Maybe this is a San Francisco thing, but maybe others have had similar experiences.

I was out with a number of other girls Saturday night at a mixed (gay and straight) bar. As a group we clearly weren’t passable. I doubt the patrons recognized us as a trannies instead of non-flamboyant drag queens, but they definitely knew we were guys in dresses. (BTW, nobody made fun us, everyone was quite friendly.)

Consequently we were able go up and talk to people in a way that I’ve never been able to do as a guy. For example, we’d compliment a women on her outfit, which would start a whole conversation with her and her friends.

Maybe women do the same thing with each other, but it felt like that because we were perceived as an interesting oddity people opened up in a way that they would not have normally done with a bunch of strangers, male or female. Sort as if any other character in an outlandish costume had started talking to them.