This post is part 2 of my reply to my "femininity and gender identity" thread. I was born in the late 1930's before the outbreak of the second world war. Society and its values were much different in those days. Women almost always wore some form of a skirt or dress. Shorts were worn only by little boys or people engaged in certain sports. But society's values cover far more than the clothing we wear. Views on marriage, child bearing, family, gender, racial equality and many more issues were all much different than we are witnessing today. Almost all of the changes that have taken place have been accompanied by an educating of the public toward acceptance of the new values, and the same has taken place regardless of whether the change was a loosening of old restrictions or the imposition of newer ones. The media, the schools, the politicians, the churches and then once the ball got rolling, the people themselves have all played a part in bringing about the changing attitudes toward a myriad of different issues. However, there remains one significant area which has not witnessed this same educating of the public toward acceptance, despite a great deal of press and the enacting of changes in the various civil rights laws. I am referring to crossdressing.

Some of the changes that have taken place during my lifetime that are now accepted as more or less the norm have been:

Young people living together prior to marriage to ensure compatibility.

Single motherhood, whether planned, accidental, adoption or clinically.

Recognition of homosexuality as a legitimate sexuality, and the allowance of same sex marriage.

Racial, gender, sexual and people with disabilities equality.

Negative attitudes toward smoking in public, indoors etc.

Negative attitudes toward drinking and driving, or driving while distracted by anything.

I could go on, but I use the above cases to show how peoples' thinking has been drastically changed in a relatively short time period. We now have transgender rights tacked on to sexuality rights provisions in the civil rights legislation of most jurisdictions. But has there been the same degree of public and media attention given to ensuring the acceptance by the people of these changes? There is a level of acceptance, without any accompanying understanding by either the media or the public of what those rights mean and to whom they apply. In the minds of most people, it would appear to mean men who wish to be women, whether it is achieved by means of surgery or not. Such men should be protected against things like employment and housing discrimination. Lost in the whole mess is any understanding of crossdressing for reasons totally unrelated to TS or extreme cases of TG. Adding to the lack of understanding are the opinions of "experts" like Blanchard who toss around terms like fetishistic transvestism. Crossdressing is left to appear to the general public to be a perversion and an anti-social behaviour that is destructive to families and relationships. We here understand what is meant by the recent thread about "only a crossdresser", but few outside of our community understand. I believe that there is a tendency among such crossdressers to feel marginalized and they are returning to the privacy of their closets. Where are the efforts of the media and other community leaders to champion the cause of bringing respectability to the activity of crossdressing. The needs of crossdressers are quite different than the needs of the people who are being protected now by the various LGBT rights laws. Crossdressers are seldom in a situation where such rights would be of benefit to them.

Veronica