Setting aside for the moment that I don’t really like the term “crossdresser,” I’d like to set something straight about crossdressing. It’s about gender expression, people – gender identity. It is not about sexual orientation or sexuality. I know in most people’s minds, they have very fixed concepts that all relationships are butch-femme (opposites attract and all that), but that’s just a myth. Even if it’s true in many cases, it is certainly not in all. Just like men might like other men or women, the same goes for crossdressers.
I’ve had roughly equal numbers of people say to me that most/all crossdressers are gay and that most/all crossdressers are straight, but I think the majority of mainstream somehow equates crossdressing with homosexuality – this is because both are digressions from the heteronormative standards (and in line with the deeper misogyny and power structures of our culture). I can assure you, though, that not all crossdressers are gay (some are, some aren’t), so just check your presumptions at the door.
p.s. I am talking about male-born crossdressers here. Although I am a big fan of drag kings, women wearing pants and little/no makeup hardly registers in the modern U.S. of A. (thanks to the hard work of 20th century feminists), but get a male-born person in a skirt and makeup and you’re guaranteed to ruffle some feathers.
