Cyrsti's Condo "Wedding Day Blues"

Come on now Ian! Smile! You look great and no one will ever know you are an emergency bridesmaid replacement  in your sister's wedding!  You are right though-a bad choice of dresses!

Do not though...catch the bouquet or flirt with one of the groom's friends in the wedding party----GOT IT?

Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

G'day to you all and ker plunk! It's time for another Sunday edition here in the Condo. Actually around here in Ohio we have found ourselves in the midst of a very fall like weather run with night time lows in the 40's. As they say in the old country-good sleeping weather!

Page1.- "The Week That Was-or Wasn't."  The story and video of NFL running back dominated the national news so much that at least one night last week, it got the opening spot on the CBS evening national news I watch over even the ISIS/ISOL problem in the Middle East.  It should.  For once, the wrong man hit the wrong woman and all hell broke loose.  The story followed the classic path of male on female domestic violence. He apologizes, she said it was her fault too and life goes on.  This time it didn't though and the greatest marketing/money machine in the history of the United States was brought to it's knees.  Incidentally, to really follow the NFL forget the games and  follow the money.  The league's  greatest growth market recently has been it's women fans.

Certainly, to any of us who have crossed the gender boundary at all as a part time cross dresser to a full time transgender woman, male on female violence is no surprise. Plus, it is worse with us. If you are a Cyrsti's Condo regular, you know we try to regularly  revue basic security measures we all should take when we venture out of the closet. Never think male on female violence can't happen to you. 

What the NFL situation ultimately does for any of us remains to be seen but certainly a bunch of men (for the most part enabled their entire lives from athletics) playing a violent sport and pumped up on who knows what steroids/hormones (roid rage)- this is far from over.  Best case scenario is as CD's and Trans women we can stand up, be counted and for once included.

Page2.-  "Hide and Seek" A couple well thought out comments from MIchellewhois enabled us to discuss the majority of us who have or are hiding in plain sight with our gender issues. Here is one:

Very Old "Blonde Picture"  of Me on a future post I will explain what I did to it!

"Thank you for quoting me. I always wondered if anyone really saw when I wrote a thought or two. Many of us camouflage ourselves out of necessity. The necessity of maintaining the mental and physical health of not only our loved ones but ourselves.

You are right about that Trans-Dar going off when we see someone that may be hiding in plain sight. I remember one site on transitioning, suggest that you slowly change your appearance over time so that others will get used to seeing you change your appearance such as the "pretty men" you mentioned.

As for looking down on CD's, I could never find myself doing that because I was one of them way back when. If every Transwoman thinks about it, we were all one of those CD's hiding in plain sight."

You are welcome Michelle!  I have never liked the "comments" part of this particular blog platform I operate under.  I'm sure there is a better way, but I'm not "techno-girl" and are afraid to fool with the system.  I can say I do notice comments and thanks!  Plus, slowly changing one's appearance is a great idea!

Finally, I too have taken great pains to never give the impression of being higher up an imaginary cross dresser-transgender-transsexual pecking order.  Over my life, I have been subjected to too many "high and mighty" trans terfs who have taken me to task for almost anything from being a pretender - to starting HRT later in life - to my sexuality.  They used to aggravate me, now I just think their attitude is just their male ego bleeding through.

The Back Page.- Well kids, that is going to be it for this week's Sunday Edition!  Thanks for taking your time to stop in for a hot "Cup O Joe" (coffee) and spending a bit of your precious time here in the Condo!

He Never Made a Great "Big Brother!"

Big Brother contestant  Rodrigo Lopes  is now  Rebekah Shelton, a Brazilian transgender woman. Shown here as a transgirl and young man (known from Big Brother Brasil 2004)

Hiding in Plain Sight?

A comment from Michellewhois:

For many of us in the community we have to keep those fears our whole lives like that masks that we are forced to wear. I too am forced to wear the mask so much so that it has become second nature. I always hold out hope that one day it won't matter and everyone will see us for who we really are and not someone that has to hide almost in plain sight.

Unnamed cross dresser

I often wondered about the guy down the street or in the office - who are the beautiful cross dressers I see here, there and everywhere on line.  I'm sure they run the spectrum from the heavy "closet dwellers" to those who live a part of their lives as CD's with understanding families.

We talk about "trans-dar" often in Cyrsti's Condo, and for years I often wondered about the "pretty men" I observed who were thin and had no eye brows to speak of.  Maybe they were the ones with seemingly a zillion "selfie's" on certain photo sites. 

As I got better,  I began to look at where the photos were taken (always in the same room) or out in the world. Then, were the pictures taken by a professional photographer and finally, were they actually a genetic woman or not.  (Pinterest has gobs and bunches of those!) But look, they are pictures-a moment in time, no more, no less.

Finally, I came to a point which in essence is what Michelle was commenting about: how many of us hide in plain site.  Those of us who are the Kristin Beck's of the cross dressing or transgender world and cover ourselves with a deep layer of macho camouflage.  

Surely I will never know.  If you take the Condo for example, I can't remember ever having a response from here in Ohio.  The closest I have came is from Shelle over in Indiana who I haven't heard from and hope is OK.  Facebook is worse.  Someday I'm going to have to go through my reasonably local "friends" and delete all of those who have gone.

Finally, I know too, if there is a cross dresser hiding in plain site across the street from me-she has a reason to be there. Plus, chances are she may labor under that well worn (and true) idea that we transgender women "look down" on cross dressers.  It just so happens I don't.

Michelle, thanks for the comment!

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl" of the Day

Our feature "cover" today is the beautiful androgynous German male model Marta Styuart.

Laverne Cox Coming Soon!

Quite possibly, the best part of my most recent visit to my endocrinologist was when he mentioned a future Laverne Cox speaking engagement in December at nearby Wright State University. Fairborn/Dayton Ohio.

As I researched her visit, I was amazed at how dedicated Laverne must be to "spreading the transgender word." I count approximately 25 speaking engagements for her between now and Wright State.

If you follow the link above to her web site, you can read (among other things) this understatement:
  
Laverne is in demand as a speaker.  She has travelled the country speaking about moving beyond gender expectations to live more authentically. Additionally, she uses and encourages an intersectional approach to critically engage with our stories.

Needless to say, I'm very excited by a chance to see her speak on her own terms about us.  If you are here in Ohio by chance, she will also be at Kent State in November.  For other "stops" go back to the link above!

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"

Overheard on my Twitter account last night:

"Will the NFL now come up with a new concussion protocol when their players hit women?"

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Girl of the Day"

Our feature cover today is Brazilian transgender MtF beauty Carol Marra.  Just add a little HRT and surgery and Wow! 

"Trippin" at the Doctor

Yesterday was my semi annual visit to my endocrinologist to have my hormone levels checked as well as other "fluids."

My Doctor works in conjunction with a nearby state university and always has a couple of "resident's" in tow, dutifully taking notes and acting like they know what they are doing. In reality, they are students, but that is cool by me.

This time though, I had one of the residents who wasn't "cool" at all with my transgender status.  First of all, he kept mis-gendering me.  After the second or third time he called me "he" I simply said I didn't appreciate him calling me that and while I am less sensitive than others-he still needed to stop it.  Especially before he went into practice somewhere.  He did say he was sorry and proceeded to do it another three or four more times during the visit. I told him every time not to do it.

The worst thing he did was out of the clear blue sky, was ask if I was sexually attracted to men or women?  Really?  That did it.  I lodged an official complaint against him today. I don't know if he had a real problem with me, or if he was simply treating me like he would treat transgender women in his native country. But of course that is even less of an excuse.

I just hope before the next time he encounters a transgender patient someone gives the jerk a little "sensitivity" training.