What prompted you to become a transgender activist?

What prompted you to become a transgender activist?

For me, in 1999 I was dating a young man in the military and we had a normal heterosexual relationship, basically, although I was trans. He was a man who loved women and I was a woman who loved men. His associates in the military found out that I was trans and began harassing him, calling him gay. Although he was not attracted to men, they nonetheless applied homophobia to him. And in 1999 they murdered him in his sleep and it has been almost 9 years. So it was one of the most horrible experiences of my life to deal with that loss. But I can talk about it now with some measure of an overview about it. But I decided to seek justice for his murder and also to educate people about what trans people are. And those circumstances just led me more and more into situations where I felt like I could talk about these issues and people would listen. And I just did not want to squander that opportunity to do some good. Especially to make some good come out of Barry Winchell's murder.