Cyrsti's Condo "From The Hart"

"Relying on Good Luck brings the Worst Luck of All"

Kristin Beck III

I can't tell you how passionate I am about certain very visible transgender causes going on right now. So much so, I'm sure you are tired of reading of them. I sincerely hope though Kristin Beck is not one of them.

I believe one of the most hypocritical policies of the American Military is NOT allowing full rights to those who fight on the front lines to protect them.

Kristin Beck (as you may know by now) is the trans former Navy Seal who of course became one of the faces of the active military rights movement (if she wanted to or not) and then (in her spare time) wrote a couple books and even decided to run against one of the most powerful Democrats in Washington.

Recently, Kristin took time out of her busy schedule to drop me a note and a link to pass along to you.

"Cyrsti:
Wow.  I went out to your blog.  Wow is the word that keeps popping up in my head.  And thank you for the shout out and the link to my website and the appeal for the GoFundMe drive.  It's huge.  

Here is another one for you if you want to use it.  Disney/Fusion did a short show about my campaign and you can watch it on the web.

http://fusion.net/video/285989/campaign-trail-transgender-ex-seal-running-for-congress/   "

Please check out this link and help if you can and before you think I am being the hypocrite now, I did scratch up a few shekels to help as much as I could. 

This video is so much more than politics, it's about transitioning MTF from the worlds' premier military unit too.

I'll grab the pop corn. 

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.