Significant Other

More Supportive

Anne Vitale PhD, Editor
Notes on Gender Role Transition
By Julie Freeman

June 8, 2009

Editor's Note: Ms Freeman is the long time wife of a crossdresser. Her column "A Significant Other View" appears regularly in Devil Woman. She has given permission to reprint what follows.

Helping to Make Your SO More Supportive

A friend of mine whom I correspond with on a fairly regular basis asked me what could crossdressers do to make their significant others more supportive. As we all know, there are some significant others who are accepting from the very beginning and have little problem with crossdressing or even transsexualism. But then there is the other extreme – wives and partners who cannot tolerate the idea of a husband who desires to crossdress. It is very difficult to reach this latter group as their minds are already made up to resist any action on the part of their husband, support group, helping professional, or even other wives to become supportive or at the very least try to learn...
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The Non-Supportive Wife

Notes on Gender Role Transition
Anne Vitale Ph.D. Editor
A Significant Other View
by Julie Freeman

This article is reprinted with permission from DEVIL WOMAN, the Diablo Valley Girls newsletter. Ms Freeman is the wife of a crossdresser. She can be reached at Julie39@comcast.net

The Non-Supportive Wife

Posted Jan 14, 2014

Recently, I wrote about some significant others who wrote to me about their husbands who they believed were crossdressers. These were wives who were genuinely concerned about their husbands and wanted to understand what was going on. But for many reasons the husbands refused to talk to their wives about their crossdressing. I asked my on-line support group members for their opinions as to the reluctance of these husbands and those who responded to me thought it was quite common as a first reaction when being confronted for crossdressers to deny they crossdressed simply because they were afraid of what might result.

Some mentioned that it was only when their husbands were a...
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Proper Perspective

Notes on Gender Role Transition
Anne Vitale Ph.D. Editor
A Significant Other View
by Julie Freeman

This article is reprinted with permission from DEVIL WOMAN, the Diablo Valley Girls newsletter. Ms Freeman is the wife of a crossdresser. She can be reached at Julie39@comcast.net

Proper Perspective

After reading e-mail after e-mail from disgruntled and upset significant others, it is ironic that at this particular time, there has been a sudden jolt from Mother Nature to remind all of us of just where crossdressing should rank on our list of priorities. I am referring to the massive earthquake in Turkey which by the time this column is published might very well be a minor blip on our memoryís screen. Seeing newscast after newscast of victims, especially the children, the massive destruction cannot help but make our concerns over our husbandsí wearing a dress seem miniscule in comparison. But in all too short a time the earthquake will recede in our memory; after all, Turkey is far away and out of sight,...
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Similarities

Anne Vitale PhD, Editor

Notes on Gender Role Transition
By Julie Freeman
April 27, 2007

Similarities
When my husband first came out to me in the late 1980’s, we had been married for over 20 years and our children were almost grown. He was in his 40’s and had a bit more time on his hands than usual, so found himself crossdressing more and realized he could no longer keep the crossdressing a secret. What triggered his actions was specifically watching an HBO special on crossdressers that he believed contained information that would help him explain his crossdressing to me.

It appears that from my correspondence with crossdressers that this was not an ususual scenario at that time – crossdressers in their 40’s coming out to their wives. Keep in mind that these gentlemen were all in the same age bracket. Crossdressing was still relatively unknown within society at large, and there were still many laws making crossdressing a crime. Thankfully, times have changed, and crossdressers feel much free...
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Second Opinion

Notes on Gender Role Transition
Anne Vitale Ph.D. Editor
by Rachael

August 3, 2000

Second Opinion

Why didn't I seek a second opinion or a third? How could I undertake a (gasp!) sex change without consulting legions of therapists? These are the sorts of questions I seem to get on this obviously sensitive subject. Most of them are hurled by non-accepting family members. It is as if there is some desire on their part to have me see shrinks until I find one that says 'Nope, you are not a transsexual, no way, no how.' Why didn't I do this? Why don't I do it now? I would have thought that concerned family members would have done enough research in the medical science and social literature on Gender Identity Disorder (GID) to understand the answers themselves. Apparently they haven't. So, for them, here is my answer...

The first thing someone should know is that gender identity is in the brain, it is not in the testicles, the breasts, the vagina, the ears, the penis, or anywhere else. There is ...
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