In the start of January 2001, I have made two trips en-femme. The first was to the same nail salon that I have gone to 4-6 times, but in the past always totally male. As we were talking, I mentioned 'my wife', which I realized very quickly was incongruous with my feminine presentation, but there was no reaction. In other words, the woman who was working on me had already recognized me as a guy (I'm guessing) and I was simply one of her customers.
The second trip was to do some shopping and I took the bus both directions. As I was approaching the bus stop in town, I saw that there were 3-4 black guys there and I remember thinking to myself 'This could be interesting. How is this going to be?' After I got there, one of the guys got up and said 'Would you like a seat, ma'am?' (A big internal sigh of relief!) I smiled, said (in an unaltered voice) 'Thank you', and sat down.
By the way, may voice is high for a man, so it's not as obvious as if I had a very deep bass voice, but I never alter it in any way, so it may still be apparent that I am a guy. I really don't care.
In mid February, I went to the movies by myself. I stopped by Radio Shack on the way home. As the sales lady approached me from the side, she said "Can I help you ma'am?". Then after I turned to her, she said, "Oh, I'm sorry, sir, or whatever." I just shrugged my shoulders and said "Whatever" and we both giggled. Then she helped me as she would anyone else.
I have noticed that these trips out are every 2-4 weeks. We'll see what happens.
Not much really happened for Darlene in the spring and summer of 2001. I do recall seeing several places that dressing as a woman can cycle, so that is I'm sure what was happening here.
In November 2001, I wrote an article for the church's twice a month newsletter. Since then, several people have talked with me, and all have been very supportive.
In December 2001, I went to my first church service as Darlene. My wife and I both sing in the choir, but my wife wanted both of us to sit in the congregation this first time, so I sat with her in the congregation. One person said that she couldn't call me Darlene because she's too used to the other (my male self - she's known me as Dave for over 25 years!) It was also funny when I said hi to another woman (also a longtime member) who asked me my name! As soon as I said 'Darlene' she said 'Oh yes, I see that, now.'
We had a visit in February 2002 of someone from the national office who has done a lot of work recently on TG issues. It was very good. There were about 45 of us there, but only 2 of us TG (myself and a sister from the TG support group). The sister was angry afterwords because nobody had a clue about TG - the conference foucesed on gay and lesbian but the words included Bisexual and Transgendered. And while about 12 people had spoken with her about her doing a presentation, she wasn't able to. Oh, well; hopefully we'll be able to follow up on that.
I have gone to a number of church services as Darlene - I usually go as Dave but Darlene is common enough as well. There was one woman who said that she had seen me as Darlene singing in the choir, and that how other people accepted me helped her know that she was in the right church. Boy, that was nice to hear!
Well, that's about it for now.
This page last updated 1 February 2004
URL: http://www.geocities.com/darlene_20832/bio2001.html