I didnt see this the first time around,so I appreciate the posting. Lot softwood practical advice, muchofwhich applies to any travel situation, air orlando based. I recently returned after traveling to Minnesota and back en femme. Hada wonderful trip and was treated courteously by everyone I encounter.
Dang, Kimbers. You're a regular public service all unto yourself!
You rock, chick!
Any money found in the laundry is MINE!
"This is no social crisis....this is me having fun!"
www.flickr.com/photos/tgmarla/
I have never flown Pretty. [ I love that term]. After reading this and doing some research I am ready! I have always wanted to but really thought TSA would lock me up as a terrorist impersonating a woman. I see now it can be done. I am so relieved, and excited. My next trip will be dressed. I don't know when that will be but I do fly 5 or 6 times a year. I still need to do some research, and be careful; but all the advice I seen here should make it go smooth.
Thank you so much Kimberly for re-posting this. You made my day!!!!!!!!!!!!
Flying pretty? I’m probably the only one to ask this here, but WHY would you feel the need to do this? I’m not TS, or TG, and just a CD, so maybe I just can’t grasp this. Knowing that CD-ing is not universally accepted, and after all the beefed up airline security since 9-11, why would you subject yourself to almost imminent humiliation (unless you’re into that) if you weren’t a transitioning TS? Yeah, I get the whole “these airline people have seen everything” deal, my question is still WHY do it?
Perplexed…
there is another way to "Fly Pretty" however, it takes 2-6 years, multiple surgeries, court appearances, and same fantastic clothing as before!
So I guess it may be just easier, at least for now, to take your advice Kim!!!!!!!
LOL, still laughing, Inna
Because for those of us on the trans spectrum this is who we are and not something we do. On top of that, I don't let other's attitudes or stupidity dictate what I do or when and where i do it! It took me a while to reach this point but IMO it is a healthy place for all of us to be!Originally Posted by Voulez-Vous
Finally an airport is probably one of the safest places to go en femme. Pretty much every type of person under the sun plus security that isn't going to tolerate any kind of disturbance, i.e. someone harassing you because of how you are dressed.
I haven't flown pretty YET but only because I'm more concerned with how my makeup will withstand the dry air in the plane!. Kimberly, care to comment?
Debby
Why did the chicken cross the road.
If I want to be in public dressed why would I have to change to drab if I wanted to fly. I love being out and about dressed. Most CD's will start by just getting out of the house. After you have been doing it for a while you find you can go anywhere dressed. Why should the airport be any different. If I want to go on vacation dressed and spend the entire time en femme, why should I have to take male cloths just for the airport.
I see your persective on its a lot of trouble so why do it. I will do it because I can.
Because he had a gig at Chick-fil-A ?
"I will do it because I can" - I suppose that's the bottom line, huh? Understand that I'm NOT knocking it, I just don't personally get the need to do it while flying. So, with that being said, if this is what floats your boat, go for it...If I want to be in public dressed why would I have to change to drab if I wanted to fly. I love being out and about dressed. Most CD's will start by just getting out of the house. After you have been doing it for a while you find you can go anywhere dressed. Why should the airport be any different. If I want to go on vacation dressed and spend the entire time en femme, why should I have to take male cloths just for the airport.
I see your persective on its a lot of trouble so why do it. I will do it because I can.
Thanks for the great advice Kimberly.
Flying pretty is on my bucket list. I just need to have a place and a reason to travel.
Admin/Mods: Could this thread be put up as sticky?
Marcia (LOVES) Blue
Last time I flew pritty was pre 9/11 yes I'm old lol
I have never really thought about how it has changed.
Great read thank you Kimberly!
Always remimber life is what you make it.
So make it Beautiful.
Love Ashley Dawn
http://m.facebook.com/?_rdr#!/ashley...00004093583692
Kim thanks for the advice. You would have good advice as someone who does it a lot and looks good doing it at that.
Kim
Your similar advice to me a half a decade ago was very helpful in flying pretty (although opinions of others might not agree about prettiness). Your post is equally relevant here in Australia - if anything it is a bit easier here by not needing to show ID if you check in online or have frequent flyer status.
I do wish I pass as well as you though and could wear the heels!! Arthritis is a pain (literally). After a 4 year break from CDing, flying is again my aim and motivation to lose weight.
Voulez-Vous - to answer your question from my point of view. It is a challenging and exciting experience but really not too much different to going out in public. It takes acceptance of yourself and acknowledgement that people are much more accepting than what we might think.
Michelle (Oz)
Last edited by Michelle (Oz); 08-09-2012 at 01:55 AM.
Wow - I'm not sure where to start in trying to answer your question!
First off, I think that you and many others make an invalid assumption:
I've been traveling this way for over half a decade now and have never, not one single time, been either mistreated or humiliated. On the contrary, most people that I have interacted with (and again, that's a LOT of people through the years) have treated me exceptionally well and been very friendly.
As for the rest of your question, there are variations between being "just" a CD as you put it, and being a TS - it's not always one or the other. In my case, I am not willing to loose my wife and children, nor my career, in order to go full time, but that doesn't mean that I wont take every single chance that I can get to grab every little bit of time in this world that I can as a woman.
Why would anyone go anywhere except to work and then to home? That is all that is really needed to survive after all - earn your money and live in your castle. We all go to other places every day because there is a life to be lived, and most of us want more than mere existence - we want to do things that fulfill us and add flavor and interest into our world.
In your typical work week, I spend anywhere from 20 to 40 hours in airports and airplanes - this is the nature of my job. Once, I spent these hours miserable and unhappy. Since I started traveling as a woman, I spend these hours happy and fulfilled. Unlike so many other people, I LOVE my job and look forward to almost each and every trip because it gives me the chance to be me.
Why on God's green Earth would I not travel this way?
you so rock, Kim. Always a pleasure to read your posts!!
When the answers escape us when we start to fade
Remember who loved you and the ones who have stayed
Cause my body will fail, but my soul will go on
So don't you get lonely I'm right where you are
Awe thanks Stef!
Hi Kimberly,
You have always inspired me to get out and be me, and thanks to reading your blog and the things you post here and other places i have become very comfortable going out and doing things while dressed. I am sure I speak for everyone here when I say Thank you for your courage, and your inspiration to dress and be ourselves.
To you other girls, i did a copy and paste of what Kimberly wrote and put it in a file folder I keep called self help. This is where i put all kinds of information on being a better girl. Kimberly I hope to join your club and fly pretty this Jan. when I have a trip to Vegas planned.
Jamie
VV Thats what so great about this site and being a CD. There are not 2 of us alike. We can not agree and still be sisters at heart;
Why? Ok, I’m going to be brutally honest here and I know I’ll take heat for this. Because after 9-11, I believe airline security, homeland security, and whoever have many things to concern themselves with and don’t need any unnecessary distractions. No, I’m not saying some guy wearing women’s clothes will be their biggest worry of the day. I’m just saying I personally don’t see the purpose of doing this while flying. Do you feel you have to prove something to yourself or somebody else? Again, not being a smartass, and I’m not the exhibitionist type, so I guess I still don’t get it.
Let’s visualize a very extreme “what if” here. WHAT IF you found yourself in a
9-11 type scenario, the plane gets high jacked, crashes, or whatever. You somehow survive in whatever condition. Need I say more? I kinda doubt you'll be able to get to your plastic container of soap and water, and guy clothes.
Sure, you can laugh it off, but think about it for a moment.
V V
I realize this was directed at Kimberly, but I am about as passionate about this as you seem to be.
I apologize if I am wrong but it seems that you are talking about FEAR. Fear of being discovered. Fear of what people would think. Fear of being outed. If I worried about all the what if's that could happen when I dressed then I would never leave the house. For that matter, my house might not be safe either. I would have to stop dressing all together. I try not to let fear rule my life. I do admit sometimes it does anyway.
The last thing I want to do is inconvenience others by being myself. I don't think the post 911 world is too inconvenienced by my cross-dressing. If that was the case then we all need to stop being ourselves and join the cookie cutter ideal of what a normal person is. Forget about trying to be free and let the government and fear mongers dictate our lives. Maybe we shouldn't let breast cancer survivors fly because they have prosthesis, or maybe that war vet with the metal plate in his head. Maybe that grandfather with the pacemaker should not fly either. I know I am ranting and I am sorry.
V V I understand where you are coming from. I really do! As crossdressers we don't want to put out a bad image of what we are. I don't really want to rock the boat. But sitting at home and not flying just because I am different doesn't fly [pardon the pun] with me.
When I fly pretty, the plane can crash, and I may die and everyone in the world will know I was a CD. That means I am going to wear my pretty pumps. They can say he was a freak but at least he had good taste.
If that works for you, by all means, go for it. Maybe you're 'out' to everyone in your life or else just don't care what people think…that's certainly your choice to make. But not everyone shares this same viewpoint.
So, maybe I should just say - if you’re not prepared for the risk of being ‘outed’ to the entire world and everyone who watches CNN, I wouldn’t recommend ‘flying pretty’.
Well hell, Katie just took most of the words out of my mouth, and much of it verbatim at that!
VV, may I ask how old you are? That's not a slam, just honest curiosity. When I was much younger I might have agreed with you up to a point. There comes a time though, or at least in my case there came a time, when you get tired of being afraid. Where you are sick to damn death of undeserved fear and unearned shame. Do you know that despite my current activities, there was a time when I can remember thinking that I would have no choice but to suicide if I were discovered? Scary thing is, I WOULD have back then too.
Why do I do it? Because I damned well want to and on some level need to.
Why do I do it? Because this is America and I am free to.
Why am I willing to inconvenience the TSA? Because I earned the right to when I devoted twelve years of active duty service to the US Army in order to make damned sure that I remained free. When most of them were still in grade school, I, my wife, and my children were highly inconvenienced doing what it took to keep them safe.
Yeah, they can take a couple of extra seconds more out of their busy day to pass my happy ass through their line.
By all means stay at home VV, but while you're there I'd like you to realize that the damned terrorists apparently won in your case. If they know that they scared or shamed just one person like you or I into staying out of site then they have won. Just imagine the satisfaction they would get from knowing this.
You know what's ironic? I bullshit you not - I was gonna fly home drab tomorrow and avoid the pain in the ass, but you have inspired me! Tomorrow Kimberly is gonna fly the free skies of the United States, and in the highly unlikely event that a TSA inspector has a problem with it, SGT Huddle is gonna jump right down his damned throat with both boots.
Last edited by TxKimberly; 08-10-2012 at 07:10 PM.
VV, if you only dress at home then a meteor could hit your house and you'd end up outed on CNN anyway.
Hip Hip Hooray for you Kim. I keep telling people that every time we change our way of lives, even a little, because of terrorists, or crazies, or someone, then we have lost and they have won. So, keep flying pretty and inspiring the rest of us to do so..................Stephanie
I'm 57, and just because I would never choose to 'fly pretty', Al-Qaeda gets no bonus points from me.
I believe The Isley Brothers said it best - "It's your thing, do what ya wannado...."
But be prepared to take responsibility for your decisions. Just sayin...
Absolutely - don't get me wrong, I might bitch and cry if things DO ever go that far south, but I WILL take responsibility for what I do.
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