Tuesday, May 20, 2014

The Passing of Matt Kailey

The news is beginning to make it's way around the cyber world that Matt Kailey died over the weekend, on Saturday, in his sleep, of a heart attack or heart failure.

If you didn't know, Matt was the highly respected force behind the Tranifesto Blog, the "Ask Matt" series and the Author of  Just Add Hormones.  

And, by the way, Matt was a transgender man.  Unfortunately I never had the occasion to meet him and felt lucky enough when some of my off the wall comments made their way on to his blog when I sent them in.

What always struck me about Tranifesto was how Matt addressed both transgender men and trans women.  I found that to be remarkable and a rarity in our community where so many are out to protect their "little mound of sand" at all costs.

Finally, I know a little about how much of a commitment and effort it takes to put the amount of work out that Matt did at such a high level.

Indeed a man's work is his legacy and Matt Kailey's is a huge one!

Cyrsti's Condo "What If?

Dammit Mom! I told you I already had a summer job!  Don't tell Dad, I'm working as a secretary! I think he had something a little more masculine in mind?






Monday, May 19, 2014

Cyrsti's Condo "What If?"

Yoo Hoo! I'm home from beers with the boys dear!  You may want to sit down!


boys-will-be-girls-23

Down to the Wire!

My friends are sick of hearing me say anything and maybe you are too-but it's true I'm down to five days until I send my "Stiletto's on Thin Ice" E-pub book off to be published.

With my friends, it's difficult to explain what the book is all about because they don't really know or care anything about my past.  To them, I came into their life as a transgender woman approximately five years ago and that's it. I'm sure they are thinking, "Just do it and shut up!"

For those of you who are Cyrsti's Condo regulars, you already know what it is all about-a synopsis of how I got here in my life.  Along the way of course, are a ton of wrong moves, dead ends and huge discoveries over the course of 50 years.

I suppose the book could be called a tragedy because I took so long to face up to whom I really was or a celebration of actually finding out.  As I have said before, the book will be very inexpensive and I am certainly not seeking wealth or riches from it.  If you do choose to buy it, I'm sure you will recognize certain experiences and thoughts from here.  Hopefully in a lot more depth.

I'm also sure as soon as I press the "pub" button, I will be asked many more technical questions before the book goes "live."  Hopefully by Friday though, I will be one of the millions who have been told "you ought to write a book"-who did.  I guess it's one step up from being told you should be on the "Jerry Springer Show." 

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Melissa Broliatto (tg)Our feature cover today in the Condo is Brazil's transgender beauty Melissa Brolliato:

Cyrsti's Condo "Thought of the Day"

"The longer I am on HRT, my feminine responses to the world are less externally driven and more internally grounded."  In other words my desire to be accepted as a woman by the world is no longer as important as understanding everything it takes to interact in that world.

Cyrsti Hart 

Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

"Ker Plunk!" it's time for another issue of the Sunday Edition in the Condo.

Page 1.- Courage.  Just to be different this morning, I'm going to go a bit out of order with how I structure the edition and go with a comment I received from Jen Smith.  It concerned the experience last week I had last week with a guy who called me "Sir".  To catch you up, I simply lost it and asked the guy "WTF" did you call me?   Jen wrote:

This is an amazing story to me. You must be one special person, so brave, to handle a situation like this. You were in the military with him? I would have probably gone into shock at how to react in a situation like this. It seems like you have tons of confidence! Take care! jen

Thanks so much Jen!  As far as "brave" goes, I think I had my split second angry reaction covered in my brain before he did it.  It wasn't like I was in a situation where I would face physical harm with some redneck guy and his friends-this guy knowingly or not - gender trashed me for years.  I just had had it.  For some reason I turned on him before I knew it.  No, we weren't in the military together.  He was in the Marines and I was in the Army and the only common ground we have is we were both in Vietnam.  He served an entire tour there while I was just passing through (thank goodness!)

Looking back, perhaps I should have an added a "don't try this at home" tag to this post.  I also should point out, I essentially transitioned in front of the regular head bartender in this sports bar. It's down the way from where my wife worked before she passed and both of us stopped in when I was a guy way back then.  She got a kick out of when I verbally "swatted" John because he so deserved it.  I suppose my shock set in Jen, when I got to meet his wife and daughter who were so nice.

Page 2.- Trans Ohio Finally finished all the registration work and overnight lodging reservations for the Trans Ohio Symposium in a couple of weeks.  The problem was (if you are a golfer) the Memorial PGA Golf Tournament is going to held in roughly the same area of Columbus that same weekend.  The Symposium this year is going to be held at The Ohio State University (also roughly in the same area) so I didn't know how that would effect getting a room.  Last year, the event was held in one spot but his year we are encouraged to stay at a nearby hotel with a shuttle.  I lucked it out and took the last room though and booked a 4 star room for less money right off campus-come on Expedia!  The whole weekend should be more interesting if the primarily cross dresser group still has their mixer that Saturday night at a place called Club Diversity .  In the past the CD group (which has it's share of cross dressed sharks) has manged to act up and get kicked out of there. Regardless of the little spice they add,  I have always loved the place and it is diverse in it's clientele.  Plus I believe it's co-owned by a trans person.

Page 3.- "Book 'em Danno!"  Of course my deadline to hit the button with Vook and publish my "Stiletto's on Thin Ice" is this Friday.  So this week I will be kicking my virtual butt because I didn't get more done before now.  In my past there were those who thought I worked better under pressure, so I will find out again as I dig out literally from years of procrastination! (Book 'em Danno! is a vintage saying from the Hawaii Five-O television show.)

Back Page.- Last week brought all kinds of enticing news to the transgender community.  Reports surfaced the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Hagel were going to reopen the un American ban on transgender military service-finally!  On a lesser scale Tyra Banks felt the need to produce an upcoming show of some sorts on a group of transgender women in Chicago.  Called me jaded, but the whole project sounds a little too "fierce", glossy and profit driven to mean much to me here in small town Ohio. There is hope though if Carmen Carrera (left)  is heading up the project.

Well kids, that's it for this week's edition. Hope all is well for you in your part of the universe and we can get together again next week to do it again!




Cyrsti's Condo "Thought of the Day"

homo rights!

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Feeling the Pain

  Image from Eugenia  Maximova  on UnSplash. Learning on the fly all I needed to know concerning my authentic life as a transgender woman of...