ABSTRACT
In October 1995, as part of a larger study of transsexuals and cross-dressers, I found myself participating in and observing a national, organized lobbying campaign, located in Washington, DC. My time at "Transgender Lobby Days," as the event was known, included spending several days and evenings with members of the transgender community, attending training sessions, observing as they spoke with congressional representatives, and eating meals and riding with them on the DC Metro. As a nontransgendered woman, my ability to attend the event and later interview many of the people I met there, was dependent on my ability to do two things: to gain entree to the group and to establish and maintain rapport with them once I was in the field. Indeed, all qualitative research is, to a greater or lesser degree, dependent upon these two factors.
