I responded to this guy’s email, perhaps a bit harshly, to express my concerns over the situations he might find himself in. He thought I was flaming him. Perhaps I did, perhaps I didn’t. I’m sure there are two truths hidden within what happened, but we disagreed. He said his operation had already begun and he was setting up housing in an area between San Francisco and San Jose.
I didn’t know if this guy was legit or not, so I asked around the TGSF yahoo group to see if they had heard anything. Because I am fairly small and feared for my own safety, I didn’t really want to meet this guy to check him out. A friend on TGSF, though, told me she was meeting with him and would let me know what she thought of him. Late this past week, she said she met with him and said he meant well, but had a little trouble expressing his exact intentions. He didn’t realize that “admirers” were frowned on a little within the T community. They’re typically men who are interested in having sex with T’s, but nothing else. They prefer the fantasy of sex with a T without having an actual relationship.
Anyway, she also said that they were driving around some of the known T areas looking for anyone that was giving T’s a hard time. She said they performed a little education on some guys, but she didn’t really say anything beyond that.
So, the guy goes by DarinX. We’ve exchanged a few emails here and there. He says they are more like Guardian Angles, similar to the public vigilantes on the East Coast. They don’t hurt people, but they will step in to protect people from harm.
Friday night was the first ever Tranny March. I was asked by the organizer to speak for five minutes, along with a number of others, at the gathering in Dolores Park. Because this past week was pretty busy for me, along with having a light cold hit me Thursday, I didn’t have much time to prepare a speech. I kinda threw one together on Thursday, and then refined it during the day on Friday. Too often, I see a lot of hate spill forth in speeches from the transgender community and I didn’t want to do that. Plus, I am not one that usually lets hate rule my life. I wanted to say something positive, so below is the approximate dialogue from my less-than-5-minute speech:
Pride. What is it? I decided to rummage through the dictionary to get the official definition: (I asked the emcee and friend, Travis, if he would kinda have a little fun with every definition I read off…and since he is one of the nicest guys I know, he obliged. I even threw in a few of my own little comments) Pride - 1. A sense of one’s proper dignity or value. [oh, yeah, work it Travis] 2. Pleasure or satisfaction taken in achievement, possession, or association. [Hey now!!!] 3. Arrogance, conceit. [w h a t e v e r] 4. The best of a group or class. 5. A group of lions. [rrrwwwwoooooaaaarrrrrrrr]
OK, that’s Pride, but what about Proud: Proud – 1. Feeling pleasurable satisfaction. [Travis!!!!] 2. Occasioning pride. [What the hell does that mean???] 3. Feeling or showing self respect. 4. Filled with or showing excessive self-esteem. 5. Of great dignity, honored. 6. Majestic, magnificent. 7. An even larger group of lions. [Just kidding].
For five letters words, those are pretty complex definitions. I thought of a simpler definition – I’m happy to be me.
Yeah, I’m proud of my journey, proud of my decisions, and proud of who I am today. I share that pride by just being me, as does everyone here. Some of you may not believe this, but things are getting better for all of us – things are changing – and it will continue to change as long as each of us is true to our selves – true to who we are.
Our journeys are very unique, but our roads do cross – tonight, maybe this weekend, and possibly in the future. We’re all different, that’s a given. Don’t be afraid to be different, but don’t let it prevent you from being you. I may be different in the eyes of some, but I’m happy being me. I hope you are happy being you.
After a few other speakers, the gatherers proceeded up Dolores to Market, then over to the Civic Center where they had started a trans alter as well as arranged more speakers to talk. Cecilia Chung of SF Pride did an excellent job putting it all together in such short time. After a number of people who are influential within the T community talked, along with Sylvia Guerrero and Mark Leno, I called Claire to see if she was up for a bite. As I was standing there talking to her, two men walk up to me and are standing fairly close. Too close. The area has pretty much cleared out except there are a few people still around. The one guy sticks out his hand…..I cautiously grab it to shake, and he says, “DarinX,” then walks away with his buddy. It happened so fast I had no time to be scared or frightened.
So, Claire and I met up for dinner down in the Tenderloin area. The area isn’t all bad, but it’s not the nicest neighborhood. I walked past DarinX and his buddy on my way there, telling them, “Don’t cause too much trouble” in a joking manner.
After dinner, Claire sat with me as I waited for the bus back to BART. A gentleman approached and sat next to me..….for more on this, see Claire’s blog. Although she had a bad reaction to his presence, I had no trouble with him. He was most likely a tranny chaser as we were about a half block from downtown transsexual-central and he asked questions indicating his knowledge of the area. We even saw a TS sex worker getting arrested across the street from us as we waited for the bus.
Anyway, I ran into DarinX a few times during the weekend as we had a few activities with TGSF in San Francisco’s Pride. Darin seems like a nice guy, just not quite aware of the “admirer” label he used in his introduction of himself and his idea. Darin also visited us at the booth that I worked mainly on Sunday, when we also had a float in the parade. All I know is I am crashing early tonight. I’m bushed.
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