If a gay man old enough to be your grandfather may be forgiven a momentary indiscretion out of care, I think you look smokin’. You certainly would have passed well enough to be extremely popular in the old Greenwich Village stomping grounds of my youth.

It’s sad to realize that some things never change. I got gay bashed on Christopher Street near the Hudson because I let my guard at the wrong time.

I’ve been dude bro-ing it up for as far back as I can remember realizing I wasn’t masculine enough — which means from about the time I was 10 years old and got humiliated when I asked for red flowers for my birthday.

I’m not any kind of trans, but if I really let my hair down and feel completely safe, the me who comes out swishes.

And that night in the Village, I let that me come out to play in front of the wrong group of dudes.

Gender expression outside convention should not be dangerous, but it is. People like you are fighting the next fight, the one that’s going to make gender expression way less relevant than it is right now.

Good for you!