The West side of Chicago would qualify as a wrong place for going out while crossdressed then. If you know you'd get beat to a pulp there, don't go out dressed there.
I'm not saying that there aren't places where we'd be in danger, I'm saying don't go out dressed in places like that, gun or no gun. You have plenty of other places around Chicago where you can go out dressed in safety. You also have support organizations with activites in safe places, so you have safe options even if you live in a neighborhood where its unsafe to go out dressed. You may have to leave your neighborhood in drab and get dressed somewhere else, but where there's a will, there's a way.
If we go where the hazards are minimized, we should be as safe as anyone else.
Carol