"Govnment" Stuff

Thankfully, most of you took my "Transitioning" Post about a CIA job ad which made it's way into my email as nothing political and DEFINITELY not an opinion on the agency or it's current problems.  I just thought it was an interesting play on words.  On the other hand, here is a report I am solidly behind:

USA Today reported:  ARLINGTON, Va. — Now that the U.S. military has opened more jobs to women and allowed gay men and lesbians to serve openly, Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James says the ban on transgender troops is likely to be reassessed and should be lifted."Times change," she told Capital Download, saying the policy "is likely to come under review in the next year or so." Asked whether dropping the ban would affect military readiness, she replied: "From my point of view, anyone who is capable of accomplishing the job should be able to serve."

I thought I felt the ground here in Ohio was getting unseasonably cold - until I read this and I knew Hell was freezing over!

Cyrsti's Condo "Vintage Woman of the Day"

 Our feature cover today is Teri Toye, who ventured to New York City in the 1980’s and spent her days enrolled as a fashion student in 1984, and her nights as a fixture of the NYC nightlife scene. But after a chance meeting with designer Stephen Sprouse, Teri opened her runway show and became an instant modeling sensation. 

But as quickly as Teri became a modeling star, she disappeared from the fashion world, returning home to Des Moines, Iowa, where she still lives and works in historic preservation and real estate.

Interesting!!!!

I have added a link to Zagria's blog to jump to for more.

A "Non Binary" Girl?

I was involved in my normal "surfing" around on the web and happened across a person looking for a non-binary girl.  I thought maybe this younger peep had an interesting label he applied to men who actually are attracted to transgender or non binary women.

The poor "admirers" it seems, get no love from many.  Right or wrong, their advances are considered to be entirely sexual in nature and the man in question has to wrestle with the dark specter of him being gay.

Pretty simple, right?  Nothing ever is simple with a trans person.  I have a cross dressing friend who is fond of saying the true test of a trans/admirer relationship is when he is willing to take his trans woman friend home to meet his family.  That may be a little dramatic and more than a little scary to both parties but the idea sounds fairly true.

As you all know, I don't write about the "admirer" subject much here in Cyrsti's Condo but I know what a sensitive subject it is.  Like so many others, when I was starting to explore the feminine world, I craved the idea of having a man on my shoulder as a validation of who I was.  Looking at the overall generic population of women-don't they rely on the same feelings?

I also wonder too about the transgender women I read about who worry about ever finding a quality man-but don't generics worry about that too?  Welcome to the girl's sandbox girls!

If you are a "non binary" girl like I am, no matter where you stand in the relationship area, it's exceedingly tough process to "market" yourself to men who may be attracted to us.  Most dating sites don't provide spots for non binary gender folk at all.  I know when I was actively involved in finding friends on line, I had to balance the binary lines.  My only choices were a woman seeking a woman and a man seeking a man-or a woman.  Many weeks I would change my preference to see what would happen. I won't even comment on the so called transgender - transsexual only dating sites.

It did happen for me.  I met my partner Liz five years ago on an on line dating site, as well as my dear trans guy friend.  Along the way though, I did sort through tons of crazies or "romeo's" who wanted to know when I could meet them at a nearby motel.  No different I suppose than any generic.

Cyrsti's Condo "If You MUST Know!"

Well Honey...it's like this...in a land far away and long ago, my Mom dressed me like a girl!

More Than One Kind of Transition?

Earlier today in one of my email boxes I saw an email with the title "Transitioning?"  It came from a source which posts veterans job openings, so I took a look:

Hello ,

Like you, I too served to protect our nation.  Now it is my mission to help connect veterans with career opportunities like this one with the Central Intelligence Agency.
          ~ Jasen Williams, Marine Corps Veteran

TRANSITIONING? SERVE UNDER ANOTHER SYMBOL OF NATIONAL SECURITY.

Somehow I don't think the CIA is recruiting transgender women or men transitioning their gender!

Cyrsti's Condo Art Choice

I just found this picture and wanted to pass it along as it jumped off the page and spoke gender volumes to me. .Femininity and androgyny just to name a few!

"Leave 'Em' Laughing"

My continuing saga with the Veteran's Administration took a decisive turn yesterday.

About two or so, I saw a call coming in from my Patient Advocate office...quickly catching you newer Cyrsti's Condo visitors up-I am a transgender veteran and I am under a co-pay medical program with the much maligned VA.  They are mandated to provide HRT care for me.  Sounds simple, right?

For the most part it has been-except-in typical bureaucratic fashion,  I got stuck in a classic "Catch 22" (A requirement that cannot be met until a prerequisite requirement is met, however, the prerequisite cannot be obtained until the original requirement is met.)  I was approved to be prescribed the HRT meds through the VA pharmacy but no one would prescribe them.  I fought for approximately six to eight months to get approval for them (VA) to pay for an outside endocrinologist to approve my meds. Fast forward two years later and all of the sudden it was happening again!

My advice to any or all of you who may be facing a similar situation-be a persistent bitch. I called three separate advocates nine times in a week and finally got a real answer, presented to me in a simple fashion I could understand.  For once, the guy who called me was interested in not just using me as a ping pong ball and bouncing me to another person.  He told me just to get approval from my primary VA Doc and all was good.  Wow.

Perhaps the second best point came when I was getting ready to hang up and I said "Thanks Dave". He said, "You're welcome, but the name is Jason." I said sorry, but that's fine,  I'm not a "Mister" either.

I Love Being a Girl

I know, cheesy lead in right? Surprise, right?

Actually, the whole mind set I'm referring to is one that I am just beginning to scratch the surface of-vintage fashion. First of all, I have had to develop a whole different mind set-heavily in grained decades in my noggin. Slowly and all so uncertainly, I no longer have to look at the generics around me and yearn to be them.  I'm to the point I can be them- to the point of enjoying to the fullest the interests and lifestyles of their world. In fact, since I never take it for granted-so maybe I can enjoy their world more as I embrace it more than they do.

Whatever- now it seems, more than a few of my "unreachable" feminine fashion icons of my youth are being brought back!

Plus, some of you may remember, I'm a historian by degree and have a certain respect for things-well old.  So why not add vintage fashion in?  Recently, I was overjoyed when I found on Twitter, a site called "Queens of Vintage" (no-not drag queens) a lifestyle blog about all things vintage - written and curated by Lena Weber.(left)

If you are curious or interested, follow the link above!

A Close Shave?

It seems the past couple of days here in Cyrsti's Condo, have been getting back to basics. Yesterday we touched on the subject of leaving the house presenting as your preferred gender.  I received a thoughtful comment on the subject through  Google Plus and Jennifer S saying a lot like me, she runs the gamut of genders on occasion.  One of the main objectives is not acting like anything is wrong of course.

Today, if you go back several posts to one of my "made up" scenarios, you will see yet another match of a picture of an unknown cross dresser on Pinterest to a possible circumstance. Many of the "Condo's" usual suspects made this one fun by adding comments. Here is a little secret on this post; I was in a hurry and only said the cross dresser in question was caught by surprise by his little sister, in his Mom's clothes.  Paula correctly noted that Mom must be hot with that wardrobe!  Then, surprise-surprise, came the leg comments as Mandy and I began to discuss if he had shaved his legs or not.

I for one, have been fascinated by the subject-period.  If you take womanless beauty pageants or Halloween for instance, shaved legs are a fairly decent way to separate the more serious woman wannabe's from the just having a good timers.

Sadly, I'm so old, I only remember  a few of the times in my life when I was able to shave my legs and wonder now how I got away with it. I wasn't cursed with tons of body hair, but what I had was very dark in color.  Like so many others, I became fairly good at hiding my leg hair with a combination of panty hose (which I hated).  After the first couple of layers, I felt like I was suiting up for football again.  Plus, when I could shave my legs, the electric sensation I felt was simply amazing.

Fast forward more years than I can remember and now shaving my legs has -yes-become part of my everyday life of what I do to maintain my feminine existence.  Plus, over the past several summers, most generics have simply gone "bare legged" in the warm months. That's OK too because even though I am far past my mini skirt days, the cool breeze on my legs under a long flowing skirt in the summer, makes the shaving process worth it. (And ooooooh so feminine!)

So again and again the fascinating part of being a "clod" (sorry! a clog) in the transgender/cross dressing community is-no matter where you find yourself today, may not be where you may be tomorrow. If you take me and my panty hose saga for example; years ago I used hose to cover leg hair and hold up my hip/butt pads.  Now, they are simply part of my fashion/style I simply don't use much until the cooler months when I wear tights and leggings.

None of it makes anyone right or wrong, except I do think almost everyone agrees, guys do have the potential to have classically beautiful feminine legs.  Just don't tell them!