Pfaffian graphs, T-joins and crossing numbers

We characterize Pfaffian graphs in terms of their drawings in the plane. We generalize the techniques used in the proof of this characterization, and prove a theorem about the numbers of crossings in T-joins in different drawings of a fixed graph. As a corollary we give a new proof of a theorem of Kleitman on the parity of crossings in drawings of K _2j+1 and K _2j+1,2k+1. Partially supported by NSF grants DMS-0200595 and DMS-0701033.