A few months ago Billie and Kathie who have organised the Surrey Swans transgendered group for the past five years or so announced that they needed to move on. They plan to keep in touch with it and still visit from time to time.
So a new organiser was needed or else the group would cease to be.
I thought about it a lot and talked it over with my wife Sally and a few other transvestite friends.
For me, the existence of Surrey Swans as a group has made a big difference. Back in 2007 when Andrea was born Fiona Floyd mentioned Surrey Swans as somewhere not too far from Windsor that was likely to be a good place for a “new” transvestite to get to meet people with similar life experiences. It was that way that I first contacted Billie and Kathie and went along to a TV dinner that they organised and then on to Surrey Swans for the first time. And Sally met here first transvestite other than me when we had a meal at Billie and Kathie’s. I now count some of the people that I know at the TV Dinners and Surrey Swans as my closest friends.
There’s a sense in which these days I need a group like Surrey Swans a lot less than I used to. If I want to put on a dress or skirt, makeup and a wig and go for a meal somewhere in Windsor or wherever then I can do that. And much of that it because Billie was willing to take a quite nervous Andrea out shopping one day in Windsor. I don’t so much need a meeting that’s specifically aimed at transgendered people.
But I know that there was a time that I did. And there are still people that do. And actually, I always enjoy myself when I go there.
So … I decided to volunteer.
And there we go. I’m now “it” … the organiser of Surrey Swans.
In all honesty it doesn’t necessarily take a great deal of organising. It’s kind of open ended. There’s an infinite number of things that can be done. But it can be kept quite healthy and active with much less than infinite effort … I hope .
At the meeting at the end of May I talked a while with Michelle and Laura and Emma about possibilities. Partly as a result of that there is now a new Surrey Swans website / blog that you can visit by clicking here.
