Saturday, May 4, 2019

Are You a Pioneer...or Just Old?

As I have mentioned before here in Cyrsti's Condo, one of the pleasant surprises coming from this years' Trans Ohio Symposium was the influence of transgender history. And yes, my age made me all of a sudden relevant again. My experiences with many of the younger transgender women and men I had met had led me to feel otherwise. So it was good to feel accepted again.

Surely though, even with the current setbacks from the Liar in Chief in the White House, our present has changed considerably. Check out this comment from Connie which came from my Grand daughter's highly androgynous Prom outfit which basically was a tuxedo with heels:

"Well, there you go! Give yourself some credit for raising an accepting daughter, as well as finally being your true self - which has certainly served to break down some of the barriers that used to stifle gender expression. Although I don't see myself as a pioneer or hero within the trans community, I do take solace in the fact that living completely as the woman I was born to be has led to more acceptance by most of the people with whom I've had contact. It's the same for you, I'm sure. Oh, but such changes we've seen over the past seventy years or so!"

Thanks for the compliment! Needless to say, I am so proud of her! :)



 Of course, advances in the LGBT culture are more likely to occur in more liberal areas of the country than others. For example, I live in a fairly liberal suburb of Cincinnati but if you travel a mere ten miles or so East of us attitudes definitely change. 

On a bigger scale, if you live in an area such as Seattle where Connie lives is decidedly more liberal for transgender individuals than say, Arkansas where trans minister Elijah Walker
Elijah Walker
is trying to make a difference. check out the story here. Thanks to Bobbie for sharing.

Friday, May 3, 2019

Patti Harrison

Transgender comedian Patti Harrison.

Her appearance on the "Tonight Show" has led to a role on "Shrill" and writing duties on "Big Mouth".

As well as a story in the New York Times.

Are You a Feminist?

One of the questions which basically caught me by surprise during my interview during the Trans Ohio Symposium by J.M. Ellison, was I a feminist.

I said, of course I was and had been one years before I even transitioned fully.

During my years in the restaurant business, I worked mainly around women and their success was my success. Often, I learned the hard way what being a woman was all about, through their eyes. I saw how difficult it was for them to gain and keep the respect of macho dominated kitchen crews and often, how much harder it was for them to work with groups of women.

So yes, I became a firm feminist many years ago. So, it didn't come as a total surprise to me what happened to me when I began to transition to a full time feminine life. All of a sudden, I became a second class citizen when I was talking to a group of men. Also, I had to wait behind guys to get served and wasn't even given credit on how to get to my own house by a tow driver one time.

Amazingly enough, my learning experience carried all the way over to when I started what I called my "lesbian phase."  I ended up having many good experiences along with many which weren't so good. Along the way though, I sensed many of the women I came in contact with on a positive level were reacting to me because I presented as a "lipstick lesbian" with the slightest bit of maleness for balance. Of course most women don't carry the same sexual deep paranoia's as men do.

At any rate, I ended up adding another level of feminine understanding.

I was on a sensory overdrive to prove to my self I could prove my wife wrong when she said I didn't have any idea about what being a woman was all about.

On another level, what I don't understand is why transgender women have such a hard time being accepted by "Terf's"
(Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists).
Very simply, a trans woman has had a different path to becoming a woman. Plus, let's not forget being born female does not make you a woman. Society does.

It would seem to me, in a time where women's rights continue to come under attack, any help would be welcome to change society. Especially from a transgender woman who has been on both sides of the gender fences.

Thursday, May 2, 2019

Under Attack!

As I have written about earlier here in Cyrsti's Condo, party time this past weekend at the Trans Ohio Symposium was very fun. As always, we went to our favorite spots Friday and Saturday night...Club Diversity and Thurmans' Cafe for a famous huge burger. Both in Columbus, Ohio.

Club Diversity


As always we Uber our way around Columbus and imbibe a little too heavily. Both nights I stuck to Ohio Brewed (Cleveland) Great Lake's Beer. 

Friday was fairly tame, with the usual amount of cross dressers teetering around on their heels and a few transgender women mixed in. All but a few seemed to be having a good time. I didn't take the time to try to mingle in with any of them and none seemed interested in talking to me. So, we were even. This picture was actually taken last summer at Diversity but I haven't changed much so I used it again.

Saturday, after doing our best to eat half of a huge Thurman's Burger, Liz and I returned to Diversity to consume more adult beverages and listen to a very entertaining live piano player.

Predictably, as the night grew later, the crowd became a little more festive, or in some cases a lot more festive. The cross dressers seemed to disappear for the most part only to be replaced by a few impossibly dressed "girls". One of which couldn't wait to remove her jacket and almost totally expose her "bought boobies" in a very skimpy halter top. Unfortunately, her mini beer belly didn't help the over all image she was trying to get to. But what the hell? Right?? A good time was had by all.
Liz's first Martini of the weekend.

There are actually two bathrooms to use but one is supposed to be for women only. It was in use when I had to go one time, so I tried to stand in line for the unisex bathroom. While I was waiting a man walked up and asked me about the other restroom. I said I was going to try to use it again and he said he would hold my spot unless (of course) I came right back.  It was open, so I took care of business and went back to my seat at the bar.

Well. a little later, Liz went to make her way through the crowd to get us some pop corn and in the minute she was away, this guy comes up and gives me this giant bear hug from behind and sticks his face close to mine and was starting to say something I couldn't comprehend. About this time though, Liz came back and didn't see the humor in any of it and ran him off...quickly.

Then, as we were planning to leave and were saying our goodbyes to our fave bartender. He ended up hugging Liz and kissing me on the lips. Needless to say it has been awhile since I have been kissed by a man with a full beard!

As always, we had a great time and can't wait to go back again!

Wednesday, May 1, 2019

Prom Time

I have written before here in Cyrsti's Condo about my three very accepting grand children.  I am so proud of the diversity and acceptance my daughter has instilled in them.

For years my grand daughter has presented as androgynous. However, she took it to a very gender fluid height for this years' senior prom. Her high school, obviously accepts diversity too!

Check out her picture! To my knowledge she hasn't mentioned any preferred pronouns as of yet.

Wow! I'm so proud!!!

Tuesday, April 30, 2019

Transgender History

J.M. Ellison 
One of the pleasant surprises this weekend at the Trans Ohio Symposium was the interest in transgender history. I guess rarely do I think of myself as a person who matters as an interesting link to our community's transgender past.

J. M. Ellison was the keynote speaker on Saturday. As I mentioned in a previous post, their presentation leaned heavily on transgender history. All of a sudden I was reliving my days of trying to follow the exploits of  Virginia Prince and her Transvestia Magazine.

The more I heard, the more I started to remember the Pre Stonewall Days when men could be arrested for simply dressing like women in public.  Remembering back, I had to have heard or read about the arrests during my pre teen years in the 1950's/early 60's primarily in Dayton, Ohio.

Of course, this was all before Al Gore invented the internet and any news concerning being a transvestite was extremely difficult to find.

As we (J.M. Ellison and I) spoke later, I went into my memories of my resultant Tri Ess mixers in Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio. My earliest days (Late 1970's) of finally meeting others of like gender persuasions. To my knowledge Tri-Ess is still in existence today. One of my earliest learning experiences had to do with the "layers" of "cross dressers" I encountered. All the way from men in dresses smoking big cigars and wearing cowboy hats to ultra impossibly feminine creatures who I couldn't believe were ever male at all. Even back then, I had a difficult time figuring out where I belonged in this setting. These were the years before the transgender label was even used at all. One way or another though, I was always able to go when I could and learn more about my gender conflicted self each time.

Back tracking a bit to J.M. Ellison's interview with me, one of the more intriguing questions they asked me was...was I a feminist?

A question we will discuss in another Cyrsti's Condo blog post which involves us all!

Monday, April 29, 2019

Back in the Saddle

Well, the Trans Ohio Symposium weekend did not disappoint. The inclusion feeling of the Symposium was as incredible as ever.

To put it all in perspective will take several posts. Very simply put though, I partied way too hard, enjoyed my workshop immensely, was interviewed for a dissertation/ book on transgender history, sat way too long in hard back chairs listening to other workshops and was even hugged and kissed on by gay guys.

My workshop was well attended this year! My gender dysphoria topic seemed to resonate with the group well as did my military history. There were a couple of other veterans in the group who asked questions about my experiences within the VA.

The keynote speaker on Saturday was fascinating and they did a wonderful job explaining their (preferred pronouns)research into transgender history. Liz of course is much more outgoing than I am and insisted I talk to them about my Cyrsti's Condo blog and a bit of my past. They responded that we should get together for an interview concerning their project.

I will be writing more information about this later. As well as the other exciting times we had!

Saturday, April 27, 2019

On the Road

Today is finally my workshop day at the Trans Ohio Symposium. So this post will be very short.

I hope you all are well and having a great weekend!

Friday, April 26, 2019

Trans Dar?

Wednesday, as I was waiting for Liz to wrap up her Doctor's appointment and playing on my phone, this younger person walked in and sat down across from me. Of course, at my age, almost everyone is a "younger person".

Very quickly we engaged, much faster than I do with most people. Also my mind clicked into I am talking to another transgender woman. She was very presentable and was wearing a type of pink and blue necklace. As we conversed, I had an idea we both wanted to ask each other about being transgender but couldn't bring ourselves to be that bold.  She even mentioned the in house hospital gift shop was serving coffee from a local coffee shop which also has been known to host a monthly transgender meeting. So she was giving off all the right clues.

Later I began to think if I remembered Liz's Doctor  being mentioned as a trans friendly therapist in any of the groups I have been to. And it seems I have.

Damn, it's a small world!

Transgender Instincts

Image from Atich Bana  on Unspalsh.   First, I need to apologize for missing a post yesterday. I went to my primary provider at the local Ve...