**Stopping The Hate Exclusive Interview** Jamie Gendron
Interviewed By Meghan Chavalier
April 2, 2011
http://stoppingthehate.com/News-Article56884_Exclusive_Interview_Jamie_Gendron_Interviewed_By_Meghan_Chavalier.htm I have personally known Jamie Gendron for almost 20 years. She is one of the most beautiful people you will ever know inside and out. When I moved to New Orleans in the early 1990's she was one of the first transsexuals who actually made me understand what is was like to be a transsexual woman. Her story inspires and her sheer will to overcome the obstacles she has been faced with in her life is the exact reason why I asked her to do this interview for the Stopping The Hate website.
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What was it like growing up and being transgender in Louisiana?
I want to make it clear, that my experience growing up transgender in Louisiana may not be the typical experience. Even at a very early age, I was terribly stubborn and outspoken. I remember feeling like it wasn't me that had the problem, it was everyone else around me (family, friends, and teachers mostly) that had the problem with the way I was. I was a very effeminate child from the beginning. I naturally had a swish in my walk. It was the seventies, so I had longer hair and was more than once mistaken for a little girl. I remember my dad trying to make me wear different kinds of shoes to "straighten" up my walk.
