My First Flight

In a recent article I talked about one of my adventures flying en femme. My first experience at flying that way was in April, 1997 when I went to my first TG convention out in Long Beach, California.

Brenda, my lovely wife, drove me to the airport and waited with me. Since she is not comfortable being affectionate with me while I am dressed I had decided against flying en femme. However I did have everything I needed to complete my transformation quickly once I arrived in California. I boarded the plane and waited. At that point, the person next to me dropped his stuff off and went to the back of the plane. After several minutes, I decided to go ahead and put on my makeup. (Bear in mind, I was wearing jeans and a T-shirt with no breast forms)

After the first movie, I decided to go ahead and change clothes. I carried my bag back to the bathroom and probably took 15 minutes changing my clothes. When I came out, I overheard the stewardess saying, "I wondered what was taking her so long, she changed clothes!" The rest of the flight was uneventful and my friend Sheri Gwen picked me up at the airport and we all had a great time at the convention.

One interesting thing about the convention was that it was held on the Queen Mary (An old cruise liner now converted into a hotel in Long Beach, CA) at the same time as the annual meeting of the Titanic Historical Society. I hear that there were many serious conversations and a lot of educating. I am sure that this was the first real life look at TG-ism for many of their convention goers.

Since Brenda was going to pick me up at the airport, I once again decided that I should fly dressed as a boy. Of course, I was wearing shorts with shaved legs, long hair, large hoop earrings, long nails (no polish), and was still carrying my purse. I guess at best, my image was androgynous.

For the flight back, I was sitting next to a mother and daughter (the daughter was probably about my age) and we started talking. Since I make no effort to look like a guy, many times when I am in boy-mode, I don't know if people think I am a boy or a girl. Such was the case this time until the daughter started looking around for the "screaming baby, there is always one close by me." I replied "I have always thought that kids should only be allowed on the plane when they are of the size and shape to fit under the seat in front of you." You can imagine my pleasure when the daughter said, "I like how she thinks!"

We visited the entire flight back. I made sure I updated any gender references with regards to myself (eg. Brenda became Brandon) and everything went well. It struck me part of the way through the flight that this was my first time to interact with people who simply thought I was a normal female. I couldn't stop chattering away about husbands (had my first-ever male bashing session ;-), work, and hobbies. One very interesting thing was that my new friends had been on the Queen Mary for the Titanic convention! The fact that they had been exposed to a lot of T-people and still thought I was a girl when I was barely trying was quite intoxicating!

The daughter was concerned because her mother was becoming "forgetful." Since my next flight was near hers, I offered to make sure that she made it on the plane. The layover was pretty short, but I had nothing else to do, right?

Imagine my surprise when my PARENTS were waiting for me as I debarked! I guess I had mentioned I was flying back through Dallas, their hometown. Oops! I immediately tried to distance myself from my new friends, but that didn't work. Not only did I have my appearance to worry about (I try to look a little more like a boy in front of my parents), but now I was concerned about any conversation coming up! Sure enough, the daughter goes up to my parents and started saying "You have such a wonderful DAUGHTER, SHE told us all about ..." to which my mom didn't miss a beat and said, "Yes our SON is great, HE ..."

This may have been my most embarrassing moment so far in my life! I think I was even more embarrassed because of how my new friends felt than even how my parents felt. As we walked by them on the moving sidewalk, I just kind of shrugged and went on. Of course, even without the conversation, my parents still saw the purse, hoop earrings and shaved legs! (They always see the nails and hair). Not a word about it was said, though and as soon as we made it to my next gate, my flight was boarding. Thank goodness!

The following week I was talking to my mom, and she wanted to apologize for just showing up at the airport. (I think she suspected something might have been up). Although my dad may suspect, my mother knows about my feelings, but does not know the extent to which I express them. (I think she believes that the androgyny is as far as it goes). I will never forget what she told me that my dad said: "It may not have been what we would like our 30 year old son to look like, but I am glad we saw him and I love him." Times like that, even though they would not fully accept Danielle, I realize that I do have cool parents!