Transvestia

After that, we went back into the house and resumed the basic encounter with another girl which was interesting to watch but I won't take space for it here. The last thing in the afternoon Paul had each of us in turn tell what we thought of the whole nude idea and experience. When I was "it" I told them how great I thought it had been for me. I broke down and bawled again when I said, "You have no idea how it feels to wait for 40 years - 40 years - to find a group of people who will love and accept you exactly as you want to be, not as you are." This thought was too much for me then and brings tears to my eyes now as I write this. It was all too overwhelming. As a generalization of the whole nude thing, however, I commented that when one takes off their clothes one peels the onion but you don't just take off clothing because with it comes a great part of the shell that each of us builds up around ourselves as the facade we want others to see. If you think about it a little you'll get a glimmering of what I mean. We all present a front that represents what we want others to see us as the image that we want others to react to and with. With most people it is very largely artificial and untrue just as our clothes are not ourselves but portray fashion, expense, taste, position, status, etc. and help determine and influence how others shall think of us. Well, there is psychosocial clothing too that is not made of cloth. But when you remove the one you largely remove the other and stand there not only in your bare skin but in a very real way in your bare self, too. It is truly a remarkable experience and one that I would highly recommend to anyone. It's really tremendous and I rank this experience as one of the deepest and most important ones of my life. If any others are interested you may write to Paul Bindrim at 2000 Cantata Drive, Los Angeles 90046. He will send you information and has told me that any TV will be welcome as either himself or “en femme” as you wish.

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But the main point of telling you all this was that it did just what I had hoped it would. For about 20 hours I was as naked as the day I was born but for those same 20 hours I was still Virginia both to myself and to all the rest. Although there could be no doubt as to my maleness (sex) nobody seemed inclined to douby my femininity (gender) and I was treated in all respects as one of the girls by men and women alike. So from that time on I knew and know that I AM Virginia and Virginia is for real. This is the end of the road in the self acceptance battle - to be able to know and maintain ones gender orientation in spite of the visible evidence of maleness. This proved in a most dramatic way that SEX AND GENDER ARE NOT THE SAME THING!

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