This article in the Berkeley Barb describes a white trans woman, who advertised for both sex work and help in transitioning in the Barb, being evicted from her apartment not for being trans, but for having black visitors over, since she was apparently working with them in some capacity in order to raise money for her gender confirmation surgery. (The article describes one of the visitors as a “bandleader,” but it’s unclear where that refers to an actual musical band, or the head of some sort of other group, such as an activist group.)
The article doesn’t mention whether the other tenants, who saw Brunnelle’s visitors and complained to the landlord, knew whether she was transgender, but the article is still a definite reminder of the deep-rooted racism in a Berkeley caught up in the middle of a fight around school desegregation. Whether they did or didn’t know, the options raise a number of very interesting possibilities about the strength and relation of race and transphobia at the time.
Also notable is that the article gives the full name of the trans woman it describes–something almost never seen–and the legal actions she intended to take regarding the eviction.
