Caution, Politics Ahead!
I try to stay away from politics when I write my posts for Stuff, but I’m afraid I can’t write around it for today’s comments. From the title you can probably tell that I live in what’s known as a “red state.” The state’s electoral votes went to the republicans. Our governor ran against the new guy in the primaries at times attempting to be even more extreme than the rest of them. He even picked a fight with Disney. So the general atmosphere of this state is very “conservative.”
But I live in the central part of the state and there are a lot of residents that are from more progressive parts of the country. In addition, there is a huge theme park industry that drives the tourism business in this state. The theme parks employ a lot of people in the area with estimates of over 100,000 currently. And that doesn’t count the ancillary businesses that exist to service the theme parks and the people who come to visit them. So you would expect this would be a welcoming space.
How Welcoming?
Good question. I know a lot of “T” people who are afraid to come to my state because of what they perceive as a hostile environment. I certainly understand their concern. But I’m not sure that’s true of my blue island. The theme parks actively encourage those in the LGBTQ+ to work for them. They don’t discriminate against those of us who are part of that universe. Additionally, the municipalities in the area post on social media regularly about their outreach programs and how they educate their people to deal respectfully with our community.
Having said that, let me turn to a more personal perspective. Readers of Femulate have had the benefit (?) of following my Stuff since July 2023 and this is installment number 61 of Stuff. Over the course of that time, you may have read about my joining a local CD group. My first scary steps out of the house. Making friends with others and becoming more active in the club. This year, I’m vice president of my CD group. I tell you all of this so you’ll understand why I’m writing today.
Are We Changing?
Part of my duties as VP is to grow the club. No, not to convince other guys to try dressing as women. To attract new members to come out of their closet even in a scary environment. For our members, we want to encourage participation in events that get us out of the house.
How do I do that and what changes should we make in light of a changing environment? A really good question that I don’t know the answer to. For now, we are continuing our usual schedule of monthly meetings. We’re meeting in our private, secure clubhouse location four times a year. We don’t think we need to change that.
But what about the other eight times? We schedule those as Girls’ Nights Out (GNO), which are held at local restaurants. We know from experience that certain restaurants welcome us, so we revisit them. But we also want to expand our options, not retreat to the safety of our known world – a delicate proposition, even in this blue island these days.
How Are You Coping?
I’d love to hear how people are dealing with changing conditions in their area. Looking for new ideas as well as those tried and true ones. I also wonder how many of us are increasing our contributions to organizations that fight for the freedom of everybody.
I’ll Be Back
There will be more Stuff from the blue island. As always 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 if there is something you would like to read about please let me know!
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| Wearing Cynthia Rowley |
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| Gene Hackman femulating in the film The Birdcage. Mr. Hackman was one of my favorite actors and I was sad to learn of his recent death. God bless you, Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle. |
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