Transgender Interests

Read a post of sorts on one of the sites I'm on when a person asked about "sneaking" some of his wife's excess estrogen pills she had been prescribed and never taken.

The person was wondering on possible results from unsupervised HRT such as the obvious bodily changes. Of course, I'm not a proponent of black market HRT meds,  plus changes are difficult to predict but of course several peeps threw their opinions in. No one mentioned results can vary wildly from conditions such as age, dosage etc..or the danger. . But then a certain one went on to say Estrogen changes your interests, which of course I took exception to.  I have written here in Cyrsti's Condo of how I made very definite decisions on what I could pack up from my male life and bring along to my feminine one.

Andy before

Kristy today.

Let's see, I had to pack up a huge suitcase for the trip and packed sports, music, antiquing from my male past just to name a few. To be certain, the hormonal effects have changed how I react to my interests but have not removed them from my psyche.

So HRT has not changed my interests and I am always mildly surprised when others think it should. My interests don't make me any less of a transgender woman, they make me...me.

Of course I wasn't surprised when I read this morning a story on the subject  (with a twist of course)  from where else? The UK's Daily Mail headline

"Football mad father who once attempted a DIY sex change now living happily as a woman. The difference is she is now mad over a certain player more than the game."

Now, I understand the "Mail"s quest for a great headline and story and agree because I too have acquired a few sports figures who I would gladly birth their kids. Imagine how that would have gone over in the old cigar smoking, holding your beer cup in your teeth while you pee days?

At any rate it's getting routine to rely on the good old not so trust worthy "Mail" to stir up activity here in Cyrsti's Condo and then throw in the guaranteed  to shock  "Do it Yourself" castration. It worked for me! I cringed and remembered my pain and suffering when I got my ears pierced!

Those responsible said "don't worry, it won't hurt!" They were right. It didn't hurt them!

If you are like I am and sneak a peek at the National Enquirer while I'm standing in line at the grocery store, you can follow the link above for more.

Cyrsti's Condo "Horror Scope"

We Libra's still have a bit of time left on top of the astrological charts and here's the latest from theFrisky:

"Libra: (September 23-October 22): Confront your loathing for the details this week, as it’ll be in the smaller moments where you’ll find happiness. Yes, the pace of your power is going to come to a slow drag, but take it as a gift, as reassessing where and how you want to use your time and efforts will be important. However, don’t miss any celebrations worrying about it all. This week, it’s an eye for an eye."

OK, have to ask, is "slow drag" an old drag queen doing a love ballad?

For your "scope" follow the link above..

Transgender Web Comic Topics

 The farther we transgender women and transgender men find ourselves mentioned in a positive nature in all sectors of the community, the better we are. This post came from Sarah in a Googles Plus group I'm in called "Exclusively Transgender"


"Okay, I don't know how many of you read webcomics, but I am an avid reader. I read several hundred. Including a few that are focused on the transgender experience. Unfortunately, most of those not very well known, or popular. But recently, two very popular webcomics added transgender characters to their casts. Supporting cast in one case, yes, but this is still wonderful news. Thousands and thousands of people read these comics. We are getting our stories told by wonderful, sensitive allies. People are learning, becoming more informed, and hopefully becoming more accepting. If you read comics at all, you should check these out."

As I said Sarah, I agree with you! Thanks! Follow the excerpt below for the links.

"A year ago, in this strip: http://www.questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=2324 , Claire of QC was revealed to be transgender. She's been on HRT since she began college. And in today's shocker on Dumbing of Age: http://www.dumbingofage.com/2013/comic/book-3/04-just-hangin-out-with-my-family/writer/ , Joyce's "brother" "Joshua", is revealed to be Jocelyne, a transwoman totally in the closet, thanks to being the favorite 'son' of a fundamentalist Christian family."

Cross Dresser Montage

I believe in a few of these cross dresser montage video's there could be more than a couple genetic girl "ringers" thrown in. At the least though, it's interesting to follow along and judge for yourself on the Cyrsti's Condo big screen:

Ch-Ch-Changes

It's been a minute since I've seen the "transvestite" term used.  To my knowledge transvestite is not considered a gender slur such as tranny, gurl, shemale etc....it seems to be a term that just kind of "lost it's buzz".

In remembrance, I'm passing along a video on the Cyrsti's Condo big screen from July of this year called "Transvestite Musings" to see what Helen has to say:

A Touch of Paris in the UK!

Paris Lees (left) has topped the list of the UK's most powerful LGBT people. The transgender journalist and broadcaster beat the likes of Clare Balding, Peter Tatchell and Jessie J to be voted number one on the Independent on Sunday's Pink List 2013. By doing so, Lees has become the first trans person to top the list. Go here for more.

Watching

Over the years it's a good thing I wasn't profiled as some sort of a perve or stalker. I spent countless hours noticing the small things women do to be... well...women. As with anything else, I gave the process a grading system which I called pass/fail (no pun intended) and many females I knew never passed as women. In fact, one of my favorite sayings here in Cyrsti's Condo is males and females are born, men and women are socialized. A very close friend said it best years ago to me when she lamented she just couldn't understand why many mothers weren't teaching their daughters to be women anymore.

Of course, like the rest of you, my Mom didn't teach me and the greatest majority of my feminine lessons were self taught.  Many of the lessons weren't so pretty but I learned and moved on. Sometimes these days,  I'm surprised how much I still observe genetic women. Sure I wonder how some got out of the house looking like that,  but now I try to understand why the genders are different- other than the obvious.

Barney and Fred in Drag

Here's an example.  Yesterday I watched a women deftly switch hands with her purse as she checked out at an convenience store. She was good and made it look easy but then again she wasn't holding a small child in one of her arms. Didn't matter,  I'm sure she still would have made it happen.

Somehow I wondered if she was working with some sort of genetic switch going back to the prehistoric human days. I imagined a group of cave women gathering a fresh harvest of berries while they held and took care of the kids. (Yes! I thought of all this and still didn't hold up the line!)

As I took my hot Mocha and headed for the door, I just couldn't put the thought into my purse and I started to wonder about gender multi tasking skills too.

I concluded, Way back in the day,  for the most part the prehistoric men had a single task:  form a team,   hunt a Mastodon and bring home a whole bunch of bacon. So, today's  women are better at multi tasking and men at team building. Why? Because we had to as humans. How easy was that? Well we both know these are sweeping generalizations.

But as I do think about them though from this transgender outpost I occupy and  I can see why over the centuries,  many cultures revered us for our knowledge while in so many others, we were hated and killed. (Today)

The sad truth is all too often ignorance is power and the transgender tribe has so much to offer if we are given a chance.

Transgender Vets Wanted

"Calling all transgender veterans! The Office of Patient Care Services from veteran’s Health Administration is looking for 3-4 transgender veterans to appear in an educational program for VA clinical staff on providing excellent, culturally appropriate health care to transgender veterans. According to The Office of Patient Care Services from Veteran’s Health Administration, “We are looking for a diverse group of Veterans of different ages, ethnicities, gender, and branch of military service. Participation will involve providing first-person accounts of lived experience and perhaps role-playing a VA patient with an actor-clinician on video.”
Auditions and recordings will be held at the St. Louis Employee Education Resource Center VA Medical Center, Bldg. # 48 in St. Louis. Auditions and casting are scheduled for Monday, December 2nd beginning 8:00-11:00 am and 12:00-2:00 pm. Video recording is planned for Monday, December 2nd 2:00-4:30 pm with additional video recordings scheduled for Tuesday, December 3rd from 9:00 am-4:30 pm. Participation in the project is purely voluntary and those who are interested in auditioning can contact Elizabeth Bowling at (314) 894-6540 with questions or concerns."

 Unfortunately, I live a long way from St. Louis!

Transition by Definition

Several years ago, we ran a post here in Cyrsti's Condo called Beyond Transition. At that time I mentioned I had a few more thoughts to share on the matter.  I was curious to see how many (if any) of my ideas had changed over the years:

"Beyond Transition" is a huge idea to be sure. I look at transition as a passage from point "a" to point "b".  When I look at the transgender community as a whole, does anyone ever really get to point "b"? My only point of reference is when I'm out with friends and I lose any sense of gender. I simply just am who I am. Have I transitioned, am I done? Am I the same as a transsexual woman who has gone through SRS and lives her life with no fanfare down your street? Could be...or not.

Although I have not had the surgeries the trans woman down the street has had, would her transition qualify as being more complete?  Probably not. In essence if either of us is facing taking estrogen till the day we die, we are still transitioning.  Perhaps the only defining separation is one of us is determined to talk about our life to hopefully lend some guidance to others - the other not and that's fine too.

On the other hand transitioning does imply a certain series of events.  The external move from gender "a" to "b" is very clear. You decide you need to change to live, you begin to socialize yourself in your non birth gender, you decide you want to ingest chemicals into your body to further the process and you go "under the knife" to complete any physical changes you may deem necessary. This black and white process looks very good on paper and especially works well with a male mind but often runs into problems with the mental processes.

In my case, some would assume I already have the problems with my mental processes, so it's been damn difficult on occasion to sort out what is coming from where.  An example is years ago on my first visit to a "gender therapist", she asked if I had any problems with my cross dressing. I said no but I did have problems on the effect it was having on my marriage.  To make a long expensive story short, the only good result of the visits was that she diagnosed me with a very clear bi-polar disorder.

So I guess transitioning is in the mind of the beholder.  The TS woman down the street may be "snug as a bug in the rug" in her stealth life.  On the other hand, I don't think I have ever been snug at anything. If the river is calm, bring me a boat to rock to see if I can tip it in my heels. Plus I hope I never lose the wonder of where this life has taken me.

Years ago when Uncle Sam let me go after three glorious years, I was discharged at Ft. Dix in New Jersey where my car was waiting from Germany.  I threw my duffel bag in the back seat of my 1973 VW Beetle and headed home to Ohio.  The next morning was clear, blue and beautiful when I got onto the Pennsylvania turnpike.  Just for a split second at a toll booth on a hill and had a chance to look at the road in the valley ahead. What a rush of freedom it was!  I thought I would never have a chance to reclaim that moment again but guess what - I'm close. Never say never.

So I guess my transition will only end when I depart this life and I look back and think how crazy it was that being transgender was so earth shattering. I will get back to you on that!