Overture. Dim the Lights
I hear it all the time. We transgender people just have to wait for our time; We're just too new.
A team of trans people are busy putting the lie to that. We've Been Around is series of documentary shorts that chronicle the lives of Lucy, STAR, Albert, Little Ax, and Lou. They are directed by Rhys Ernst, produced by Christine Beebe and the narration is done by transgender people. The team includes Transparent actress Alexandra Billings, writer and filmmaker Susan Stryker and trans historian Monica Roberts.
I know it's terribly bad form to write a diary that asks the readers to go somewhere else and then come back. But I sure hope you do. The videos do not embed well.
Lucy Hicks Anderson was a caterer for the rich and famous in Oxnard, CA...who happened to also run a boarding house on the other side of the tracks. This was in Prohibition times...so the boarding house was also a known speakeasy and brothel.
Albert Cashier:
Albert Cashier joined the 95th Illinois Volunteers to fight for the Union in the Civil War.
You've probably heard the story of Marsha P. Johnson's birthday party at the Stonewall Inn...which erupted into several days of rioting after the police showed up uninvited. She and her friend Sylvia Rivera's trials and travails are highlighted here.
Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson
Wilmer "Little Axe" Broadnax:
Little Axe was a big-time gospel singer in the mid-20th century.
Little Axe and the Golden Echoes: You are My Sunshine
Louis Graydon Sullivan was one of the first transgender men to identify as gay.
I want to look like what I am but don’t know what some one like me looks like. I mean, when people look at me I want them to think— there’s one of those people […] that has their own interpretation of happiness. That’s what I am.
--Lou Sullivan, at 15
Lou Sullivan
