Lavern Cummings RIP

In my opinion, Lavern Cummings was the most beautiful femulator of the 20th Century. And I was shocked to learn from Heather that Lavern died in Las Vegas after being hit by a car while trying to cross Charleston Boulevard in a crosswalk last week. The former Finocchio's star was 90 years old.

En femme, Lavern was absolutely gorgeous in a natural way as opposed to a drag queen way. Audiences were convinced that Lavern was female until he dropped his voice from soprano to baritone in the middle of a song.

There are countless images of Lavern on the Internet. Below are a few of my favorite.

God bless you, Paul Lavern Cummings.

Wearing Arafeel dress, H&M bag and Embis shoes (Source: Cookbook.nu)

Beautiful Lavern Cummings

Someday Funnies

Wearing Ann Taylor (Source: Ann Taylor)

Happy Easter!

Friday Freebies

Mom owned a Singer sewing machine and sewed beautiful dresses for her and my sister.

Often, I would peruse the dress patterns that were always lying around and wish that Mom would sew something for me. (She never did, although I never asked. In my heart, I think she would have if I had only asked.)

By watching Mom do it so many times, I learned how to use a needle and thread well enough to sew on a button and make minor repairs. I never got the hang of using a sewing machine, but once upon a time I did stitch together a red satin micro miniskirt from scraps of cloth that Mom had used for some other project.

Fast-forward 50 years and Diana alerted me that "the Vintage Patterns Wiki has released more than 83,500 patterns of pre 1992, out of print patterns for all to use.

"The browsable collection runs the gamut from Dynasty-inspired pussy bow power suits to Betty Draper-esque frocks featuring models in white gloves to an 1895 boys' Reefer Suit with fly-free short trousers."

You can read all about it here. Meanwhile, you will find me browsing the 1950s collection looking for a "new" Easter outfit!

Wearing Bebe (Source: Bebe)

Femulating in the 1960s

Joan Heartless

Connecticut Governor Malloy nominated Andrew McDonald to be chief justice in the state's supreme court. McDonald is openly gay.

On Tuesday, the state's senate voted against the nomination. All 18 Republican senators voted against the nomination, along with Democrat Joan Hartley of Waterbury, who has a long record of voting against LGBT rights.

Hartley is a DINO (Democrat In Name Only) and it came as no surprise that she joined the homophobic Republican senators in voting against McDonald.

In the past, heartless Hartley voted against bills legalizing civil unions in 2005, codifying the state Supreme Court’s ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in 2009, enacting anti-discrimination projections for transgender individuals in 2011 and allowing same-sex couples to adopt children in 2000.

Heartless Hartley is a Catholic and wears her religion on her sleeve, so I want to ask her, "How would Jesus have voted?"

Wearing Hudson dress, The Volon bag and Proenza Schouler shoes (Source: ShopBop)

Janek Traczyk femulates Nancy Sinatra on Polish television's Your Face Sounds Familiar.

One Liners

I am working for Uncle Sam this week wrestling with Turbotax.

When we were dating, I gifted my wife with a dress for Easter that she never wore.

I am a sucker for large cap wigs because they are rare and my head is so voluptuous.

Hyacinths I planted last summer are pushing up through the snow.

Slipping my nylon clad legs into a pair of high heel pumps never gets old.

On Saturday I planted green peas, sugar snap peas, arugula, kale, Bibb lettuce and cauliflower seeds in my Earth Boxes and covered them with clear plastic.

Raquel Welch Salsa in Golden Wheat is in the mail.

My Subaru needs to go to the dealer for the airbag recall.

Even though I have been a computer nerd since the 1970's, I still don't get Twitter (#femulate).

I'd wear this!

Early 20th Century boy ballerinas.

Got Tuesday

Got Drag Dept.

Zoe informed me that Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory fame will appear in the film version of Matthew Lopez’s play The Legend of Georgia McBride. Parsons will play the role of Miss Tracy Mills, a veteran drag queen who coaches a broke young man in the art of performing, transforming him from a washed-up Elvis impersonator to a show-stopping drag queen. (Source: Variety)

Parsons is no stranger when it gets to getting girly. That is Jim en femme in the accompanying photo with Steven Weber attending a 2013 benefit in Los Angeles.

Got Links Dept.

Jan Brown suggested I add links to online videos of the Your Face Sounds Familiar femulations that I post in the Femulator slot below. Videos of the femulations do not always exist, but I have embraced Jan's suggestion and have added links when I find them, as I did with todays Femulator, the amazing Janek Traczyk.

(Source: moldesdicasmoda.com)

Janek Traczyk femulates Slawa Przybylska on Polish television's Your Face Sounds Familiar.

The Engaging Miss Eng'g

The Miss Eng'g (Engineering) womanless beauty pageant at the College of Engineering, University of Philippines-Diliman is one of the best, if not the best womanless pageant conducted at an educational institute or anywhere else for that matter. This year's edition of the pageant was held on March 9 and the Miss Engineering Facebook page has hundreds of photographs documenting the pageant including an album of spectacular evening gown photos (samples above and below).

Wow!

In the 1969, I was a student in the UConn School of Engineering and I cannot imagine my fellow engineering students participating in anything like this. Me, yes, but not the other students in my school!

(Thank you Aunty Marlena for the heads-up about the pageant!)

Wearing Zuhair Murad

A contestant struts his stuff in the evening gown competition of the 2018 Miss Eng'g womanless beauty pageant.

Shapewear Sale Alert!

I don't know if Lady Grace is going out if business or just having a clearance sale, but they are now offering huge discounts on shapewear and other unmentionables. The sizes and colors are limited, but I still managed to find seven assorted items to purchase for $78 total!

Someday Funnies

Wearing Rag & Bone blazer, Self-Portrait dress and Jimmy Choo heels (Source: Intermix)

Susanna Valenti of Casa Susanna fame

Movie Alert! No Questions Asked on TCM at Midnight

One of the best femulations in vintage film (IMHO), No Questions Asked is on TCM at midnight (Sunday morning).

The femulators' getaway in No Questions Asked.

Trump Bans Most Transgenders from Serving in Military

Trump's War on Transgenders Continues

(CNN) The White House on Friday announced a policy to ban most transgender persons from serving in the US military.

Following a long review of a policy following a tweet by President Donald Trump last year, the White House said the policy will say "transgender persons with a history or diagnosis of gender dysphoria -- individuals who the policies state may require substantial medical treatment, including medications and surgery -- are disqualified from military service except under certain limited circumstances."

Living in the Red Zone

Man and Wife

Responding to my open invitation to "ask me anything," Connie wrote, "I have been enjoying your blog for a long time. I wonder what is your ultimate goal in femulating?"

Ultimately, my goal is to live as a woman full-time. But achieving that goal is another matter.

Reading my blog regularly, you know that I live as a woman as much as possible, but it is not full-time.

Yet I know I could live as a woman full-time because I have done it successfully over long and short periods of time in the real world, out among the civilians.

Coming out is not holding me back. The important people in my life already know about Stana. There is only a handful of people who don't know and it does not matter much to me if they accept Stana or not.

So it is like living in the Red Zone. I am so close to the goal line, but I just can't get across it. The only thing holding me back is my commitment to the woman I married.

Falling in love 35 years ago, I stopped crossdressing and I bought into the old tale that finding the love of my life would cure me. I did not know any better and the lack of information in those pre-Internet Dark Ages did not help. But two years of not crossdressing indicated that there was something to that old saw.

And so it went until one month after our wedding, when we were invited to a Halloween party and I reopened my Pandora's box never to close it again. One too many Halloweens en femme, my wife suspected something. When she asked, I admitted to her that I was a crossdresser.

Fast forward to the Caitlyn Jenner era... when my wife asked, I admitted to her that I was transgender.

And if she asked, I would admit to her that I want to live as a woman full-time.

In the past when I crossdressed, she often commented, "You want to be a woman, don't you?" and I would always deny such a notion. But in my heart, I knew the true answer, but I was afraid to admit it to her or myself.

Today, I think she knows the true answer, too, so she does not bother asking the question. And I am still afraid to admit the truth to her.

And so it goes.

Wearing Vensette cosmetics (Source: Vensette)

Glenn Tryon femulating in the 1926 film Along Came Auntie.

What to do on March 31?

Empty Dance Card Dept.

March 31 is Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV). So how does one celebrate the day when it is on a Saturday of a long holiday weekend?

You can't show up at the office en femme because the office will probably be closed.

How about showing up at an Easter egg hunt dressed en femme or even better, dressed as a Playboy bunny?

But seriously, how does one celebrate the day?

I checked and there are no public events scheduled in my neck of the woods to celebrate the day. Nothing in Connecticut, nothing in Massachusetts and nothing in New York! The closest event is 256 miles away in Burlington, Vermont. And the Burlington TDOV webpage has not been updated since 2016, so I'm not so sure that the Burlington event is a sure thing.

So, what are your plans for Transgender Day of Visibility?

Change is Good Dept.

I made a couple of changes to the blog recently.

No more AdSense ads.

Added the Coffee Break! link. A number of readers asked how to make monetary contributions to the blog and I finally found an easy way to do it. If you click on the link, you will see my better half listed rather than me, but I assure you that anything you donate will go to the blog.

UConn Eats Earrings Dept.

When I attended the True Colors Conference at UConn two years ago, one of my earrings slipped off my ear, fell to my feet and I stepped on it. It was a pair of my favorite vintage retro gold earrings. I retrieved the flattened wayward earring, but there was no repairing it.

Friday, while crossing the street at UConn as I exited the True Colors Conference, there was a gust of wind so strong that it took off one of my earrings and I did not see where it landed. I retraced my steps back and forth over the crosswalk, but I could not find it. I admit my search was not too thorough because the crosswalk was on the main street of the UConn campus and I was dodging vehicles during my superficial search. Sadly, the lost earring was my go-to silver earring, an expensive pair from Napier.

Next time I visit the UConn campus, I will go sans earrings!

Hiding My Goodies Dept.

Club 82's "Who's No Lady" thumbnail ads featuring glamorous female impersonators fueled my interest in crossdressing when I was a young teenager. So much so that I clipped and saved the ads from the newspaper.

I surely did not want any of my family to find my collection, so I had to find a safe place to hide them. I had a shoe box where I stored my baseball card collection that was sorted alphabetically by team name, so I stored the Club 82 ads behind Washington – first in war, first in peace, last in the American League and in my baseball card collection!

Wearing Boston Proper (Source: Boston Proper)

Femulate reader Diane Michelle