RJ, age 31, sometimes wonders if it makes it hard to meet girls in a skirt. That is, when he's wearing the skirt.

When I first started wearing skirts, it was in high school. I didn't really struggle with it there. My girlfriend knew about it, and her mom even knew about it. I kinda started out wearing leotards. I was a dancer, and I would wear her leotards. I wasn't actually wearing it out, it was just in the home, once in a while.

After college, when I lived in an artists' colony, I had a dream about wearing a skirt, and I thought, "I've never worn a pleated skirt." And I went out to the Express to buy a skirt, and I just wore it around the apartment. I would always just wear them in my apartment, and if somebody came over, sometimes I'd change and sometimes I wouldn't.

I started wearing them out, and everybody accepted it and that gave me courage and self esteem, so if I encountered somebody who thought it was stupid, I'd be like, Well, that's his opinion, I can kind of understand why some people would have certain opinions about it.

But the main struggle is, a lot of people, even some of my closest friends, thought I was gay. And I'm like, "I'm not really gay, I usually go out with girls." Actually, my last girlfirend that I had, she was very playful and we made costumes together. She made a Minnie Mouse outfit and we'd go down to Times Square and roller skate around, both of us dressed in Minnie Mouse outfits.

The payoff is when somebody comes up and says it's really cool and different, because it's kinda hard to be original in New York. It's just one aspect of a person, the clothing they wear, but to be original is kinda cool, and not many people do it so I'm actually way different than some guy with punk hair, you know? I mean, it's kinda been done and its way more accepted than what I do. So the payoff is the good comments.