Live!

When I attended Hamvention in the past as a male (before 2010), I moderated and spoke at a number of forums. But since I have been attending as a woman, I have not presented because I was not ready to take that step in my coming out process.

This year, I was ready and gave a short presentation at my group's forum, the TAPR Forum, to encourage people to submit content for my group's quarterly publication, which I edit.

I think my presentation went well. No one hooted or threw rotten tomatoes and a couple of people even complimented me.

Even better... the forum was video-recorded and you can view it here on YouTube. (My appearance starts at the 6:39 mark and last about 2-1/2 minutes.)

I looked forward to seeing this video because I have never seen my female self "live" and I wanted to see for myself if I had feminine mannerisms.

All my life, I have been accused of being feminine. The way I walked, talked and moved were decidedly girly according to the social norms police.

I was not trying to act girly, I was just acting in a way that came naturally to me. Furthermore, I was happy with the way I acted and I was not about to change or "man up."

Anyway, after viewing the video, I have to admit that the social norms police were correct.

Wearing Mango (Source: Elle)

David Lander and Michael McKean femulating on television's Laverne and Shirley (circa 1980)