Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our feature cover today is Stella Bueno 

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Woman" of the Day

Our feature cover today is Geena Rocero,  model, activist, and transgender woman.

Cyrsti's Condo "Oldies but Goodies"

Back in the day" when I was 15, I used to be able to go with an older friend who already had his drivers license.  He had an aunt who had a neighborhood variety store which sold magazines and paperbacks among other things like chips, pop and beer.  Her store was in a less than affluent part of town and on very rare occasions I would find paperbacks such as these.  The problem was having enough courage to buy them-which I didn't and at the same time act like I didn't care!

Having Coffee with the Peeps

If you recall, my sit down with the Dayton/Cincinnati Trans Ohio community meeting was this last Tuesday and I wrote a brief post about it here in Cyrsti's Condo.

Since that time of course, I have come up with a few more observations.  First, I was disappointed in the transgender turn out.  In an organization called Trans, in a group of 14-16 peeps, there were only three in the room who identified as trans. From that point on, the meeting became one of educating everyone else about us and our concerns. Absolutely no problem.

The tough part was explaining why we transgender women belonged there anyhow. Trans Ohio is largely a trans male based organization but I have no problem with that either.  The third trans person in the room was a trans guy and the host.  Bottom line was, once again, I found myself  aligning with the other trans women and speaking for a silent group.  Fortunately, neither of us was shy.

As I said before, we introduced transgender employment, health care and over all visibility into the conversation. The first two, are such huge issues, I can't come even close to solving them -except to talk.  As far as visibility went, the turn out proved we are still an invisible "T".  A gay guy in the room went out of his way to explain why using the Tranny word was as OK.  He had it all worked out.  Since gay guys can call themselves fags then they can call themselves trannies as well as black's can use the "N" word with each other.  What he still didn't understand was as long as Tranny can be mistaken for an abbreviation for transgender or transsexual, it's not right  and is a slur.

I was satisfied though, by the end of the meeting, I walked out with the feeling I had helped to educate the gays and lesbians in the room who we really were.  An example was the young lesbian representative from a prominent GL organization in Cincinnati  who had no idea of HRT was or the succession of transition. I make the mistake of assuming they know as much about us, as we know about them.

The best I could do from there- at the end of the meeting I passed out my business cards and volunteered to attend their meetings too.  Every educated person helps!

Finally, the building the meeting was held in a GBLT Center and the sign on the restroom door was "Anyone"!

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our feature cover of the day today is a very "80's" looking Grae Phillips.  If you don't recall Grae's story, he was billed as the "original Tootsie." I still remember clearly when he made his first appearance on the Phil Donahue Show.  He couldn't land a job as a guy singer in NYC and just " happened" to throw on a dress and makeup with the help of a girlfriend and was much more successful performing as a woman.
There are tons of Grae's videos on YouTube plus you can follow the link above for a website.

All The Letters in the Same Room

As you may recall, I posted here in Cyrsti's Condo about attending a Trans Ohio community organizational meeting.  Several were set up around Ohio. The main idea was to explore the main issues we face as TGLBQ individuals.  Meetings such as this have a tendency to either be used as a platform for some to vent on specific grudges or become extremely boring as a few seem to love to hear themselves talk.

This two hour meeting was neither.  The mediators managed to keep an incredibly diverse group on track. Approximately 14 people attended, two of which (including me) identified as transgender. The remainder were either gay or lesbian and even a person who identified as gender fluid.

As issues were discussed, we transgender women were able to mention primarily the lack of understanding from the rest of the community.  Of course, another main concern was the total lack of cooperation under the entire community umbrella.  In fact, the meeting started with one individual launching a mini rant on another person who wasn't there.  Needless to say, an unfortunate example of the problem.

My personal goal for the meeting was raising the goal of visibility for the transgender community.  I pushed the need for a central "clearing house" within the TransOhio organization.  What I mean is, a spot where a gender studies program, church or any other organization could go to get information or even a speaker.  I know it happens now, in isolated spots but to expand it, I believe you need an easy accessible central place to go for info.  In Ohio at least, one of the more populous states in the union, none exists which is publicized.

Here's an example.  A local small liberal arts very upscale university where I live, does have some sort of gender studies program but the professor I'm acquainted with who is involved knew absolutely nothing about trans people. In fact, he only acknowledged the gays and lesbians in his speeches. Plus, I know larger schools probably have several trans students who have come out but are the major issues of suicide and health care being discussed in  insulated college settings?

As with any meeting, what happens with the discussions in the days and weeks ahead determine success or failure.  We will see.

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"

The Shopping Hormone?

I have mentioned here in Cyrsti's Condo of the internal changes which come with HRT.  Last night, or should I say early this morning, I felt the changes in a big way.

I don't know if because I had a long day yesterday and did quite a bit of physical labor, I was extra tired when I went to bed.  I went to bed early, around 11 pm and was up around 3 just depressed as hell.  First of all, depressed may be the wrong word.  I believe the sadness caused with HRT is more of a melancholy feeling.  When I experience it, I have a hard time putting my finger on exactly where it is coming from.  I just know it's so real. I am learning though, crying it out helps.  The problem is, crying is still a conditioned problem with me.  Finally last night, I just let the tears go and along with a glass of milk, I felt better soon enough to go back to bed.

Luckily, I'm retired and work my own schedule, so I slept in a bit.  When I woke up though I started to wonder what could lift my spirits and came up with a little shopping.

I figured if I was going to have to put up with the negative emotions of this MtF transition, I might as well have some of the fun.  Is there a shopping hormone as well?

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our feature cover of the day is Australia's Estelle Asmodelle. Asmodelle is an Australian transsexual who was instrumental in gaining recognition for transsexual and transgender people through her solo campaign to gain rights for transsexuals.