Cyrsti's Condo "Star Gazing"

This week, the star's managed to settle down a bit after last weeks' high energy "Friskyscope" for all of us Libra's everywhere!


(September 23-October 22): If people can’t get your sense of humor, accept it and move on. Forget trying to be friends with everyone now, because that would be impossible. Know where you belong and be willing to stay fluid, as in feeling out the right people to be around. No more being lazy about where you place your energy — forcing a square peg to fit a round hole won’t be worth it.


Humor so dry it was born in the Saharan Desert mixed in an oasis of sarcasm describes my sense of humor-so I guess this scope fits!  Now for our guest sign this week!


Capricorn:  (December 22-January 19): You’ll have nothing to complain about now. Mysteries of the universe will seem to simplify and be much easier to control. Hell, you won’t even care for the flaky people in your life muttering about the garbage they usually do, as you will have a divine attitude about life and there will be nothing that can take you down.


Don't boo hoo if we missed you! Go here for more!

Best of the Best?

From Gay Star News


A 22-year-old Venezuelan on Saturday night was crowned Miss International Queen in Thailand at the world's biggest beauty pageant for transvestites and transgender women.

Isabella Santiago beat 21 other contestants from 18 countries to win the title and 440,000 baht (US$12,500) in prize money in the resort town of Pattaya.

The winner can also opt for a free cosmetic procedure, including gender reassignment surgery. Miss Thailand Nitsa Katrahong was named first runner-up and received 150,000 baht (US$4,575) and second runner-up Piyada Inthavong from Laos took home 95,000 baht (US$2,900).

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Woman" of the Day

Thai mtf transgender beauty
Chakkarin Singhannuta

More Ways Than One to Beat a Bigot.

Perhaps you remember the experience I passed along from the huge lesbian dance my partner Liz and I went to recently.  The evening provided me with one of the rare moments when someone sought went out of her way  to gender slur me.  L:iz learned about the dance from a semi regional lesbian group around Cincinnati who has many events.  One of which is being part of a woman's interest writer's group.  The group is meeting next weekend and Liz wanted to know if I wanted to go.

I went to the site and before I could even check the event out further, I couldn't until I was accepted as a member of this lesbian group.  At that moment, I figured that wasn't happening...especially I believed gender slur bitch was one of the "lead dogs."  As I normally do, I thought what the hell and applied anyway. My answer came back quickly REJECTED!  I went through the usual emotions of being hurt - then mad-then calmed down and noticed how I could contact them-and I did.

I simply said, my application was based upon my lesbian partner's preference and my only real "need" was to be with her.  I couldn't care less what the rest of the group thought about me but it was wrong for whomever it was to seek me out and trash me. I wasn't "crashing the party" I paid my 15$ and was there with my lesbian partner who wanted me there. My final question was, I guess I would not be "allowed" or welcome to accompany her to future events.

Another answer came almost immediately from a person who threw the "group leader" under the bus and said it wasn't up to her to reject me (the lead dog did) but most certainly I would be welcome in the future.

Finally, Liz was going to pull her membership immediately, which I said don't do it. I will explain- and this morning, mysteriously , I began to get the groups emails.

Certainly, I don't have a huge ego stake in this deal but I do have a stake with a trans woman being rejected and gender slurred in a group.  It's their little club and who ever they want to keep out is their business but just don't hide behind some cheap gender slurs or passive aggressive BS. So I told Liz, any event she sees and wants to go to, contact the group and see if I am "allowed" to come.  Sooner more than later, one of us will get a dialogue.

In reality, this whole deal reflects on Liz more than me. Why is she (Liz) being discriminated against because of her transgender partner and how hypocritical is that?

As I said, none of this was totally unexpected to me. I figured I was venturing into a tough part of the girls's sandbox. The whole deal begs the question-which group gay men or lesbian women are capable of hurting us the most?

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Woman" of the Day

On Pinterest I came across Scarlett Jones or vice versa. I really admire her androgynous semi goth style!

Take a look:

Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

"Ker Plunk!" another Sunday edition of Cyrsti's Condo has just hit your virtual front porch! Let's get started.

Page 1.- The Week That Was- or Wasn't.  My "Merging" post elicited several thoughtful comments, from regulars such as Pat, Alexis Michelle and Mandy. Among other things, several coming out experiences were shared and I urge you to back track on the blog to take a look if you haven't.  My take on it was (or is)  I still have too much baggage I carry with me when I'm dealing with generics.  Often my assumption is, right or wrong, they know I'm a transgender woman-or even care.

Another fun, thought provoking post was called "The Pill" and was based on a question of- if you had access to pills which would erase all maleness or femaleness forever in you, would you take it?

Amanda commented:  It was so many years from the moment I put on my first dress with my sister, That thought that I was a girl has never changed ,,I am Amanda ,being a libra ..most likely the white pill ,but would love to have tried the pink ..lol Love

Thanks Amanda!


Page 2.- Same Sex Marriage.  More than likely by now, you have heard of the latest circuit court of appeals decision which upholds the ban on same sex marriages in certain states (including Ohio where I live.) What the decision essentially does is make sure the issue makes it to the "Supreme Court" for a "final" nationwide ruling.

In the meantime, I was able to use the news for a little "discussion"  leverage with a couple of my lesbian friends.  One of which was giving me grief about transgender service member equal rights. I was talking about how incredibly wrong it is to legislate who should marry whom. Somehow, the conversation shifted to how I didn't have to "worry" about it anyway like the transgender Russian Bride (blond) above.  Either of us can still pull out our "male" birth card and dodge the system.  

Of course I said you (my friend) are presuming I still want to use that male card but are forced to and what does that have to do with me supporting same sex marriage?  Forget about the loosely tied together TGLBQ groups, isn't it the right thing to do? Just like extending rights to transgender military members who fight on the front lines for all of our rights?

About that time, the other two members of our party (one trans woman-another lesbian) were expecting the fur to fly but we moved on to important? topics such as motorcycles and football and all was good. 

Page 3.- Veteran's Day and the Radio.  Out of the clear blue sky, my name went bouncing through the equality group in Ohio and Indiana working for same sex marriage laws and Bingo! Yes I am a transgender vet and yes I would speak about it on a local radio show.  I did a phone in interview a couple days ago and since you all know I am not real shy about discussing issues-if they were able to use any of my interview it would be on today.  I will let you know!

Page 4.- The Back Page.  I hope you all had a good week last week and I am sending out vibes for another good one for you this week!  Thanks for stopping by "the Condo".

From Hawaii News Now :

15 year old "Raquel Largo is transgender and says, "Now I can show my true colors and who I want to be."

Raquel's mom told us there were early signs. "Yeah, sure" said Lena Leopoldo. "He wasn't into boy things."

Transgender is defined as "being a person who identifies with or expresses a gender identity that differs from the one which corresponds to the person's sex at birth."

Lena said, "At first it was wigs, then slowly and surely the make up came in and then the whole yeah."

She supports her son's choice to live as Raquel, but still struggles with the name. Lena said, "It's always Royce and I don't know how to say the girl name. So she accepts it though."

Royce's dad was another story. Raquel explained her struggle this way: "I used to hide when he would come to my house because I felt he wouldn't accept me and that he would discourage me."

On The Pill?

Recently Frock Magazine's Katie Glover brought up a rhetorical question on the "Gender Society" Facebook site. .  If you had the chance to take separate gender pills which would once and for all decide your fate- which one would you take?

The choices went something like this:

Pink Pill.- You would become a young pretty girl and live your life as a woman.
Blue Pill-  You would stay a guy without the burden of wanting to become a woman ever again.
White Pill- you stay as you are as a transgender person.

Of course, being a Libra I chose to pull out my scales and weigh out the issue and of course over reasoned it quickly.

Here is what I came up with...I flushed the white pill immediately.  No matter how I feel about my life as a transgender or gender fluid person now (and am even discovering some benefits to it)-I wish no one having to take the path I did.

Surprisingly to me I would have taken the harder of the two gender pills-the female one.  The easy way out would have been the blue, which I will explain. Being a generic from birth I think would have put me directly in the path of trying to live up to the imagined expectations of my Mom. I know, she expected a ton from me as a son, but it would have been worse as a daughter. Plus, I think very simply, girls have more layers in their environment to learn and deal with than boys. Plus females are the high maintenance gender physically of the two binaries.  There is more that can go wrong in the plumbing and wiring.

Having written all of that- STILL give me the pink pill!

Finally, the Blue Pill.  While I still think the concept of "Male Privilege" was a farce for me-the demands of growing up male ended up being a lot less.  I grew up in a family dominated by macho males and I found out early how I could play the game-if I wanted to or worse yet had to. Plus how much easier would have it been to wipe out all the stress and tension of wanting to be a girl?

All in all, what a wonderful question and one that I guess has been floating around for some time.

Which pill would you take?

This Kid Cleans Up Well!

It's not often I run into a "before and after" womanless beauty pageant picture like this one!