Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

A damp "Ker Plunk!" from the Condo as we start our "Labor Day Sunday" with steady rain.  Hope you are all well!

Page.1- "The week which Was-or Wasn't!"  For the present time at least, the discussion of "to be-or not to be- stealth" has died down again.  The consensus was for those of us "of age" which took us back into the 1960's-70's and 80's-there was not really a choice but to go stealth. Plus, for the most part, unless you were motivated to and had the resources to do it, there were few outlets to express your frustration  going from one closet to another.

Page 2.- "Putting a New Car in your Garage!"  Paraphrasing a term I heard Ophra say years ago, when she asked a recent Mtf transgender woman (who had just completed SRS) if she would stay married to her current wife and ever have sex with a man; the trans woman said no sex with a man and Ophra said -why would you buy a new car (vagina) and not test drive it?

All of that led to the "vagina or the woman" discussions again and since the new Obamacare/Medicare standards support SRS surgeries-would I have to buy a new garage for my new car here in the Condo.

Fall Fashion Outfit!

Page 3.- "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?"  Labor Day weekend, which traditionally is a long weekend which ends summer around the United States has nearly come and gone.  Even though any idea of traditional weather has come and gone around Ohio, hopefully the wonderful fall season will still "strut her stuff" before we see if we get another shot of the dreaded "Polar Vortex".





In the meantime, the glorious changing of the leaves and fields into yellows, browns and golds usher in fuzzy sweaters, boots and leggings!  As you can tell, I love the season and it's special big finish at Halloween. 

Unnamed Cross Dresser (Bumble Bee)

Halloween has become a special time of year for anyone even closely associated with femininity to have some fun.  From cross dressers to genetic- it has become everyone's chance to explore their creativity and sexiness.  I am sure we will have plenty of opportunity to discuss it all here!

Page 4.- The Back Page!  Well kids, that's it for this week and I hope you lived through yours (or you wouldn't be here?)
As always, thanks so much for being a part of the Condo. Without you, none of this would be worth it and my dog can't read!!

Peace Out!

Cyrsti's Condo "What If?"

If you went to college and were in a fraternity-perhaps you were called upon to cross dress as "punishment", a prank or as a theme event with a sorority on campus.  Here is an idea of how the idea wasn't so "terrible" for this frat boy:

Too Old for a "New Car?"

I have been remiss in not taking the time to thank Bobbie for sending in a story about the federal government finally listing gender dysphoria as being a "pre existing" condition and paying for SRS.

The article called "Obamacare Now Pays for Gender Reassignment"  Here is just a brief excerpt from the "The Daily Beast" which is linked above:

 The federal anti-discrimination regulations have yet to be written, but California insurance regulators have said that companies must treat transgender patients the same as other patients. For example, if plans cover hormones for post-menopausal women, they must also cover them for transgender women. Medicare, the program for the elderly and disabled, lifted its ban on covering sex reassignment surgery earlier this year. 

“The law and policy are on a transgender person’s side for the first time,” said Anand Kalra, program administrator at the Oakland-based Transgender Law Center. 

To me personally, I will be fully 65 and eligible for Medicare in early October, and the ramifications to me are huge.  So huge, that my partner Liz and I are taking part of this long Labor Day weekend to discuss them.  Quite frankly, as I have written here in Cyrsti's Condo, I never thought SRS was even a possibility for me.  Like so many other transgender men and women it's not financially feasible.  Of course now, it may be. I know though, I still have so many other hoops to jump through before I would or could undertake such a major move.  I do know my genitalia does not define my gender, but I'm still intrigued about going the "final mile" so to speak in the final miles of my life.  

Seemingly, I have never done anything in the right order in my life and SRS could be yet another.

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our feature cover today is ANJALI LAMA – Nepals First Transgender Model

What The Hell Happened to Us in the 60's and 70's?

Pat recently brought it up in another comment here in Cyrsti's Condo, the tumultuous years of mid to late 1960's into the mid 1970's potentially could have been a time for change in the transgender culture too.

It simply wasn't and I have ideas why (of course I do!).

Two words: Vietnam and ignorance.  First of all, allow me to define my definition of the word ignorance.  I'm not equating it with stupidity or lack of intelligence.  I'm simply saying ignorance is not having access to information.  During that time (and after) gender dysphoria was considered a mental illness issue.  No pun intended, but real information about words such as transgender and transsexual was beginning to finally come out of the closet.

In those days though, it was a tough world to come out to.  Beginning with JFK in the early 1960's, a tragic hot mess of a war in Vietnam and then the losses of JFK, Martin Luther King Jr, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin-gender dysphoria all of a sudden wasn't so important.  Except for those of us who suffered with it.

The sad part to me is, so many who didn't live through it have such a cavalier view towards it.  I talk to anyone who will listen of my deep problem with being the only gender drafted.  I am not saying genetic women should not have been in combat (that is another discussion), I am saying everyone should have been drafted.  Find something for everyone to do.

So, those are the reasons I believe when we look back on an era of extreme change, really it wasn't for us.

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover WOMAN" of the Day

"LOTZA" curves define mtf transgender woman Ashley Eliese !

Ohio Proud

Here in the USA Heartland commonly called the Mid West we are commonly thought of as one big "gob" of territory and peeps who "happen " to exist between the elitist "right and left" coasts of the country.  When I lived around NYC years ago, many I worked with could only equate where I lived to how close it was to Texas...really?

We are used to it of course and yes live real lives with computers, electricity and indoor plumbing out here on the frontier.

To break it down for you in Ohio (where every presidential candidate seems to camp out anymore) we have the three "C's", Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland. As major metro areas.  Over the past decade Columbus became the most diverse in the GLBTQ arena, spurred on in no small part by The Ohio State University with it's 45,000+ students. But now, the other "two C's" are beginning to catch up.

In August, Cleveland hosted the "Gay Games" and now, the "third C" is stepping up to the plate.  I'm talking about Cincinnati and not the Reds (who haven't hit the ball much this year.). Cincy was always regarded as the backward step child of the "3-C's" for any number of reasons including the influence of Kentucky across the Ohio River to an ultra conservative powerful Catholic church.  Over the past five years or so someone woke up in Cincy and positive changes are coming fast and furious- including this one:

Medically necessary "transgender" procedures will be covered under the City of Cincinnati's health insurance starting next year.

The reason: To help Cincinnati lure citizens and workers.

"Since I've been here I've worked to make this city as competitive and inclusive as possible," said Cincinnati City Councilman Chris Seelbach, the city's first openly gay councilman. "This is a another step in that direction."

Seelbach led a council majority in signing a letter urging the change.

Cincinnati would be the first city in Ohio to offer transgender procedures in its health benefits, according to a statewide advocacy group.

Shane Morgan, founder and chair of TransOhio, which provides education and advocacy, praised city officials.

"For Cincinnati to cover their trans employees – because there are trans employees who work there – is great," Morgan said. "Hopefully cities elsewhere in Ohio will follow that."

Shane Morgan is right.  We are good for business, it's getting the narrow minded bible beaters and bigots around this state to realize it- is the tough task.  In the smaller towns like I live in, you only need to follow the money to why change is slow.  Everyone, being a business person, preacher-or whatever just wants to protect their little pile of sand.

Usually they do it under the guise of "protecting" the kids or God.  So sad.

What Now?

Here in Cyrsti's Condo, we have been discussing earlier times when passing successfully was a goal and often the only one.  I know I totally was  missing the essence of being myself on the days I blissfully was able to spend a day shopping in the mall.  I looked like a woman sure, but there was always a missing piece to the puzzle somehow.

Have have mentioned several times about that time I actually knew three or four transsexual women.  I was fortunate enough to have an up close and personal look at why someone would desire to undergo SRS or not.

One of the trans women was a married engineer and was easily one of the most feminine women I had ever met- a natural, you might say. Her wife knew all of what was to happen, they had an amicable divorce and after the operation, the person actually continued her engineering career out West and got remarried to a man.
Another had already gone through all the operations and was leading a successful life as a woman but for some reason, was just "passing through" and I knew her for the briefest time. But, speaking of passing, she would visit me at my restaurant in Columbus at the time and my crew wondered who the tall woman was I "might" be cheating on my wife with.

Another was also a very feminine cross dresser when I met her, a low key attractive classy cross dresser who did decide to opt for SRS.  Never knew much about her.
Finally there was the worst example of all.

Out of the four, I knew her the longest and had watch her go through the stages of cross dresser, HRT, electrolysis, etc.  She was always the one in the room who had every feminine detail covered, even down to a set of false feminine teeth she wore over her real teeth.  Always, every inch the society woman but never quite the "woman" at all.  She never quite seemed to get the essence of the gender as the other three did. She rushed ahead though and bought her new car (vagina) and seemed to tire of it real quickly.  At that point, what was next? She was now a middle aged woman loosing her looks and struggling to decide which gender she would live with.  Although, she only lives 50 some miles away, I have never attempted to make contact and I do hope she is happy!

"Andrea" Housewives of Melbourne-drag queen?

My point is, back in the day when passing was everything, seemingly the best shortcut to achieving one's dream was SRS.  The fact remained though that no amount of surgery could help some of the trans women who went through the process.  I briefly chatted a couple of times with a person not so far away who had went through SRS, facial feminization I think twice and then just had to have butt implants.  Really?

Maybe that's why so many of these women on all the "Housewives's Of---" Shows do look like drag queens? (In fact "Andrea" of the Housewives of Melbourne looks a lot like my final example.) Think of it this way. We are fairly sure all of these women have had their "cars" for awhile but now need constant exterior upgrades. My cross dressing friend extraordinaire  always had an easy time of being the best of the CD's in room-but I always wondered if she tried to ever really play in the big girls sandbox.  Hell, Andrea could be her!

So when I get blasted by a bitter "true transsexual" or whatever she happens to be calling herself at the time, I just hope she didn't just get caught up in all her own ideas or rhetoric and  "jumped too fast."

The world has changed - she can't and it's sad.

"Stealth" in the Day

Paula Goodwin commented about our Cyrsti's Condo "Stealth in the Day" discussion recently:

Accepting the risk of upsetting a least somebody.... surely going stealth in the 60s, 70s and 80s was very much a feminist issue, if somebody was to be accepted as a woman then there were very few opportunities to be any type of woman other than the "little woman", the house wife / mother type. We now are developing fresh ideas of what it can mean to be a woman, and being trans is one of those types f woman it is increasingly acceptable to be.

Having said all that I am not a great fan of tee shirts with slogans on the so I will not be buying one that says "HEY I'M TRANS" if asked I will now always admit to who and what I am, after all I now accept that there is nothing wrong with who and what I am, but I see no reason why I should shout it from the roof tops.

I agree Paula about the "Hey I'm Trans Shirt." The closest I came is the transgender vet shirt I wore to Pride this summer in Columbus which said "I fought for the rights you deny me."  And I do have a neat Trans necklace!

and Pat:

Even though the jargon of our times during the 60s was about tolerance and acceptance (If it feels good, do it...Whatever floats your boat...Let it all hang out...etc) the idea of acceptance of T folks back then was miles away from where it is today. Back then passing was primary and going stealth was as much a matter of survival as choice. We've come a long way baby.

Unnamed Cross Dresser Bringking Back Memories of Ruining Hose!

Paula, I know you know by now the idea of "tip toeing" around all the various "special interest" groups in our community is impossible. In fact, in the past I have been criticized for even using the word community or "culture" to describe say, transgender women and cross dressers.  I'm in  a good mood, so I'm not going to even mention the so called true transsexuals, who anoint themselves with that label and SHOULD go stealth.  

Indeed, back in those days, passing in society was almost the only was to survive and yes SRS was the quickest route to it. (If it worked) Yes, we have come a long long way- which we will discuss more in depth in a later post!