Abstract Ms. Thomas discusses growing up in North Brentwood, just outside D.C., her early sense of herself as different and coming into her gender and sexuality, other people treating her as a girl from a young age, the importance of support from her family, how D.C. was the center of things and where she found community with transgender women, sex work, the AIDS epidemic and working as a home health aide, her involvement with gay, transgender and HIV/AIDS organizations including Transgender Health...