estimated 150 participants."

Go to the link above for more on the story or watch the video here on the Cyrsti's Condo big screen:

Leo Aquila

More than a pretty face?

Jadson Mendes de Lima  , better known as Léo Aquilla , is described as a Brazilian drag queen.

However,  The artist became known for his performances in concerts nightclubs gay and for his appearances on television programs. Plus,In the elections of 2006 he ran for the position of deputy state of São Paulo by the PSC , but failed to get elected, obtaining, however, a significant number of votes: 21,778. In the 2010 elections he obtained 14,382 votes for state representative.