LISA SALAZAR — BLOG

Coincidental with my Class of 68’ 50th high school reunion, the reports of Republicans bullying Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who question her memory of the attempted rape by Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, has thrown me into a bit of depression. I’ve been triggered. I am here, in a motel room in San Jose, California, where my high school reunion is to take place in an hour. Earlier this afternoon, I drove to the two locations where I was sexually abused and raped. I  remember all the details. I may not know the name of my attackers, but my body and brain remember how it felt to be forced to masturbate a man who was one of my paper route customers. I was 12 years old. I resist the compulsion to wash my hands for, God only knows, the millionth time. Then there was the rape when I was 15 years old. Someone who purported to want to help me audition as a rhythm-guitar player in a garage band and had offered to drive me to a house in Willow Glen, a neighborhood in San J...

An unexpected (and unforgettable) end of story. A couple of weekends ago, I went to visit my Mom. My sister arrived unexpectedly a short time later with her grandson, who is eight years old. Figuring the last thing the little guy wanted to do on a summer afternoon was to sit indoors with three older women, I said, “Let’s walk to the convenience store at the gas station; it’s only three blocks away, I’ll buy you a candy bar.” My niece's son... He gave me hope for the future.  We trundled off talking about candy, and as we passed the elementary school a block away, he asked, “How old are you?” Hum, I thought to myself, I wonder why he wants to know my age? “I’m sixty-seven, almost sixty-eight,” I replied. “Oh, then you’re older than my dad. He’s fifty-one,” he remarked. Then he asked, “Do you have any children?” At this point, I realized I had never spoken to my niece, his mother, about how much and how soon he should be informed about my ‘real’ position in the family ...

I took a leap of faith on the third Saturday in July 2008. It was either that or leap to my death. As scared as I was of what lay ahead, it was less frightening than the thought of never having experienced what it felt like to live authentically. I'm happy to still be here, as Lisa. A topic garnering much attention in social sciences is intersectionality, the categorizations of race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group. It is regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage. Add to this idea the questions we ask and the answers we get as we explore our world as children and in our youth. What assumptions, expectations, and conclusions do we draw? Do they set us up for success or failure? Same-sex attracted and trans and non-binary persons navigate and view life through a lens that often makes them imagine a future that is frightening. Fear of rejection, ridicule, and abandonmen...

Trigger Warning: Death by Suicide Officiating a friend’s Celebration of Life was an honour, but it shouldn’t have been necessary. I have been growing increasingly angry, and I want to lash out at the injustice and ignorance that has now claimed the life of someone I was becoming friends with. She was a fellow trans sister. Katterina was from Nova Scotia and transitioned socially and medically about six years ago. As is the case for many married trans people, she, too, went through a divorce. She was an electrician by trade. After finding her work being sabotaged and her tools disappearing from the work sites, she moved to BC. She spoke to Morgane Oger of Trans Alliance in Vancouver, who assured her that the trade unions in BC had zero tolerance for that kind of crap. Moving to Vancouver seemed like the only way to find peace of mind, yet she hated being separated from her parents and her adult children. She packed up her belonging into her brand-new Toyota Corolla and drove across the ...

Added a Postscript at 8:00 p.m. PDT on April 25, 2018 Five years ago, I spent a week in Fort Lauderdale to attend a trans-related medical symposium. One of the event’s highlights was meeting Jazz Jenning and her mother in person. Jazz is a well-known trans girl who became famous when Barbara Walters interviewed her in 2008 at five. In her late teens, she starred in her reality TV series, “I am Jazz.” The other highlight was staying with my first cousin, Carlos, and his wife, who live in Ft. Lauderdale. Carlos drove me to the airport on Tuesday for my return trip to Vancouver via Chicago. As he pulled away, my phone vibrated. A text message from United Airlines told me my 4:15 flight to Chicago was delayed until after 7:00 p.m. I panicked.  I rushed into the airport and went to the United Airlines ticket counter. I told them I had a problem. I was scheduled to catch a connecting flight from Chicago to Vancouver at about the same time I would be boarding the plane in Ft. Lauderd...