RANSVESTIA

my 30 years as a pilot. After several hours delay we got back into the air and continued on undaunted. The nursing and maternity pictures are included to show some of the more unusual and interesting things an FP can do.

With my strong interest in nursing it seemed quite natural to carry out this role in my public life as a woman. I occasionally dress as a nurse and eat dinner in the cafeteria of various large hospitals in the Denver area. After dining I spend a half hour or so walking all over the hospital in the areas open to visitors. Sometimes while eating or riding in the elevator I will be drawn into conversation with other nurses and doctors and I find this intensely satisfying to be accepted as one of them. I visualize myself as a private duty nurse visiting the hospital. No one has ever questioned my identity and no problems have ever arisen. Hospitals are very sensitive about photographs and so I went to the director of one large suburban hospital and asked permission to take a few photos of myself for a story I was preparing for a girls group, showing typical scenes of a nurse on duty. He agreed and the three photos shown are part of a series of 9 that were taken. I live out this rather unusual role because I am comfortable as a nurse in the hospital environment and enjoy it. But I would caution others that in order to do so with confidence and safety requires considerable knowledge of what nurses do on duty, details of hospital routine, and strict atten- tion to even minor items such as the correct wearing of the cap and RN pin.

As a result of my life-long interest in the maternal aspects of womanhood I developed a form to wear under maternity clothes. A separate form is used to simulate the seventh, eighth and ninth months, each of which is of the correct configuration and weight to realistically portray that stage of pregnancy. The effect of the weight and the resulting bodily unbalance is rather amazing and in a very short time I find myself walking and moving in the characteristic manner of a pregnant woman. I usually arranged to carry out this role in three successive months. Beginning with the simulated seventh month I made the rounds of maternity and baby shops, making minor purchases in each and indulging in the usual conversation about babies. Each month I returned and the shop people would often remember me and chat with me. All of this was carefully arranged to avoid the places I usually frequent as Maureen and I used a complete- ly different area of the city for each separate three-month period of simulated pregnancy. Once I was able to schedule a three-month period to culminate in a week when my family was out of town, allow-

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