RANSVESTIA

NSVEST

shave, I donned my femme apparel-all of it, except my freshly restyled wig, was new-applied makeup and was off for an evening of excitement.

I left the motel in my car, went to a shopping center and leisurely window shopped until the starting time of a good movie I wanted to see. I purchased my ticket from a girl who seemed slightly startled to see me but, since she said nothing, I was not very apprehensive. The lobby was crowded with people who appeared to pay me no par- ticular attention. I had to wait a few minutes in the lobby before the beginning of the movie and then walked down the aisle and took a seat on a vacant row.

Amost immediately a man came to me and said, "Please come with me and bring your purse." The man was dressed in civilian clothes but strapped to his side was a pistol.

Nearly fainting with fright, I walked back up the aisle to the lobby. Before being led to a small office near the concession area, I noticed a group of people, including the ticket girl, staring at me very intently.

In the office, the man who had gotten me from the theater told me that he was a policeman and asked my name. Knowing I was totally trapped, I told him. As though dispelling any lingering doubts, he than asked if I was a man. I told him that I was a man, not homo- sexual, and that I was a transvestite. As I sat there experiencing the greatest shame and humiliation I had ever known, I thought that I would lose control of myself completely. I remember feeling lightheaded and found it extremely difficult to breathe. My heart was pouding so hard I was actually afraid it wouldd rupture.

I managed to ask, with the sound of begging in my voice, if there was anyway he could let me go. He said that a complaint had been made and that he had no alternative but to take me to police head- quarters.

Another man came to the office door and announced that the car had arrived. The policeman told me to stand and go with him to the car. I had to walk through a group of curious, giggling spectators to the door of the theatre. There, I was turned over to a uniformed patrolman who has his marked police car, with lights flashing, waiting outside. The patrolman told me to put my hands behind my back and snapped handcuffs around my wrists.