Bingowings said:

It's all very right on an with it of you to say so but while people are 'harping on' about how women are predetermined to do this or that and men are predetermined to wear this and drink that your respect for the inner person doesn't count for much if she is sent back to the kitchen where she belongs and he is out beating up poofs.

There have been places in the world where opportunities for men and women that seemed to be on the road to parity took a sudden turn for the complete opposite.

Germany between the wars and Persia before the revolution for example.

The glowing inner light of the unconventionally attired is a bit difficult to see from a distant concentration camp or hanging from a gallows.

It's ironic however that Iran now is very accommodating towards the transgendered to the point that homosexual men are having their bits chopped off to avoid being hung by the neck.

I can only talk of my reality and the way I perceive it. And that reality is what truly counts above all else for grown up, emotionally mature adults is personality, intelligence, sense of humour etc. Be it a man or woman. What you allude to may be the case where you live (some rough end of Govan by the sounds of it? Lol) but not me. I live in an ordinary suburb of south London (bordering on Surrey). And some of the strongest characters I know are women. They're fucking hard people. And for your information Bingo. A local bloke came out as being gay a few years ago but no one really batted an eyelid. D'ya know why? Because everyone who knows him knows he's an honest stand up bloke. He's got kids, and he worships the bloody ground they walk on. And he's always been known as a bit of a character. He's funny. His eventual sexual preference means nothing.