Lexter's "Freedom to Love" bounced behind us as I perused Rolanda's wares. She eage rly gave me the tour while the others whispered, smoked and looked nervous. I pulled a bottle of Evian from my bag, took out a notepad and my cell phone and asked if I could look at the products she was going to use and if I could photograph them. Where the living room screamed party, the kitchen had an aura of fluorescent-lit efficiency that reminded me of corner-doctors' offices I had visited as a child. The tricks of Rolanda's trade were laid out on the kitchen table just beyond the living room. She left home at 16, kicked out by a stepfather ("He wasn't married to m y mom, so I don't know why she always called him my stepfather"), who ridiculed her for being a "he -she." Now 24, Rolanda is a veritable high priestess of the pump and all the other goodies that help a penniless TG to enter looking androgynous and leave looking high femme or more butch. They remained in the corner, trying to look as tough as their 16 - or 17- year-old selves could muster. At the end of our conversation, I agreedĭevon and Jeron. We sat for 45 m inutes in my car and talked about Rolanda's life.
You have to wr ite about me," she said, with the earnest sureness that her story was one I wanted to tell. She was, she said, "a fan." "When I heard your name in the post office and I j ust had to meet you. A conversation ensued in which she told me she had attended a recent book signing of mine and read my work regularly. "Are you Victoria Brownworth? Really?" her voice was charmingly excited. I turned around to see a young African-American woman with very elaborate hair who w as a little too stylishly dressed for daytime, waving and rushing toward me.
"Miss Victoria, Miss Victoria!" Her voice was low and drag-queen se xy-breathy. The conversation had started because Paris had been behind me in line at the post office and heard my name as I picked up my package. Rolanda Paris* had invited me to the party after we struck up a conversation outside the post office one warm afternoon. Brownworth and Philadelphia Gay News I wasn't at all sure what to expect when I was invited to my first pumping party. Brownworth PGN Contributor © 2008 Victoria A. Second of a two-part series By Victoria A.
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