Calpernia Addams is Transfixed

[Natasha]

Calpernia Addams is Transfixed

http://www.sfbaytimes.com/?sec=article&article_id=11145
Paul E. Pratt
7/23/09

From her Los Angeles home, Calpernia Addams gently educates me on the difference between "transgender" and "transsexual." After Addams tells me the media, even within the LGBT community, has too long portrayed trans people "as prostitutes, punchlines, psycho killers or the poor, tragic freaks," I want to avoid the same pitfalls.

Having gained national notoriety after the traumatic 1999 murder of her military boyfriend as documented in the feature film A Soldier's Girl, Addams - a one-time Tennessee Entertainer-of-the-Year drag star - found herself spending more time as an advocate and activist than actress and showgirl. In the years since, she has etched a name in Hollywood as a feature film consultant, documentary subject and LOGO reality TV star.