I live in Austin, and although she wasn't of color, she was someone who chose to live in homelessness, because she didn't believe in having a house until everyone did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_CochranWhereas respects were payed for her, they were only done so after the fact. She was a goddamn icon and made Austin the awesome place it remains to be despite some tough times as of late. To this day people who supposedly look up to her call her a he when she said countless times that she identified as female. God I miss Leslie.
This isn't to take away from the article, just wanted to include my own that seems to be forgotten. The worst of it is that there used to be a mural that featured her downtown, near her common hangout spots. During the gentrification of downtown we recently went through, which included removing bus routes through to the capitol, and putting sound ordinances in the heart of the bar scene in the "live music capitol of the world" they also painted over the mural.
It really still makes me angry. I'm just very angry about it. This story reminded me of that, as I'm angry over all of it. This needs to stop.
