A Screaming Catholic Transvestite
and life’s reactions to me
what blood rituals they may participate in
So I put the mask back on this time
“It’s hard to remember all the feminine things, to keep everything straight and drive, too,” Maryann says.
Sometimes she’ll check into a hotel for the weekend, in order to have the freedom to go shopping as a woman, go to a movie, have a nice dinner–as a woman. Her wife accompanied her once, but that was all. Now she goes by herself or asks another cross-dressing male to stay straight and take her to dinner. She may repay the favor by staying straight and taking the other man out, allowing him to cross-dress. The two men share a desire to look pretty in public; they are not gay, Maryann assures me. “We’re simply doing each other a favor. A cross-dresser accompanied by a man in a restaurant draws less attention.”
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A typical monthly gathering will draw 75 or 80 cross-dressed men, she says. A guest will speak on a topic of common interest–in May an electrologist discussed the permanent removal of facial hair– and members may share nonviolent self-defense tips, such as how to deal with muggers who think they are women or with teenagers who have read them as men. They can even have their wigs or hair styled at the meetings. But most of all they can talk about their lives.
