Organization?

From Connie: "First, I must compliment you on your new pic and page layout. Your new glasses look good on you! If only your bookshelf in the pic were as neat as the one you've chosen as the background in your template. :-) Of course, I'm wedged in between piles of papers that will eventually be organized into a tax return, so I should talk. :("

Thanks on the glasses :) As I said at the time, "A blind squirrel roots out an acorn every now and then!" Although I never would have predicted it, the new "specs" have really helped me to see (ha) and even present better.

I thought the template was interesting as it is the polar opposite than my work space which as you can see is about as unorganized and worn out as my hair color. Liz and I are working that one out :) 

I like this:

"More than just lactating? Now, there is a new one we could promote to put a bigger spotlight on the restroom issue. Imagine a transgender woman breastfeeding a baby in public! It seems that every year or so there is a public breastfeeding controversy story in the news, and the complainant usually suggests that the nursing woman take the activity into the ladies room. As ridiculous as this thinking is, how ridiculous would it be to demand that a trans woman use the men's room to expose her breast? (even if there is more breast exposure to be found on a North Carolina beach in the summertime)"

Transgender Woman Breast Feeding

I have seen stories about transgender women breast feeding and had a cross dressing friend who used to hit the mall's in pregnant drag. 

Way to go Girls and Guys!

According to a new survey released today by the Human Rights Campaign, one in three people personally know or work with somebody transgender.  

From the Advocate: "More Americans than ever before say they know someone who is transgender. That's a great start, but securing full equality for trans people requires a deeper understanding, says this HRC staffer. We are at a moment of unprecedented visibility for transgender Americans. 

That’s twice what it was just two years ago. And it’s a huge jump from 2008, when less than one in 10 people reported knowing someone transgender.

This is a good step, remarkable news and, still, there’s so much more to do."

It's no secret, over the years here in Cyrsti's Condo, several of you like Pat, Connie, Mandy, and Paula have discussed the power of changing the world one person at a time. It's working faster it seems than any of us dreamed it would. 

Especially, those of us who are "more mature" and somehow existed in the dark ages before computers,the internet, cell phones etc. I have gone from thinking I was totally alone to one in three people?

Who would have "thunk" it?

Tripping the Light Fantastic

Spring has sprung around here and with it the memories of wishing I could wear heels the way I thought  I could or the way the younger cis girls seem to float by in theirs.

Of course, heels represent power in a woman and you can watch men respond just to the "click" of a woman walking by. In the meantime, my reason for ruling out much of any heeled footwear is my height,staying under the 6' mark, bouts with mild vertigo and at any given time a bad under carriage (knees,ankles,hips) from 30 plus years walking the concrete floors of any number of different restaurants I worked in.

So, I have never given in to any such idea that I can't do something but a nice pair of flat sandals and a pedi is going have to do for this summer.

Whaaaaaaa!

Are We Having Any Fun Yet?

It seems to me every blog post I have done since the ones when I went through changing my legal gender markers have been really serious. 

But then again, don't they have to be? Take the restroom issues for example. For once we "T's" in the LGBT family jumped the line from last to first mainly on the back of using the restroom of our chosen gender. All of the sudden discrimination became very real in this country to more than racial minorities.

I believe what disturbs me (more than I already am) are in a couple Facebook groups I look at from time to time, the members are cluelessly going off on using the women's room at will. That's cool of course, but I wonder some day if they are not careful traveling in let's say North Carolina and they get busted.

You see, I can only get some sort of attachment to my Ohio birth certificate saying my gender has been changed, The only other fool proof way around the rest room problem is to pass-well, which some of us struggle to do.

Fortunately, some of the rightest rednecks are bitchin' about the "leftest corporate" bullies. It's about time and it's true. 

But like the Facebook cuties who think unlimited rights (or even limited) are forever, all of this has a long way to go. Much farther than Jenner's Black Party Bus or blogs like mine. The governors in recent "battle ground states" have different stories which could set us back or forward. In Georgia, Governor Deal made the right call and shot down the LGBT discrimination bill in his state, but he is outgoing. In North Carolina though, Governor McCrory is in a more difficult spot, trying to frame the new North Carolina law in his favor while his Democratic general election opponent, state Attorney General Roy Cooper, does the same. Both rivals must placate their party bases — gay-rights supporting liberals for Cooper, social conservatives for McCrory — while appealing to the independents who hold sway in the closely divided state.

So, as you look for that run in your hose or reflection in the mirror, you may want to really consider what it means to be transgender, and is it more than just lactating?

Kristin Beck Part II

We received several comments concerning Kristin Beck's run for office in Maryland. One is from our resident Cyrsti's  Condo MODERATE Republican Pat who wrote: "Regardless of your reason for supporting Kristin Beck keep in mind that her positions of the major issues are rock solid and supportable. Also keep in mind that Steny Hoyer has had a strangle hold on that seat for over 3 decades and all he has done is spend and push a socialist agenda. Lets support Kristin and lets hope she can beat Hoyer and finally bring some sense of freedom to the long suffering people of that district.
Pat

And: (from Mandy Sherman) : Unfortunately I can't vote for her because I don't live in her Congressional District. But I certainly wish her all the best and hope that she succeeds beyond her wildest dreams! We need some good Congressional representation...

Go Kristin!
Hugs,
Mandy

Kristin Beck

Thanks to both of you and obviously I don't live close enough to Kristin's district to help (except sending a few shekels her way.) Hopefully you can too!  https://www.gofundme.com/beck4congress

Pat, you will be happy to know that for once we agree! Politicians (all of them) should have term limits. For all the blather we hear out of Washington, none of them can seem to work together to get anything done.

Finally, I have two thoughts. I know you are thinking only two??

Who would you rather have speaking at all for the rest of the transgender world, goof ball Jenner or Kristin? (Rumors are already swirling of a possible cancellation of "I am Cait," 

And at what point does Kristin get tired (probably already is) of having the trans and Navy Seal tags slapped on her? 

Of course I can't say. I only know it's comforting to have her (Kristin) as an example rather than you know who.

Kristin Beck

Kristin Beck

As many of you probably already, transgender woman and former Navy Seal Kristin Beck is running for Congress in Maryland. She dropped me a thank you note recently about the five dollars I donated some time ago then lost track of where her election stood.



"Hey!  Even $5 makes a difference.  Thank you.  It's been a while since I last heard from you.  When I get to congress you are going to come up and have lunch or give me a call so we can talk.  I will pulling the volunteers together in the next few days. I hope everything is going well for you. Right now I am very much in my "happy place".  I am very, very tired, but I am happy.  I know that I have done just about everything I can to win this election.  I just need to push past the finish line by putting one foot in front of the other. I need you to send out the word again.  I need a lot of very small donations to go to my "GoFundMe" crowd sourcing website.  I have to raise some money for the final signs to be posted along the roads to the voting polls. (I donated ten more dollars)   

It's nearing the end of the Primary race and we are all exhausted and feeling a little beaten down.  Mike and I are going through all the nice emails we received over the past year."

Needless to say, being a transgender veteran myself (regardless of being another trans woman), we need all the individuals we can running against these ignorant bigots we face in state and national legislatures. 

For more on Kristin, go here.

Busted in North Carolina?

From the "EdgeMediaNetwork" in Boston: "It didn't take long for the folks at Funny or Die to skewer North Carolina's new anti-LGBT law. On Thursday, less than 24 hours after Republican Governor Pat McCrory signed the sweeping homophobic legislation into law, the comedy website published a faux commercial from North Carolina's tourism board that reminds potential travelers of "all the fun straight things you can do in their beautiful, intolerant state."


"Now you can experience the beautiful outdoors, cityscapes and incredible ignorance by hang-gliding backwards in time, racing to the wrong side of history in a kayak, teaching your children to judge others while frolicking in the waves and enjoying our waterfalls without fear of gay people falling on you," says a voice over the requisite video montage of the Tar Heel state's natural landscapes.

The video is on You Tube only. It's  been interesting to Liz and I since we WERE considering a possible trip to North Carolina this summer. I won't go where I am not wanted.

The North Carolina peeps should close their borders before Caitlyn Jenner's Black Bus gets there.

Cyrsti's Condo Easter Sunday Edition

Ker Plunk! Another Sunday Edition is hitting your virtual front porch. Here in Southwestern Ohio it's a bright shining Easter Sunday morning. Let's grab a "cup o joe" and get started!

Page One: Easter: Most of you know my views on religion and I am sick and tired of the religious right trying to usurp my rights under the guise of religion. Paula(who is from the UK) sent in this comment which says it all:

"As a Christian I would be profoundly saddened if any of my Church family felt that faith was something they only did on Sunday mornings and that they could leave it in the Church. We need to be outside the church displaying the love of God, ministering to the hurt, the sick, and the sad. There is no discrimination in Christianity, "There is no Greek, and no Jew, no master and no slave, no man and no woman." we are all equal in God's love and as God's children we should show that love to all.

As a European as well as a Christian I totally fail to understand what so many people in the USA as frightened of, and why they are so keen to go back into the sectarian politics of the last two centuries"

Thanks Paula and I think all of this religious paranoia is tied in with in the "Donald Trump" phenomena, gun violence "NRA" etc...as LGBTQ folk we have just been caught in the crossfire (no pun intended). For the first time ever, we are developing a real voice at the same time others consider us a real menace. To make a long story short Paula, the only thing we have to fear is fear itself and we have a ton of it!

Page Two: Yesterdays'  Coffee- Down Under:  Perth musician Jaime Page, who recently came out as transgender. Picture: Don Benson Photography.]

"PERTH rock guitarist Jaime Page is Perth’s answer to Caitlyn Jenner.

The married father-of-four, formerly Jamie, has shocked friends by recently announcing he is transgender.

Ms Page, who works at music store Kosmic Sound in Osborne Park by day, said she told her colleagues just before revealing her lifelong secret on Facebook last month.

“That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” she said."

Let's hope Jaime does not have the same ideas about being transgender as Caitlyn Jenner!

Page Three: History : From the  Toronto Star, Canada

"The woman who was trans before her time

Dianna Boileau was one of the first Canadians to have gender-confirming surgery, in 1970. She caused a sensation, then married and retreated from public life.

By: Katie Daubs, Feature Writer, Published on Sun Mar 27 2016


[Photo: Dianna Boileau, in an image from her book Behold, I Am a Woman, published in 1972. Born in Winnipeg, she later moved to Toronto, where she led a quiet life until a car accident on the 401 thrust her into the spotlight. She was tormented by the press and lost her job.]"

I would imagine Bobbie who is from that neck of the woods remembers this story!

Page Four: The Back Page: I guess we pretty much followed a good portion of the British Empire in this edition. Stopping in Australia, Canada, the U.S. and Great Britain itself. 

It's time for us to go and take advantage of a beautiful day and thanks as always for stopping by Cyrsti's Condo.

Stop and Smell...What???

Last night a friend and I went to another "Love Must Win Inc" get together across the river in Covington, Kentucky. The group consists of anyone seeking safe haven even for an evening , from LGBTQ peeps to kids being bullied to "cutters". 

Then last night the group presented Mitzi who in her small way is trying to make a huge difference in the world. Nearly single handily every week, her and her family pass out "gift" (survival) bags to as many homeless as they can here in Cincinnati. This is their motto.

It just so happens the location provided to the group is up on one of the most beautiful views of the Cincinnati skyline. As my friend last night and I were leaving (Liz had to work) we paused to say Wow!; and to think the presenter we just heard was speaking on passing out water, socks and warm clothing to people living under bridges.

I guess it follows if "super churches" are supporting gay/trans conversion therapy along with doing Easter Egg drops out of helicopters-there is no reason to use that money to really need it!