The first time I was stopped by the police as Debbie was in Colorado Springs Colorado. This is the headquarters for conservative Christian broadcasting network program "Focus on the Family" hosted by Jim Dobson. The town also has 5 military bases at at least 4 top secret government installations. Furthermore, this was 1991, so there were ZERO LGBT rights and there was even a campaign for a constitutional amendment to the Colorado constitution that would "Guarantee that homosexuals and perceived homosexuals, such as cross-dressers, would be given no special protections".
When I was pulled over, it was because a suitcase in the trunk had knocked the tail-light loose. He took my identification, insurance and registration, and spent nearly 1 hour running and recording me as an official cross-dresser. When he came back, he explained that there were many cross-dressers who committed criminal acts, and since it's not easy to match identities, I had to be compared to others matching my general description. They checked city records, state records, FBI records, and NSA records. At some point, they hit someone who checked REX's file, and said "Be very nice to him when you apologize". I know why, but it was so classified they couldn't even tell the officer why he had to be so nice.
I politely accepted the ticket, got out to look at the broken headlight, showing off my very short skirt, very long legs, 4 inch heels with ankle straps, and satin blouse, and checked the tail light. It took three seconds to move the suitcase and fix the tail light. I asked him "Do you need to give me the ticket for probable cause?". He said yes, and then made a note to the ticket that it had been fixed immediately. When I went in to pay the fine the following day, they cut it in half and eliminated all the points.
A few years later, I had to fill out a security application, and they asked about any aliases. I realized that I had been asked for my femme name, and so I had to provide all of my male nicknames and female nicknames. Rather than being rejected, they realized that if I could be transparent about that, I could probably be honest about anything else. Furthermore, they realized that I had kept it a secret for 30 years, so I could probably keep other secrets as well.
