I live in Vancouver, BC. My other home is Seattle, WA. In both places, I feel safe. I walk about dressed as I please. I get some dirty looks, but I'm lucky to be in such a progressive, accepting city, right? ...maybe.
My aunt died last night, and for the week leading up to her death, I was hanging around with my family, supporting them through the process as well as I could. She lived in a small suburb of a small suburb an hour's drive from Portland, OR. This is the first time that I've spent any significant amount of time outside of my progressive and accepting havens since coming out.
When I packed, I had no idea what I was doing. I thought I was going down for two days, three tops. I picked out a couple of cute outfits (my aunt's boyfriend likes to cross dress, which she loved, and I'd be coming out to her) but nothing over the top 'cause I was just going to be hanging around with family. Raised in Seattle and living in Vancouver, I generally think of myself as an amateur, casual, hobbyist fan of fashion, in cities known for socks and sandals, and all-day yoga pants. So, when I picked out my outfits, I was aiming for cute-but-casual. FAIL!
It turns out that my idea of "cute-but-casual" is "the hottest thing that Warrenton, OR has ever seen." So that cracked me up a bunch -- I always feel like a total n00b! Funny thing about a small town... they all look at eachother! I'm so used to cities where every individual does their best to ignore the world around them... small-towners are really in the moment. Almost everybody gave me a big smile; I could tell that I was getting clocked, but they were super nice anyway! A couple of skeezy guys were skeezy, but that was the worst of it.
When I finally made it home... gosh. Y'know, I really do get a lot of dirty looks from people. People frown at me, look at me with disdain and disgust... and these are my "accepting, progressive" peeps. Live and learn!
Also, I just got a new pair of glasses. And I got my ears pierced. And for the first time ever, a woman said "she" regarding me without hesitation! I didn't bother to correct her, of course, just as I rarely correct people's use of "he."
