Consider it done (because, well, it has been...)

When I was a teenager though, I had a civics class where I asked the teacher what rights gays were protesting for. Mostly because I couldn't imagine why any rights would be denied them . My teachers said they were protesting for the right to come in our schools and molest our children. That's a direct quote. The entire class except for me applauded. I just sat there shocked that an educated black man in MS (who had to have felt the effects of racism at some point) could say such an obviously bigoted and narrow minded thing. Not to mention the fact that so many agreed with him. I never asked him anything again.

I didn't have the courage to stand up because everytime I have ever voiced my opinion on something if it differed from the other person they refused to believe I was right no matter how much info I had to back me up and in the case of my mother I was threatened , punched or beaten.

In that situation , I was alone and already a pariah because I didn't date or do drugs and kept to myself. Now I'm still that way but I'm willing to get hurt a lot more to protect others rights to happiness even though I've never found any myself.

When I was at school, I doubt I'd have the confidence to do anything like walking out either, but then we never actually had RE at school (thankfully).

My mum and dad let me form my own opinions about pretty much everything even if I did get dragged to church/Sunday School every week by mum (Dad never went and never said why he didn't), and it's safe to say that I absorbed my basically socialist political views sort of by osmosis, growing up in West Coast Scotland in what had once been a mining town.

Gay/straight/bi never seemed an issue when I was at school. I don't think anyone ever came out and admitted to being anything other than straight, though when I look back I find myself thinking "so and so" must have been gay and wondering how I managed to remain oblivious at the time.

When I moved away to go to university, things changed totally almost overnight. One of the guys turned up on the first day in a skirt. The majority of the 70 or 80 guys on the course ostracised him straight off, afraid that people would question their manhood if they talked to the "queer". (He wasn't gay as a matter of fact and was quite happy with his long term girlfriend, but they weren't to know that since they wouldn't actually speak to him.) Anyway, it was 3 of the 4 women on the course and a couple of the less homophobic guys who'd actually talk to him.

Once I met hubby and got into the Goth scene between the fact that there's a fair amount of overlap between the Goth and the gay scene, that at the time even the straight male Goths wore all make up and got hassled about it, come to that we all got hassle for how we looked anyway... You just accept that it doesn't matter how people dress, how they look, whether they're gay, straight, bi, transexual, transvestite, black, white, purple, it's who they are underneath that counts.

The first time I saw a guy in a skirt was in a magazine and the guy was Donovan Lietch The son of the singer Donovan . I had one of his father's albums (since burnt up in a fire) and played it all the time. Except for thinking he didn't really have the legs to carry it off, I didn't wonder about him at all.

Now Liam Neeson (see Rob Roy) has got the legs for a skirt.

I think at least part of the reason all these butch ex-merchant navy types were so freaked out by Chris is that more than one of them had seen the shoulder length blonde hair, flowing skirt, slim calves and the stillettos as he walked up the stairs and thought "Schwing!". Then when they saw who it was they were grossed out big time by the fact they'd been having lusty thoughts about a guy.

So they weren't freaked out by him per se but by their own reactions.

And he wore stillettos? He must either have small feet or good balance or both. I can't navigate stairs in heels but thats probably because I wear size 13 wide and have long toes so wearing heels feels like someone is stepping on my toes and the shoes aren't wide enough even if I can find them in my size.

So they weren't freaked out by him per se but by their own reactions.

I think probably about half by their reaction, a teeny bit by him and the rest by their own ignorance. You also have to bear in mind that some of the same guys chatted happily to him the week before when those of us going straight from school as opposed to the mature students did a practical course on turning, welding, etc. In case you haven't guessed, I did an engineering course. Anyway for three days where he wore a shirt and jeans they were fine. Monday morning rolls around and they see the same guy in a skirt and suddenly they want nothing to do with him.

As to his shoe-size, I'm trying to think back about 20 years here but he was just a touch taller than me and quite slender so I'd guess maybe a British 8 or 9, which would be a 41 or 42 in continental sizes. I have no idea how that translates to US though.

Personally, I have to admit to being quite relieved when the Goths moved away from the teetering winklepickers and into nice chunky, comfy New Rocks.

As to finding boots & shoes I was going to mention http://www.pennangalan.co.uk/ but on checking their sizes they only seem to go up to a US/Australian size 12... Sod's law! If I hear anyone mention anywhere that does do larger sizes though I'll let you know.

I did a course on computer engineering but ran out of funding before I finished . No welding but we did some soldering.

Also, I tend to stick to just wearing men's sneaker's most of the time anyway.They're comfy. I wear men's 11.5w which should translate into 13.5w women's but since I've never ran across that size I can't check.

The site I mentioned gives the following conversion table, though they do say they wouldn't use it to order shoes from other firms as the sizes may differ, so you could actually be covered if you were looking for something "for that special occasion":

UK Shoe Size (Use this to order)	European	USA/Australian
		Female	Male
F4	37	6	-
F5	38	7	-
F6	39.5	8	-
F7	40.5	9	7.5
F8	42	10	8.5
M8	42.5	-	9
M9	43	-	10
M10	44.5	-	11
M11	45.5	-	12

As to the engineering, that three day course was the last vaguely practical thing I did, and by the time I finally flunked out in my final year, I hated it. I might have been fine if I'd done the same course at a different uni with a more practical approach, or even one where I had the right entry level qualifications rather than where I knew I was about to be totally lost every time I heard them say, "you'll know this from 'A' level" but...