The Trans Beat Grows Louder

As I wrote here in Cyrtsi's Condo recently, every morning it's difficult not to hear a story or someone's interpretation of the recent flood of transgender news. Plus more and more trans peeps are coming out of the woodwork to comment.  Thanks Bobbie for sending along this story:


"According to the Guardian’s Editor-in-Chief, former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning will soon be writing an opinion column for the British daily neMwspaper’s U.S. website.
Readers will likely, of course, remember Chelsea Manning formerly as Bradley Manning – responsible for the largest leak in U.S. history of classified information. The people’s patriot and whistleblower declared publicly his desire to transition to a woman in August of 2013 and began the transition from male to female last year.
Manning has been sentenced to 35 years in prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for her role in the historical information leak."

Also, on the Meredith  Viera Show,  Patricia Arquette was one of the guests. She talked about her current projects, then of course the topic turned to her transgender sister Alexis. (left)  Patricia did a wonderful job of describing how brutal our lives can be and said, I paraphrase "it's not the package -it's the person which matters."

Unlike the stupid misdirected comments from a very ignorant Sharon Osborne about Bruce Jenner's sexuality on the Talk

Carnival Barkers?

Yesterday, when I visited my daughter, one her her comments was: "My friends want to know what you (me) think about Bruce Jenner."

I just said "A clown show waiting to happen."  Nothing against him, but I will continue to pronoun "him" until he happens to come out, but I just expect the worse.  Sort of like Zoey Tur's comment last night that Jenner's HRT transition meds could have contributed to his tragic wreck. Really???  I guess I better be extra careful since I am on HRT and depression medicine too. Nice job putting the idea in everyone's noggin that we transgender women and men maybe "danger's" on the road.

The only lesson to be learned is no one is an expert and who the hell dug up Zoey Tur anyhow? Surely there maybe someone like Eden Lane (left)  out there, who is truly qualified? But I digress:

Back to my rant - Cognoscenti says it best:

Leelah Alcorn might still be with us had her painful gender odyssey attracted the empathetic national attention Diane Sawyer is reportedly about to shower on Bruce Jenner. But the struggles of a 17-year-old transgender girl from rural Ohio could never compete with the call of the carnival barker.

Few knew her name until Leelah, née Joshua, stepped in front of a tractor-trailer on Interstate 71 20 miles outside Cincinnati a few days after Christmas, one of the 41 percent of transgender people who attempt suicide, according to a 2010 report by the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. Figures about those, like Leelah, who die by suicide are harder to come by in a society that acknowledges transgender people only when they turn up on a hit Netflix or Amazon series, claim Sonny & Cher as parents or grace the front of a Wheaties cereal box.

Follow the link above for more!

What's Wrong With You?

For security reasons, I have all my HRT meds sent to my daughter's house.  It works for two reasons. The meds go to a secure place and I have a fairly regular excuse to see her.  If you stop by Cyrsti's Condo often, you know she is one of my strongest advocates-behind my gender transition all the way.

It turns out my new Estrogen patches showed up recently at her place and I stopped to pick them up.  After a bit of small talk about my grandkids and son in law, she got serious and I knew a big discussion was headed my way.

After a bit of side talk, she got right to the point and asked me why did I come in male drag to the recent birthday dinner for my 10 year old grandson.  She said how much sense did it make if everyone already knew and expected to see the real me?  Well, I thought what the hell, "why did I?" Right or wrong, I knew my excuse - It was his evening and I didn't want to take away from that. That is true but both my daughter and I have been putting off me sitting down with just the three kids for a question and answer. That is scheduled now for next week.

So...here are the three topics of discussion: (8-10-13 year olds)
!.- Is the "new" me any different than the "old" me?  No, I am still old and will share all my interests in history with them. I want to keep doing all we have been doing.
2.- What is this "transgender" thing all about anyhow?  Fortunately the kids are very cerebral and diverse in their thinking already.  My oldest grandson had a very out gay man as a fourth grade teacher who the whole school knew was a very well known drag queen. I am fairly sure I can explain rather plainly and by keeping it PG rated - the difference between being gay or lesbian and a  transgender person.
#3.-And-the tough one: What should they call me?  I am thinking about making it a contest. I'm thinking about "Granny C"?

I will let you know how the experience works out!

In Hot Water?

OK, of all the responses I figured I possibly may get from my transgender "Bucket List" post about going swimming, I missed the point totally on this one. I thought Connie would zero in on me for my "bucket" being large enough to use as a wading pool- or my bucket is so old it wouldn't hold water anyhow!  Here's Connie's comment:

Senior Ladies Water Aerobics class at the community pool? I hear the sharks in Ohio are among the most discriminating; they prefer aged meat. Be careful that your feminine expression does not become just another old expression, considering that "valor is the best part of discretion", that is. :)

**Note-the closest sharks to me are in the Ohio River and they have different names: giant catfish and carp!

Then Paula commented:

Paula GoodwinFebruary 9, 2015 at 5:29 AM

In London and Brighton (and quite possibly other places as well) we have special closed swimming sessions at local pools specially for trans and gender diverse people. It is really liberating, and great fun. Having been swimming with the London group and on holiday I am now challenging myself t use my local pool.

Thanks Paula!  My prediction is if my swimming idea happens at all, it will happen at a hotel pool when Liz and I travel. And, yes Connie, I will warn them ahead of time about an oil slick if I don't wear the right water proof makeup!!!!

Cyrsti's Condo "A Touch of Class"

Famous French transsexual Coccinelle in the 1962's Beach Casanova

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"

This really speaks to transgender women and men!

Who will you be this Spring?

Nice subjective question I saw pop up in one of my email boxes this morning and I paused to see who it was from- I quickly saw the email was coming from one of my "dream" fashion sites "Free People" . It's a boho clothing site featuring clothes I can't possibly wear or afford but I can dream. My part of the dream is simple, even though I may not be able to buy or fit in to "Free People's" clothes-I can learn from them and find less expensive alternatives which will fit me here and there.

So, who will I be this spring?  Or, who do I want to be?  After looking at Free People's offerings, I knew.  I want to fill my bucket list up with water and swim in it.  I know how to swim but have never embraced it and felt it was something I  could never do as a girl. As you all know, never or ever are words I embrace less than water.  However, this summer may be the chance to frolic in my bucket of water. It's big to me too because I view the whole experience as one of the ultimate's in feminine expression-until I get eaten by a shark!

Now though, with my HRT changes in skin, breasts, hips and hair-it may be time.

Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

Ker Plunk! Heads up! Another Cyrsti's Condo Sunday Edition has hit your virtual front porch.  Get your cup o joe and jammies ready!
Page 1.- The Week That Was-or-Wasn't:  It was an easy choice this week, the story of Bruce Jenner, who at press time was involved in a fatal accident. Unharmed, Jenner was being chased reportively by the paparazzi. Also riding on Jenner's possible MtF transgender transition was helicopter traffic reporter Zoey Tur. I just can't imagine sitting around the average American dinner table when one of the so called entertainment shows once again features either one of them.  Maybe stealth doesn't look so bad after all!
Page 2.- Transgender Seniors: For some reason this week, I fell and couldn't get up on the topic of transgender seniors and nursing homes.  An exceedingly tough discussion for anyone but worse of course for trans women and men.  Connie commented:
 "Having an advocate, like your daughter would be, is probably the most important thing for anybody when confined to a hospital or nursing home. I've had to be that advocate for family members and a friend, and I shudder to think of how much worse it would have been for them had I not made certain demands regarding their care. But, we know of so many transgender women and men who have been abandoned by family and friends. This very thing has led to suicide for too many of our transgender brothers and sisters. We, the survivors, must realize that getting past the pain of what life has handed us is not going to be of much help when we have to give up our own identities in order to receive medical care; care that could save our lives (even though we may feel as though we're dying inside at the same time).
Page 3.- Returning to the "Seen" of the Crime: Many times I think you lose track of your changes under HRT. Last week, for the first time in a while, I went back to one of one the venues I literally transitioned in. Wow, how times have changed! As I said in the post, two of the original bartenders are still there and no the venue itself didn't find itself in a "dangerous" neighborhood over the years. Go here to revisit the post.
Page 4.- The Back Page.  Congratulations this week to Stana of Femulate fame celebrating another blog anniversary! She is incredible! And, so are all of you for taking time to visit Cyrsti's Condo time after time! Thanks!

Georgia Cross Dressed Peach