Seeking Transgender Change in Germany

 "Degrading, expensive and illogical" — that is how one trans* person described her experience of legally changing her gender in Germany.

Felicia Rolletschke (below) is one of many transgender activists who is fighting for a reform to the so-called Transsexual Law, which determines the legal process for trans* people to change their gender and name in Germany. By the beginning of 2021, the law will have been in place for 40 years — a time frame in which many countries around the world have seen great upheaval in their legislation around trans* rights.

There are currently two bills before the German parliament that aim to ease this process with a new "self-determination law" (Selbstbestimmungsgesetz). Activists hope such a law would reform the current costly, lengthy process — but the reform has faced some stiff opposition.

Transgender Influencer?

 Emma Ellingsen is a 19 year old Norwegian model and You Tuber. She is referred to as an "influencer" because people don't believe she is transgender because of her looks. She is currently going out of her way to tell people all transgender people don't have to look alike. 

FYI...Emma was able to get a head start on her feminine life by taking puberty blockers at the age of thirteen and HRT at sixteen. And of course, here is her picture:

Thai Transgender Star

 Treechada Petcharat, better known as Poyd, is a famous transsexual Thai actress and model.

As a child, Treechada knew she was a girl, but in front of her parents, she had to pretend and live as a male. She felt disgusted by her "male" genitals, so at the age of 19, she underwent gender reassignment surgery and since then, she has said that she feels as if she has been reborn.
At age 19, Treechada won the Miss Tiffany's 2004 and Miss International Queen 2004.
(Source: Wikipedia)

My Cup Runneth Over

 Well, actually it doesn't when it comes to my breasts. 

Following years of not really needing to wear a bra, I decided to try a few of the old bras I have saved from my "falsie" days to see how far I had progressed. The quick answer was, not as far as I had thought. 

To make a long story short, I could fill out a "C" cup bra but fell well short of a "D" cup. While I was slightly disappointed, I still decided to wear what remained of my "C" cup bras to get used to wearing bras.

So far, so good. The extra feeling of restriction hasn't really bothered me as much as I thought it would. I guess I was finally going through a much delayed female rite of passage. A training bra undoubtedly is part of every young girl's path through puberty and on to adulthood. Perhaps you noticed I didn't say womanhood because not every girl makes it to be a fully socialized woman. In other words, the terms women and men are socially related in addition to being gender related. 

I doubt it but I don't expect much change in my breast development with my current increase in my Estradiol prescription. I am well aware, extra synthetic estrogen can only provide so much development.  Plus, during my years on hormone replacement therapy, I have always preferred to stay on the side of caution as far as my dosages went because of my age.

Besides, I really don't have anyone to impress. My partner Liz is quite well endowed in the breast department so she doesn't pay me much attention. Of course too, we are into the colder fall/winter season around here and we don't go anywhere because of covid, no one else see's me either. 

What I am hoping for is the hormones will develop me more over the next six months, so I can enjoy a more feminine figure this Spring and Summer. Since I am not into wearing any "shape wear" of any kind, what the public see's is all me.

Perhaps my cup will run over with more than a cold cocktail when summer rolls around.

Detroit Proud

 A billboard in Detroit from 2019.

Do I "Pass?"

 You have all seen my pictures and I am sure more than a couple of you have thought Cyrsti has a lot of courage to go out and live a feminine life looking like that. In fact, years ago, a transgender girlfriend of mine told me I passed out of sheer force. 

Along the way though I think I have taken most of the negatives and turned them into positives when it came to living the life I wanted to. In other words, a life as a woman of transgender experience. 

To accomplish my goal. I had to heavily rely on hormone replacement therapy. Relatively quickly my skin softened, I sprouted breasts and my emotions changed for the better. The world softened as my hair grew out faster than my hips and breasts. It all worked together to help my inner feminine self to sync with my outer appearance.

Plus, I can't forget the powerful influences my partner Liz and daughter Andrea had on me. My daughter gave me a gift certificate to her hair salon/spa for my first hair styling which was terrifying yet exciting while Liz completely backed my Mtf transition saying she had never seen any male in me. 

Approximately the same time I was fortunate to find several cis women who happened to accept the authentic me. It all worked together to give me confidence to "pass" as me. All of a sudden, I didn't care what others thought. I embraced my life and began to enjoy it. After all there weren't that many "out" transgender women. 

As always, I have found another thought on the whole "passing process." It comes from Rachell Brindell  and the "Empowered Trans Woman" site:

"By being visibly transgender and not hiding behind the ridiculous gender norms that have been pushed on us for decades I feel I can contribute more to both the LGBTQ community and the cis-normative community as well. After all, if we all passed, who would see us?"

For more follow the link above.

Geena Rocero

 From Wikipedia:

"Geena Rocero (below) (born 1983)^[1] is a Filipino American supermodel, TED speaker, and transgender advocate^[2] based in New York City.^[3] Rocero is the founder of Gender Proud, a media production company that tells stories of the transgender community worldwide to elevate justice and equality. Rocero has spoken about transgender rights at the United Nations Headquarters, the World Economic Forum, and the White House."

Where Were You Born?

 On occasion I become humored when I read of someone who says they were "born into the wrong body." 

I figure I didn't have a real choice. I had no choice on my parents, where I was born or the gender I was assigned. No matter what I thought, those three "facts" were non negotiable. Of course, as I grew, I learned while the "Big Three" were non negotiable, they could be questioned and even changed. 

Like them or not, my parents will always be my parents. Sure, they had their faults but who doesn't. As far as coming out to them, I tried to come out to my Mom. I was rejected and never tried again. I never tried to come out to my Dad. After all, I was doing my best to live a robust male life, so who cared?

I cared of course. As my gender dysphoria continued and began to take it's own peculiar shape, I learned to suffer silently. Even though I think I came up with every possible question I could over why my gender issues were so prevalent, at no time did I come up with the idea I was born into the wrong body.

What I did come up with was I had a overwhelming desire to change the body I had. The more I was able to feminize it the better I would feel. I was fortunate in that the body I had was healthy enough to undertake hormone replacement therapy at a later age in my sixties. Thanks to HRT, I was able to learn the body which I was given was fluid enough to provide me a male foundation to play football and survive Army basic training all the way to presenting as a woman in public. 

So, I guess I can say, I wasn't born in the wrong body. I took what I had and adapted. 

Cyrsti's Condo "Quote of the Day"