A man wearing a skirt to work

This week was a big step forward for me in my decision to be comfortable in my choice of dress in public. I mentioned in my introductory blog that when I got my diagnosis of cancer I made the decision that I would stop hiding my love of wearing skirts, dresses and tights and be much more open about it all. By now I have not worn trousers since August 19th, so over a month. The last hurdle was to go to work in my alternative dress. A dream that I have harboured for very many years.

Fairly early on I had written to one of my colleagues expressing my intentions. I had said that I do not want to present as a woman, I am not looking to becoming transgendered, I just wanted the option to wear skirts and dresses if I wanted. She was on the Diversity and Equality committee at work and passed on my request to them, the reply, to my joy, was positive; that there would be no problem with it, that legislation and policies were in place to cover my situation. I cannot tell you how happy I was to get that message. I wrote to my boss and told him of my intentions and asked if he had any issues with it. Again the answer came back that he had no problems at all with me coming in to work dressed in the way I wanted.  I sent a few more emails to colleagues to let them know, all the replies were positive. Then the big one. An all staff email letting them know that I would be returning to work, that I still had issues breathing and talking, so please do not keep asking me how I am, as I can't talk very much. I then let them know that my appearance would be different in that I am expressing an alternative gender identity. I did get replies to that mail, again all positive. The stage was set.

Monday 21st September 2015 I returned to work wearing a brown kilt skirt and plum coloured tights. The kilt skirt is always an easy option for anyone wanting to crossdress. It felt very good to be free. People were very happy to see me back after 4 months, and they couldn't care less about what I was wearing. The Tuesday I wore the same brown kilt skirt but with green tights. On Wednesday I wore my black denim skirt and light purple coloured tights and grey trainers. I was by now very confident in my choice. I stopped off at the garage on my way home to get petrol. Yes there were a few stares of people not quite being able to comprehend what they are seeing. It's quite fun to see the reactions.


Here is a photo of me in my lab in my new garb. That is a JEOL JSM-5310LV scanning electron microscope if you are interested! I was analysing some concretes for a client.


I really don't know why I have not done this before, it has been easy. I think the fear of ridicule that lives in a lot of crossdressers is what stops them. To be honest, there has been no ridicule, no jibes, nothing apart from a few double takes. Its just a man in skirt, get used to it!