My Behind

I have been behind it seems this time, for the past several days.  When that happens, I rediscover posts I wanted to pass along to you here in Cyrsti's Condo.  One is from Brynn Tannehill in an article she wrote for the Huffington Post called "Paper's Please"  If you don't know, Byrnn is a transgender vet and Director of Advocacy for SPART*A.  

Her very detailed post follows the incredibly convoluted path transgender and transsexual women and men follow in their lives-in and out of military circles.  Here's an excerpt and you can follow the link above for more:

Imagine for a moment you work at a U.S. military base as a contractor. You step out of a bathroom after using it, and are immediately confronted by someone with base security. He demands you present identification proving your gender, otherwise he will arrest you. Your mind races, blood pounds in your ears, flight or fight kicks in -- being arrested will probably cost you your clearance, your job and any chance you have of working in your career field again.

It's no surprise to those of us who spent a significant amount of time in the closet, how scary all of this can be-and kept us in the closet.   Then I began to wonder about those overly ignorant human's who think we trans folk had a choice in all of this?  I constantly remind myself that no matter how much I enjoy where my gender life is now, if I had a real live choice to never go on this journey-would I? No I wouldn't and it's very difficult to explain to my friends what a luxury it would have been to have known what gender I was when I woke up in the morning. That's usually a real conversation stopper!

The "choice" idea is nearly as ludicrous as the occasional on line "genius" who tells me HRT must be great since I have my own boobs to play with.  Tough to explain to such a suave guy, yes it is nice to have my own breasts as an expression of my femininity.

But, let's face it, the world will always have it's share of those who are just innocent ignorant.  They just don't know much about transgender individuals and we should be able to educate them.  The ignorant bigots are the tough crowd and some how some way we need to keep fighting to beat them down.  Hopefully, along the way the gender marker problems will go down with them.

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our feature Cover for Monday is a bit different-makeup artist Joseph Harwood from the UK.

I have also included a video from his site on the Cyrsti's Condo big screen.

Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Morning Edition"

Ker Plunk! Another Sunday edition has hit your virtual porch and it's time to get started.

Page One.- The Week in Review.  Last week we covered the fact the transgender community has an unemployment number twice the national average. Now though, it is possible the light at the end of the tunnel is not the train and certain groups are trying to help the situation. In fact there were actually TGLBQ job fairs recently in San Franscisco and Salt Lake City which sort of tied in with our mention of transphobia in rural America.  Shelle was kind of enough to detail her experiences concerning the lack of resources many TGLBQ women and men have in smaller less populated areas-including job fairs.

Slime Paul

Allyson Robinson

Of course my favorite slime ball Rude Paul was back in the news with his show's use of the She Male term. Supposedly  Glaad backed down the producers of the show and they made some sort of half apology. Similar to the vague tripe GM's top person is rolling out. Perhaps you all have heard,  the slime slick is heading UK's way. A version of Rude's show is coming.

Page Two.- Positives!  In much more pleasant news, an upcoming documentary which includes transgender military personnel from the US and the UK is in the works.  Just the fact transgender vet Allyson Robinson's name is attached, gives the project much more respect.

Also, transgender model Geena Rocera's "Gender Proud" video was a resounding success with over a half a million hits in the first couple of days.

Last but not least,  we mentioned "Auckland's" Amy Brosnahan who decided to enter a beauty contest down under because she wanted to spread the word for young transgender women.

Page Three.- Accepted!  I don't believe, during this week of chasing my tail, I have passed along the fact I have been accepted for the second year in a row to be a workshop presenter at this year's Trans Ohio Symposium.  I figure I must not have embarrassed myself too much if I got invited back!!!

Page Four.- We Got Mail.   In a post called "If it Walks like a Duck, Looks like a Duck and talks like a Duck...is it a duck? , we briefly jumped into the murky waters of what made a trans woman feel secure as a woman.  And we received this comment from Marian:



I've found that gender is as much of a social construct as it is a physical body construct. We, as a species, are cued into "gender" based on certain obvious and not so obvious signals. But when the signals are not presented strongly in one direction or another, confusion will result. For example, Julia Sweeney developed an androgynous character, Pat, whose gender id couldn't be determined - and the associated skits had fun with the miscues... Take that character and strengthen the cues slightly towards one gender or the other, and androgyny would be taken away - yet, the person could still be gender queer and presenting in a gender opposite from what she/he was born into....

Thanks Marian! and I agree. In fact I'm growing to the point where I am sure gender is a total social construct. Also, I like the reference to "Pat". Shown at the left.

Well kids, time to finish my Sunday morning "Cop O Joe" and get the dog out for her walk.

You are all my "fave's" for stopping by the Condo!!!! Thanks to all!!!

Cyrsti's Condo "UpDate"

Ironically, just a day after we were discussing transgender employment opportunities, another LGBT Job Fair story popped up from Salt Lake City.

I immediately became suspicious of this item because of how silent the "T" may have been. Obviously, employers face many more hurdles on their end hiring trans employees as opposed to gay or lesbian workers. I was considering the transgender title was nothing more than window dressing.

But, this event was organized by  the Transgender Education Advocates (TEA) of Utah. and was their second annual TGLBQ Job Fair. The event was attended by 10 local employers, all committed to TGLBQ equality in the workplace, and about 50 job-seekers, significantly surpassing last year’s inaugural numbers.  The primary goal of the job fair was to show employers that “the TGLBQ community has an immense amount of untapped talent,” and to help that talent find jobs with companies who appreciate them and value diversity.

It is important to point out, more job seekers are questioning a company's diversity these days. Diversity is being viewed as an indicator of how good and progressive a company is.   Now if more cities would recognize the same thing (where I live doesn't) more economic development would come their way. But as is said in sports "you can't coach stupid."

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"

If it Walks Like a Duck, Looks Like a Duck, is it a Duck?

I started to write this Cyrsti's Condo post after I read someone's comment (I paraphrase), if she was able to interact with women - as a woman- does that make her a woman?  Good question and way too complex to discuss in one post-or ten.

Since the venerable "sex is between the legs" and "gender is between the ears" quote is beginning to go the route of most other "discussions" in the transgender community - into bickering hell, I had to try to come up with something different to toss into the mix.  Eventually I went from hell no that's too easy, to why not? She just could be on to something. If gender is a perception held mainly from others, then she is a woman because she is perceived as one plus she perceives herself as one. Finally, I came away with one certainty,  all the thinking made my head hurt!  Remember the old cheap shot, "look at the head on that?" What would have Einstein thought? Is that what happened to his hair?

As I said though, I didn't plan on continuing to write on the vague concepts above.  (Aren't you lucky?) Instead, a mere three word question got my attention, "are you (me) a pre opt transsexual?"  Well, in the strictest of terms yes and no.  Yes, because of totality of my lifestyle and No, because I don't feel the need for surgery (SRS).

That's as simplistic as my backward noggin can make it.  Without another headache of course!

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our Saturday feature cover is yet another beautiful androgynous male model, Makarov Viktor

Transgender "Battle of the Babes"

From the Noosa News down under comes the story of a young transgender woman who isn't so much battling to be a "babe" as much as she is to be in the contest at all.  Here's a look at part of the story:


AN aspiring transgender model has vowed to take to the catwalk tomorrow night despite a row over whether she was eligible to enter a beauty contest. Aucklander Amy Brosnahan (left), 18, said she wanted to represent transgender women in the competition and show they shouldn't back down when they faced opposition. Organisers for the beauty contest - called Battle of the Babes - were forced into a u-turn after initially telling Amy she could not compete when she came out as a trans-woman. "I'm sort of doing it as a stand, to show other transgenders that they can do anything they want to do, they just have to sometimes fight for it," she said. "Some of them aren't [confident enough to] take action, [but] things like this need to be spoken about more often."

For more on the story, go here.  Good luck Amy!!!!!

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girls" of the Day

As a Friday "change of pace" I decided to pass along to you a "before and after" video of many famous transsexual women and transgender men.