What a Great Country this Is!

Recently, as we were finishing up yet another hot/humid day and I still felt terrible, Liz and I had to go one of the local malls near her to change out a modem she was using.

Earlier in the day, I went to the grocery store and quite possibly ventured out with the least make up I have ever worn. I just said to "hell with it" tied my hair back applied a bit of eye make up and took off. More than likely, my attitude was the least feminine part about me. Just wanted the world to leave me alone. To my surprise, at the grocery, almost everyone did-except one young employee who always seems to appear out of nowhere - and speak to me. I am never aware enough of my immediate surroundings to know if she is the same person. Perhaps she has a transgender friend herself.

All that is cool enough to be sure, but then I have to factor in what I call the gender weather fronts we travel through. For example, we live closer into Cincinnati itself on the East side. For the most part, going from here to downtown where all the real trendy neighborhoods are-the overall LGBT atmosphere is decidedly more liberal. Very quickly, in a short distance though, the weather begins to change. Heading not so far out of town into Clermont County the LGBT vortex takes a deep dive to hell. You still can see a redneck or two with a Confederate flag hanging out of his pickup truck.
  
My "gender vortex" is actually in one of few remaining enclosed malls not too far away.

I do like to walk through that mall which sits on my demarcation point. The other evening, a teen aged girl who missed the Walmart across the street nearly was hit by a car looking at me. Once we were in the mall, a mother and a daughter from India I believe were very "bemused" by me.

Then, on the other hand, were the small groups of kids all dressed in black huddled around a kiosk who paid me no mind at all.

One way or another -I am always careful to stay in the "eye of the storm"

'Nuff" Said!

Thanks Bobbie!!!

Hey! I Know Him!!

With all that has been happening in my life recently, what went for a routine has been dumped into my "porcelain receptacle" (toilet.)

Imagine my surprise though the other day when I was exploring my main email account and I saw a post about Ohio. After I opened it, the story was a feature about an old friend of mine. 

To the left is "Drake" who is one of the few transgender men I have ever known and in fact even bitched about the same endocrinologist together years ago.

Here is a just a touch of his story from the Piqua (Ohio) Daily Call:  Draco said he was always a tomboy growing up, palling around with his dad, going fishing, and tinkering with cars.

“Looking back, my father always treated me more like my brothers than he ever did my sister,” he said. “Growing up, I had the GI Joes, the Evil Knievel with the motorcycle and all that stuff. I tended to gravitate more toward traditional boy toys, but I never really thought about it.”

Draco said for his parent’s 25th wedding anniversary, at age 9, he remembers being dressed in an ugly, uncomfortable, royal blue polyester dress for the occasion. His cousin’s husband told him he looked pretty.

“And I said, ‘Yeah, but I’m actually a boy,” he said. “My mother brought that up later on. But I didn’t remember it until that time. Now I remember it clearly.”

Unfortunately, over the recent years, increasing distances and other factors have kept us apart. I remember him looking at me more than once like I had three eyes - after one of my clueless trans man ideas.

I'm sure he knew though, I had a hard time finding glasses for three eyed peeps! Follow the link for more.

Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

Kerplunk! Welcome to another Sunday edition. Our Labor Day issue and an abbreviated one to be sure. As happens often, Labor Day around here often is "smokin" with more than the neighborhood grills in the area. It's hot and humid, so a big cup of "iced joe" is in order for this morning.

Page One-The Week That Was-or Wasn't: I am going to be selfish and mention the week was mostly all about me. Thursday was absolutely huge for me. I began treatment for my "PCT" at the VA Hospital I go to. They are taking a unit of blood out of me every two weeks for awhile to get my iron in under control in my system. The good news is, they don't think my liver or heart has sustained any damaged. I have been quiet as a person like me can be, but no one yet has mentioned the effects of my HRT. However, my endocrinologist appointment is coming up the first of October. I am sure he will have something to say. 

Page Two: What a Crazy BITCH! Thursday was also the day I proved I still had it- I pissed off the crazy woman (cat lady-sis in law) enough to kick me out. She said the magic words "why don't you get out and move full time to Liz's." Well, she made Liz the happiest woman in southwestern Ohio. She has wanted me down here full time for literally years. As luck  would have it, I have the old place up in Springfield squared away enough to finally sell anyway. Timing is everything. I did forget to mention she miss pronoun-ed four times alone in two hours at the veterans hospital. The entire medical staff bends over backward to treat me with respect-except her.

Page Three: "Spin Move": Yesterday, after a very large and hot day at the grocery store, we were shopping for dinner. At the produce department we passed an older (than me) woman who looked at me once, twice and was preparing to make it three times. I had had enough and just turned abruptly to look at her. She was startled, maybe a little embarrassed (I hope) and quickly looked down. 

Page Four: The Back Page: Last week provided at least one closing of a chapter in my life which always opens another. I will post about all of it the best I can in the near future. In the meantime, THE Ohio State Buckeyes open their season tomorrow night and I have a scheduled small speaking spot coming up fairly quick in September. 

Got to go! Luv ya all!!! thanks for stopping by Cyrsti's Condo!!!        

Health Care for All? Really?

From the NCTE:

When it passed five years ago, the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, prohibited discrimination in federally-funded health settings based on race, national origin, age, disability, and sex. The Obama administration agency in charge of enforcing it, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), just released proposed rules that make it clear that transgender people are protected by this federal law, including when it comes to health insurance! The proposed rules would make illegal the practice of categorically excluding all gender transition-related health care from coverage, common in private health insurance plans, as well as in state Medicaid, Indian Health Service, and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) programs. Instead, plans will have to cover services for transgender people if they offer those services to non-transgender people.

Obviously this is huge if it "is what it is!" Follow the link above and thanks Connie!

You Have Great Legs-for a Boy

This morning I saw for the first time the early press releases of "The Danish Girl" starring Eddie Redmayne. 

Like most everyone else on the show, I was wowed by Redmayne's depiction of the husband who posed as a female model for his wife and essentially never went back to the "dark side" as a man. He does present so well as a woman.

Then of course, there are those in the transgender community who are dead set against a non trans person playing the role at all. So what? Get over it, I don't think we can present the right person for the job. The movie producers need a before and after actor so the news anchors can chat away about how "good" he looks as a woman.

Immediately I thought of how I felt during the very early days of when I began presenting as a woman. Like so many of us, I was told "Wow! you have great legs!" which I believe "comes with the territory" for many cross dressers or transgender women - we all should be justifiably proud. But then I began to hear the "for a guy" added in.

Look, if your were the producers and you had a guy like Redmayne as a possible star and he had that bone structure and one academy award already? What would you do?

As you can imagine, we all will have a chance to form our views in the near future the first trailer is here. The trailer caught my attention in that it is a beautiful period movie which captured many of my initial feelings during  transition. Check it out!

Cyrsti's Condo "Cover Trans Woman of the Day."

Beyer and Jenner (inset)

Our feature today is Georgina Beyer from New Zealand :

"Given the circus surrounding E! reality star Caitlyn’s transition from male to female, and the fact that Georgina, 57, is New Zealand’s most famous transsexual, the comparison is only natural. And Georgina seems just as fascinated by the 65-year-old former Olympic champion’s transformation from Bruce to Caitlyn as the rest of us.

“It’s such a brave and courageous thing she’s doing,” says Georgina. “Caitlyn has lived in her own prison for so many years and she didn’t want to die wondering, ‘What if?’ It reminds me of a drag show I did at a pub in Greymouth in the ’80s.

“Afterwards, this elderly gentleman came up to me and started crying. He felt he was a transsexual, but he was never able to fulfil it because of his marriage and family. I dissolved into tears because this was a pain he was taking to the grave. That’s not going to happen to Caitlyn.”

Of course, Georgina and Caitlyn’s journeys are wildly different. Georgina started taking hormones at the age of 16 and had sex-reassignment surgery at 27. After a stint as a sex worker, Georgina went on to become the world’s first transsexual mayor and later its first transsexual MP.

Besides the new found acceptance of transgender people in the mainstream, the brightest spot in Georgina’s life at the moment is the fact a film about her life is back in development after years on the back-burner.

“They’ve got the money now and the director is really excited,” smiles Georgina. “I don’t have a clue who’ll play me. I’m a bit scared, to be honest. I’d want a good actor. It’s a big deal. I mean, how many good New Zealand life stories have you seen on film? Hopefully, with all this Caitlyn Jenner stuff, we’re not all trans out!”

For more, go to Woman's Day here.

Working the Room?

Saturday night as I mentioned in the Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"- a bunch of us went to an amateur boxing event in downtown Dayton, Ohio. 

First of all, let me try to explain the physical set up. The ring itself for lack of a better term sat against the back wall in a space under a parking garage over hang. Chairs surrounded the ring in a semi circle with a beer truck on the left, and food concessions on the right (including the rest rooms.) Of course we ended up sitting on the left side. 

As it turned out, just before the boxing matches began, Liz and I thought a trip to the restrooms would be a good idea - so we did.  We headed along the semi circle aisle to the other side. I am sure the trip wasn't the mile and a half it felt like and I wasn't the visual cannon fodder to every woman in the seats behind me. On the other hand, I kept telling myself "shoulders back and chest out."

I found two things out for certain-the trip was not a mile and I survived.    

As far as being "cannon fodder?" I'm used to that!!!! I was busy looking for any other transgender women watching the event. 

"Houston - We DON'T Have a Problem."--Anymore

Seemingly, it has been nearly  four decades ago when Bobbie sent me the story about Phyllis Randolph Frye's story. The story was in the New York Times via Houston, Texas and represents why stealth was basically the only way to come out-back in the day. Unless you were blessed with incredible "natural" passing privilege.

Read on, (for Phyllis),  It was the summer of 1976. As Bruce Jenner, 26, was celebrating his decathlon victory at the Montreal Olympics, Phillip Frye, 28, was admitting defeat in suppressing his gender identity. He, becoming she, had already lost a lot: He had been forced to resign from the military for “sexual deviation.” He had been disowned by his parents, divorced by his first wife and separated from his son. He had been dismissed from several engineering jobs.

And there was more:

In response, (to coming out) she got her house egged, her tires slashed, and her driveway spray-painted with obscenities. Teenagers openly mocked her, the engineering profession blackballed her and the federal government rejected her for a job because of her “desire to impersonate the opposite sex.”

In the early days of writing Cyrsti's Condo, one my fave rants was an "anti-stealth" one. Perhaps age really does "dim" the memory to protect the innocent-or the guilty as far as the transgender community goes.