For those who haven't been out fully dressed in public yet cuz they're "scared" to...

[AlyssaJ]

Well challenge accepted and answered! Laurababe, your post could have come at a more opportune time. I'm back on the road for a 3 day business trip. For the first time ever (and at my wife's suggestion - oh hell yeah she did) I brought both male and female clothing. As we discussed in another thread, I recently got my first pair of capri leggings and a sports bra so you know from how that thread went that those came with me.

Before I left my wife had planted the seed of "well how girly do your leggings look. Could you get away with them in the gym?" Well after reading your post tonight, I said f it, time for the word to meet me with all my gender queerness for the first time. I just got back from a 60 minute workout in the hotel gym. I wore my leggings with a women's thong underneath. My male ankle socks. A pair Nike runner's that are on the narrow side and grey with a supposedly orange trip that I've always thought looked more like a pink than an orange. Up top I wore my sports bra underneath a male sleeveless shirt with a tight mesh back. While you couldn't see the sports bra through the mesh, you could see the outline all across my back. Especially the tell-tail "wings" where it cuts under my shoulder blades. In other words, if you took any time to really look at me from behind, you'd know I was wearing it. Ultimately from the waist down, especially with my shaved legs and pretty shapely butt I must say, I looked female. My torso was pretty androgynous, and from my shoulders up unmistakably male.

I passed a few people in the hall, shared the elevator with a few more. There were two guys in the gym when got there. One finished his strength training workout and left about halfway through my 60 minute run on the treadmill. The other was there almost the whole time I was and left only moments before I wrapped up. So I know this will be shocking, but no one made a single comment, no one said anything to me other than hi and have a nice workout (when I got out of the elevator). So as you'd have expected, a total non-issue.

The fact of all this is, I'm in a hotel where many people who will be attending the same gathering I'm going to are also staying. I will be very publicly visible at that gathering so I knew going in there was a very good chance I'd encounter someone while dressed this way that I may see again in the next two days. However, it came down to me just saying "Enough is enough, it's time for me to come out and stop hiding from the world". I now know I'm gender queer, I have put my marriage in upheaval as a result, why should I let the rest of the world control me and my ability to express myself as I see fit. So I did it. Between your challenge and some encouragement from my wife (still very unexpected given her troubles with my gender identity) I finally built up enough motivation to rip off at least a little band-aid.

I realize for many of you who go out fully femme, this is a "baby step". Sure, but that was one GIANT baby let me tell you. For me this is so much bigger than just being seen in public in women's clothing. It's the first time I've acknowledged publicly that I am a non-binary gender and it was my announcement to the world that I'm not going to hold myself captive anymore. And it's only the first step. Hopefully this is the beginning of a snowball that will lead to my freedom of gender expression.