cities that are CD friendly?

[Kimmie]

I did a purely unscientific study. Personally I'm college educated and politically independant, but its my general observation that liberals are more tolerat of our lifestyle than conservatives.
I presumed that a city that elects a democrat mayor may be a little more tolerant of transgendered people. I looked up the top 20 us cities by population to find out which cities mayors were republican and democrat. There a myriad of reasons why why a city elects a mayor, political affiliation is but one factor. For example democrat gains in 2006 was largely due to public anger at the Bush administration. Also, Michael Bloomburg was not elected mayor of NYC strictly because of his Republican party affiliation. (whcih has since changed.) But it may be a benchmark towards tolerance to cross dressing.

I did not do this with the intent to start a political discussion, nor do I encourage anybody to do that is not directly related to CD'ing, because this thread will likely be cut off, but merely to provolke discussion on which cities are CD friendly and to what extent. So we may decide wither or not to visit someday as a possible vacation destinations. Please make any recomendations for which parts of town are safe to go during the day and night and as well as clubs and places to go. Take some civic pride.

I repeat please do not make any political comments that is not related to cross dressing, affiliated lifestyles or tolerance to what we do.

New York City's mayor is independant, as metioned above.

The following cities had democrat mayors.

Los Angeles, CA
Chicago, IL
Houston, TX
Philidelphia, PA
San Antonio, TX
San Jose, CA
Detroit, MI
Columbus, OH
Memphis, TN
Forth Worth, TX
Baltimore, MD

The following cities have republican mayors

San Diego, CA
Dallas, TX
Jacksonville, FL
Indianapolis, IN (as of the begining of 2008)
San Francisco, CA (just kidding, hehehe)
Austin, TX (I think)
Charlotte, NC

[trannie T]

Although one can make some generalizations about tolerance and political party affiliation there can be a considerale difference between national political parties and local parties. The only cities where I've been out dressed are Reno (businessman Repulican mayor) and San Francisco (liberal Democrat mayor) and I've been accepted in both cities.

[jennifer41356]

I live in Dallas and I have never had any problems deing out as a woman, went to get an ID card once at the DMV and told the officer why i wanted the card(I was dressed as a girl) and he said no problem.....so I am not sure what you mean by a CD friendly city.....I think cities have to be careful about lawsuits for civil right violations...there have been a couple of TG lawyers in Houston have done a lot to get laws changed in Texas for Tgals

[Bernadina]

Do you mean US cities? We have cities in our country too.

[Sally24]

Both Boston and NYC have serious legislation protecting Gender Presentation and I find the people in Boston to be relatively friendly. In the clubs they are very friendly!

[Kimmie]

Of couse canada has cities too, I'm not familiar with canadian culture other than you guys are still angry at us for stealing Gretzky. Do enlighten us Americans.This posting was intended to provolke civic pride and generate information about where its ok to vacation. US or otherwise. I just used the top 20 US population as a benchmark. I don't know much about the rest of the world. But I think its safe to assume western cross dressers would not be welcomed in Tehran.

[sandylove]

I don't know about the mayors. Some cities have non-partisan elections where the candidates are not allowed to use their party affiliations in their advertising.
I'll name a couple of smaller cities that are very open-minded: Northampton, MA and Brattleboro, VT. And of course, Provincetown, MA.
Love, Sandy

[Kerrie Sifton]

Edmonton has a "democratic" style mayor as does Calgary. Neither city has a large visible tg population as far as I can tell but both cities do have a visible and positive lesbian/gay population. Vancouver has a mayor who I believe is on the liberal (democratic) side, and it appears to have a much larger lgbt population that appears active. Montreal is just Montreal... oh those french, and Toronto is simply a large metropolitan city where many things go.( I still prefer Montreal)

[pamela_a]

Looking at a listing of Democrat Mayors listed in the National Conference of Democratic Mayors http://www.ncdm.org/membersCity.html it appears to me the majority of them represent larger cities, which would tend to make sense since, as a general rule, larger cities tend to have a higher population of people who rely more on government support, which is a hallmark of the Democrat party.

A larger city tends to provide more annonimity. The law of averages should show that acceptance may not increase but with the increased number of people you would be less likely to encounter someone with whom you are acquainted or a person who would take the time to negatively interact with someone based only on how they were dressed.

Moving away from major population centers, the decreased density would tend to increase the probability of encountering someone who would take umbridge with your attire.

I think you would also need to take into account the area's prevailing values, i.e. in the "Bible Belt". These people may tend to be socially liberal enough to support a democrat politician but not be accepting of a member of the GLBT community.

In the spirit of this thread I would like to make an observation at this point. Unless I'm mistaken, we, members of the GLBT community as a whole, strive to be accepted for who we are. We argue amongst ourselves over labels and complain about being stereotyped. Yet are we not all guilty of that ourselves?

This thread appears to have been started with the undertone of Democrat = good and Republican = bad but then asks it not be turned into a political discussion. If the true question or intent was to ask what cities/areas were known to be CD friendly then what is the purpose of the political introduction to the question?

On the other hand, if that is the prevailing additude here perhaps I need to learn to look past or ignore the statements or innuendo with which I disagree or I should leave now and continue my quest to find some place where I don't have to be concerned that the "diversity" isn't diverse enough to include my views, feelings, and thoughts and I'm accepted for me, who I am. But then, isn't that what we are all looking to find?

-Paula-

[Kate Simmons]

Regardless of how friendly "cities" may be, there is no accounting for the perceptions and attitudes of individual people. The watchword is to always be careful and use discretion, no matter where you are.

[Denise Barrett]

I agree with Paula. I, myself, am more "conservative" when it comes to what I what our "government" to do for our citizens as a whole. But more "liberal" when it comes to how I what "the whole" of our citizens to view us. This has nothing to do with one political party of another. Don't we have enough problems with our accepted lifestyles that we don't need to debate politics which is never a winning proposition for any side.

With love and respect for you all,
Denise

[KirstyChibiMoon]

no matter what city your in a little common sense is wise I think...
I came out of the closet in Athens Georgia and being a large Music and College town i never had many problems.
Of course i advoided the larger redneck bars.

Now i live in St Cloud Minnesota not too far from Minneapolis and pretty much the same thing applies.

In general most people are freindly and I have rarley had negative confrontations when out in public.

Being a full time CD in a town of about 100k people I still feel like the only CD around <giggles>

In my personal experience i have found Phili to be a fun place. Poconos PA, Orlando FL, LA CA, NYC, Chicago, Walles UK and Manchestor and of course Athens GA, Atlanta GA, St Cloud MN and the Twin Cities MN to be CD freindly

[Suzy Harrison]

Of couse canada has cities too, . Do enlighten us Americans.This posting was intended to provolke civic pride and generate information about where its ok to vacation. US or otherwise. I just used the top 20 US population as a benchmark. I don't know much about the rest of the world. But I think its safe to assume western cross dressers would not be welcomed in Tehran.

...and we have cities in Australia too!, what about us ?
In fact we only have a few cities in the whole of the country:

Perth
Sydney
Melbourne
Adelaide
Darwin
Hobart
Brisbane
Canberra

and that's it!... I would have thought that Sydney followed by Melbourne are the most CD friendly


You wouldn't want to have a CD holiday in:

Saudi Arabia
Iran
Iraq
North Korea


..... In fact, I was just thinking this would be the supreme test for any one on this site (hey Joann and TXkim) - have a holiday enfemme in these countries !

[TxKimberly]

As a lot of you know, I travel the Eastern half of the US for work, and am pretty much on the road 90&#37; of the time. I have been to each of the cities you mentioned below and yes, I cross dressed there.

Los Angeles, CA
Chicago, IL
Houston, TX
Philidelphia, PA
San Jose, CA
Detroit, MI
Columbus, OH
Memphis, TN
Dallas, TX
Indianapolis, IN (as of the begining of 2008)
San Francisco, CA (just kidding, hehehe)
Austin, TX (I think)
Charlotte, NC

You know the funny thing is, I've never been hassled in ANY ofthem. I've never even felt unwelcome or uncomfrotable in any of them. I suspect that most people living in cities these days have seen it all.

My FAVORITE cities to travel to are
Indianapolis, IN
Boston, MA

By the way, here in Austin one of the city slogans is "Keep Austin Wierd" - that says it all. One of the city celebities is Leslie, a homless crossdresser that walks around Austin in a Bikinni. She ran for mayor once and got a respectable number of votes (around 17% my wife tells me). Despite being in the bible belt, dead center in the state of Texas, Austin is as friendly a place as you will ever find.

[Amanduhrob]

I haven't noticed Indianapolis being particularly tg friendly, I've found only one salon that is crossdresser friendly.

[TxKimberly]

Regardless of how friendly "cities" may be, there is no accounting for the perceptions and attitudes of individual people. The watchword is to always be careful and use discretion, no matter where you are.

Very good point - as a whole a city can be just great, but we all have our jerks.

[TxKimberly]

I haven't noticed Indianapolis being particularly tg friendly, I've found only one salon that is crossdresser friendly.

I've never gone looking for a salon there, but I travel to Indy a lot and love the place. Are you looking for places that advertise and specifically go after TG business, or have you tried just asking you average salon if they will work with you?
I've had nothing but positive experiences in Indy.

[guysinpantyhose]

I really wish my city was on that list.

[sissystephanie]

I tend to think Paula A. is right. There was a definite political undertone to this thread, even with the disclaimer. I am surprised that it was let go by the Moderator.

That being said, the large city close to me was not even listed. Atlanta definitely belongs in a list of large cities, and also on the list for being TG friendly. There are numerous places to eat, drink, or shop that are very TG friendly. And for you liberals out there, Atlanta has had a Democrat government most of the time since Sherman was here! Maybe that is why the city has so many problems!

Sissy/Stephanie

Girl outside, man underneath

[SweetCaroline]

CD friendly cities are basically cities that CDs feel friendly at. Know your environment in advance, call ahead to let them know you are coming. Know your rights. You'll do fine.

KNOW the area of town you are going into in advance.
SHOP around, most businesses want your money so you should do fine.
If you can, approach them with a Sister at hand, if the see two off us, they'll be less likely to question us.

[Kari Lynn Franks]

i live in Austin Texas most people dont even bat an eye when i go out dressed up or just go out in drab carrying my purse and a skirt to home depot gotta love this town

[Stephenie S]

These cities come to mind, only because I have been there.

Boston
San Francisco
NYC
Atlanta
Provincetown
Key West
Brattleboro, VT
Northhampton, MA
Vancouver
Montreal
Dallas

Of course there are many others. Most large cities will have areas that are dangerous and areas that are friendly. NYC, well, you can do anything in NYC.

Lovies,
Stephenie

[Karren H]

I don't think there's a corelation to political party nd crossdressing... hell I'm conservative as hell politacally but still love to dress... Look at Rudy? lol I crossdress in mainly small Soughern WV towns and i find them very friendly.....

[Billijo49504]

I don't know about our cities, but our governer just add TRANSGENDERED to the hiring discrimination list. Yaaa for Grandholm. Maybe she wears the pants in the family? My bad!!!..BJ

[Michellebej]

I've been out for one way or another for many years. Most of my closest friends are GGs.

Early on I tried to make friends/come out to..women that identified themselves as liberal. Four were not accepting at all. Two said they were, but; I noticed that I stopped getting invites to parties and gatherings. Phone calls were never returned, ect. Finally each told me in her own way that personal matters kept them from enjoying our friendship any longer.

I was pretty bummed for awhile. I thought well if this is how the liberal minded ladies treat me, then I darn't come out to a conservatively minded woman.

At the time I was in middle management for a large retail corporation. We had an Operations Manager in one of our stores that was considered the quintessential conservative. Lets call her Dani.

I was at one of the annual "Exotic and Erotic Balls" in San Francisco when I happend to catch site of a stunning attractive "Belly Dancer". It was Dani. At first she didn't know who I was. Then she didn't believe me, till she took me into the ladies room and assured herself as to my identity.

That was the beginning of a long and happy friendship. She introduced me to a number of like minded women who were also known to be on the conservative side. What was really gratifiying was that all of them accepted me as the woman I expressed myself as. Which contrasted to the two women of liberal leanings that clearly pigeonholed me as a "man in a skirt".

Over the years I attempted to come out to a number of women. Liberal and Conservative. On the whole, not one women that considered herself conservative has rejected me. However; only two that consider themselves liberal have accepted me.

As for the Bible belt thingee. I think that has a certain validity. However; two of the women that are part of my inner circle are women I go to Church with.

It is also my experiance that the more polarized the leanings, the better chance I have of being accepted/rejected.

This is also not a scientific study. Just the experiance of 40 years of being one of the "girls".