Having Your Cake and Not Eating It Too?

Yesterday here in Cyrsti's Condo, we featured a sissy boy being "forced" to look for a job at the famous "Hooter's" chain of wing and beer places.

Today it's time for a dessert as only drag queen Manila Luzon could serve it up!

Pride?

This weekend, three of my friends and I are attending the TGLBQ Pride march and party in Columbus, Ohio.

As I continue to mention, Columbus is a very diverse city and the event promises to be well attended.  True to form, for the past month or more I have spent a considerable amount of "noggin" time, trying to come up with where I wanted to fit it.

It's not easy.

The gay and lesbian communities have much to be proud of.  Both were instrumental in breaking down discrimination barriers  and more they faced.  Plus the drag queens can look back with pride at their huge role in the Stonewall riots in 1969. All of the history is great but the fact remains- we transgender woman and men are not understood and left out.

Are the "Bi's" left out too? Then again, who exactly are the "Bi's"? The only potential peeps in this category I have ever met are the fetish cross dressers who will only have sex with another man if he is dressed as a she? And, if I still considered myself a cross dresser-fetish or not, would I feel any sort of pride if I went to Pride?  I'm pretty sure I would from the simple fact for a whole day I could express my gender as I saw fit. Plus, as a matter of fact, Pride events are much more cost effective for those who can not afford an event such as "Provincetown".(Fantasia Fair-below)


And, how about those lesbians?  The three friends I'm going with are all lesbians and two are pretty much clueless when I complain of transgender discrimination.  I just know I feel comfortable with them and the lesbian venues we will be going too.  I have always found their company to be the most natural for me to fit into to.  If I had to guess though, I'm thinking the three are going to party first and then be proud!

Where does all of that leave me as a transgender woman in the crowd?  I feel guilty.  I want the world to know I am trans and proud-as I am but, if I can blend in with the lesbians and party-I want to be there too. The fun part about the day is I will be able to dress down appropriately for a hot, humid Ohio summer day and enjoy being transgender.

For one of the first times in my life, I don't have to fit into yet another set of molds...this time from the gay/lesbian community.

We Almost Had Mail!

I don't know what "glitch" I had here in the Crysti's Condo this afternoon, but it managed to chew up and completely destroy a couple of your comments.

As you all know how much I value your ideas and in fact I did reply to a couple and poof! they were gone!

Two came from Pat and were rather interesting in how totally I disagreed with her. On the one about the Wow! post - I was able to go back in and delete my comment since Pat's didn't post at all. It's only fair to not paraphrase her comments if I don't have them.



The others were comments about the DMV folks who wouldn't let Chase Culpepper present his external gender anyway he wanted. One wanted to throw the kid under the bus because the DMV folks were nasty anyway-anywhere, but another was an extremely insightful one.  She said, isn't the whole episode similar to the age old double standard of girls allowing to be "tom boys" and boys not being allowed to be "tom-girls." Can you imagine one of the "jolly" DMV clerks telling a grumpy woman she looked like hell and better go put on makeup for her picture?

It's a different story here in Ohio where the DMV's were "privatized" years ago.  When I went into renew my license the last time years ago, it was the day after my first visit to the hair salon.  The woman paused for a second and then shrugged and took a very androgynous picture of me for my license since I wasn't seeking a name or gender marker change anyway-the same as Chase.  The DMV simply gets a share of every license plate or ID they process.  So it's "show me the money!"

Finally, Mandy sent in a couple comments that did make it about my second mammogram and ultra sound tomorrow. She was kind enough to fill me in on the actual procedure.

Deep down I believe from the time we are born until the time we die, our lives are built on different new experiences.  My latest new experience will hopefully mean nothing more than a clean bill of health.

One way or another though, the total and complete irony of it will not be lost on me.

Cyrsti's Condo "What If"

I know "back in the day" I used to see quite a few transvestites all dolled up in their "Hooter's" gear and ready to serve.  I have to say, more than a few did a respectable job with their "uniform's".  These days I don't see as many and that could be I'm not looking as hard-don't know.  But I did find one-sort of:

Allow me to preface this "what if" by saying none of these comments on the picture are from me and as always - I don't know if the person in the picture is a cross dresser, or a genetic girl.

I would add these comments though:  "Honey if I did get the job, what if I had to wait on my old drinking buddies?"
And the best one of all:  "If I do this honey, you know I get to keep all my tips!" Then, I can save for a boob job and call them "Tips for Tits!" (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

I'm Getting Dizzy

Before you cheap shot me and say "Cyrsti-you always have been dizzy" - let me explain.

On certain days and in certain weeks, it seems there is almost a daily give and take of transgender rights being given in one place and then taken away in another.

Bobbie (one of our Cyrsti's Condo readers) keeps me pretty much up to date and in fact passed the Obama story along yesterday.  Bobbie is Canadian by trade and sent me a couple encouraging stories of improving transgender rights in Vancouver and Alberta.  She said the province of Alberta quite possibly is the most conservative of all the Canadian Provinces.  Don't worry, if I get any of this wrong she will deservedly correct me!

Then, right in the middle of all the warm and fuzzies- comes this totally ignorant story from South Carolina. Right now I can hear some of you saying "Damn Cyrsti, what do you expect-it's South Carolina.  I don't like to play that game because more than a few think that about the citizen's of Ohio.

At any rate, here's what happened:  "A South Carolina teen who wears androgynous or feminine clothing says he was prevented from wearing makeup in his driver’s license photo. Chase Culpepper, (above) who identifies as gender nonconforming but uses a male name and pronouns, had already passed his driver’s test and went March 3 to the Anderson Department of Motor Vehicle to obtain his driver’s license. But DMV officials told the 16-year-old to take off his makeup for the picture, because they said he did not look how a boy should."

I get so tired around here about ranting about stupid little people playing God.  

Fortunately, these days we have good guys and girls on our side and the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund has asked the DMV to allow the teen to take another photo – wearing makeup.   attorneys with TLDEF said the decision violated Culpepper’s rights and said:

“He is entitled to be who he is and to express that without interference from government actors,” said Michael Silverman, executive director of TLDEF. “Forcing Chase to remove his makeup prior to taking his driver’s license photo restricts his free speech rights in violation of state and federal constitutional protections.”

My fondest desire is at my age, the bigots are beaten back and we can live in a free world...before I die.  The bad thing is I have gay friends who still don't understand I don't have the rights they do.

For more of the "Culpepper" story, go here.

It's All Fun Until You Have to Stop?

In a companion post I just wrote here in Cyrsti's Condo concerning a second mammogram and her friend- an ultra sound, I wrote I wasn't going to jump off any bridges yet.

To start with, locally, there aren't many bridges I could jump off of which would do anything other than break my leg.  I would have to drive an hour or so down around Cincinnati to find a bridge to cause significant damage if  I jumped and I would be pretty much out of the idea by then.  Not to mention I am extremely afraid of heights.

To be truthful, my paranoia comes from an imagined possibility the doctors saying I would have to go off HRT.  The possibility is a very high bridge to jump off of and one I don't want to even consider.

For the first time in my life, I'm beginning to wake up in the morning enjoying the feminization of my body and yes I'm selfish-I don't want to go back.

Bless all the genetic women in the world who go through this - and worse.  Hysterectomies come to mind.  I can understand them feeling they are losing much of the physical basis which equals female in their mind. But, their minds, bodies and experiences were molded to a large part by their hormones and won't start growing big bones and angular features. Since I already have to work around 60+ years of maleness I was born with, any assistance I could find from HRT was welcomed!

Then again, ( as I have written), there is the mental aspect.  I feel hormone replacement therapy after a certain point of time does cause the mind to develop extra feminine worry, even to the point of hysteria.  It's become an involuntary reaction for me these days.

I think too that "Momma Karma" is whispering to me, "you wanted to go down this path-now here you are." As my wife said years ago as I was admiring myself in the mirror, "Come on Princess, it's time to go. You can't have your cake an eat it too." Yet another version of the theme, you really don't know what it is to be a woman.  Perhaps her (she has been deceased for nearly eight years now) and Momma are enjoying a cup of coffee right now discussing all of this. Or, I'm just flattering myself.

Either way, I should be able to tell more early next week and look for a bridge if I need it.

Nothing to Wear

Seems to be the story of my life these days.  Actually though, my summer wardrobe is nicely put together- except when I get summoned back to the hospital for another mammogram and an ultrasound this Thursday. Which begs the question-what does one wear to an ultra sound? Is clothing optional?  Never been invited to one before.

Before anyone starts to take the OMG route with me, I was told by the powers to be at the hospital, a second mammogram for a virgin wasn't all that unusual.  So, before I hitchhike to the tallest bridge around here and jump-I'm going to assume they know what they are talking about.  Plus, at this point in time, what can I do about it anyway?

At least the nurse today didn't laugh on the phone when I asked if the event was formal, casual  or semi formal.

I have waited for a long time to be called "mam" but this is a bit much!

It's Never Too Early

It's never too early to think ahead to Halloween!  I found this costume on Pinterest and positively LOVE it!!!

Fortunately, Liz is a very creative seamstress, loves kitties and purple...I may not even have to rub up against her leg and purr!!!

Cyrsti's Condo "Power Scope"

I'm in LOVE! 

Libra (September 23-October 22): Shoot for the moon when it comes to love. No more waiting for that perfect moment to happen. Yes, seize this moment and make a bold declaration to someone you’ve been holding out on. Freeing yourself of secrets is one way to set bigger plans into motion — lucky for you, doing so can have instantaneous results! Claim what is yours!

Three in a row amazing "scopes"?? Think I'm due to crash and burn? Naaah!

Hope your own scope is amazin' too! For your own "scope" go here to theFrisky!