{ "id": "p16022coll97:176", "object": "https://cdm16022.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getthumbnail/collection/p16022coll97/id/176", "set_spec": "p16022coll97", "collection_name": "Tretter Transgender Oral History Project", "collection_name_s": "Tretter Transgender Oral History Project", "collection_description": "
The Tretter Transgender Oral History Project (TTOHP) collects, preserves, and makes accessible oral histories of gender transgression, especially as theyintersect with race, age, sexuality, citizenship, class, and ability. The project seeks to document the power and vision of trans movements for justice through the stories of activists working to imagine another world.
\n\nThe first phase of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project was led by poet and activist Andrea Jenkins—who became the first Black transgender woman to serve in office in the US after she was elected, in 2017, to the Minneapolis City Council. This phase of the project sought to document the life stories and experiences of transgender and gender non-conforming people, with a focus on people living in the upper Midwest as well as those often excluded from the historical record, including trans people of color and trans elders.
\n\nThe second phase of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project is led by trans studies scholar Myrl Beam. This phase of work seeks to document histories of trans activist movements and politics in the US, and is grounded in the belief that trans movements for justice are about more than rights: they are about survival, and about creating a new, more fabulous, more livable, and more expansive world––one not structured by racialized gender norms. The oral histories collected during this phase document the transformative power of trans movements, and the stories of trans activists who are building them.
\n\nFor more about the project, visit: https://www.lib.umn.edu/tretter/transgender-oral-history-project.
", "title": "Interview with Breatta Bee Amore", "title_s": "Interview with Breatta Bee Amore", "title_t": "Interview with Breatta Bee Amore", "title_search": "Interview with Breatta Bee Amore", "title_sort": "interviewwithbreattabeeamore", "description": "Breatta Bee Amore is a Black trans female from Chicago and Milwaukee. At the time of this interview, she was a student living in the Twin Cities. In this oral history, Amore touches upon topics such as gay bars in the Twin Cities from the 1980s and onward, including the Gay 90s, the Saloon, and Brass Rail. She also speaks about working and performing with a drag group called La Femmes at the Gay 90s with her friend Deja Love. Additionally, she talks about her family relationships as well as her friendships based in the Twin Cities. Lastly, Amore touches upon her spirituality, recovery, and her relationship with clothing.", "date_created": [ "2017-02-16" ], "date_created_ss": [ "2017-02-16" ], "date_created_sort": "2017", "creator": [ "Amore, Breatta Bea" ], "creator_ss": [ "Amore, Breatta Bea" ], "creator_sort": "amorebreattabea", "contributor": [ "Jenkins, Andrea (Interviewer)" ], "contributor_ss": [ "Jenkins, Andrea (Interviewer)" ], "notes": "Forms part of the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project, Phase 1.", "types": [ "Moving Image" ], "format": [ "Oral histories | http://vocab.getty.edu/aat/300202595" ], "format_name": [ "Oral histories" ], "dimensions": "0:48:35", "subject": [ "Family Relationships", "Bars and Clubbing", "Friendship and Community", "Addiction and Recovery", "Work", "Black", "Midwest (United States)", "1970s", "1980s", "1990s", "Gender Affirming Care", "Harassment", "Tretter Transgender Oral History Project Phase 1" ], "subject_ss": [ "Family Relationships", "Bars and Clubbing", "Friendship and Community", "Addiction and Recovery", "Work", "Black", "Midwest (United States)", "1970s", "1980s", "1990s", "Gender Affirming Care", "Harassment", "Tretter Transgender Oral History Project Phase 1" ], "language": [ "English" ], "city": [ "Minneapolis" ], "state": [ "Minnesota" ], "country": [ "United States" ], "continent": [ "North America" ], "geonames": [ "http://sws.geonames.org/5037657/" ], "parent_collection": "Tretter Transgender Oral History Project", "parent_collection_name": "Tretter Transgender Oral History Project", "contributing_organization": "University of Minnesota Libraries, Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.", "contributing_organization_name": "University of Minnesota Libraries, Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.", "contributing_organization_name_s": "University of Minnesota Libraries, Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies.", "contact_information": "University of Minnesota Libraries, Jean-Nickolaus Tretter Collection in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Studies. 111 Elmer L. Andersen Library, 222 - 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455; https://www.lib.umn.edu/tretter", "fiscal_sponsor": "This project is funded through the generous support of The TAWANI Foundation, Headwaters Foundation and many individual donors.", "local_identifier": [ "tretter414_tohp060" ], "dls_identifier": [ "tretter414_tohp060" ], "rights_statement_uri": "http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/", "kaltura_audio": "1_vknvx12l", "kaltura_video": "1_o6cc67ij", "kaltura_combo_playlist": "0_7t6bbl47", "page_count": 0, "record_type": "primary", "first_viewer_type": "kaltura_combo_playlist", "viewer_type": "kaltura_combo_playlist", "attachment": "139.pdf", "attachment_format": "pdf", "document_type": "item", "featured_collection_order": 999, "date_added": "2018-09-24T00:00:00Z", "date_added_sort": "2018-09-24T00:00:00Z", "date_modified": "2020-05-22T00:00:00Z", "transcription": "Breatta Bee Amore\nNarrator\nAndrea Jenkins\nInterviewer\nThe Transgender Oral History Project\nTretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nFebruary 16, 2017\nThe Transgender Oral History Project of the Upper Midwest will empower individuals to tell their story,\nwhile providing students, historians, and the public with a more rich foundation of primary source\nmaterial about the transgender community. The project is part of the Tretter Collection at the\nUniversity of Minnesota. The archive provides a record of GLBT thought, knowledge and culture for\ncurrent and future generations and is available to students, researchers and members of the public.\nThe Transgender Oral History Project will collect up to 400 hours of oral histories involving 200 to 300\nindividuals over the next three years. Major efforts will be the recruitment of individuals of all ages and\nexperiences, and documenting the work of The Program in Human Sexuality. This project will be led by\nAndrea Jenkins, poet, writer, and trans-activist. Andrea brings years of experience working in\ngovernment, non-profits and LGBT organizations. If you are interested in being involved in this exciting\nproject, please contact Andrea.\nAndrea Jenkins\njenki120@umn.edu\n(612) 625-4379\n1 Andrea Jenkins -AJ\n2 Breatta Bee Amore -BBE\n3\n4 AJ: So, hello.\n5 BBA: Hello, Andrea.\n6 AJ: My name is Andrea Jenkins. I am the oral historian for the Transgender Oral History Project at\n7 the University of Minnesota. Today is February 16, 2017, and I am here at the home of Bee\n8 Amore in south Minneapolis. How you doing, Bee?\n9 BBA: I am great. How are you, Andrea?\n10 AJ: Oh, my goodness girl.\n11 BBA: It’s wonderful to see you again, darling.\n12 AJ: It is so good to see you. I haven’t seen you for a while.\n13 BBA: Thank you. I don’t hardly go out anymore. I will never forget the times I had when I did. I had a\n14 grand time down at the 90s Saloon, all the bars downtown.\n15 AJ: All the bars downtown.\n16 BBA: I miss the Cloud 9 Bar. Do you remember that bar, the Cloud 9?\n17 AJ: I remember the Cloud 9.\n18 BBA: Yeah, I remember that bar.\n19 AJ: Wow. Lots of memories, but before we start talking about our memories and everything, Bee,\n20 tell me your name. I want you to say your name, spell it so that we make sure we get it spelled\n21 right. Tell me what is your gender identity today and what gender you were assigned at birth\n22 and what pronouns do you like to use.\n23 BBA: OK, I sure will. My name is Breatta Bee Amore. Breatta is spelled B-r-e-a-t-t-a; my middle name\n24 Bee is spelled B-e-e, not B-e-a, B-e-e; my last name is spelled A-m-o-r-e.\n25 AJ: OK.\n26 BBA: I got my last name from Deja.\n27 AJ: Deja – Deja Love.\n28 BBA: Yes.\n29 AJ: She named you?\n30 BBA: No, I named her. I wanted to have Love but I didn’t want it sounding like hers so I have Amore.\n31 AJ: All right, wow – that’s a great little story. I like that. And Deja Love is another transgender\n32 friend of ours.\n33 BBA: Yes, just awesome, just wonderful.\nBreatta Bee Amore 4\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nAJ: Lives in Las Vegas, and 1 she’s a showgirl.\n2 BBA: She’s from here, she’s a showgirl.\n3 AJ: She’s from Minneapolis, yes.\n4 BBA: She’s from south Minneapolis, she’s a showgirl, and she looks just like Nicki Minaj.\n5 AJ: Nicki Minaj. So, Bee, what is your gender identity today?\n6 BBA: My gender identity today is I am a trans female.\n7 AJ: OK, trans female. What was your gender assigned at birth?\n8 BBA: My gender assigned at birth was male.\n9 AJ: OK.\n10 BBA: How I became the way I am today is when I was two, I knew I was gay.\n11 AJ: Right. How did you know at two?\n12 BBA: Because my mother and father didn’t . . . here’s how that goes. My mother would have my aunt\n13 and her friends over. I would not stare at them like when my father would have all of his\n14 relatives over.\n15 AJ: You were not scared of them you said?\n16 BBA: No, I stared at the men that came over, but not the women.\n17 AJ: Oh, you stared at the men but not the women, OK.\n18 BBA: That’s when I knew I liked the men and I was gay.\n19 AJ: OK, wow.\n20 BBA: My father knew it and my mother didn’t like it, but my father loved me, he didn’t care what I\n21 came out to be - he loved me anyway.\n22 AJ: Really?\n23 BBA: I was the only child he ever had . . . I was the only child he ever had [inaudible 3:54].\n24 AJ: Wow. Is your father still alive?\n25 BBA: No, he got killed in 1970 when I was 12.\n26 AJ: Oh, wow.\n27 BBA: I’ll never, never forget him.\n28 AJ: So, what pronouns do you use, Bee?\n29 BBA: I use female.\n30 AJ: So she and her.\nBreatta Bee Amore 5\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nBBA: Yeah, she 1 and her, lady, woman.\n2 AJ: Lady, ma’am, woman.\n3 BBA: Yeah, as long as they’re female, I use them.\n4 AJ: OK. So, Bee, you realized you were gay when you were two years old. Where did you grow up?\n5 Where were you born?\n6 BBA: OK, I was born in Madison, Wisconsin, the capital of Wisconsin, but I wasn’t raised there. I was\n7 raised in Chicago, Illinois and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.\n8 AJ: OK.\n9 BBA: The reason why I was raised in both cities, my grandmother raised me in Milwaukee and I\n10 moved to Chicago with my dad’s parents – they were from Detroit, but they lived in Chicago too.\n11 I was going down there and being with my dad.\n12 AJ: All right. So, in-between Milwaukee and Chicago. Wow.\n13 BBA: We used to travel. My father was a brick mason and a construction worker.\n14 AJ: Which kind of construction worker?\n15 BBA: My dad.\n16 AJ: He was a . . .?\n17 BBA: Brick mason and a construction worker.\n18 AJ: A brick mason and a construction worker.\n19 BBA: He traveled all over the U.S. to build these skyscrapers like the Sears Tower.\n20 AJ: He worked on the Sears Tower?\n21 BBA: Yeah, he worked on the Sears Tower. He helped build a lot of skyscrapers in Canada and here in\n22 the U.S.\n23 AJ: Oh, my goodness. So, he made good money.\n24 BBA: Oh, yes.\n25 AJ: Bee, do you mind if I ask you to take out your gum just so I can understand you a little bit better.\n26 Sorry. Thank you.\n27 BBA: That’s all right, Andrea.\n28 AJ: So, wow. Did you travel with your dad when he was on these construction jobs?\n29 BBA: Yes, we would live in certain cities and he would work in other cities, but he would come back\n30 home every weekend.\n31 AJ: OK.\nBreatta Bee Amore 6\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nBBA: So, when we lived in Seattle and he worked in Los Angeles and 1 he would fly home every\n2 weekend or what he would do, if he didn’t come home, he would let me fly to him and I would\n3 go by myself.\n4 AJ: And spend the weekend with your dad.\n5 BBA: Yeah, with my daddy – yeah.\n6 AJ: Wow, that’s quite a childhood.\n7 BBA: My mom, after my dad got killed, she didn’t re-marry until about five or seven years later. And\n8 then she married my stepfather and I got some more brothers and sisters – I didn’t have no\n9 sisters no way; my mom never had a girl.\n10 AJ: Oh, really.\n11 BBA: She had five boys and then when she married my stepfather, she adopted four girls and two\n12 little boys. So, eleven of us all together. My sisters, I will never forget how beautiful they are.\n13 My Lord, my sisters, they’re beautiful – all four of them, they’re really beautiful. I love them; I\n14 think about them all the time.\n15 AJ: Do you talk to them at all?\n16 BBA: Yeah, I talk to two of them – Barbara and Lisa.\n17 AJ: Barbara and Lisa.\n18 BBA: Yeah, Barbara is my older – her birthday was just the 10th and she turned 61; she’s older than\n19 me.\n20 AJ: OK.\n21 BBA: I got another sister that’s older than her, she’s going to be 63 – Cynthia.\n22 AJ: How old are you, Bee?\n23 BBA: I’m getting ready to turn 59 in June.\n24 AJ: Is that right? Wow.\n25 BBA: Yeah, I’m turning 59 this June.\n26 AJ: So, you were moving all around. Were you going to different schools?\n27 BBA: Yeah, but I loved the schools. I loved school. Everywhere I moved to, I made sure my mother . .\n28 . well, one city we moved to, Kansas City, Missouri. We moved there and I was walking the area\n29 and I seen the school . . . I was only like 14 then or something like that then, going to middle\n30 school. [inaudible 8:18]. It was wonderful.\n31 AJ: It was a beautiful school, huh?\n32 BBA: Yes, it was. Light brick and tall.\nBreatta Bee Amore 7\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nAJ: And you picked 1 that school.\n2 BBA: Yeah, I asked my dad and my mom . . . well, my dad was dead then, my mom put me in that\n3 school. I said, “Mom, I walked to the school just to see it.” And she said, “Well, honey, you live\n4 here.”\n5 AJ: Wow. So, you knew you were gay when you were two. Did you express that? Did other people\n6 know?\n7 BBA: No, not too much other people knew it. They knew that I was that way.\n8 AJ: They could tell.\n9 BBA: Yeah, because I was always so feminine. I did a lot of boy things too, but I didn’t really enjoy . . .\n10 the only way I could do it, I tried to do it with style and grace.\n11 AJ: Did people make fun of you? Did people tease you? Did people beat you up?\n12 BBA: Yeah, when I was a kid . . . no, I didn’t get beat up a lot but I had a first cousin named Eugene\n13 Polk and he kind of bullied me around in junior high.\n14 AJ: Eugene Polk?\n15 BBA: Yeah, Eugene Polk. He’s my cousin. Now, when I found out he was my cousin, he kept trying to\n16 take my lunch money that my mom would give me every day for my lunch in junior high school.\n17 So, one day, I found out he was my cousin . . . my first cousin, Vanessa, told me that he was our\n18 cousin. When I found that out, when I saw him on the playground, I beat him up.\n19 AJ: Did you?\n20 BBA: Yeah, beat the crap out of him. I said, “You’re my cousin and you’re trying to rob me every day.”\n21 AJ: Like, “This is not happening.”\n22 BBA: I let him have it – beat his brains out too in front of two friends, and the two friends ran on . . .\n23 they was scared of me.\n24 AJ: Oh, wow.\n25 BBA: I had an interesting childhood too.\n26 AJ: Yeah, tell me about it.\n27 BBA: Well, growing up in Milwaukee was different than growing up in Chicago. It had a Chicago\n28 flavor, the next city from Chicago – it’s almost just like Chicago.\n29 AJ: Yeah, it’s right there; it’s an hour away.\n30 BBA: Yeah, 98 miles away. So, we’d go up . . . now, I had two awesome best friends when I was a kid\n31 until adulthood.\n32 AJ: Wow.\nBreatta Bee Amore 8\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nBBA: And 1 we all were gay.\n2 AJ: OK.\n3 BBA: Eric and Ed. Ed West and Eric Sams. Eric Sams looks like that boy that played on Empire – the\n4 light-skinned, tall one; not the short one, the tall light-skinned one.\n5 AJ: Right.\n6 BBA: Eric looked like him a hell of a lot. And then Ed is dark skinned and looks like Buster Rhymes, but\n7 tall. He was really built too. Now, I grew up with them two men all my life and we all turned\n8 gay together, we always used to go out together, we all went to school together, we graduated\n9 the same year together, we went to Job Corps together – we did everything. I ain’t never going\n10 to forget those two - my two best friends. Eric died in 1991, but Ed West is living in DC and he\n11 works for the Pentagon now.\n12 AJ: Oh, wow.\n13 BBA: One of my sisters works there too.\n14 AJ: Is that right?\n15 BBA: Yeah, my sister Barbara that I just mentioned.\n16 AJ: Barbara.\n17 BBA: Yeah, she works at the Pentagon.\n18 AJ: So, she lives in DC or Virginia?\n19 BBA: She lives in Virginia; she’s got a house in Virginia, right outside of Richmond – east of Richmond\n20 in a suburb, but I forgot the name of it. But, she got a couple of cars too so when she lives in\n21 Virginia but she’s got to go to work in DC, she will drive from Virginia to DC every day and back.\n22 AJ: Right.\n23 BBA: So, she told me that she’s looking for another house though. This house has nine bedrooms and\n24 six bathrooms in it.\n25 AJ: She got a lot of kids or something?\n26 BBA: No, she doesn’t have any kids.\n27 AJ: Why does she need a big old house?\n28 BBA: She just likes big homes.\n29 AJ: Really?\n30 BBA: She asked me to come live with her.\n31 AJ: So, do you talk to Eric at all?\n32 BBA: No, Eric is dead.\nBreatta Bee Amore 9\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nAJ: I’m sorry – then . . . what’s the other? Ed. So, Ed is the one 1 who works . . .\n2 BBA: Ed – Ed is the one that works with my sister.\n3 AJ: Do you still keep in touch with him?\n4 BBA: Yeah, yeah – a lot. I hear from him all the name. And my sister, Barbara, Deja . . . let’s see, who\n5 else? When I go downtown, I always see Nina.\n6 AJ: Nina DiAngelo?\n7 BBA: Always, I always see her.\n8 AJ: Yes.\n9 BBA: I go by the Saloon.\n10 AJ: She’s a showgirl at the . . . she used to be at the 90s but now she’s at the Saloon?\n11 BBA: Yes.\n12 AJ: OK.\n13 BBA: She still has the same job at the Saloon that she had at the 90s, she was the manager of the La\n14 Femme Show.\n15 AJ: Right.\n16 BBA: I don’t know what they call it at the Saloon, they call it something different at the Saloon. She\n17 calls it something else there.\n18 AJ: Yeah. It used to be La Femme at the 90s.\n19 BBA: At the 90s, yeah. They still got that show but she ain’t running it, they got another manager for\n20 it.\n21 AJ: Right.\n22 BBA: I don’t know who’s the manager for that. I think it’s Roxy Marquis.\n23 AJ: Who?\n24 BBA: Roxy.\n25 AJ: Roxy . . . oh, Roxy Marquis. No, she left too. Roxy Marquis M-a-r-q-u-i-s.\n26 BBA: Yeah. You know who else is back in town?\n27 AJ: Cee.\n28 BBA: Cee, yeah, but somebody else.\n29 AJ: BeBe?\n30 BBA: No, someone else.\nBreatta Bee Amore 10\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nAJ: 1 Oh, my goodness.\n2 BBA: Chi Larue.\n3 AJ: Chi? Oh, wow. She’s back in Minneapolis?\n4 BBA: Yeah, I know her real good. I performed – me and Daisy performed at Margarita Bella’s with Chi\n5 Larue.\n6 AJ: Oh, really.\n7 BBA: Yeah, we did. Do remember Margarita Bella’s over on Central?\n8 AJ: Margar . . .?\n9 BBA: Margarita Bella’s, it was a gay bar.\n10 AJ: Oh, Margaritaville.\n11 BBA: Margarita Bella’s is the old name of it. A gay boy opened it up and it closed down, but before it\n12 closed down, that’s where I met Chi LaRue at.\n13 AJ: OK.\n14 BBA: Deja had already knew Chi Chi. Now, Chi Chi is doing real good. She travels from here to\n15 California . . .\n16 AJ: She was making movies out there, right?\n17 BBA: Yeah, I have one of them movies too.\n18 AJ: Porn?\n19 BBA: Yeah, I have one of those movies.\n20 AJ: I’ve never seen any of her movies. Are they gay-themed movies or are they transgender?\n21 BBA: They both, they’re transgender and gay. She makes all that.\n22 AJ: Oh, wow. But, she’s back in Minneapolis now.\n23 BBA: Yeah, she’s back up here. I seen her this last winter with Nina. I seen both of them together.\n24 AJ: Wow. OK, I’m going to have to take a trip down to the Saloon.\n25 BBA: I seen BeBe, Phoebe and Genevieve.\n26 AJ: OK. Genevieve Richards?\n27 BBA: No, Genevieve Love. Genevieve Love is the one that played Beyonce with Champaigne and\n28 BeBe in the Destiny Child skit and they won at First Avenue.\n29 AJ: OK. So, Bee. You realized you were gay at two, when did you realize you were transgender?\nBreatta Bee Amore 11\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nBBA: Oh, when I found out I was transgender, I was hanging out with Deja. One 1 day she made me up\n2 and I couldn’t believe who I looked like. I looked like Angela Winbush or Diana Ross . . .\n3 AJ: Angela Winbush, Diana Ross.\n4 BBA: All the Black girls - Gladys Knight, all the girls. But, yeah, Deja . . .\n5 AJ: So, were you a performer too?\n6 BBA: Yeah, we all worked at the 90s.\n7 AJ: Really?\n8 BBA: Yeah. I got hired as one of the La Femme girls by Nina and Cee Cee Russell.\n9 AJ: OK.\n10 BBA: Child, they had me. OK, I moved from Central Avenue, I moved on to Hennepin, right across the\n11 street from the library in a high rise apartment here. There was a queen named Richard that\n12 lived in there and she would do shows at the Brass Rail. So, one day she . . . she just said,\n13 “Wow.” I did that for about a month, that was before she asked me to do a show for her at the\n14 Brass Rail. I did not know it was going to be whole review show, for a whole 30 days. They\n15 wanted me bad.\n16 AJ: So, you thought it was just going to be like one night, and it was for 30 days. A whole review.\n17 BBA: Girl, I made like $20,000.\n18 AJ: Is that right? For 30 days?\n19 BBA: Yeah.\n20 AJ: Oh, my goodness.\n21 BBA: Had my name on the building and inside the bar, across the bar – it was going this way, that\n22 way. [Inaudible 17:25] what my performance was, Deja performed with us too, but they were\n23 really taking me because I could really perform so, Nina and Cee Cee came to see my show and\n24 that’s when they told me to come join the 90s and I performed there. I performed at the 90s,\n25 downstairs on Wednesday night. You know, on Wednesday nights downstairs [inaudible 17:55].\n26 So, I performed there and then Nina called me on the telephone after I got home, right after she\n27 got home from the 90s, and told me, “I want to make you a La Femme girl because you can\n28 really perform.”\n29 AJ: Oh, wow. Oh, my goodness. So, you used to do Glady Knight, Diana Ross?\n30 BBA: Right, Diana Ross.\n31 AJ: Diana Ross.\n32 BBA: I used to do Natalie Cole.\n33 AJ: Natalie Cole.\nBreatta Bee Amore 12\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nBBA: Natalie Cole – 1 and Angela Winbush.\n2 AJ: Oh, right.\n3 BBA: Anita Baker and . . . let’s see, who else was there? There was one party I went to that’s when I\n4 did a Mahalia Jackson song.\n5 AJ: Really?\n6 BBA: Yeah.\n7 AJ: How Great Thou Art?\n8 BBA: Yeah.\n9 AJ: Wow, that’s beautiful. So, you were saying, though, that Deja is the one – she made you up and\n10 you just felt really comfortable?\n11 BBA: Yeah, more comfortable and I looked good. We used to go out and I’m going to tell you\n12 something about Deja. I met her at a Gay Pride event.\n13 AJ: At a Gay Pride event?\n14 BBA: Yeah, at Minnehaha Falls park.\n15 AJ: Yeah, I think I remember that event – I was there.\n16 BBA: An AIDS walk and a picnic.\n17 AJ: AIDS walk and a picnic, yes.\n18 BBA: At the picnic, I saw Deja playing with four little kids. This was when I was working for Tom and . .\n19 . what’s his name? The name is making me . . . what’s his name again? He had Minnesota Men\n20 of Color – what was that man’s name?\n21 AJ: Oh, Nick.\n22 BBA: Yeah, Nick Metcalf and Tom. OK, they took me to the AIDS walk and the picnic and that’s where\n23 I saw Deja.\n24 AJ: Roxanne used to work there to.\n25 BBA: Yeah, she worked there with us when me and Deja worked there. I think another person . . . it\n26 wasn’t Anna . . . the one that wore the brim hat with the little glasses – her. Dark-haired girl\n27 with the round-rimmed glasses.\n28 AJ: Rochelle?\n29 BBA: Is that her name?\n30 AJ: She hangs out with . . . does she hang out with . . .\n31 BBA: I need some water.\nBreatta Bee Amore 13\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nAJ: Now remember you’ve got your 1 microphone on.\n2 BBA: I know I’ve got to take it off before I get some water . . .\n3 AJ: Hang on, where’s your water? Maybe I can just grab it for you.\n4 BBA: I have to go upstairs and get some, I think.\n5 AJ: Oh, OK. Well, let me stop the tape for a minute then.\n6 BBA: My mouth is getting dry.\n7 AJ: So, we are back – got some water, feeling a little better?\n8 BBA: Yes, thank you, Andrea.\n9 AJ: No problem. So, you know, you were kind of telling me about Deja and how she . . .\n10 BBA: Oh, yeah. Deja was a very good influence on me. I knew she worked, I knew she did it on her\n11 own, but what happened to Deja, she got evicted from her apartment so she ended up moving\n12 in with me. We became the very best of friends.\n13 AJ: And this was after you guys met at the AIDS event over at Minnehaha Park.\n14 BBA: Yeah. She was working for Macys but they fired her, I don’t know why. Maybe they found out\n15 she was a man so they fired her. She had a lawsuit against the company too about that. I think\n16 she finally won that and then that’s when she moved to Vegas.\n17 AJ: OK.\n18 BBA: But, what I really want to do, Andrea, is go back to work, go work out at the gym, save some\n19 money, get me a car, and travel to see Deja and the rest of my family. Like Kenaday . . .\n20 AJ: Like who?\n21 BBA: Kenaday.\n22 AJ: Kenaday? I don’t remember . . .\n23 BBA: You don’t remember Kenaday Williams, she used to be up here from Houston, Texas.\n24 AJ: I don’t think I remember Kenaday.\n25 BBA: She used to be with me and Deja all the time.\n26 AJ: Really? OK.\n27 BBA: Me and Deja went out five years straight - every night for five years straight.\n28 AJ: Every night? Seven days a week?\n29 BBA: Every night. Yes, every day of the week for five years straight.\n30 AJ: Wow.\nBreatta Bee Amore 14\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nBBA: After that, then that’s when she moved to Las Vegas. That’s why I’m missing 1 her – a lot of grand\n2 times with her.\n3 AJ: I know, I loved Deja.\n4 BBA: Every night.\n5 AJ: I miss her so much.\n6 BBA: The Saloon every night, Exchange every night, Brass Rail every night. We loved it, I just loved it.\n7 AJ: So, let me ask you a personal question, Bee, and you don’t have to answer it – only if you want\n8 to, but are you HIV positive?\n9 BBA: I have full-blown AIDS and I’ve been living with it since 1993.\n10 AJ: Really?\n11 BBA: Yes.\n12 AJ: That’s a long time.\n13 BBA: The reason why I’m living with it is, still living, is because the doctor says I’m non-detectable and\n14 everything and I’ve taken a low dose of medicine for the last 15 years now.\n15 AJ: Is that right?\n16 BBA: Yeah.\n17 AJ: Wow. Man, AZT . . . is that . . .?\n18 BBA: No, they don’t have that no more. That killed my friend, Eric – that killed Eric. They had that –\n19 that was the first drug for AIDS and HIV, but it was still killing people.\n20 AJ: Wow. What kind of medication do you take?\n21 BBA: They’ve got very advanced new drugs now and I take six regiments of AIDS medicine and two of\n22 them are in one pill and four of them in one pill.\n23 AJ: So, you only take two pills?\n24 BBA: No, I take five pills – like vitamins, but those two I take every day. Every morning and if I miss it,\n25 I take it in the afternoon or at night. It gives me a boost of energy.\n26 AJ: Yeah, you look good.\n27 BBA: Well, thank you. I try to keep myself looking good.\n28 AJ: Wow, since 1993. That’s quite a long time.\n29 BBA: I contracted HIV in 1990 and I went [inaudible 24:48] and then I contracted AIDS in 1993. But,\n30 they started me on medicine when I was HIV-positive too and they said that helped a lot too.\n31 AJ: Right. So, if your viral loads are undetectable, does that still mean you have full-blown AIDS?\nBreatta Bee Amore 15\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nBBA: Yes, it just can’t be spread as quick anymore. That’s the benefit, it can’t 1 spread as fast.\n2 AJ: How do you think the impact of being Black, being transgender, and having HIV and AIDS has\n3 affected your life?\n4 BBA: Well, my life has been . . . since I found out I had this, up and down. [inaudible 25:48]\n5 AJ: Can I ask you to just speak a little bit louder.\n6 BBA: OK. My life has been like an up and down battle since I found out I have this. Back about 15\n7 years ago, I was on street drugs every day, that didn’t help me out any. That brought me further\n8 down.\n9 AJ: When you say street drugs, you mean like cocaine and . . .\n10 BBA: Yeah, cocaine and acid and pills. But, I’ve been clean and sober since 2003.\n11 AJ: Nice.\n12 BBA: That life didn’t help me at all.\n13 AJ: Right. Has it affected your ability to find work?\n14 BBA: No, it hasn’t done that – they all know I’m a transsexual. All my jobs I had, I would tell them I\n15 was transsexual.\n16 AJ: OK.\n17 BBA: There wasn’t no problem because of that. It was my . . . I’m not sure it helped when I got sick\n18 and I called in.\n19 AJ: You’re sick, yeah. And then you would lose your job?\n20 BBA: Well, my one job kept me for many years – I worked that job for five years. I got sick and I was\n21 in the hospital for a week and that job paid me for being out that week too.\n22 AJ: Wow.\n23 BBA: I had no problem with employment here in Minneapolis.\n24 AJ: What kind of work did you do?\n25 BBA: Well, I do computer work, I worked in a NutraSweet plant.\n26 AJ: In a which kind of plant?\n27 BBA: NutraSweet – sugar.\n28 AJ: Oh, NutraSweet. OK.\n29 BBA: A NutraSweet plant. I worked for the Minnesota Twins in the two World Series they had.\n30 AJ: Really? That was fun.\n31 BBA: Yeah, I was at the MetroDome, I worked two jobs there – concessions, selling brats and beer.\nBreatta Bee Amore 16\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\n1 AJ: OK.\n2 BBA: And then I worked cleaning the seats too. I got any old job – any old job. I met Kirby Puckett.\n3 AJ: Really?\n4 BBA: I was a batboy for the Minnesota World Series.\n5 AJ: You were the bat boy? Really?\n6 BBA: Yeah.\n7 AJ: At the World Series?\n8 BBA: Yes – both of them.\n9 AJ: Both of them.\n10 BBA: Kirby Puckett was a good friend of mine.\n11 AJ: So, you were good friends with Kirby?\n12 BBA: Yes.\n13 AJ: Actually, I grew up in the same neighborhood as Kirby Puckett in Chicago.\n14 BBA: Yeah, yeah – he’s from Chicago.\n15 AJ: He went to Calumet High School and I used to live right around the corner from Calumet.\n16 BBA: Yeah, he sure did. I have some cousins that went there – they still go there.\n17 AJ: Really?\n18 BBA: Yeah, they’re going there right now.\n19 AJ: Is that right?\n20 BBA: I’ve got one cousin that’s 17, he’s in the school. I was raised well - I was raised very well. I was\n21 raised good by my mom and my grandmother. Now, the reason why I talk about my\n22 grandmother more than anyone else is because she was my heart. I miss her, but I still know\n23 she’s looking over me and everything. When I was coming up with her, it was a wonderful\n24 experience.\n25 AJ: Is your mom still alive?\n26 BBA: No, all my parents and grandparents are gone now. The only ones from my immediate family\n27 are me and my two brothers.\n28 AJ: Really? Did your mom or your dad know that you were transgender?\n29 BBA: Yeah, my mom did; my dad didn’t – my dad was long dead when I . . .\n30 AJ: When you came out.\nBreatta Bee Amore 17\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nBBA: No, when I came out . . . he knew when 1 I came out . . .\n2 AJ: As gay, but not as a woman.\n3 BBA: Not as a woman, no. He didn’t know [inaudible 29:45].\n4 AJ: So, did your brothers and sisters . . . they know.\n5 BBA: Yeah, they know.\n6 AJ: Do you guys still talk? Do you guys get along?\n7 BBA: Yeah, my brothers and sisters love me.\n8 AJ: Really?\n9 BBA: Yeah, they like the way I am.\n10 AJ: Yeah, I love it – that’s beautiful.\n11 BBA: They like it too. I went home for the first time as a trans woman in 2012. I didn’t think I would\n12 be accepted as well as I thought I was. My cousin, my female cousin, Joyce, I walked in the\n13 house and she said, “Oh, my goodness – whoa, you looking fine. You must have a good life up\n14 there in Minnesota the way you’re looking girl.” My middle cousin said, “You look more like a\n15 woman than you ever did.” “Oh, shit.” And my brother, he said that too. I look like my mama\n16 and he said, “Damn, you look exactly like our mama now.” Crazy boy. “You look like mama\n17 now,” he tells me.\n18 AJ: Oh, wow.\n19 BBA: I love my family.\n20 AJ: That’s good.\n21 BBA: I got some that don’t accept the way I am, they’re church-going people . . . deacons, you know,\n22 but I can understand where they’re coming from, they’re living for the Lord. I believe in God, I\n23 always have. Just because I’m a trans don’t mean . . .\n24 AJ: Right. Do you go to church now?\n25 BBA: Oh, yeah, I still go to church. I’m going to church this Sunday. There’s a church right here in\n26 Richfield here that I go to, it’s called East Side Baptist Church, it’s on 62nd and Oliver.\n27 AJ: East Side Baptist Church.\n28 BBA: 62nd and Oliver – you know where the freeway is?\n29 AJ: Yeah.\n30 BBA: That’s the street behind the freeway, the church is right behind the freeway over there.\n31 AJ: Really?\n32 BBA: You can park right there by the freeway fence too.\nBreatta Bee Amore 18\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nAJ: I know, I’ve 1 been around there.\n2 BBA: There’s the church parking lot.\n3 AJ: And the people at the church are pretty nice to you?\n4 BBA: Yeah, they’re crazy about me. I love people. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have no friends.\n5 AJ: Right.\n6 BBA: I love good people – people with heart and soul.\n7 AJ: Wow. So, do the police harass you for being transgender?\n8 BBA: No. Do you know what happened to me? We went to see Patty LaBelle on the 14th of last\n9 month. I was dressed as a woman and I had to go to the bathroom.\n10 AJ: Right.\n11 BBA: So, one of the people that worked there, I went downstairs and I went in the women’s\n12 bathroom and she told me I couldn’t do in there. I said, “I’m here dressed as a woman, I’m\n13 going to the woman’s bathroom. If I go in the men’s bathroom, they’re going to wonder why\n14 I’m in there and they’re going to harass me.” So, that’s why I went to the women’s bathroom –\n15 to avoid all the harassment, and they find out I’m a guy I might get killed by somebody in the\n16 bathroom.\n17 AJ: Right, exactly.\n18 BBA: Men are very, very suspicious.\n19 AJ: Was this at a casino?\n20 BBA: No, this was at the State Theatre.\n21 AJ: Oh, downtown at the State Theatre. OK.\n22 BBA: She was talking so loud while I was going to the bathroom and the police came to the top of the\n23 stairs and waited until I came back upstairs. He didn’t say two words to me because he thought\n24 I was a real girl.\n25 AJ: Yeah. So, no real harassment.\n26 BBA: I used to get harassed when I first started transitioning, but see Deja helped me come out of\n27 that. “What are people going to say? They’re going to say it anyway, you’re going to keep on\n28 living and breathing.” That’s what Deja taught me.\n29 AJ: So, Deja is like your mentor? Your sister?\n30 BBA: She was a good . . . she is a sister to me and I miss her so much. It’s like I said, if I ever get my\n31 stuff together, get my car, take the transfer all over from New York to LA, then I’ll go see her.\n32 AJ: Wow. So, can I ask you this question – and again, only answer it to the extent that you feel\n33 comfortable, but have you done any medical things as a part of your transition?\nBreatta Bee Amore 19\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nBBA: No, I’m working 1 on that right now.\n2 AJ: OK, really?\n3 BBA: I’m on a lot of hormones.\n4 AJ: You’re on hormones, OK.\n5 BBA: Dr. Deborah Thorpe at Park Nicollet Clinic, she got me on six hormone . . .\n6 AJ: Dr. Deborah Thorpe. What’s the name of her clinic?\n7 BBA: Park Nicollet.\n8 AJ: Park Nicollet – yeah, yeah, yeah.\n9 BBA: Yeah, Park Nicollet and she’s got me on six hormones now. I started with two and went all the\n10 way up to six. I feel great.\n11 AJ: You feel good.\n12 BBA: Feel great.\n13 AJ: Have you had, or are you thinking about having any surgeries at all?\n14 BBA: Yeah, I think about it.\n15 AJ: Yeah, cool. Looking back on your decision to express your true gender identity, Bee, would you\n16 do it all over again?\n17 BBA: Yes, I would. I would do it over again and even better.\n18 AJ: Even better.\n19 BBA: Even better, I would. I had so much fun doing it with Deja. It’s good to do it with somebody,\n20 especially another transgender person that you can call a friend, that made it seem like it was so\n21 much smoother and easier to come out being with her.\n22 AJ: What about relationships? Are you in a relationship?\n23 BBA: Well, I have had a few relationships. I had one relationship when Deja was living with me and I\n24 had a guy named, Gary, living with me.\n25 AJ: So, David?\n26 BBA: No, his name was Gary.\n27 AJ: Gary, OK.\n28 BBA: He lived with me and Deja when I had my apartment. OK, this guy would come and tell me Deja\n29 was hitting on him and Deja would come tell me he was hitting on her. So, I put them both out.\n30 I put them out and I ain’t seen Gary . . . he tried to break my door down to get his clothes, but\n31 he came back with the police and got them. And then Deja moved in with Richard, Richard\n32 Judge.\nBreatta Bee Amore 20\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nAJ: Yeah, Richard – another good friend of ours. 1 Richard Judge.\n2 BBA: Yeah, he’s doing good I heard too.\n3 AJ: Yeah, he is.\n4 BBA: I was always crazy for him. Do you know Gus and Larkin?\n5 AJ: What’s his name?\n6 BBA: Gus and Larkin – do you know them two?\n7 AJ: Gus and Larkin? I don’t know those two.\n8 BBA: You might know who Gus is, he’s from Chicago.\n9 AJ: I might.\n10 BBA: Gus is from Chicago and Larkin is from here and they used to live . . . they used to give after\n11 parties on Franklin and . . . was it Clinton? Yeah, Clinton and Franklin.\n12 AJ: OK.\n13 BBA: They’d have after parties there, after the bar closed.\n14 AJ: Right.\n15 BBA: They’d charge $2 or $3 to get in . . .\n16 AJ: To get in . . .\n17 BBA: Buy your drinks and food and party all night.\n18 AJ: Drinks and food and have fun all night. Are you in a relationship now?\n19 BBA: No, not now. I’m waiting to get my dentures.\n20 AJ: OK.\n21 BBA: I had all my teeth pulled out and I’m getting dentures pretty soon here.\n22 AJ: Pretty soon.\n23 BBA: So, I’m definitely going to get my teeth and then go on a manhunt.\n24 AJ: So, do you date men? Women?\n25 BBA: No, I date men, I don’t date women. I’ll go out with women and have fun with them, but no\n26 dating, no sex with women – none of that.\n27 AJ: None of that.\n28 BBA: Nope, none of that, Andrea.\n29 AJ: Wow.\nBreatta Bee Amore 21\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nBBA: 1 Wait, Andrea. OK.\n2 AJ: So, Bee, do you ever think about . . . and I know you’ve identified as gay in the past, what do you\n3 think the relationship is between the gay community and the trans community?\n4 BBA: Well, I think I see similarities but gays, gay people, don’t dress as girls – they dress as guys. They\n5 look like girls but they [inaudible 38:42]. I understand that life, I lived it. It was fun doing that\n6 too.\n7 AJ: Right.\n8 BBA: I had my two best friends from doing that with.\n9 AJ: Yup – Eric and Ed.\n10 BBA: Right. We were real butch bunnies in Chicago and I loved it – just loved it. It happened in the\n11 1970s, you can just imagine how much fun we had those years.\n12 AJ: In the 1970s, exactly.\n13 BBA: Dancing every night.\n14 (pause)\n15 AJ: All right, Bee, I am loving this conversation. It’s so good to get to know you a little bit better.\n16 BBA: It’s better to get to know you too. I always thought you were one awesome person.\n17 AJ: Well, thank you so, so much. I really appreciate it. So, Bee, when you think about being\n18 transgender, what are some of the most challenging parts for you?\n19 BBA: The most challenging part is when I go somewhere by myself, I hope people wouldn’t try to hurt\n20 me or harass me or . . . you know, like a drive by to me or anything. It’s very dangerous.\n21 AJ: That happens to a lot of young transgender girls.\n22 BBA: I’ve heard a lot about it and I’ve seen it happen in Chicago before, many times. I’ve been trying\n23 to stay on the straight and narrow and not mess with the wrong crowd and get in trouble. I’m\n24 all about that. I want to live my life and grow old – grow old gracefully, not recklessly.\n25 AJ: Yes, exactly. So, that’s one concern – are there other things that you worry about or think\n26 about?\n27 BBA: Yeah, I worry a lot about my family, my friends – like you, I think about you a lot, Deja a lot.\n28 Girlfriends, all the good people . . . you’re one of the good ones, Andrea. I think about you, I\n29 know you’re doing good and you’re looking good.\n30 AJ: I’m doing OK, I’m doing OK.\n31 BBA: Sometimes when I’d go to that group at the Exchange, I kind of miss not being there.\n32 AJ: Really? So, there’s a group at the Exchange. Tell me about it.\nBreatta Bee Amore 22\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nBBA: OK, the Exchange is a wonderful place for transsexuals to go to. Now we have 1 two up here – the\n2 Union and the Exchange.\n3 AJ: And the Exchange, which is at 34th and Chicago, right?\n4 BBA: Yeah, SouthSide.\n5 AJ: It’s part of Café SouthSide.\n6 BBA: Yeah, it’s part of Café SouthSide. There used to be a thrift store upstairs but that’s moved out\n7 now. The Exchange is still downstairs.\n8 AJ: So, the group is all transgender people? Men and women?\n9 BBA: Men and women, yes. They take all. I have met a trans girl named Max.\n10 AJ: Max?\n11 BBA: She used to be a girl. Now, there’s another one that comes there, she’s got a full beard.\n12 AJ: Oh, wow.\n13 BBA: She’s on male hormones, that’s why she has a full beard on her face.\n14 AJ: OK. So, she identifies as a guy?\n15 BBA: Yes. [inaudible 42:46]\n16 AJ: So, you should probably call her a him then.\n17 BBA: Yeah, I do call her him. I call her boy – I don’t call her a woman; she don’t look like no woman,\n18 she looks like a man.\n19 AJ: Right.\n20 BBA: I’ve got some gays in my family too, Andrea. I’m a transsexual, and there’s another one like me,\n21 a drag queen – there’s two of them.\n22 AJ: Oh, really? In Chicago or Milwaukee?\n23 BBA: They live in Milwaukee. My cousin that’s gay in Chicago, he’s a butch bunny.\n24 AJ: What’s a butch bunny.\n25 BBA: A butch boy – a boy gay. He dresses like a guy, but he looks like a woman.\n26 AJ: Oh, really. OK. What’s the most positive thing for you about being transgender?\n27 BBA: Most positive thing is it just feels good to live your life. It feels wonderful to be me.\n28 AJ: Yes.\n29 BBA: I’m happy with who I am because I’ve been this way since I can remember and now that I’m\n30 trans, I feel a lot more comfortable in my skin, I feel wonderful all the time. I thank the Lord for\n31 raising me up and being this way.\nBreatta Bee Amore 23\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\nAJ: I can see the joy in your face when 1 you say that.\n2 BBA: Well, you know, I’m just blessed. Every day when I wake up, Andrea, there’s three things I do.\n3 When I first get out of bed, I dropped to my knees and pray that things will pick me up. I read a\n4 verse in my Bible and I read a verse in my AA manual.\n5 AJ: In your . . .?\n6 BBA: AA manual – yeah, you know, Alcoholics Anonymous . . . I read a verse in that and my Bible and\n7 then I pray.\n8 AJ: Wow.\n9 BBA: And my day works out a lot better if I do that.\n10 AJ: Gratitude, right? You’ve got to be grateful, thankful.\n11 BBA: Yeah, that’s true.\n12 AJ: Bee, the last question. So, when you think about the transgender community, what do you\n13 think it’s going to be like for transgender people 50 years from now?\n14 BBA: It’s going to be awesome. Andrea, I think it’s going to be skyrocketing to the heavens, that’s\n15 what I think about the transgender life. It’s wonderful to be this way – as long as you’re not\n16 conniving and scheming, you want to live on a positive note with what you are and make\n17 yourself a better person.\n18 AJ: Do you think transgender people are going to be more accepted and be able to get jobs and be\n19 able to get their own house and be able to get access to health care.\n20 BBA: I think in the next 50 years, Andrea, they should be equal with any other person.\n21 AJ: There you go. Full equality.\n22 BBA: Housing, adopt kids . . .\n23 AJ: Getting married.\n24 BBA: Yeah, getting married – if that’s your choice.\n25 AJ: If that’s your choice.\n26 BBA: I almost got married to my partner.\n27 AJ: Really?\n28 BBA: I broke it off because he was an alcoholic. What happened, I was with my partner, my last one,\n29 for 15 years and we were going to get married but he started drinking. I was watching on\n30 television and I seen these two African kids – the little girl was 7 and the little boy was 2. When\n31 they showed those commercials on the television, the African boy was asleep and when he\n32 woke up his whole family was dead except him. He had to run to another village, to his aunt –\n33 he ran and [inaudible 46:10]. Now, the little girl, she was 7. She wasn’t home when all her\n34 family got killed in a tent. When she went home and found them dead, she ran to another\nBreatta Bee Amore 24\nThe Transgender Oral History Project Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies\nUniversity of Minnesota\ncountry to her aunt’s house – another country, I was like, “Oh, that little girl 1 gone, she ran to\n2 another country.” She didn’t have nothing but her thin gown on her.\n3 AJ: Little nightgown.\n4 BBA: She had a nightgown on, it was white and you could see right through it. I wanted to adopt\n5 those two kids but my partner was drinking so much and I didn’t want no kids being subjected to\n6 being around an alcoholic on top of everything else, the marriage and the adoption of kids.\n7 AJ: Oh, boy. Bee, is there anything that I did not ask you that you really want people to know about\n8 you, about your life, about being transgender, about living with HIV/AIDS, about being Black?\n9 Anything that you . . .\n10 BBA: Yeah, that’s probably [inaudible 47:26] being Black and transgender. That [inaudible 47:48] I am\n11 Black and transgender.\n12 AJ: Right.\n13 BBA: But, when I go out in public, I don’t get no harassment like I used to. They just think I’m a\n14 female.\n15 AJ: When you’re in public – yeah.\n16 BBA: They think I’m a girl, so I I’m going to let them think that – I want them to think that anyway.\n17 AJ: Wow.\n18 BBA: It’s been a wonderful experience for me.\n19 AJ: That’s wonderful. I’m so happy to hear that, Bee – I really am. Well, listen, I thank you so much\n20 for sharing this time with me and sharing yourself with everybody.\n21 BBA: Anytime – I’ll tell you more, girl. I’ll tell you about all my family and all the years I traveled\n22 around the world twice – everything. I mean, being gay and since I came out, it’s just been a\n23 wonderful life.\n24 AJ: Thank you. All right, dear. Talk to you soon. Bye-bye.\n25 BBA: Bye-bye, darling.", "_version_": 1710339103032082432, "type": "Moving Image", "collection": "p16022coll97", "is_compound": false, "parent_id": "176", "thumb_url": "https://cdnapisec.kaltura.com/p/1369852/thumbnail/entry_id/0_7t6bbl47", "thumb_cdn_url": "https://dkp5i0hinw9br.cloudfront.net/48dda8eb3a3c91c992c55a4b47f59beb95d5edb4.png", "children": [ ] }