Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

"Ker Plunkt!" Another Sunday edition of Cyrsti's Condo has hit your door, get a hot cup of coffee ready and lets go.

Section 1.-Fashion.

We topped 75 degrees here the last couple of days in my part of the world and I was able to experience the delicious sensation of short sleeved feminine fashion.

As we were living our house this morning, Liz looked quickly at my T-shirt and jeans outfit and said "I like the 'Tom Boy Chic' look."  Of course I was impressed and we headed out to pick up her son. Along the way we stopped to pick up pop and snacks and I wasn't paying much attention to the world until-I turned around and saw this bearded guy looking at me.  I figured at the least, he thought Wow! did that big woman (me) just get back from the gym or worse. Another blog post to be sure!

Section 2.- Fighting On.

As always, the transgender world fights on from many different points of light.  This week, among others, Texan trans woman Laura Jean Krug won her battle to be reinstated as a substitute teacher in Texas.  These battles are similar to hand to hand guerilla fighting-fought by individuals everywhere on a case to case basis.  What seems to be happening though, the country as a whole is beginning to learn who we are as a people and respond on a positive morally and legally sound basis.  On the other hand, I encountered two  "smirkers" at dinner with Liz.  We were enjoying an "Oyster Fest" evening and two 50 something women in the restaurant had to make me part of their nightly entertainment by staring at me and smirking.  The good thing is, you notice I said "50 something", nearly all of my smirkers are human dinosaurs and are on their way out and are living in the past.

Section 3.- We Got Mail.

The comment we received this week which received the most feed back here and on my email (cyrstih@yahoo.com) came from Connie Malone in the Pacific Northwest:

On transgender hiring: Why wouldn't an employer want to hire me? I have all of the expertise and experience that was afforded me by being a man, but now I'd only have to be paid 77% of a man's salary.

Connie has a wonderful sense of sarcasm and she is actually the first to urge me to write a blog, so this is her fault! (Kidding!!!!)

And Mandy Sherman commented:


THAT is PRICELESS! Particularly with the news having the 77% figure front and center lately... Companies which are hiring really should be seeking TG workers, to help keep their costs down! And that would help improve the TG unemployment rate, too. For the right opportunity - whatever that is - this girl might even consider applying. 77% is a lot better than nothing!


Back Page.- As I wrote here yesterday, I do have an article posted in this month's Frock Magazine, please be sure to check out the issue and as always thanks and have a great week!

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl of the Day"

Our Sunday cover features Andrew Semuel a beautiful androgynous MtF model from Singapore.  

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"

"Opinions are like A-holes, everyone one has one and like all A-holes-they should stay hidden."

Cyrsti's Condo Weekend Fun

This morning, for kicks and giggles, I'm passing along a couple of "what if" cross dressing pictures.

One of my Pinterest boards is based on the not so fictional idea of a husband coming home and encountering a spouse with a little more than just bringing home a gallon of milk for dinner.  I call it "Lucy I'm Home!" which is named after a phrase from the classic 1950's television show I Love Lucy. 






The first one I call "Dammit! I forgot the milk honey!"


The second (right) I call "Oh Oh! She's home! Can I hide in the attic from here?"

**My disclaimer- these pix were not credited to anyone.  If you know and want credit-contact me!

Frock Magazine

For what has seemingly been an eternity Katie Glover at Frock Magazine and I have been trying to get together for an article. Finally the sun, the moon and the stars came together and another literary masterpiece of mine made it into this issue.

The subject is a familiar one to those of you who frequent Cyrsti's Condo-MtF gender transitioning later in life.  I have tons of opinions on subjects but at the least I am living this one.  At any rate, if you have never visited Frock Magazine, it's is quite the effort.

Please take the time to follow the link above (and me too!)

Another Giant Step Back for Trans Haters

What did the Rolling Stones say? "It's just a shot away?"

Imagine a future where you could chose your own gender and a few of the most basic arguments against it wouldn't be valid? Primarily from the radical anti-transgender feminist groups? (Terf's)

Stories such as this are beginning to suggest those groups won't be having a vagina to stand on before we know it.  From Rueters:

Four young women born with abnormal or missing vaginas were implanted with lab-grown versions made from their own cells, the latest success in creating replacement organs that have so far included tracheas, bladders and urethras. Follow-up tests show the new vaginas are indistinguishable from the women's own tissue and have grown in size as the young women, who got the implants as teens, matured. All four of the women are now sexually active and report normal vaginal function. Two of the four, who were born with a working uterus but no vagina, now menstruate normally.

You can bet if they can do it in genetic girls, boys won't be so far away.  Hopefully, as all the transgender hating dinosaurs begin to become extinct, the younger generation will accept the process with a huge yawn- and think so what?

Turmoil in Texas

Nikki Araguz

Deserved or not, Texas gets the rap for being radically against transgender rights.  Transsexual widow Nikki Araguz's case comes to mind.

I say "deserved or not" because it only takes one or two ignorant gender bigots to poison the reputation of an entire area.

The "Lone Star State" though jumped backed into the gender headlines recently:

Texas Teacher Laura Jane Klug Was Suspended For Being Transgender — But There’s Something We Can Do About It

Laura Jane Krug

This was actually one of many posts and stories about the incident but was the one which caught my attention because of where it came from and the last part of the heading.

It comes from theFrisky and you can read it here. While you are there, check out the other transgender stories on the page!

Three more observations.  I consider theFrisky to be a solid trans ally and the school system needs a strong trans woman to substitute (baby sit) a fifth grade class and Goddess forbid if the kids parents would have to answer questions they weren't prepared for and afraid to discuss.

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our Friday feature cover beauty is androgynous model Kim Zuluaga
   

In-Sync

One of our regular contributors here in Cyrsti's Condo, Shelle,  recently sent in this comment:

Indeed waking up each day knowing you mind and body match your correct gender must be a huge blessing to the Cis-gendered world, one I have never known,I wake up each day knowing I will have to convince myself I am who I am,despite seeing things in the mirror that bring me great discomfort.

Thanks Shelle and to use an worn out term, we are talking about "cis priviledge".  The majority of humans do think gender is something to be taken for granted.

I took the concept a step further with a friend I mention many times around here, who is deeply in the closet. So deep he goes into deep rationalizations why. On the other hand though, he is a cis guy who somewhere got his wires crossed and fell into some sort of a interest into cross dressing. That's all good but sometimes he really frustrates me. As hard as I try, I can't seem to ever get the point across to him that just because I may have cross dressed a lot with some sort of minimal success-none of that has anything to do with who I am today.  I keep telling him being a cross dresser was not a gate way to me being transgender, just a band aid to fix the problem. That is how we differ.  I never was a cis guy but a pretender forced to live in their world.

Truly, I don't expect most of the world to understand what took me decades to come to grips with.  My life has very little to do with the fun external girl things (most of them) and everything to do with syncing my soul with the world.  Let's take my hair appointment yesterday for example.  Sure, just the whole feeling of being there and pampered and looking better was great but my soul was on fire with delight.  I "synced" my internal being with how the world was viewing me.

Many ask how does it feel to be feminine and I say, I can only answer to how it feels to be me physically. However, the effects of HRT have given me a point of reference into what a genetic woman's life is like. Examples are hot flashes, emotions, sensitivity to hot and cold, etc. But of course, I will never know the discomfort of a period, giving birth or any of the major "female" operations.

I'm with you Shelle, in that when I look in the mirror, I see a desperate attempt to reshape a 60 something male body into a feminine one for the world to see.  On the other hand, I am done convincing myself who I am. I finally know who that is!