These days, I work the Meat District--it's just north of the West Village. It's a neighborhood. They've got a lot of meat processing companies down here, so they call it the Meat District. At night, it's all prostitutes, mostly transvestites. The money's very good. You have to remember, if you get guys, you get like $120 to $150 each guy--a minimum of $100 each guy--and you can get like ten guys in a night. It's like at least $700 a night out here. A slow night--if it's cold or raining or snowing--maybe I make $300, $200. But that's a slow night. I make $700 a night regular. It's a great deal. Some girls that roll guys, they may get a $1000 in one roll, but I don't do things like that.

I've been a woman for twenty years. That's when I got my breasts. Yes, honey--old school. I have no silicone.

I went to prison and did ten years for almost killing a guy. Someone who tried to fuck with me. I got out in '93. I was at Comstock, Greenhaven, Sing Sing, Rindy's--you name it, I've been in every max. With the big boys. I cut up my face there. As a transsexual in jail, I caused a lot of problems. I had a lot of problems. But I can hold my own. You understand what I'm trying to say? I cut like seven people while I was in prison. I was sentenced three-to-nine and I wound up doing ten years. Because I wasn't a goody goody nigga. I was quick to the knife.

See, when you live a life like this, it's very dangerous. It's not as glamorous and easy as people may think it is. You have a lot of wackos out here. You have a lot of nuts. You have a lot of everything.

You may meet people that wanna rob you. You may meet people that wanna beat you up. And being a transvestite, it's worse. You may meet people who wanna do anything to you. You understand what I'm trying to say to you? Transvestites can inspire the worst in people. Because they think they can get away with whatever they want with us.

When somebody fucks with you out here, you have to be quick and do what you have to do. I hold my own weight. I weigh like two hundred and ten pounds and I'm six feet tall. And I've been through a few brawls in the twenty years that I've been around. I don't have a pimp. Most transvestite prostitutes don't have pimps. Mostly that's just girls. Some of them do, though. Not me. I'm a free agent. (Laughs.) A pimp is unnecessary if you can hold your own.

Most of the transvestites out here now are into coke, so they'll smoke crack--you know--I'm being honest with you--they'll do certain things. But a lot of them live safer than what people think. I have a pocket full of condoms. Many of us use condoms. But a lot of us are sick, too. A lot. There are some that are HIV-positive. I mean, knock on wood--thank God, darling, I've never had a disease and I've been a prostitute twenty years.

You have johns that don't wanna wear them, but I don't do them. I don't care how much money they give. You don't wear a condom--and this is before I heard anything about AIDS--you go find yourself somebody else, because I don't want you. I don't know what kinda disease that you have or how many girls you've been with or how many prostitutes you have dealt with, so that's that. I can't do what other people do. I'm more or less into me.

I look after myself. You understand what I'm saying? I own a home. I own three cars. To be honest with you, my mother left me a little money. I have like $100,000 stashed--like $50,000 of that my mother left me. I had to pay 2% inheritance tax. The rest is earnings and investments. I'm not really vouching for nothing, but I have money stashed. I do this now just to be doing something. You know, you have something in your blood and you've done it so long--I'm not hurting for anything. I have a $150,000 home in Queens. So you know, I'm okay.

You have a lot of prostitutes that don't do all right because they have pimps, they use drugs, they live in the street, they do certain things. I did drugs--I'm not gonna lie to you. I've done things, I've been through it all. I've never shot nothing. But I've sniffed, I've smoked crack, I've been around--you know what I'm saying? There's not much in this life I haven't experienced yet.

But, one thing, I respect old people and I respect children. You know, because I feel children are the future, and old people are still here and they have to be wise to still be here. And as a transvestite, I don't believe in people hurting women, either. I've actually rolled guys for beating up women. Men can overpower women naturally. Transvestites live in both worlds, so we know what goes on. We are sympathetic. We know what it's like to be the victim. But most of us are pretty clever. You find a few things have happened to us, bad things, but most of us can hold our own weight.

You don't find that much killing. You find more killing with girl prostitutes. Most transvestites will fight back and most guys that pick up transvestites know that. If you're on the streets for a while, you'll run into certain things. You'll toughen up. Certain things will happen to you no matter what, and that can only make you a stronger person. When you're gay, you've spent most of your life fighting. Most of us have weapons. I carry a knife--a box cutter--and I keep mace. But I wouldn't use it to rob somebody. I wouldn't use it to hurt you, but if you try to hurt me, I'm gonna try to hurt you.

I have some johns who've become friends. Not many. As far as being friends, once you've met someone and they become a john---well, you know, they always say, "don't mix business with pleasure." When I hang, I hang out with my other transvestite girlfriends. They are my real friends. You don't never mix business with pleasure, because then you're off. You understand what I'm trying to say to you? When you meet one way--it ends that way. The way things start, that's the way they end.

I don't believe in boyfriends and love and that. I mean, I believe that two people can love each other. But when you sell yourself for sex, no one can really love you. This is how I feel. I could never see myself being with someone like that. I have enough sex doing the work that I do. I take vacations sometimes for like, six months sometimes in the winter, and I don't wanna be bothered with a man. You might see twenty men during the night, so why should you be bothered? You go to the beauty parlor, you do this, you do that, you don't wanna be bothered by that shit. Then you don't have no headaches. You don't love nobody, nobody loves you, and that's the way that it is.

I don't know how much longer I'll be out here. I have money put away. I also worked for four years, so I can draw Social Security when I'm sixty-two. I made a trust fund for myself, so I figure between all these things, I can live off the interest. I'll probably have another $50,000 by the time I quit. So basically, unless my house burns down, I'll be all right. It's not a lot, but I'm all right. A lot of people don't make it this far. Some prostitutes get killed in a year. They get diseases. I've been lucky.

Look, I can't stay here much longer talking to you, because I think the fucking police are down there, but anytime you wanna ask me something, you can come back. I don't usually take this long. Usually with a john it's like boom boom boom boom. You know what I'm saying? I have to go. But another time, you come back, and I'll spend a while with you. We can stop by my house--something like that. We can drive there at the end of the night. And then we can really sit down and talk. And it'll be on me. But I really have to go. Now you know a little something about me. We'll meet again. I'm here just about every night.

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