Today, I have made a large step forward in being comfortable with Pamela being dressed as he wants wherever he wants.
Recently, Pamela has been experimenting with wearing nail varnish, and really likes it. Following on from that, Pamela now wants to wear nail varnish everywhere, but I have drawn the line at the gym because I have been very worried about how the people there would take it. Would they laugh? Would they stop talking to us? Would they be rude?
We go to the local gym together, and have been turning up together for long enough that all the staff and quite a few of the gym members know that we are a couple. He has worn nail varnish there before, but it was a very pale pink and not really visible unless you were looking hard. That was ok, and the receptionist was so distracted that she didn't even notice when we handed over our membership cards.
This morning Pamela was wearing some really bright, hot pink nail varnish. Given that taking it off wasn't an option, we just had to go with it. The receptionist didn't bat an eyelid, but she did give Pamela an extra large smile.
When I got round to the same area of the gym as Pamela, he was doing dips while I was on the rowing machine. A couple came in, and got on to the bikes nearby. I was watching them in the mirrors, and very quickly the lady noticed the nails. She looked, and looked away, then looked again. She couldn't stop bringing her gaze back to Pamela's nails, no matter what else was going on around her.
Soon enough, Pamela moved on from that area to do some floor exercises, and this couple (not realising that we were together or that I could see them) had a good giggle behind his back. They didn't know him, he didn't know them, and I realised suddenly that it really didn't matter. He'd probably given them something to talk about for five minutes, and then it would have been forgotten.
After that, a very wicked little thought popped into my head. I wondered what it would be like to just go up to them and ask them if they had any problem with my husband wearing nail varnish. I wondered then if I should just go on to explain to them that actually I liked him wearing it because it satisfied my bi side...! THEN they would have something to talk about! (Actually, I don't have a bi side, but that is completely beside the point).
I have a thread on this site to be very grateful for in helping me with this, too, which was the one about shaving legs. For me, it summed up to this:
"Do you shave your legs?"
"Yes"
"Why?"
"Because I like it"
End of story.