Linwood cross-dressing cycling enthusiast and his family are comfortable with him as Lou or Louise
By ELISA LALA, Staff Writer | Posted: Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Lou Tate sat in a chair in his Linwood home, his stockinged legs crossed at the ankles, graced by a silver bracelet.
"Nice to meet you," he said, extending a hand and brushing blonde bangs away from his blue eyes, bright with eyeshadow. "You can call me Lou when I'm talking about Lou and Louise when I'm talking about Louise."
A retired auto mechanic and competitive cyclist, Tate, said he is heterosexual and married - and has always been attracted to the female image.
"I've always wanted to touch it, wear it, bring it closer," he said. Thus, Louise Tate was born - the woman's persona Lou frequently wears.
Tate said Louise was introduced to the world on Halloween 1997 - "the crossdresser's national holiday," he said - and she came to stay.
"Louise is as much a part of my life as Lou is," said Millie Tate, 55, who has been married to Lou for 32 years.
Tate said what draws him to dressing as Louise is the way people reacted to her, referring to his male persona as "sort of plain."
Looking back on the past 13 years as both his male and female versions, Tate said Lou is mistreated and ostracized, while Louise is intriguing and attractive, well accepted and often spoken to. Tate said his ultimate goal is for people to accept him as both: "If you like Louise, you should like Lou, too."
Millie Tate, who said she is introverted, said Lou Tate dresses as a woman to make people notice. She said her husband knows someone wherever they go, and usually is in the center of a crowd of new friends.
Lou Tate agreed that the attention attracts him. "Louise is my vehicle to the spotlight," he said. "I see people whispering and I love it."
He said that unlike Lou, Louise is always asked to be a part of the scene. "As conservative as this area may seem, it surprises me how much people like Louise," he said.
At first he said, he was "scared stiff" to show the world Louise, especially people who already knew him. Now, he said, he is comfortable and confident as a woman.
Lou Tate said he belongs to two cycling clubs, and when he rides - 150 miles three days a week - he is dressed as Lou. But if he has a club meeting, he may show up as Louise.
"If I'm going out for drinks later, I'll already be done up," he said. "Some people like it; some say just don't tell us about it, and I respect that."
Anyone who doesn't like Louise doesn't have to associate with her, Tate said. "It's disheartening when people try to defame me, but i just walk away and act like a lady," he said.
Millie Tate said that when Lou first began dressing a woman she felt uneasy about how others would judge her family. "People would always ask me why I'm crazy enough to allow it," she said.
But after seeing Lou's happiness in cross-dressing, she gave up caring, she said. She even became Louise's full-time, live-in makeup artist, waking up an hour and a half earlier to do it.
"I said to him, 'If this is what you want to do, I'll support you. But I'm going to make sure you don't look like a clown with big hair. You have to look like a lady,'" Millie said. "The bottom line is Lou is a good husband."
Contact Elisa Lala:
609-272-7201
ELala@pressofac.com
Posted in NORTHFIELD LINWOOD SOMERS-POINT | ATLANTIC on Wednesday, October
