RANSVESTIA

I had another interesting experience last year. You will remember my telling you earlier about my experience at the nude encounter weekend. Well, the same psychologist is still giving them, but now can give them in Los Angeles since the law, that more than three people could not be nude in each other's presence at one time and place, has been repealed. That was a stupid law to begin with. So when I got an invitation in the mail from him one day, I decided to attend. My motive was to see how I could stand up to being nude when I had both male organs and breasts visible. We started the ses- sion by having each one get up and tell about their reasons for coming, their expectations,etc. Then the person would strip and sit down and the next one would carry on. Well, it took so long that when there were still three of us left, the psychologist said, "Why don't the other three of you strip and then we'll get on with the next phase." But I stood up and said, "Wait, I want my turn." So I told them that I had attended one of these some years before but that my life had changed and I wanted to see how I would deal with it now. While saying that, I took off my blouse and my bra and there I was with a perfectly good pair of female-type, B-cup breasts. I went on talking and took off my slacks and then my panties and there I was, the famous half man-half woman. It kind of shook them up for the moment but then we went on to the next one, etc. During the rest of the session, and in the pool later, they treated me like all the other women. After the session was over the next day we went around the group, which was now dressed again and we all did a recap on each other. When they got to me, several made some comment about me which I've now forgotten but my friend the psychologist was the most outspoken. He said, "When you came to that first session 10 years ao, you were simply a male TV but now you are so much a woman that I wish you'd get rid of those "jewels" (penis and testicles) because they bug me." I was greatly amused that he, of all people, should have said that. The rest of the people just took me for what I took my- self as a person who happened to have penis, testicles and breasts at the same time but who preferred to live as a woman. It was an in- teresting experience.

This year, too, I began to get interested in the left and right hemi- spheres of the brain and their implications for many things, but among them the feminine aspect of ourselves. I wrote a Virgin View editorial for TVia (in No. 90) about it which brought several favorable comments from readers who are psychologists themselves. This remains one of my main areas of interest and one that I expect to

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