Tag Archives: sports

I Can’t Help It

Here in Cincinnati, Ohio in the Southwest part of the state, hurricane Ida remnants have passed on leaving us with beautiful pre-fall weather. I have some sort of genetic malfunction which tells me fall weather is football time. 

On top of all of that, one of the baggage items I brought with me from the times I cross dressed as a guy was my love for The Ohio State Buckeyes. I never went to school there but grew up approximately fifty miles away. 

When “Trans Ohio” still used to have an in person symposium, I regularly signed up to give a presentation. In it’s later years, the Symposium was held in The Ohio State University huge student union which of course didn’t break my heart. 

The Ohio State mascot is “Brutus Buckeye” named after the state tree. One year I had my picture taken sitting next to a life-sized bronze Brutus in the student union.

If you are a Cyrsti’s Condo regular you have seen this picture before, if not I resend it because Ohio State kicks off it’s regular season tonight against Big Ten opponent Minnesota. 

Go Buckeyes!

Another Transgender First

 Recently, Sapir Berman made history by coming out as Israel’s first transgender soccer official.

 Addressing her reasons for going public with her identity, Berman said that she did so “first of all for myself, for my soul, and then for my family, so they don’t see me suffering,” she related.

Congratulations!

What a Wonderful World it Could Be

Just think if all the conservative Republicans’ energy and ideas went into solving our nations’ basic problems such as hunger, housing and education to name a few. Instead of pressuring transgender athletes.

 I think “Kira Moore” (below)  said it best:

“I’ve been looking through various Transgender news feeds and all I’m seeing are stories about all of the Republican bills being introduces across the country as if there weren’t any other pressing issues which need attention and honestly, I am sick and tired of it. If this pack of rabbid fundamintalist evangalical busy bodies spent half the energy on real problems such as homelessness, poverty, or education, everyone’s lives could be improved a thousand fold. Yet what are they all fired up about? Trans women and girls playing sports or worse yet, proper medical care for trans youth. WTAF?”

Great point!

Sports and the Transgender Woman

 Years ago, as I started my Mtf gender transition, I was very concerned about how much baggage I could bring with me from my intense male past. No matter how painful it was, I hid my feminine self well from family and friends. In fact, one of the few cis female friends I told about being transgender said I was the most unlikely person she knew to attempt a gender change. 

Of course, back in my “formative” years, gender norms were more rigidly structured. In the conservative rural Midwest I grew up in, the only real “sports” girls could participate in were cheerleading. Because I could not make it on the sidelines of a football game, I had to participate. I was a very mediocre defensive end and ended my high school “career” prematurely due to a couple broken bones. But, no one suspected I really wanted to be a cheerleader.

Perhaps it was all worth it to hide my gender misgivings. These days though, I find my love of sports has been a lifelong pursuit for me, no matter what gender I was living as. As I did transition, I found three close cis women friends who shared my fondness for sports. All three could sit at a bar drinking beer and watching sports as well as any man. 

So you could guess how great I felt when last night my childhood favorite baseball team finally clinched a spot in the Major League Baseball playoffs. In fact I cried tears of joy… *damn hormones”! And of course I am overjoyed The Ohio State Buckeyes” are due to start playing in a couple weeks. 

Once I got past the worn out gender stereotypes of women and sports, I was able to carry forward a great portion of my previous life. I did find out the hard way to never talk to a man about sports.

Sports and the Transgender Girl

It’s Super Bowl Sunday and it’s time to look back at my former love affair with the NFL. I say former because following the futile games of the Cincinnati Bengals has nearly broken all interest I had concerning pro football. I feel much different of course when it comes to The Ohio State Buckeyes and college football. It could be argued the Buckeyes were the best football team in Ohio last year when compared to the Cleveland Browns and the Bengals. 

Along the way as I transitioned, I wondered if or why I would/should maintain any interest in sports at all. Then, as I established a new set of female friends, I learned they were as loyal and knowledgeable sports fans as I was. I found out I could bring my love of sports with me. The whole deal was as I was building the new me, I found out she wasn’t the girly-girl type I thought at one time I would have to be. I could as easily sit at a bar with other women and drink beer as well as some fruity feminine drink. 

I even was invited to tag along to a NFL Monday Night Football game in Cincinnati years ago. Sure I was scared to death but I went. Another lesson learned how sports didn’t have to have a gender. 

It does help I played quite a bit of football and baseball when I was young and understood the games strategies as they played out. In my past it was humorous on the rare occasions I became involved in conversations with men on sports, I had to dumb it out in order not to hurt their precious male egos. 

The moral to my story is you can bring your loves with you as you transition. You don’t have to adhere to the gender norms society lays on us. 

Of course if you decide to go to a Super Bowl party today and really don’t care who wins, you can watch the game for the commercials and the half time entertainment. As many women will do. Just have a good time!