Major! Page #6

prison located

in western New York.

It ended with the bloodiest

prison confrontation

in American history.

For five days, thirteen hundred

prisoners rebelled,

took over the prison,

and held forty guards hostage.

They made a list of demands,

the prisoners,

including improvements in

living co

and training opportunities

and centered into negotiations

with state officials.

The negotiations failed

and state police

and National Guard troops

seized the prison.

In the course of taking it

over they killed

forty-three individuals,

including ten of the hostages.

I met Black and the guys

who were from Attica

who had got the riots

started when they sent them

to Dannemora to the hole

where they had been housing me.

That's when I got to meet them

and talk with them,

and developed some

very lasting

and good relationships

with them.

They opened my eyes

to different things that were

going on

as to how I was helping

the system to survive

and not helping

my community survive.

I was just talking to Miss Major

a few minutes ago

and I noticed in the bio

that she became politicized

in Attica and I said

I didn't realize that.

And then we started talking

and she was pointing out

that Black, Big Black,

Frank Smith was

the one who really encouraged

her to think about

all of these issues

in a much broader way.

And so I said well, of course,

it makes so much sense.

We're all connected, aren't we?

Yes dear?

Hi Miss Major, in Attica,

your acceptance, Frank BB Smith,

was my stepfather.

Oh how wonderful!

So you're like the first

trans person outside

of him accepting me,

that I probably heard

a story about him.

Listen, I'm thinking about

driving up so you

and I can go see Black's...

When?

I'd like for you to

take me to his grave.

I want to give him my respect

and let him know that I met you.

Oh, yeah.

He was such an important

part of my life.

By the time my mother

got with him, he was

already doing law work,

he had got out of

That was after Attica.

Yeah, that was after Attica.

I had been hearing about her

for years, but I had never

actually had the experience

of meeting her, one,

but ever hearing

this story about Attica.

All I knew was Frank

was monumental

in this whole riot thing.

But that's as far as it went.

Frank had never told me,

he just said,

"I had a friend

who was like you,

and believe it or not,

I was locked up."

And it wa

'cause I ran away --

he came and got me; actually,

he found me, don't ask me how.

But he found me, and he

sat me down and he explained,

"You're a girl."

And I went, "Huh?"

and he said, "Well,

you can't tell your mother this,

but that's what's

going on inside you.

And you want to live this,

that's why you're doing

certain things your mother

doesn't agree to.

Like wearing her clothes,

like wearing her heels."

None of it made sense to me,

he kind of put

that picture together,

and got me back into the house.

But somehow him telling

my mother how much stuff

he had went through in Attica

all related to Miss Major.

Yeah.

And their friendship wasn't

something that was sexual,

it was a real friendship.

I don't know, maybe it was.

Yeah, no -- we just talked --

You see, I had to

jump back and look --

You never know up in Attica.

Yeah, we talked a lot,

because he's the one

who made me politically aware

of all the sh*t that was

going on, and what I can do

to get my girls together

to go through it.

So while he did what

he was doing with

the Five-Percenters

and the Muslims;

I was working with

the transgender girls in prison.

And we were together,

he was really

a wonderful, wonderful man.

How were they with

the transgender girls in prison?

Shady as f***ing sh*t.

So, normal.

At first, when I met Major,

he basically was a loner.

He did not trust

many people at all.

He always thought

that somebody was after him,

or somebody had a hidden agenda.

But little by little,

he began to open up.

I was doing drag shows,

and it was with this group,

and one of the guys in the group

introduced me to Debbie,

and then Debbie and I slowly

became really close friends,

and then we started

hanging out and stuff.

Major always tried to build up

my self-esteem,

as a young, Black woman.

Major did a lot of shows.

He was with a group

called The Cherries.

And I use

putting on the makeup.

As a matter of fact,

I think that's where I learned

how to apply makeup myself.

It was what I would call

a really cool relationship

that developed

into so much more.

It developed into camaraderie,

and then it developed into love,

and several years later,

I would say a good

five years later, we decided

there should be something

of both of us in this world.

And we decided it was time

that we moved in together,

and we started a life together.

At the time I had never slept

with any women at all.

And we were just sitting

one day looking out the window

at the Hudson, and

the sailboats on it and stuff.

I was holding her,

and something came up

and she started crying,

I told her not to cry,

I kissed her on the cheek,

and bingo.

You know.

So it wasn't

as horrible as I had

heard it was going to be,

so I was like, oh,

this isn't as bad as

they told me, child

I'm going again.

And the outcome was

we had a beautiful,

bouncing baby boy in 1978.

And we still co-parent.

Now, Chri

but whenever there is

something going on in his life,

Major and I, we talk about it.

This is what parents do.

No matter whether you are

transgendered or straight,

bisexual, no matter what.

You have responsibilities.

And Major has always met

his responsibilities

when it comes to being a father.

Major is an excellent father.

Yeah,

he's just the light of my life.

And he was born heavy.

You know how babies are

all wrinkly and skinny and ugly

and they go "oh they're

so cute," they look like

little rodents, you know

what I mean? Ew!

Christopher was a baybee,

and his face was all smooth

and lovely and kissable,

it was just so wonderful.

I mean who expected me

to have a child, you know?

That was just

the most amazing thing going.

And I lost a lot of

girlfriends in New York,

when I told them

that Debbie was pregnant.

They just thought as if

I had slapped them

in the face or something,

you know what I mean.

We moved out here to California,

He handled flying so cool.

I got the kind of carriage

for him w

And so people, if they

looked they would see

I had breasts and a baby.

And a beard.

And was in a man's suit.

Debbie moved out here,

we stayed together for a while,

and then it just didn't work,

you know, and so she went

back East to New York.

And she left Christopher

with me.

You know, and I felt

so honore

So we drove there together,

all three of us.

And I stayed until she got

an apartment and stuff there.

Then I came back out here

to California and then

when I got back out here

I thought okay, raising a baby

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