I grew up in the DWF area, so I can tell you a bit about it.
Surprisingly, Dallas is thought to have one of the largest gay communities outside San Francisco. The concentration is close to the inner city, in the Ceder Springs area. It pretty much stems from the seldom spoken cooperative relationship between the wealth and the gay. As I understand it, it started with wealthy men preferring to have servants minding their wives needs who wouldn't be inclined to overserve, so to speak. Anyway, there are plenty of gay people/events/clubs in Dallas and many/most are pretty TG friendly. Shopping in the urban areas shouldn't be a problem. While TG people are not any more visible than most places, I think most buinesses in the area are pretty OK with TG.
Plano is a suburb to the immediate north of Dallas on Central Expressway. The area pretty much mergest with northern Dallas. It's more like 8 miles north of Downtown Dallas.
While Texas seems to make the news now and then about idiotic school dress codes and such, I think you'll find the Dallas area very agreeable as a TG. There's an aweful lot of shopping and cultural things going on and, while the politics of the area tends be dominated by conservatives, there are plenty of folks of every idology. The Dallas area is a huge area with a large TG community and I think you'll be OK.
Lyric