Convention Takes a Different Track : Lifestyle: Cross-dressers gather at Burbank hotel for annual conclave.

Rachel strolled the aisle of the Amtrak train, asking if anyone had an extra hat pin. None of the passengers were startled by the voice that growled from beneath this man’s wig of platinum curls. No one so much as blinked at the thick physique beneath his pink dress.

Like him, they were all cross-dressers.

This week, 200 of them have gathered at a Burbank hotel for the annual convention of the Society for the Second Self, a nationwide group of about 1,200 men who like to wear women’s clothing on a regular basis. Most of them are in their 30s and 40s, though ages range widely.

All are, as they tend to mention within the first minute of conversation, heterosexual.

Tri-Ess, as the organization calls itself, provides emotional support as well as fashion hints. Thursday was the convention’s first full day and more than 50 of the attendees took the train to Santa Barbara for a day of sightseeing and shopping.

For some, it was not unusual to venture into public dressed as women.

“I go lots of places en femme ,” explained Jane Ellen Fairfax, a Houston physician who, like others, uses a feminine name when cross-dressing. “This trip is particularly fun because we can all talk girl-talk. We can talk accessories.”

For a few, the outing represented a first and shaky step. Rachel, for instance, is a 40-year-old Los Angeles truck driver who had hidden his cross-dressing until recently.

“I’m very excited because I was looking forward to being all in pink,” he said. “I have more courage today than I’ve ever had in my entire life.”

Although many people would refer to the group’s members as transvestites, gender researchers say there are various categories of men who wear women’s clothing.

Some do it for sexual arousal, said Walter L. Williams, an anthropology professor at USC’s Program for the Study of Women and Men in Society. That is the common, dictionary definition of transvestite.

Others see themselves as females in a male body and may be preoperative transsexuals. Still others--who tend to come from the gay “drag” community--seek to defy society’s gender codes.

Tri-Ess members offer an altruistic explanation for their behavior, saying that wearing women’s clothing helps develop such traditionally feminine qualities as tenderness and the appreciation for lace. These qualities, they insist, augment traditionally male traits such as aggressiveness that society has instilled in them.

Still, they recognize that they go to extreme lengths to develop these traits by wearing girdles and pancake makeup. When in a group, they use feminine names and refer to each other as “her” and “she.”

Some speculate that their behavior is founded on a genetic predisposition. The group’s co-founder, who goes by the name Virginia Prince, suspects that the penchant for both feminine traits and feminine clothing exists within all men.

“Whether or not this potential gets discovered, and whether or not you enjoy it when you do discover it, is a matter of personal preferences,” said Prince, a retired college professor.

And whether this discovery is accepted by family and peers is another matter. Rachel said his wife agrees to call him by his feminine name, but won’t let him wear her jewelry. She, like other wives, is attending the convention, he said.

Not all wives are so understanding, members said. Some tell of divorces. And some have, after years of marriage, still not revealed their secret to their wives.

“There’s still a lot of guilt involved,” Fairfax said.

As recently as the mid-1980s, he recalled, Tri-Ess conventions were small and decidedly guarded affairs “wrapped in an atmosphere of fear.” Members fretted over dressing in public and being “read,” or discovered. One man said that when he drove anywhere in women’s clothing, he would bring large amounts of cash for fear that he would be pulled over, arrested and need bail money.

“The Dark Ages of cross-dressing,” as Fairfax calls them, ended when cross-dressers began appearing on afternoon TV talk shows. The members still harbor enough concern to give only their feminine names and ask that the location of their convention be withheld. But events such as Thursday’s trip to Santa Barbara now assume a relaxed, at times festive, tone.

The group arrived shortly after noon and proceeded, en masse , along State Street. Jane Ellen wore a black skirt and flowing blue blouse. Kathy dressed in a sweater and green slacks. Debbie and Janie, a husband and wife who both wore gowns at their wedding, boasted matching pink sweat shirts and denim skirts.

Although the attire was by no means flamboyant, there were more than a few square jaws and thick ankles in the bunch, drawing stares from customers in sidewalk cafes.

“In a big group like this, we’re all going to get read,” Fairfax said. “About 50% of the time, someone will come up and wonder what’s going on.”

Tri-Ess leaders believe there is a value in such visibility. The more that cross-dressers are seen, they say, the sooner that cross-dressing will be accepted. So the group lunched at a Mexican restaurant, then strolled along the pier and browsed through shops. Rachel wanted a pair of pink socks to match his ensemble.

“I used to hate shopping. I used to hate it when my wife spent all my money,” he said. “Now I love to shop. Size 11 shoes? I’ll take them.”

In fact, over the next few days, the convention-goers will attend seminars on everything from makeup to hair care. And though Rachel did not find the socks he wanted, he kept his straw hat in place on a windy afternoon, using a string in place of a hat pin.

He also judged the day a success in terms of building his confidence.

“The one thing I’m really looking forward to,” he said, “is running an 18-wheeler in a mini-skirt.”