Classic "Glass Bottom Boat" Drag

From 1966, Paul Lynde and Dom Deluise in the MGM movie "Glass Bottom Boat". No real surprise if either of these guys were in drag but this time it was Lynde:

Growing up Transgender?

As with most of you, I have spent an exorbitant amount of time looking back into my formative gender years wondering what, if anything could have been done for me, not to me due to my condition. 

Back in the 50's through  the early 60's and much longer, let's not forget just being gay was considered a mental illness and God knows what could happen if you wanted to follow in the footsteps of Christine Jorgensen.

Sure there were signs as early as the age of twelve with me. Similar to so many of you, I too wanted a doll baby not a truck for Christmas. I know, blah, blah, blah. Be happy with the truck you inconsiderate brat!

I have passed along the stories of growing up in a rural area and having very few real live girls in my neighborhood at all.  One to be exact in a group of about ten boys. I can imagine now the torture she went through.  So, you wouldn't think in the land of strict gender binaries, I would encounter another possible "sister of the cloth".

Amazingly though, I did have a friend in those days who shared a very definite desire to play in his Mom's clothes and makeup-with her permission! You would think I would remember him first before all the others but somehow his memory has just began to come back to me in my old age. My most vivid memory was a day when his Mom "caught" us doing a little "dress up". Even back in those days I was more than a little envious of the way he looked.  I'm not saying he was a natural but Momma was attractive and she could get him there too.

I wonder now what would have happened if his family had stayed around where I lived and not moved three states away.  Most certainly he was in the same situation I was and our little "fascination" with women's clothes was much more than a passing phase or fetish.

It seems our little group of kids may have had way more than it's share of transgender individuals.  Of course living in the past is a waste of time but.... How much fun/trouble could both of us gotten into in his Mom's clothes and damn I could have used mega makeup advice at that age!!!!

Tanya Maung

Good news for the transgender world, Myanmar, and Tanya Maung. This year, a contestant from Myanmar (formerly Burma) has entered the "Miss International Queen"  pageant for the first time.

"Five years ago I would not have dared to enter," said Tanya Maung, 28, who is studying at Bangkok’s Ramkhamhaeng University. "But now Myanmar has democracy, so I feel free to contest."

Personally, I have viewed the pageant as more of a glorified show girl presentation, not one that speaks to the world of new found transgender freedoms.

 I love it when I'm wrong-this time!

A VERY Scary Costume

You will need to be a sports fan to appreciate most of the irony in this Cyrsti's Condo post.

Over the years, I have felt the extreme pain, suffering and cruelty which goes along with being a Cincinnati Bengals NFL football fan.

The past couple of seasons they have improved though and along the way I have pulled out a couple of very expensive old jersey's from players who grew to be roundly disliked in Cincinnati.

The Black and Orange colors represent Halloween well of course and indeed over the years we Bengal fans have been tricked more than we have been treated.

Actually they don't look bad with a black long sleeved top, leggings and boots except for the players names on the jerseys...Carson Palmer and Chad 'Ocho Cinco' Johnson.  At least now if someone questions me about wearing them, I can act like I don't know who Palmer and Johnson were or I can say they were my Halloween costumes because the two caused me such scary pain and suffering over the years.  Especially from you Pittsburgh "Squeeler" fans.
 

Trey BOO!

This Cyrsti's Condo Halloween epic involves a Victorian House, a coffin, a real skeleton and a politician.

I was working as a DJ on a local radio station here in town and one of the news women got an invite to go to a Halloween party at a local Victorian Mansion which was being restored.  She told me about it and asked if I wanted by chance to go too.  After she twisted my arm for about three seconds, I said yes!

For a change, my "costume" for this party was more in the "well dressed woman" category. I can't really remember what I wore but when we got there in the entrance foyer was an antique coffin with a skeleton.  I casually asked if the skeleton was real and was told yes!

The rest of the house looked like a scene from the Addams Family, just a perfect Halloween setting.

The party featured more than it's share of socializing and of course I was receiving my usual amount of "is that a..." attention.

Later on the fun started for me when an up and coming politician and his wife asked me if I would leave with them and go to another party. I was shy and backwards for a change and for some reason said No.  Later on he actually served quite a few terms in Washington.

It seems I destroyed my chances to move up in the political world that night.  Maybe Monica Lewinsky wouldn't have had so much on me after all!

I ran the "Monica" impersonator on the left picture not long ago but you just have to respect the attention to detail with the dirty knees!

BOO! TOO!

My lazy black cat is telling me I'm running out of time to feed her again and get another Halloween experience from long ago and far away posted in Cyrsti's Condo,  before the clock strikes midnight.

This post is a continuation of my years when I had just got out of the Army and landed back home in the mid 70's. Keep in mind, I was coming off of four straight years in college and three in the Army, so I was very uncivilized. These two Halloweens are in that period as I was married to my first "no harm, no foul" wife. Yet another very good way to stay uncivilized.

Liz and I. Witches Ball 2 yrs ago.

On the Halloween in question,  for some reason along the way I had managed to acquire some sort of a black velvet short dress to wear as a "costume". Of course I had every new cross dressers friends - a platinum blond wig and black heels. I remember quite vividly how long it took me to carefully shave my legs, apply my makeup, examine myself in the mirror...and...open the door right in front of my wife's younger teenage sister.

Well, she was stunned and I was shocked as I high tailed out the door in my heels to the car.  Before I made it the club I was headed to, I did add one more fashion accessory, a black beret.  Unknowingly my idea was a good one.  Of course I had already applied too much eye makeup and lipstick so the beret covered a large part of my not so convincing blond wig and sort of (with all due respect to the French)  gave me French look of sorts.

At the club, I was having a really good time watch people watch me until this guy comes up to me in a trench coat and full mask and says, "I know who you are." Well, I'm rarely speechless until then when I did blurt out, how could that be?  Could have someone found out my deep dark cross dressing secret?  Well, he kind of did. He said, "You look like your Mom." At that point I narrowed my choices down to a very few people and he finally showed his face.  Turned out he was the older brother of one my friends who I grew up with who had seen me cross dressed.  At that point in time he was probably figuring the "girl phase" of my life when I was young wasn't a phase!

We both went our ways and the night ended with very little other excitement except my heels were killing me and it was time to head home to a very questioning sister in law.

Finally, the comment about my Mom amused me for quite a while.  I do look like her but she would have killed me for wearing that much makeup!

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.