Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our feature cover today is Columbia's transgender model  Melania Armenta

What Part of Ignorance Will They Ever Understand?

A contradiction in terms to be sure. An ignorant person never understands because they are ignorant and to be clear here, I'm separating ignorance from a simple lack of knowledge or understanding.

This post is a celebratory one, plus one which comes with a warning.  Recently, two positives took place which will impact the TGLB community.  The first of which was when the repeal of the so called "Co-ed School Bathroom Bill" was thrown out due to lack of signatures. The bill guarantee's equal restroom rights for transgender California students.

The second of which was the veto in Arizona of a bill which had the potential to send the state back to the old "Jim Crow" discrimination laws in the deep south.  Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer vetoed the controversial anti-gay SB 1062 on Wednesday, saying it would "create more problems than it purports to solve." "Religious liberty is a core American and Arizona value, so is non-discrimination," she said. Ironically, the rumor is the NFL and a threat to pull the Super Bowl out of the state, had more than a slight impact.

Unfortunately, the more victories we have, the more we need.  The right wing hate mongers are more than ready, willing and able to toss more road blocks in our paths as TGLB citizens. Some even try to erode the rights of genetic women too. I can carry it a step farther to you cross dressers who maybe considering a step or two out of the closet.  When I first came out, the mere fact an owner could boot me out of his store for dressing like a women, may have made the process almost impossible for me.  My point is (again) even if you are a heavily closeted CD or trans person, you need to discretely vote against these people!

Today though, we do have hard fought victories and we do have a vocal and an economic impact in our communities. Smart towns know a positive TGLB rights stand attracts commerce and I do my small part by driving by Chik-Fil-A and not buying Barilla Pasta in the store.  I respect the rights of the homo-phobic owners of those companies to their ideas and I have my right NOT to give them my money. Not unlike the NFL and Arizona on a tiny scale, I will do my part to help them not prosper. Just because they happened to be good business people does not make them good human beings!

The bottom line is, as with any other rights we have earned, no matter how small, we have to be increasingly diligent to keep them.

It's In Here Somewhere

Pat had a great comment for me not long ago, which for the life of me, I can't find. (No real surprise!)

In a post, I was mentioning my need to carry a "feminine hygiene product" in my purse in case I was asked by another woman for one in the restroom. She said something to the point of who would even ask me at my age?  Of coursed I loved it! 

Her age comment does bring me to another point though- age appropriate dressing. It's a huge deal for many genetic women as they have the need to cut their hair shorter every year and seemingly go out of their way to ignore every younger fashion trend.

The length of my hair alone takes me out of the 60+ female age category I'm in.  In other words, I don't blend.  By the time a genetic woman gets to my age (or vice versa) she has beaten her hair into submission over the years and her hormone levels are decreasing. Plus of course, hair is only a small part of the problem. To help me,   I am a follower of the Fabulous after 40  fashion site and on a recent update, here was the question:

Of all the questions my readers send me, the one I seem to get the most is a variation on the theme of age-appropriate dressing: “Can I wear short skirts/low-cut tops/bikinis/etc. at my age?”;“Does this make me look like I’m trying hard to be young?”; “Does this make me look old?”

If you follow the link above, you can find many pictures plus possible answers to the question.  As a transgender woman who didn't get a chance to transition until later in life, I'm seeking some sort of a middle ground.  I don't want to regress to my days of being the cross dresser in the mall squeezed into a mini and heels but I do want to squeeze enough style and fashion into what's left of my active life.

I'm lucky. Over the years, I did take the time as a guy to give a little extra love to my skin.  Between genetics, HRT, make up and smoke and mirrors, I can take a few visual years off my life.  In fact in some situations I threaten people with my ID to show them how old I really am.

Finally, the problem I know I have (along with so many other cross dressers or transgender women) is looking like I'm trying too hard. The only difference is I have two hurdles - age and gender.

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl of the Day"

Our feature Cover Girl today is transgender woman Dorian Garcia 

"Engineering" a Cross Dresser?

Every year in the Philippines, an engineering school has a womanless beauty pageant. Perhaps you have heard of or seen the results of the "Miss Eng" womanless beauty winners. If you have, you know these engineers aren't playing with with designing sexy exotic "women."

Here in Cyrsti's Condo, it's worth the time to go back and take a look!

The first is from 2013, the second from 2007.  This place has been engineering women for awhile! Wonder if they give cross dressing scholarships or if an aspiring transgender student chooses this school with an ulterior motive?

Breakfast with the "Kid"

First of all, we are talking about my "kid" who happens to be 35 and a mother of three. For those of you who happen to be new to Cyrsti's Condo, my daughter is incredibly supportive and in fact my MtF transition has made us closer.

Recently though, she has been pretty quiet about receiving a "transition" update.  I knew her life was incredibly full with her family so I let her come to me. At a recent breakfast. I could see the wheels turning in her noggin, so I knew it was time.

Coming up in June is my grand daughter's Bat Mitzva.  If you don't know, it's the female Jewish equivalent of her coming of age ceremony.  The group of people attending will be incredibly diverse, religiously and politically. An example is I was baptized Methodist, became involved with Buddhism in Thailand when I was there and now am evolving into more of an earth based spiritualism. I guarantee you, most of the people there won't want to talk religion with me, and they shouldn't.  Nor, should they be distracted by my appearance anymore than I can help it.  As I have written many times, my HRT is transforming me into an androgynous person at the least and there will be a group of radical right wingers attending.  Of course I can tie all this hair I have back into a pony tail and look for an xxl very loose shirt of some sort to hide my breasts but my skin gives me away too. My only consideration is, it is my grand daughter's day and I don't need to be a distraction at all.  I don't think my daughter really cared but just needed to know what to expect.

Issue two with her was bouncing the name change off her and what goes on with the process of gender markers. She liked the idea of changing my name to Jessie but unfortunately had never gotten to meet or know my grandfather who I'm "adopting" the name from.

The only unfinished business was what were the kids going to call me in the future and when.  My only answer to the question was to follow the status quo for awhile. The two oldest kids (12 and 8) know but the six year old doesn't.  My suggestion was at some point in the future, it will be time for a sit down with just the three of them and me to "announce" the move. As it stands now, until I can get totally sold out of my old homestead and down to Cincinnati full time, there still are bits and pieces of my old self to deal with-as a guy or even as a cross dresser.

As you can probably tell, breakfast was a total success and she even paid!

Call the Maid!

For those of you who visit Cyrsti's Condo who need a maid service, here are a couple of sissy suggestions!

"Budget Girl" Make Up!

If you are a beginning cross dresser or a transgender woman hitting the world full time, for any number of reasons, I know many of you just can't afford the pricey make up stores which are popping up everywhere.  I number myself in your ranks, especially now since my make up usage has increased so dramatically.

Now when I see a site which promotes "the best of" Drugstore Foundations, I pause to take a look. It seems I always struggle with a foundation.  Once I find one I believe works well (in my budget) I run into sunburn in the summer and now windburn in the winter as HRT changes my skin. Gallons of moisturizer are my best friend!

Fortunately now, in reasonable weather, I can apply light foundation no matter how I'm dressed and not look like Bruce Jenner.

I'm also lucky the super sized grocery store I shop at has a very good make up selection and they run sales all the time.  I can research the product and then get even a better deal.

This site is a little older but I imagine the information is at the least, a good starting point!  Check it out here.

The Bottom of Cyrsti's Purse

I have been at this game of throwing my good old billfold in the corner and expanding into a purse for some time now.  I think Spring is coming, so I'm considering my new spring bag but first I had to get brave and stick my hand into the depths of the bag I carry now.

Fortunately, I came out unscathed except for a few old memories resting down there.  One of which was stirred this morning by a dance number by the Radio City Rockette's on television.  My second wife was a huge fan of the Rockette's and of course (unbeknownst to her) not as big as I. So this morning stirred up many bittersweet memories.

Also in my purse, I ran across one of the "feminine hygiene" products I carry as an emergency "prop" for my women's restroom visit's.  As luck would have it this morning, I happened across another post about "securing your restroom pass".  Most of it is not really new territory we haven't covered before here in Cyrsti's Condo but it's never bad to review such an important topic.  All too often I think the subject is treated as one of those "I'm better than you" bitchy tools in our community. Like "ooh I use the pristine women's room all the time" why don't you? Number one Look down before you sit and number two why do we as transgender or cross dressers have to make it some sort of a badge of success?

It's from the "Sister House Blog"  and you can read it here.

Excuse me while I get back to braving the depths of my purse and practicing my dance kicks!