Vintage Female Impersonation

Much has been made recently about the "birth" of the internet (along with social media) and how we "more mature" individuals were able to even exist at all back then.  Truthfully, those days were exceedingly difficult times to communicate with others in the culture. Plus,  if you didn't know, the concept of a transgender woman or man was just beginning to develop and most all cross dressers in the media were up to no good. Early on, female impersonator Michael Andrews was undoubtedly one of the most popular entertainers of his era. Check out this YouTube clip on the Cyrsti's Condo big screen:

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our feature cover here in the Condo today is Russian MtF transgender woman
Charlie Somik Chan.

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"

Doing the "Right" Thing

I caught this story from an Associated Press release. As an American and a transgender veteran it quickly caught my eye:

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - An independent commission led by a former U.S. surgeon general has concluded there "is no compelling medical reason" for the U.S. armed forces to prohibit transgender Americans from serving and that President Barack Obama could lift the decades-old ban without approval from Congress, according to a report being released Thursday. The report said Department of Defense regulations designed to keep transgender people from joining or remaining in the military on the grounds of psychological and physical unfitness are based on outdated beliefs that require thousands of current service members either to leave the service or to forego the medical procedures and other changes that could align their bodies and gender identities.


 "We determined not only that there is no compelling medical reason for the ban, but also that the ban itself is an expensive, damaging and unfair barrier to health care access for the approximately 15,450 transgender personnel who serve currently in the active, Guard and reserve components," said the commission led by Dr. Joycelyn Elders, who served as surgeon general during Bill Clinton's first term as president, and Rear Adm. Alan Steinman, a former chief health and safety director for the Coast Guard.

The ban itself of course is blatantly Un-American in that it discriminates precisely against transgender service members who are expressly working to protect many rights they have no access to. There is much more to this story. Go here to read it.

"Pop" Goes the Transgender Culture

Rhys (left) with Zackary

As in many social areas, the transgender presence is also growing quickly in today's pop culture and here's an example from The New York Times. The"Times"  recently featured two aspiring artists, Rhys Ernst, and his partner, Zackary Drucker. Rhys had recently graduated from Hampshire College and was working for MTV networks. Zackary had graduated from the School of Visual Arts and was appearing on a reality TV show called “Artstar,” hosted by Jeffrey Deitch.

Over the last five years, Zackary has transitioned from male to female, Rhys from female to male. And in “Relationship,” a photo exhibition currently on view at the Whitney Biennial, the two have chronicled that process and the evolution of their own love affair.

The post goes on to say that a show by two transgender artists should be so prominently featured at the 2014 Biennial should come as a surprise to no one. It is just more evidence of the increasing presence of trans people at the center of popular culture. Go here for an in depth look of familiar and not so familiar names you may not recognize.

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our feature cover today is Brazil's beautiful transgender woman Luana Cimatti.

Technology and the Trans Woman

The more I bounce around the web, even I am impressed by the sheer numbers of pictures I encounter of all different "flavors" of men dressed as women, from cross dressers,  all the way to transsexual porn stars.

I simply marvel at the individuals who post literally thousands of pictures of themselves on sites such as Flickr as much as I marvel at pictures of transsexual women such as Domino Presley (left). It's no wonder so many so called "hetero" men are "intrigued"  and the majority of other trans women get the ugly "fall out."

Even though we live in an age of unprecedented advances in plastic surgery and HRT advancements, many times I have to look through the smoke and mirrors to see what I'm really looking at.  Domino reportively is an adult film star so her looks are a big part of her business. I assume, she has her peeps who market her in the social media.

On the other hand, there are numerous examples of other MtF video transitions on YouTube which produce equally as dazzling human beings.  And, let's not forget the power of a good picture-again go back to Flickr and notice how many of the "heavy hitters" have paid their way into professional camera/portrait studios. Finally, there are the huge percentage of "impostors" on sites such as Pinterest who aren't trans at all but genetic women.

It's quite the industry we have going here.  .from the lookers to those who are working hard to be looked at. The industry is male dominated and in most cases still has nothing to do with living a life as a transgender woman.  For a person such as me though who grew up in the information "dark ages", all of this is simply amazing!

Nail Failure and the Pretty Princess

I have a tendency to believe one of the least mentioned effects of HRT is what it does to your finger nails- at least to mine.  My nails have become paper thin just at a time in my life I need them to have substance I can style.

One place I have not been for help is a nail salon, yet.  My partner Liz wants to book us together for "mani/pedi's" sometime before summer  Oddly, it's not my feet which are causing me problems with the idea, it's my hands.  Neither are the most feminine in the world but Liz has convinced me my hands and feet are proportioned well for my body.  My hands specifically aren't huge but have and will continue to be subjected to what heavy labor I can still do. (My upper body strength is a fraction of what is was and my arm muscle definition has went with it!)

My fear is having my nails done and doing whatever and trashing them.  I'm working between two homes and yards. Not getting the work done by being the pretty, pretty princess (me) is not an option.

Two certainties in the upcoming months are, to lose weight (which the work will do for me) and to never whine about breaking a nail to any of my women friends. I'm sooooo sick of hearing welcome to our world! I've been here girls! Come on!

I'm not a real goal orientated person but with what's coming up, it is easy to set goals.  The Trans Ohio Symposium is scheduled for the very end of May and it is followed several weeks later by the biggest Pride weekend in the area - Columbus, Ohio.  My goal is simple- get down to my pre HRT weight before then.  I know it will be harder now than during my male life when all I had to do is cut back on a beer or two along with a pizza but I really want to make May/June yet another coming out month for me.

If I set my mind to it. Failure will not be an option.

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"