Attitudes in Scotland

[susan54]

Scotland has a reputation of being a severe, Presbyterian country. I have been going out dressed for years to cites andvillages, lowland and Highland. I have never had a negative experience dressed as a woman. Though I look good I do not pass.I recently attended a public event with a lot of interaction and stayed in a hotel all fully dressed. I asked afterwards and it seems that NO ONE said anything and the women I asked had said my real gender was irrelevant - people judge you by how nice and how interesting you are. I am proud to be a citizen of such an open-minded country and I can't help contrasting this with the situation in America. In this context it is perhaps an indication of our open-mindedness that of the six leaders of the main political parties, four are openly gay or bi - and no one cares. Iam not going to claim we area bigot-free nation, but we must be getting closer to it than most.

[Tina_gm]

Welcome to Merica... where the men are men and the sheep are scared.... We could bother ourselves about issues like the economy or transportation, infrastructure and whatnot, but we have more important things we worry about, like keeping those freaks out of the bathroom......

[iGenny]

Susan, keep setting the example!

GM, I agree! Keep the sheep out of the bathrooms!

[Teresa]

Susan,
I thought most Scots had moved south of the border ! Only joking, it's good to hear that, it may sound irrelevant but it's good that members keep commenting on this it has to get better and we only find out by others telling us.

[Dana44]

Susan, sounds nice and I've had a few times here that it seemed nice as we had few great nights out, the waitress and others were talkative with us and seemed to enjoy our company with me dressed. But they are trying to keep us out of bathrooms and they have a lot more to think of than that.

[Kelly Whelan]

I lived in Edinburgh for 3 years between 2001 and 2004 and I was active as a CD in that time. I did not once get a negative experience from being out dressed. Taxi drivers were cool. I would walk home from nights out and often passed groups of guys outside the chip shops and none of them either picked me or had an issue with me. I could go out dressed with straight company and wherever we went I was considered a part of the group. However, this was in the context of a city mostly at night. Attitudes in cities can be different to less populated areas however.

In a western city like Edinburgh, I feel you can avoid trouble if you have enough Confidence, Confincibility and Company.

Here in NZ, it is much the same. I've been out in straight company in straight areas and have not had any issues.

Speaking of elected officials: I like reminding people that NZ elected a trans member of parliament in 1999. Prior to that, she was the mayor of a rural town. So beat that :) "I'm voting for Georgina Beyer, she's a good chap." As one man said at the time.