Houston LGBTs to celebrate anniversary of repeal of ordinance banning cross-dressing
Posted on 04 Aug 2010 at 5:48pm
http://www.dallasvoice.com/houston-lgbts-celebrate-anniversary-repeal-ordinance-banning-crossdressing-1037391.html (http://www.dallasvoice.com/houston-lgbts-celebrate-anniversary-repeal-ordinance-banning-crossdressing-1037391.html)
Back when I was in junior high school — the early to mid 1970s — our school had a dress code that prohibited girls from wearing pants with rear pockets. See, pants that had pockets on the back were "boy" pants, and girls weren't allowed to wear "boy" pants.
Having always been a jeans kind of gal myself, I broke that rule often. And I got in trouble for it more than once.
But obviously, my rural, smalltown junior high school wasn't the only place that had such rules. Most cities had ordinances that prohibited cross-dressing. My old friend, the late Joe Elliott, told me that in the '60s when she was a dyke about town, the butch lesbians always had to be careful not to dress too masculine in public, or they would be arrested. And I have heard drag queens talk about how they had to make sure to wear men's underwear under their dresses to avoid arrest.
Being a native New Yorker, all I can say is, wow.
In SF we're happy if people aren't wearing fleece to the opera.