I am not one to tell anyone what to do and we each have to look at our own circumstances and situation regarding coming out, going out, etc. I am trans*, that is who I am, and my days of trying to hide from that fact are over therefore I am steadily increasing my real world time! My overall experience being out and about has been positive. In fact better than positive because I have had nice things happen to me that never would have happened to my drab self! To that end, I am going to tell you about last night.
My friend Melissa Rose and I had talked about seeing a show which is something we do on a semi regular basis. We decided to see the traveling production of “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.” Now if you don’t know anything about this show it is basically the story of three drag queens traveling across the Australian desert in a bus named Priscilla. It was a movie, two actually, that was made into this Broadway musical. We ended up discussing this with some other friends and in the end Melissa Rose, AllieSF, Rachaelsloane, Suzanne F and her SO, and myself all decided to go. We met up for a lovely drinks and dinner at a nearby restaurant. After a delicious meal we divided the bill and kudos to the waiter for very clearly referring to the two credit card payers as “Ms.” instead of using the gender id from the card.
We strolled around the corner to the theater and enjoyed the show which was full of high energy music and dance numbers. (Worth checking out.) One funny thing is the show is very “gay!” It is about three drag queens for crying out loud, so what would people expect?It was funny because there were some people in the audience that were clearly uncomfortable. At the beginning, one of the queens says something like “and what man doesn’t love to wear sequins” or something like that. There was a very uptight couple sitting in front of us and his hand shot up at this line. They left at intermission and buh-bye!
So at the end of the show we all decide to stroll over to the very upscale hotel bar down the block. The bar is fairly crowded with theater goers who had the same idea, etc. As we settle in we start to notice cast and crew from Priscilla are coming in. I don’t know who initiated the contact but a very handsome actor in the show comes over and we start to chat about the show. He brings over some other cast members, others come and go, and basically we are having a rolling conversation about the show, acting, different places around the country, etc. There was even some educating about being trans* but basically this was like being swept into the cast party. This made the evening even that much enjoyable.
It is pretty clear that the fact that we were a table of mostly trans* identifying women was the reason that we were “selected” and none of the many other cis folks in the bar were. Are we different? Yes, but sometimes difference is a positive thing. In fact it usually is. If you want to be part of the crowd, or in a lot of our cases can’t be part of the crowd, you might as well enjoy the hell out of what sets you apart!
I hope my co-conspirators will fill in details that I missed!
Debby
Originally Posted by Debglam
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