you ask some good questions, and perhaps you thread title could have benefitted from having a question mark after it - that way, people will perceive it as a question rather than a statement.

Anyway, living in the UK (London), I've found that my biggest fear is with myself. I've never experienced an adverse reaction. I don't count people sniggering as adverse - I myself snigger at things/people that I see that are different. I think this is just human nature. Don't get me wrong, I hate myself for having this reaction, I mean, me, a transgendered person of all people, but then again it is (I believe) an innate reaction and in and of itself is quite harmless. Does that stop me from feeling scared. No it doesn't. I love the fact that I am transgendered, and I wish others would respect that. My close friends do, which is the most important thing, but strangers just look at me funny when it the realisation dawns on them - i.e. they think "hang on, that's a guy with big hoop earrings in", "that's a guy with long fingernails" etc etc. It's surprising how little this actually happens though - people generally just don't notice and are too wrapped up in themselves to pay any attention to a complete stranger.

I think what I'm trying to say (in a long-winded manner) is that people by and large just don't care. For all the negative press about life in the UK recently, it is pretty much a reasonable place to live. I live in South London (an area which has suffered lately with so many reported knife crimes), and I have never been attacked, or abused. I'm sure people who realise what I am may well think that I'm weird, but that really doesn't bother me to the extent of stopping me from displaying what I like to call "my little signifiers". When I walk past people, they either just glance at me or don't even notice me at all.

And I think this is the crux of the matter. Us transgendered people are suceptible to being so self-conscious that we can become paranoid and think that the world revolves around us. That everyone is looking at us and judging us. It really isn't this way. Sure, a few sniggers add weight to this idea, but as far as violence is concerned, I've never ever been subjected to that.