View On Black
You see a lot of both on Kansas City's Country Club Plaza, THE upscale shopping and dining district for this little backwoods outpost on the edge of the Great Plains.
This photo was taken after I had dropped by the Fall Harvest conference up the street, a TG event that returned to KC after a long absence. I had an interesting conversation there with a post-op woman who was a big part of the event back in the early 1990's. I mentioned how I had dreamed at the time of getting to attend one of these events, and felt if I could ever do that just once, I could be content. Doing something like that just seemed so daunting at the time. Enjoying an evening out in the ritzy Plaza district was not even on the radar, totally impossible it seemed.
Well fast-forward about 15 years. The TG event was nice, and I'm glad I dropped by for a while. The person who organized the event put her heart and soul into it and did a fabulous job. And it appeared that all who attended were enjoying themselves. These events truly are a great way to take that first step out and to build one's confidence and I would encourage anyone wanting to take that first step out to attend one. I have little doubt if I had taken that route in the mid 90's I would not have spent another 7 or so years in the closet.
That said, I know the road I ended up taking made me more independent and self-confident. I had a lot of fun going out to dinner with friends in Westport before the event and having drinks and window shopping on the Plaza after I left it. The big event I had dreamed of so many years before, well not so much. Pretty ironic.
Animal rights activists don't fret, the fur is faux (as is the girl unfortunately).
