I had the very great pleasure on Thursday of last week of meeting up with a number of local trans people - some crossdressers, some in transition at a local bar called Vernon's here in Dallas. This is basically a straight bar. Apparently this has been going on for several years, although this was the first time I'd ever attended it. (I'd attended one other group event of the Dallas Feminine Expressions meetup group last year - but it was at Sue Ellen's, a lesbian bar.)
I went to hand out cards for the trans organization I volunteer for, and to let the ladies in the meetup know they were welcome to attend our events. But I ended up staying for the whole thing because I had a very lovely time talking with all the ladies there. The folks in the bar were great, the staff was great - it was all quite wonderful, really.
One of the things that I noticed was that all of us who were in transition tended to have several of the crossdressers sort of clustered around us, talking with us. Perhaps this was just my imagination, but my roommate noticed it as well. I sort of got the impression that some of them had thought about, or were thinking about, transition. Who knows whether or not any of them ever will, but I was glad I'd passed out my cards. You never know, I guess.
It also dawned on me that I'd never actually ventured out in public, or ever actually fully presented as female, until I came out to myself as a woman. This was only a few months prior to my transition. I was kind of envious that some of them had been doing this for years. I wish I'd done some of this in years past. I never did though. So for me, this was a pleasant enough evening - I met some really fun people, but I do a fair number of social things, and for me it was just meeting other people at a bar. I really had the impression that it was a lot more than that for the crossdressers in attendance - that some of them really needed that evening to express this part of themselves. (There was one girl there who was out for the first time.)
I really noticed it at the end, as people started to leave. For me, it was just the end of the evening. No big deal. So many of the others though looked so sad, as they left, contemplating going back to their everyday lives as men. I felt bad for them. I could relate to those feelings, at least I could pre-transition.
I am going to start inviting the group to more of my trans support group's events. I know most of them will never transition, and honestly, I think our events may be sort of tame for some of their tastes. Still, I don't suppose it hurts to be neighborly? What do y'all think?