When I am presenting as a woman, I always use the restroom that matches my presentation. Usually, the ladies’ room, rarely the family room and never the men’s room.
I admit that the first few times I used the ladies room, I was a little nervous about it, but I made sure to sit to pee and I never had a problem.
Unlike the men’s room where conversations between strangers is verboten, women do not have a problem engaging a stranger in conversation in the ladies’ room.
I don’t want to push my luck, so I have never started a conversation in the ladies’ room, but I lost count how many times complete strangers have started conversations with me. Typically, the conversation starts with a compliment about something I am wearing and does not go beyond a thank-you on my part. But a few times, I have encountered chatterboxes who want to talk about everything under the Sun and I have successfully held up my end of those conversations without a problem. No one has ever run out of the restroom screaming, “There’s a man in the ladies’s room!”
I think it helps that my presentation is good enough that worst case, a stranger would be very hesitant to call me on it. And although I don’t affect a female voice, my vocabulary and mannerisms are feminine, so that complete the picture.
As I wrote above, I always use the restroom that matches my presentation, but in these times, I wonder if that is safe.
My ham radio group holds a conference in the fall in different locations in the USA and Canada. This year, Knoxville, Tennessee was selected as the site of the conference. I had nothing to do with the selection and it is probably the last place I would have selected because Tennessee is rated as the worst state in the USA regarding trans and LGBTQ rights. Under Tennessee law, I could be arrested for using the ladies’ restroom to sit to pee!
Typically, our conferences are in hotels, so if I had to go, I could always run to my room and pee there and avoid any illegal encounters in a public ladies’ room. But this year, the conference is in a convention center, two blocks away from my hotel room. At my age, I would never make it to my hotel room in time without having an accident! So I was undecided about going.
My mind was made up for me because last week, my group cancelled the conference for logistical reasons. It’s a long story that I won’t get into here, but the decision to cancel had nothing to do with trans and LGBTQ rights.
That was a close call. It could have been a real life MAGA experience, but now I wonder if I will run into similar MAGA experiences attending other conferences in other states. For example, Hamvention in Ohio, which is not exactly a bastion of trans and LGBTQ rights. Maybe my perfect record in the ladies’ room is such that I have nothing to worry about, but with laws on the books specifically aimed at me, do I want to take a chance?
Wearing Kate Spade |
Louis Mandylor femulating on television’s Down the Shore. |