I personally dont find Dick's question offensive in any way.I perform a lot in a transgender role. i dont think there are many ts musicians on the folk circuit though - I only know one other, an old friend.
i first started playing openly in this role almost ten years ago, but I had no idea if it would work and it felt like a completely new field because I'm not a drag act,or comedy, and dont offer any explanation or apologies to an audience when I get up and play.Nor do I try and sing in a "feminine" voice.So at first I played open mikes and pubs.These,of course, can be quite challenging environments at the best of times, but anyway, I found that I was well received, so I then ventured into the more regular folk clubs, and I'm starting to get folk gigs in this persona( I've done loads of gigs in my former existence).i feel I'm starting again, to some extent, but thats sort of refreshing too.
A great many people on the folk scene have been wonderfully supportive,I've actually made a lot of new friends and I've been pleasantly surprised at the folk world's general niceness and ability to incorporate the slightly unusual! I dont particularly care for it either when people refer to me as "he", but I know they dont always know the appropriate way to address me, so I'm not annoyed by it.I was at Otley folk club a few weeks ago - did a solo spot,called "she",then got up again later with a few friends to do a band item and suddenly its "he" - weird!