What's in a Age?

Perhaps you Cyrsti's Condo regulars have noticed I have been thinking a bit too much about age recently. Some of it has to do with my first real serious illness of my life, turning 66 and my speaking engagement Friday night.

knowing for sure (I'm sure the organizers don't either)-I'm guessing the group will be a relatively youthful LGBTQ blend. With a liberal mix of "allies."

Fortunately for them, they have not allotted any of us much time to be "talking heads" and bore everyone to sleep. On the other hand, my challenge is to make my time more clear and impactful.

My game plan is pretty clear. If nothing else, I am a gender survivor. The younger members of the group will most certainly be able to see that. So, a quick mention should do and lets keep moving. I identify "she and her" as a MtF transgender woman who happens to be a trans vet.

My next priority will be to keep them engaged past the first few minutes - when many speakers dissolve into "white noise". In other words, how much of what I am saying means anything to them.  That's tough because I think the allies and parents in the group may be more apt to listen-longer.

Finally, the organization hosting the evening : Love Must Win pretty much sums up my part of the evening with it's name. For no particular divine reason I have been "allowed" to hang around in this world to see too many amazing changes to even count-including those attached to human gender. 

The toughest thing to tell anyone (for me) is to be patient. A HUGE cop out. On the other hand, the only constant is change. Plus, the platforms for positive LGBTQ change continue to progress. (Ask Kim Davis.)

We all need to embrace our trans youth with love. I just hope I can help a bit Friday!!!!

Youth Will Inherent the World-Thank Goodness!!

As I head all too quickly towards the double sixes" (66 years old), I watch increasingly with interest what the younger transgender generation is up to. Recently, I ran across this look from Newsweek about the relationship between a young transgender man (coming out) to his lesbian girl friend. 

Freddie Bologno, right, and his girlfriend Tile Wolfe

(Trans man)Freddie Bologno, 27, works at Do Something, a digital organization that helps young people push for social change through social media and text messaging. For Bologno, the text was a way to both come out publicly and start a conversation about being young and transgender. But before coming out to the world, Bologno had to talk to his girlfriend, Tile Wolfe. “I just started crying,” says Wolfe, remembering the moment Bologno said he wanted to start taking hormones to transition from female to male. “Not because I was sad, but because this was suddenly so real.”

Even though I know enough about social media to be semi dangerous, the idea Freddie could text this to 2.4 million people still staggers me.

Bologno continued: “I’ve texted for DoSomething as Alysha for 3yrs, but I’ve been struggling. I'm trans, I'm Freddie!” In many ways he could be speaking for so many of us, in or out of the closet - we are transgender on so many levels  and are NOT going away.

Kim Davis "Study Time?"

This comes from the Huffington Post  and reflects just a bit of the hypocrisy surrounding Kim Davis's stand on same sex marriage:

"Anti-gay marriage clerk Kim Davis is about to get a rude awakening in her hometown.

Non-profit organization Planting Peace just erected the above billboard in Davis' hometown of Morehead, Kentucky. The message is plain and simple -- if Davis is going to use Biblical rhetoric to justify her opposition to same-sex marriage, she might want to take a closer look at how else marriage has been redefined in relation to the book's sacred teachings.

"The intent of this billboard is to expose how the anti-LGBT movement is selective in what rules to follow and how they choose to define 'traditional' institutions or values," Aaron Jackson, president of Planting Peace, told The Huffington Post. "It's important and relevant to call this out, because the actions of Kim Davis and the messages from the anti-LGBTQ movement are not simply about a political or religious debate. There are LGBT youth across the world who are taking their lives at an alarming rate because of these messages from society that make them feel broken or less than. We have to meet hate with love, intolerance with compassion. Our message to our LGBT youth is simple: You are loved, valued, supported, and beautiful. There is nothing wrong with you, and we will stand by you. You are not alone."

As you may (or may not recall) Davis supposedly spent her (paid) jail time studying her bible. You would think with her $80,000 dollar a year salary, she could afford a real bible and with a job like hers, she could be educated enough to understand it.

Cyrsti's Condo Sunday Edition

KerPlunk!  Welcome to an early Fall version of our Sunday round up. Indeed it is nice and cool here in Ohio. Momma Nature is beginning to change. Let's get a hot cup o joe (coffee) and get started.

Page One: The Week That Was-or Wasn't: For me, the week was one of slow recovery - too slow of course for my liking but it is what it is. What I resent the most is the amount of energy it has sapped from my existence. On the bright side, my next treatment is this week. Which will be the second of six.


Also on the bright side, I am extremely pleased to be chosen to be part of a Love Must Win Event coming up this Friday:

Page Two: Opinion: Last week to me was no more than "white noise." I don't know if that was good or bad, but none the less-that what it was. Our struggles continue to go to the grass root levels as an LGBT community. As a matter of fact, just this past week, my Mom's nearby home town became embroiled in a dispute over the rights of a local trans student. 

I care deeply (of  course) about the extremely deep problems we have. Since I am settling into Cincinnati (finally!) I will have a chance to do ore once I have more energy.



Page Three : The Back Page: Well that it's for today. As always thanks for stopping by Cyrsti's Condo!!!

What a Great Country this Is!

Recently, as we were finishing up yet another hot/humid day and I still felt terrible, Liz and I had to go one of the local malls near her to change out a modem she was using.

Earlier in the day, I went to the grocery store and quite possibly ventured out with the least make up I have ever worn. I just said to "hell with it" tied my hair back applied a bit of eye make up and took off. More than likely, my attitude was the least feminine part about me. Just wanted the world to leave me alone. To my surprise, at the grocery, almost everyone did-except one young employee who always seems to appear out of nowhere - and speak to me. I am never aware enough of my immediate surroundings to know if she is the same person. Perhaps she has a transgender friend herself.

All that is cool enough to be sure, but then I have to factor in what I call the gender weather fronts we travel through. For example, we live closer into Cincinnati itself on the East side. For the most part, going from here to downtown where all the real trendy neighborhoods are-the overall LGBT atmosphere is decidedly more liberal. Very quickly, in a short distance though, the weather begins to change. Heading not so far out of town into Clermont County the LGBT vortex takes a deep dive to hell. You still can see a redneck or two with a Confederate flag hanging out of his pickup truck.
  
My "gender vortex" is actually in one of few remaining enclosed malls not too far away.

I do like to walk through that mall which sits on my demarcation point. The other evening, a teen aged girl who missed the Walmart across the street nearly was hit by a car looking at me. Once we were in the mall, a mother and a daughter from India I believe were very "bemused" by me.

Then, on the other hand, were the small groups of kids all dressed in black huddled around a kiosk who paid me no mind at all.

One way or another -I am always careful to stay in the "eye of the storm"

'Nuff" Said!

Thanks Bobbie!!!

Hey! I Know Him!!

With all that has been happening in my life recently, what went for a routine has been dumped into my "porcelain receptacle" (toilet.)

Imagine my surprise though the other day when I was exploring my main email account and I saw a post about Ohio. After I opened it, the story was a feature about an old friend of mine. 

To the left is "Drake" who is one of the few transgender men I have ever known and in fact even bitched about the same endocrinologist together years ago.

Here is a just a touch of his story from the Piqua (Ohio) Daily Call:  Draco said he was always a tomboy growing up, palling around with his dad, going fishing, and tinkering with cars.

“Looking back, my father always treated me more like my brothers than he ever did my sister,” he said. “Growing up, I had the GI Joes, the Evil Knievel with the motorcycle and all that stuff. I tended to gravitate more toward traditional boy toys, but I never really thought about it.”

Draco said for his parent’s 25th wedding anniversary, at age 9, he remembers being dressed in an ugly, uncomfortable, royal blue polyester dress for the occasion. His cousin’s husband told him he looked pretty.

“And I said, ‘Yeah, but I’m actually a boy,” he said. “My mother brought that up later on. But I didn’t remember it until that time. Now I remember it clearly.”

Unfortunately, over the recent years, increasing distances and other factors have kept us apart. I remember him looking at me more than once like I had three eyes - after one of my clueless trans man ideas.

I'm sure he knew though, I had a hard time finding glasses for three eyed peeps! Follow the link for more.

Cyrsti's Condo "Sunday Edition"

Kerplunk! Welcome to another Sunday edition. Our Labor Day issue and an abbreviated one to be sure. As happens often, Labor Day around here often is "smokin" with more than the neighborhood grills in the area. It's hot and humid, so a big cup of "iced joe" is in order for this morning.

Page One-The Week That Was-or Wasn't: I am going to be selfish and mention the week was mostly all about me. Thursday was absolutely huge for me. I began treatment for my "PCT" at the VA Hospital I go to. They are taking a unit of blood out of me every two weeks for awhile to get my iron in under control in my system. The good news is, they don't think my liver or heart has sustained any damaged. I have been quiet as a person like me can be, but no one yet has mentioned the effects of my HRT. However, my endocrinologist appointment is coming up the first of October. I am sure he will have something to say. 

Page Two: What a Crazy BITCH! Thursday was also the day I proved I still had it- I pissed off the crazy woman (cat lady-sis in law) enough to kick me out. She said the magic words "why don't you get out and move full time to Liz's." Well, she made Liz the happiest woman in southwestern Ohio. She has wanted me down here full time for literally years. As luck  would have it, I have the old place up in Springfield squared away enough to finally sell anyway. Timing is everything. I did forget to mention she miss pronoun-ed four times alone in two hours at the veterans hospital. The entire medical staff bends over backward to treat me with respect-except her.

Page Three: "Spin Move": Yesterday, after a very large and hot day at the grocery store, we were shopping for dinner. At the produce department we passed an older (than me) woman who looked at me once, twice and was preparing to make it three times. I had had enough and just turned abruptly to look at her. She was startled, maybe a little embarrassed (I hope) and quickly looked down. 

Page Four: The Back Page: Last week provided at least one closing of a chapter in my life which always opens another. I will post about all of it the best I can in the near future. In the meantime, THE Ohio State Buckeyes open their season tomorrow night and I have a scheduled small speaking spot coming up fairly quick in September. 

Got to go! Luv ya all!!! thanks for stopping by Cyrsti's Condo!!!        

Health Care for All? Really?

From the NCTE:

When it passed five years ago, the Affordable Care Act, often called Obamacare, prohibited discrimination in federally-funded health settings based on race, national origin, age, disability, and sex. The Obama administration agency in charge of enforcing it, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), just released proposed rules that make it clear that transgender people are protected by this federal law, including when it comes to health insurance! The proposed rules would make illegal the practice of categorically excluding all gender transition-related health care from coverage, common in private health insurance plans, as well as in state Medicaid, Indian Health Service, and CHIP (Children’s Health Insurance Program) programs. Instead, plans will have to cover services for transgender people if they offer those services to non-transgender people.

Obviously this is huge if it "is what it is!" Follow the link above and thanks Connie!