Let’s Go Out!
In many of my Stuff writings I mention being out in public. I get out about once a month, usually with my local CD group. Some of our meetings are in a secure club house, but other meetings are typically a Girls’ Night Out (GNO) in an accepting restaurant. A few of us have gone out to playhouses to see a show and mingle with the general public.
Picking a Venue
You might be wondering how the group decides where to go for their public outings. Especially since not everybody in the general public appreciates our open gender expression. I’m Vice President of our group and together with the President and other interested members, we talk about assorted venues for our GNO events.
The group has some favorite spots: places that we’ve been to before and know that we are welcome. Still, we are always looking for new spots which then presents the burden of being sure that they will be welcoming to our group. Sure, just about all venues want new customers, but will our group fit in? I guess our concern is will the regular patrons of the place accept us? Or at least tolerate us?
Yes, it’s unfortunate that we still have to be concerned about acceptance, but it’s a fact of life. We live in a fairly “blue” island in a “red” state so we have many options. Still, we are careful in expanding our footprint.
Supporting the Community
One of our criteria is that a potential new GNO venue is accepting of the LGBTQ+ community. If you do a Google search for restaurants nearby you’ll get a huge number to sort through. Selecting one of them will bring up more information and typically, this includes a notation that they are LGBTQ+ -owned or -friendly. That’s a great start.
We do further research about their menu, price and location. Our group prefers more mid-priced restaurants. Fancy places are good for some, but out of reach for others. Location is also important. Our members cover a large area of the state and for some of them, a long drive to the meeting site could be an issue.
Once we’ve identified a potential new GNO site it’s time to see how receptive they are. In some cases, one of us may visit the location in guy mode to try it out. In other cases, we simply call or email them with a frank explanation that we are a group of crossdressers who are interested in trying their restaurant and asking if that would be an issue for them. Almost always the answer is positive and we put it on the list for a future meeting location.
I’ll Be Back
I’ll be back with more Stuff in the next installment. Comments are welcome either here on the blog or by email to Jenn6nov at-sign gmail dot com. JJ is always looking for more stuff so let me know what you would like to read about.
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Wearing Pyramid Collection |
It is a bit easier nowadays finding women that are into crossdressers which is good. My experience has taught me that some mature women tend to be more open to being with a crossdresser which I do find somewhat surprising of the younger generation. I wonder what others have experienced/think ?
ReplyDeleteI have never been part of a group. I attended one TG-related group. There were people at various stages of transitioning in the room. But it was all transgender-related. I was just a crossdresser. I did not feel like I was a good fit there.
ReplyDeleteSo, any going-out that I have done was to local places in my quite "red" community. For you non-Americans, I mean that I live in a rather far-right-leaning political community. Where I live is rather highly populated. I can drive 30-45 minutes and be in a place where I will not very likely run into someone who knows me. I have basically been alone on all of my outings. There are places where I have grown to know people who work at the destinations I have gone to. I'm social like that.
In my experience, going to the grocery store is a great outing. I have something meaningful to be doing with myself, and I encounter people from the public as we shop the aisles together.
I would LOVE to do some volunteer work while dressed pretty.
Joey
I love the Pyramid outfit that the girl is wearing. She is all together lovely. Perfect for fall. Wish I could pull that off. Regards, Randi
ReplyDeleteHi Randi, I agree! That would be the perfect outfit to wear on an autumn afternoon at a winery🍷
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