RANSVESTIA

I was not very apprehensive. The lobby was crowed with people who appeared to pay me no particular 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..

Almost 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 summoned me from the theater told me that he was a policeman and asked my name. Knowing that I was totally trapped, I told him. As though dis- pelling any lingering doubts, he then asked if I was a man. I told him that I was a man, not homosexual, and that I was a trans- vestite. As I sat there experiencing the greatest shame and hu- miliation I had ever known, I thought that I would also lose self control of myself completely. I remember feeling light- headed and found it extremely difficult to breathe. My heart was pounding so hard I was actually afraid it would rupture.

I managed to ask, with the sound of begging in my voice, if there was anything he could do to allow me to leave. He said that a complaint had been made and that he had no alternative but to take me to police headquarters.

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 theater. Once there, I was turned over to a uniformed patrolman who had his marked police car, with all lights flashing, waiting outside. The patrolman told me to put my hands behind my back and snapped handcuffs around my wrists. They were so tightly applied I could see marks from them several days afterward. As I was led to the car, the plainclothed policeman made a comment causing the crowd, which by this time, had gathered both inside and outside the

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