Summer of ’84, the ARRL sent me to Metairie, Louisiana, to speak at a ham radio convention. My wife came along, not to hear me speak, but to visit the world’s fair, which was next door in New Orleans.
Their presentations were convincing, but seemed out of place on that very hot and very humid summer day in the city of New Orleans. In retrospect, they were probably like so many of us – dressed to kill for that one day out en femme that they had been planning for weeks – the weather be damned.
I mention this sighting because it was the first time I had ever seen femulators out and about among the civilians. Until then, the only femulators I had seen were in books, magazines, films and television shows – never in the flesh.
Needless to say, I was impressed and a little jealous. My four public forays en femme were under the protection of Halloween. I never dreamed I would femulate in public on a day that didn’t close out the month of October. Yet, a few years later, I attended my first support group meeting en femme (see photo) and the rest is herstory.
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| Wearing SheIn |
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| John D. Collins and Nicholas Frankau femulating on British televison’s ’Allo ’Allo. |