Watching a game of football on Sunday morning. St Luke’s Youth Club versus the Boys of St’ Mary’s college in the third division of the Chanzo Sunday Under 15’s football League. St Luke’s winning 7-2 and not even half-time yet. All the boys, and I suppose their coaches and supporting parents, watch a lot of Premier League football on the TV. Of course, not many can afford to watch at home but they can crowd around the 50-inch TV screens on display in the big department stores in Chanzo City before a security guard moves them on – or, if they’re too young, sneak into bars and hotel lounges and hide under chairs or in dark corners. In Nilemwe not a day passes without some kind of football game dominating the airwaves.
I watch these ‘grass roots’ games with the kids every Sunday morning. Everyone takes it very seriously. The coaches screaming for the team to ‘keep their shape’ or to work harder at their gengenpressing. It fascinates me how quickly and easily the kids emulate the soccer stars they see on the TV. The way they flash simulated ‘yellow cards’ at the referee – or roll over in abject agony if they are fouled – or make a sign of the cross when they come onto the pitch – or perform a Daniel Sturridge dance if they score. Well they are at that age – as grown-ups tend to say – and easily influenced by their football heroes.
And while I watch I think and wish. If just one of their soccer super-heroes were to ‘come out’ as a cross dresser! – think how influential that would be on the lads out there currently being yelled at by their coach. Any one of those kids playing (in fact one in eight of them according to research) could have a tendency to dress in women’s clothes. Cross dressing desires can be pushed to the frontal lobe at a very young age – from pre adolescence to late teenage years. Painting nails, dressing in mum’s or sisters clothes, trying on high heeled shoes. Kids at that age are pulled in two different directions. They may want to express the female side of their nature. They want to feel ‘liberated’ and ‘comfortable’ – less likely to demonstrate negative thoughts and actions if they are allowed to dress up. But they cannot display famine mannerisms – they cannot cry, show tears, appear weak or soft. Society will punish them.
When I watch the football I dress discreetly in a cotton pinafore and minor make up. Cross Dressing Nilemwe is a crime. And yet all over the world men are coming out as cross dressers. Just think how valuable it would be if a football super star said ‘yes I cross dress and I am proud!’ Maybe he would come in for a lot of stick initially. But if more players stepped up to the plate and joined him…then hey, pretty soon some guys in the St. Luke’s team would turn up at the game ‘dressed up and gorgeous!’
My name is Tiko. I am a professional footballer and was recently booted out of the English Premier League for being a cross dresser*. My aims to raise awareness about cross dressing, especially to the kids who I watch of a Sunday morning – broadcast how valuable it is to their development to express their female natures and dress up in dazzling clothes. Every Sunday I feel, somehow, were getting closer.
* Have a look at my experiences in my book RED DRESS REVOLUTION.
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