Transsexual people usually wish to be perceived and taken seriously as members of the gender class in which they feel most comfortable. Transsexual men are able to integrate into mainstream society through employment and social relationships; their natural masculinity (enough by itself in many cases), combined with the external e/ ects of testosterone, renders them virtually undetectable in most social situations. Cultural tolerance for a wide variety of adult male ‘looks’ (appearance styles) and behaviours is also a factor in the success of many transitional men. Billy Tipton is just one modern example of a transgendered person who was accepted as a man among his peers without bene* t of hormones or surgery. But what happens to the transsexual man who ‘comes out’ and admits to having been born female?