Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our feature cover today is the androgynous male model Kim Zuluaga

Cyrsti's Condo "Blast from the Past!"

I'm sure you who are "of age" remember the 1960 hit song "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie, Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" by Brian Hyland.  It told the story of a shy girl rocking a bikini on the beach for the first time.  I'm fairly sure this young cross dresser wasn't born yet in 1960 when it was written!

As I attended my earliest cross dresser mixers in the Cleveland, Ohio area in the 1980's, supposedly there was a "member" who could rock a bikini well.  I never got to meet her and she was rumored to have left the group and fell in love with a genetic woman.  I wondered  if her new woman friend knew of her cross dressing  (even then, everyone expected her to go farther into full time) and who looked better in a bikini?

Will the Circle be Unbroken?

Well kids, it was quite the weekend at quite possibly my last circa 1800 crafts fair where we have sold "Bison Burgers" (buffalo) in period costume for over a decade.  It's very physically demanding and with the toll HRT has taken on my former male strength - and the combination of working 33+ years on my feet in the commercial restaurant business - I'm literally not the man I used to be.

So this morning it's time to slow down over a cup of joe and think a little more about the next couple of months.  I am very excited!

I have mentioned here in Cyrsti's Condo,  my partner Liz is a practicing Wiccan  and I am becoming more and more interested in earth/nature based spirituality.  It just so happens, during the next month, a couple of major Wiccan festivals happen in the area.  I can't wait to go!

Then in October we have reserved a spot for Liz to sell her jewelry and knitted items at a nearby fall festival. (She knits, she crafts, she draws and she can sing too! Is it fair one person in a relationship should "hog" all the talent :) ? )

Seriously, where my "circle" begins, ends and starts again goes back many years.  My deceased wife and I were visiting a fall arts and crafts show over in Indiana and at one booth it was fairly obvious one genetic woman was selling, and in the back one cross dressed woman was helping.  So many years later, although I'm not the "talent" I will not be afraid to just sit back and not help sales. I'm fairly certain Liz will have the only transgender sales person at the festival.

Toss in a couple "October Fests" along the way and before we know it the bewitching Halloween time will be upon us and "Madam Lanoe!" Liz has told me, under no circumstances will she disclose what my costume will look like.  I'm like a kid waiting for Christmas!

Finally, I know what you are thinking.  Cyrsti, with your 65th birthday mixed in the middle of all of this, it's tough to be a kid.  But you know-that's the fun part!  The down side is-I need a nap! When is that coffee going to kick in???

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 !