Distinguishing indentity through fashion...

In today's society fashion is a big part of knowing who your are, identifying by age and association. There are an abounding amount of gay men and lesbians who find fashion as an outlet of expressing their identities.Many homosexual men adapted to dressing femininely, as well as countless lesbians identified with dressing masculine.Back in the 1960's a large amount of gays; both men and women tried to hide who they were by dressing the part or passing as a heterosexual. Others used clothing as a way of showing their sexual identity.
Drag queens and transvestites stemmed from dress identity. A drag queen is a man, usually gay who dresses in female clothing, and over exaggerates the female gender. In a flamboyant over the top manner they emulate or impersonate for comical reasons.
Transvestism also know as cross dressing, is very much similar to a drag queen. a transvestite is a person(commonly a man who) emulates and dresses as the opposite sex for their own person pleasure or preferences. While research the topic i came across a website www.transgendered.net, it is a site geared for trans genders who want to change their appearance materialistically. They sell silicon woman body suits for men who wish to have a female figure, padded breast and teach men how to hide their genital area as well as teach woman to bind their breast. Women are often called Butch or aggressive (AG for short) when then take on the manly role. Females that prefer to stay feminine are referred to as femmes.
One thing that people get confused is a transvestite and transsexual. A transsexual is a condition consist of both male and female who feel were born as the wrong gender. With being a transsexual they undergo hormone treatments and surgical procedures to become the opposite sex.
There was a movie that came out in September of 1995 called To Wong Foo Thanks for everything, Julie Newmar directed by Beeban Kidron, starring Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo. It was based on three drag queens who enter a national drag queen contest, on their way there they are pulled over by a homophobic small town cop. The sheriff tries to have his way with one of the "queens" and then he comes to the realization that the SHE was a HE. In shock he loses his balance falling to the ground unconsciously,the three speed off thinking the man was dead,but indeed the sheriff ends up on a search to find them. What really stuck out to me was one part where the sheriff makes a list of places "homos" would be. He named things like a ballet school and flower shops, which is completely stereotypical. It shows how people view that community, even though every one's liking, personality, and perception is different.