Coincidence or Divine Intervention?

If you follow sports at all, you will know last night was the finale of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. The two teams were Villanova (small Catholic school from Philadelphia) and North Carolina.

Normally, I am not the biggest fan of basketball and really didn't have a dog in this hunt, until North Carolina pretty much slipped in under the cover of darkness to legislate the most nefarious anti LGBT laws in the country.

As the game went back and forth, I began to think what if North Carolina lost because their coach is a jerk and the state won't let me potty where I want to.

Then my prayers were answered when Villanova drove down the court and shot an improbable three point shot to win the National Championship at the buzzer. (End of the game.)

For the next couple of minutes, I became a Catholic.

Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

KerPlunk! Another Sunday edition is hitting your virtual front porch. It's sunny here in Southwestern Ohio but around 30 degrees with winds yesterday around sixty three miles per hour, As things calm down, it's time to grab a hot "cup-o-joe" and get started.
Page One:The Week That Was or Wasn't: As the North Carolina Governor signed the worst LGBT bill in the country, battle zones were settling up or fought in many other states. Currently, over one hundred companies have protested the law alone-not to mention the general public. Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the ice berg.
Page Two: Yesterday's Coffee-Opinion: Last week (three times) we mentioned the Go Fund Me page for Kristin Beck. Kristin of course is the former Navy Seal who came out as transgender and now is running against one of most powerful Democrats in the U.S Congress. After she wins the election, I am going to try to ask her some specific questions about her transition I haven't heard asked. Being a transgender veteran myself, I just wonder what it must be like to bring the respect and even power (my word) of being a Navy Seal to the public. If you can donate to her election you can by going to the "Go Fund Me" page.
Page Three: What's in a Name? Quite a bit when it comes to transgender women and transgender men, It's a rare chance to change our name to fit a new gender. I ran into a name buzz saw when I had established myself as Cyrsti when all of a sudden I had my daughter ask me why and what would the grand kids call me, At that point, I decided to look back on some family names and came up with two which come up with the initials J.J. Now the name is on my legal markers and Cyrsti has become more of a "stage name." Plus, since it is a legal deal for the first time in my life, I know I have to be a little careful on how far I go here on Al Gore's internet.
Page Four: The Back Page: Chilly or not kids, it's time to go face a busy Sunday and always, thanks for stopping by Cyrsti's Condo

Rite of Passage?

Just returned from one of our group meetups this afternoon, and quickly was very much rendered speechles, which is difficult for me. Before we got started on a very interesting program, one of the other woman asked me if I had come to any decisions on what some of us had discussed. I just said what?

She said had I figured out anything I wanted the group to do to help me celebrate my gender passage from male to female, Actually, while I have had some ideas, life has gotten in the way and I have not given the idea much more thought.

I told her I was humbled about them caring and  please just surprise me, if they want to go through the effort. Also, I can't truthfully say enough how much their acceptance as a group has meant to me.

Basically what it has meant is, I have been added into and accepted by a group of 30 people or so who accept me completely for what I am. As I said, I can't say how appreciative and flattered I am.

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?