Dressing in public

Barbara,
I started dressing at 4, it was just a bit later, 52, when I first went out! That should jive nicely with what you thought!

Deliliah,
Whatever women experience as a woman, I wanted to experience the same thing. I wanted to remove the maleness aspect of being a guy, and find out for myself.
I love being out & about. Nearly all or most people don't question my gender, maybe they're not sure, which I'm fine with.
To me , I feel I get the feeling of expressing myself fully.

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Originally Posted by KendraCD2012

good question about my friend roberta, hell i don't know, my friend who is married is all ok with it and he told me that him and his wife would go to a pride festival with me and be there for me. now, i gotta ask, when u went out to the MAC store, first of all, where is it located because i've been there before but can't remembe where things like that were and if its in Fashion Show Mall, i'm going to feel dumb asking lol. secondly, i have make up that i'm taking with me but i don't know if its ok to have it in the carry-on bag or not. oh and third, does the makeup lesson's cost money and do u remember how much it was roberta? i'm very excited about dressing in vegas this year for a couple of days also. by the way to understand my friend roberta, i actually told him how vegas is supposed to be the best place for crossdressers and he yeah he acts as if vegas is his town and he knows that they people won't understand it and will look at u differently.

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The MAC store that I went to is in the Forum Shops at Caesar's. It's been a few years ago, but then it was $100 for a 1 hour lesson, which includes a 10% discount on whatever you buy. All together I spent $200 for the lesson and makeup.

You can check TSA's website about any limitations on what you can have in carry on bags.

thanks roberta, u know if i can just buy the makeup at the MAC store, i may just leave what makeup i have at home lol. i hope its still $100 for a hour lesson because i'll take it and as long as i can get the makeup they use on me, i'd be willing to buy them lol. my goodness, i feel like a girl just talking out going to the MAC store for makeup and learning to put on makeup lol.

Simple, Delila,

I want to be able to walk around as Kaz, but I don't want hassle and danger... I want to be accepted... women can wear what they want when they want and society accepts.. men can have the wrong tie on and your career is down the pan... OK... I don't believe this, it was provocative... but at the heart of this is the need to feel accepted... and to be 'free to be me'....

I am sat here as Kaz... OK no make-up or hair... and will set off for work soon... I will need to change into drab... wouldn't it be great to just be able to wear what feels best to me... especially as we are having a heat wave... skirts and sun-dresses rock!

Please let me know how your trip to Vegas goes as I'll be going there in September and want to go OUT on the town.

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Originally Posted by Sue

But to change an old saying, I wouldn't want to be a member of an organization that won't have me. If I went to the group to be a member and someone said "He dresses in woman's clothes" and then they don't offer me membership, they just did me a favor. I don't want to socialize with them anyway.

The same for friends as they wouldn't really be my friends if they rejected me for this. And I emphatically say very much so for the dating pool. We talk about telling before marriage or talk about relationship issues, so a potential partner rejecting me early would probably be a relief (although painful). Better earlier than later.

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good point, but still... fear is a strong emotion.

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Originally Posted by Delila

I doubt Rosa Parks was thinking about the comfort of the others on that bus when she sat where she wanted.

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The real Rosa Parks story is even more interesting. She was sitting on the bus, all alone in the row behind the "whites only" sign. The white section ahead of her was full, but there was a vacant seat next to her in the black section. A white man got on, and the bus driver moved the sign back, expanding the white section so the man could sit down. The driver told Ms Parks to get up and stand in the reduced black section, which had no remaining seats. She politely
refused. The driver left the route and drove instead to the police station, where Ms Parks was arrested for disturbing the peace. She was convicted, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr & al. led the Montgomery Bus Boycott in protest, several protesters were killed, and Montgomery AL eventually desegregated seating on public buses.

The world changed for the better!

For me personally going out in public dressed is both a thrill and a challenge. The fears I have are within me. And it is up to me to conqure those fears. On my last outing, I was put into a situtation where I was forced to deal with the general public complete with stares and total interaction (my car broke down and I had to try and make repairs completly dressed). Although the day was a complete disaster I did find that just about everyone who stopped to assist had to give me my props that this "woman" knew about cars and could get in there with the best backyard mechanics. (thanks dad for hauling me into the garage.)
I am selective of where I go when near home (to keep family who don't know out of my loop) but outside of that area I know now that I can go out dressed with full confidence and no longer worry about what people are thinking.

Thank you Karren, that's what I've been trying to say for years! I belong to a club, where I am one of the younger members, and I'm 68, you can believe, most of the club would not be comfortable knowing about my other "hobby", and my wife is the reason I joined this club, so why would I want them to know.
Around town, if it was known, it could affect my son, his wife, and my grandkids as well as my wifes job, small town gossip you know. To get far enough away from here to feel safe dressing out in public, is about a two hundred mile drive each way, everything in betweenn is even smaller than my town, and have no place for people like me, I'll pass on a bar full of loggers, rednecks, and hunters thank you. There is a town that is fairly accepting, just 11 miles away, but to many of the family are well known there too. So for the family, and my peace of mind, I'll just stay here in my closet, dress when I can, and enjoy the freedom to dress that I do have.
Tina B.

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Originally Posted by Noel Chimes

The fear we have of dressing in public is somewhat real. You can read in the papers or on the news of attacks on transgendered women and cross dressers. Plus the fact that " BIG BROTHER" is everywhere now. Video cameras are all over the place and you never know who's watching. I mean how would you feel if you were out one evening just having a grand time, and walk into work the next day to find a pic of you all dolled up on your desk? Harassment Defineately. Embarassing? Yes.
All we ask for is to be who we are just like anyone else. Cross dressers and transgendered are people too.

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I would feel gratified that my badge still worked to get me through security and up to the desk that was still mine! I know that sounds cheeky but truthfully work is the one area that I and my wife really worry about. Unless I involved the company name outside of work I would have a leg to stand on to argue at least legally.

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Originally Posted by ReineD

Edit BTW, my SO and I have been out in public for years (she's out on average twice per week) and we go everywhere: coffee shops, restaurants, galleries, movies, shopping ... but in the next town over, not in our own town. She does not want to deal with her peers at work knowing and I don't blame her. And there are some people in my life and her life that we don't want to disclose this to.

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Reine sums up succinctly very much how I feel. I would not want to put my wife or family in a compromising position through my actions.

I hold with much of what you say though, tolerance is as good as acceptance, and that is all we can ask for. Let me be, I'm not infringing on anyone's life by my choice of clothing.

Rebecca x

I volunteered at a national convention held here in Houston a year or so back, handing out programs & bags to those who had pre-registered. Dress code for volunteers was convention t-shirt & khaki pants or skirt. So, I kept the mustache & wore the skirt. Nobody batted an eye. A couple of people said things like "I see you're following the dress code!". I encountered a few fellow-volunteers & a few exhibitors I knew. This was a museum convention, so a pretty artsy crowd.

Yes, there are all the fears about being fired from a job, or worry about being assulted, or even that fear of being seen by a close friend or work associate but.... I think the real issue that has use so afrad to step out in our "finest femineinty" is all the social taboo we have all grown up with about "Boy's dont dress like sissies!" Or, "Dresses are for girls, and Boys are suppose to be the strong ones"

After so much mental bombardment on one's brain, it is no wonder we are shy about showing others the real inner person. But, Yet we still do, I think that is a huge testimate to how strong a mental connection we have with the female gender as Crossdressers.

H Delila, I think it's the thought of being putdown and getting hurt feelings.