Real Life Test
No I’m not travelling along a TS route to SRS, but I think the title of this post is equally valid for what I’m about to put before you.
You know how it is, sometimes you think about telling friends about your ‘other’ side, and you run through all possible permutations of what you think their reaction might be.
Well, I had the opportunity to do this by proxy with two friends I’d already decided didn’t need to know - they’re friends, but not that close.
We were together in a rural pub, sat at the bar chatting. At least one of my friends (call him P) and I were, the other (call him S) was attending to personal needs.
Then I spotted ‘her’, she walked in and went to the other side of the bar, round a corner and out of site - I thought, “Wow, you’re brave”. She would have been read quite easily, although dressed in everyday clothes. My friend and I continued chatting.
Next thing I know, she’s stood at the side of me at the bar, I have my back to her, and she’s saying to my friend, “Don’t worry, I don’t bite.”. My friend paused, and then blanked her, carried on talking to me. She moves away, goes back to her seat.
Later, when S is sat next to me at a table, he points and says, “Is that a man?”. “Yup”, I say. He didn’t seem too impressed. P then says, “I don’t know what you’d call it. The hair, clothes and makeup are definitely ‘woman’, but the 7 O’Clock shadow and deep voice is a man.”. Then he mentions her earlier comment about not biting and said he thought of telling ‘him’ to f*ck off, because ‘he’d’ butted in on our conversation.
Obviously, I wasn’t going to jump in and say I was a transvestite, but it was interesting to be privy to their reactions. Of course, on another occasion, had I told them I may not have received the same reaction - whilst not hostile, certainly mildly disapproving.
There is more to this account, but I’m feeling paranoid so I’ll not be writing about it here. Several days later the transvestite came up in conversation with my friends and their partners and again the reaction wasn’t hostile, but neither was it encouraging. More a case of they felt the person was a bit of a joke.
But I am glad I witnessed their reactions. It does seem we have a long way to go in terms of acceptance, but at least I don’t think the public in general are that phased by us any more.
Interestingly, yesterday, a female client probably in her late fifties/early sixties asked me what I thought about the FTM transexual who’d had a baby because he’d left the reproductive organs in place. She thought it was wrong. She went on to say she had every respect for transexuals because a friend of hers had had SRS, MTF. She told me she’d witnessed the anguish and how these people really didn’t have much of a choice, and how brave they are to deal with what society throws at them. Again I kept my mouth shut.
Interesting times.