A Cyrsti's Condo "Shakespearean" Moment

Blame Pat, she got me started on this...


To Be or Not to be-Leaving the house cross dressed!

The Generational Transgender Gap?

As "Momma Karma" loves to do, on occasion, she gives me transgender comparisons on the same day and sits back and sees if I can grasp them. Yesterday was one of the rare occasions I did.

Here in Cyrsti's Condo, we posted the story of Robina Asti, who, in her 90's won a battle with Social Security over survivor benefits from her genetic male spouse she married after she legally became a woman-. Robina was a U.S. Navy combat pilot in WWII, transitioned at 55 and is now 93. (She still flys!)

At the other end of the age spectrum, at approximately the same time I was writing the post, I was doing a bit of rare multi tasking. To make ends meet on my Social Security, I sell a few vintage collectibles on a site called Etsy and on Ebay - plus I make a pittance on the ad's you see here in the Condo.  To keep my hyper active-easily bored noggin interested, I was taking a look at my "TruNorth Pickers" Etsy Shop and happened upon another shop which was looking for "transgender" items.  Of course, I immediately messaged the woman who was listed as the owner and asked her what trans items she was looking for, since I am a transgender woman.

Her rapid answer was, she wasn't 18 yet and her and her Mom had started a Etsy Shop (free) - and she was born female but she has a Mtf friend who is transitioning.  The awwwwh! moment came when she said Mom keeps real close track of her (good) but Mom supports her and her friend (better!) and they were looking for something pretty for her(the friend). The bad news came when she said she cross dresses as a boy and runs into quite a few haters. I just said haters just hated themselves inside and were jealous she was living her life to her standards and time was on her side!

We exchanged several messages, as even I had to get focused again on my day.  I felt really bad though when she said if I needed to talk I knew where she was.  I thought "Hey! shouldn't that be my line?"  But, I knew it couldn't because I always think "imparting excess info" on the young just conjures up "old fogy" - plus I didn't want her and her Mom to think I could be yet another internet slime ball.

So, in the space of an hour yesterday, I went from a pre-18 year old Ftm cross dresser to a 93 year old transgender woman battling for what was hers anyhow.

Isn't the internet grand?

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"

Is It Ever Really Too Late?

I have made no secret over the past several years of how more than a couple times, I have been called anything from transgender "pretender" to "just another old guy on hormones." Because of course, I didn't Mtf transition until later in life.

At any rate..read on about another transgender "pretender"  Robina Asti.  The story comes from People Magazine:

In the Navy during World War II, Robert Astey flew combat missions, and later became a commercial pilot, a mutual fund senior vice president, as well as a husband and father to three children. 

Then at age 55 he began a transition to living as a woman, renamed Robina Asti, and was soon legally recognized as female. Today, at age 93, after a "glorious romance" with a the husband she met in 1980, she has become something else – a trailblazer, having won a victory that makes it much easier for transgender spouses to get Social Security survivor benefits. 

The Naval lieutenant (who still pilots aircraft) says she never set out to be a pioneer. But that's how she's been hailed by the legal team that helped Asti launch the challenge to win her husband Norwood Patton's survivor benefits that she believed were rightfully hers following his death in 2012. 

I guess just "another old guy on hormones" did make a difference! Even though the whole time she was just a pretender!

LOVE THIS!

If we are ever fortunate enough  to meet...

This is me!

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"

You regulars know this one has a place close to my heart!

"Dragging" Kids to School?

Check out the kid on the right.

He's thinking "hey! this girl thing isn't so bad after all-  What's wrong with those other guys?
Another boy bought me lunch and gee, I guess I'm kinda hot!"
No wonder my jealous sister is ignoring me!!!

On Line Dating and the Trans Girl (or Man)!

Years ago as I was seriously coming out at transgender, I explored the world of on-line dating sites fairly heavily.  The places I didn't go were the ones who "specialized" in cross dresser, transgender or transsexual dating for fairly obvious reasons.

(Photo, Alessia  Cross/Flickr)

Other than that, I did actually pay a monthly amount of money for a couple sites and a couple others were free. I found out quickly though, I got what I paid for.  In fact, I found my partner Liz and my trans man friend on the same site - one I paid for. I put myself in the woman seeking woman category and then in the first sentence, I said I was transgender. Then I was amazed how many didn't ready the profile anyhow.

Regardless, back in those days though, it was exceedingly difficult for a transgender person to even start the process of finding another person on any site.  You were forced into the binaries of men seeking women, women seeking women, men seeking men, etc.

Recently one of the sites I was on -  OK Cupid has been in the news after cofounder Christian Rudder announced that developers secretly changed some people's compatibility ratings and removed profile photos to learn more about behavior on the site. While some have criticized OKCupid for showing people false or manipulated content as an experiment, the site's failure to accommodate transgender users may be a larger and more long-standing ethical dilemma.  I do wonder though if I just happened to be part of that "experiment" as I had been off the site for years until several months ago I mysteriously reappeared on it and just as quick- gone again.

The dilemma is real as we know as transgender women or men attempting to pursue on line dating, which basically lost most of it's negative stigma years ago.

The good news?  There is a free on line dating site called Mesh now for the trans community too.  The bad news is? It's in the NYC area only so far, but with plans on spreading out soon.

If you went through (or are going through) the pain of being hammered into a binary gender hole not of your liking, you may want to check out the link above!  Maybe help is on the way!

Cyrsti's Condo "Star Ship Cross Dresser!"

Beam me up Scotty!!! This is definitely NOT a costume party!!!