First, I'm wondering about how overt the reactions you got from carrying a purse/bag. I've been toying with the idea of carrying a purse and am curious about the types of responses you got.
Second, I'm wondering about how much more overt the negative responses from bearded guys have been. As a bearded guy myself, I could guess that others here might assume a wrongly negative response from me. I am afraid that I tend to absent mindedly study things that I'm curious about and seeing a guy like us out in the wild definitely fits that bill. I'm wondering how much we project onto others the response we expect.
I've barely been out in obvious femme man mode once or twice. I got one obvious negative response from a young female barista at a coffee shop who looked like she was going to throw up in her mouth. Fortunately, she was not the barista who was taking my order. The "younger folks are more tolerant" didn't work in my case.