Felicia "Flames" Elizando interview, part 1

Susan Stryker interviews Felicia Elizondo, known as Felicia Flames, who was a sex worker, drag queen, and trans woman strongly associated with San Francisco's Tenderloin district. In this section, Elizondo tells her life story; she was born in Texas and moved to San Francisco as a teenager, staying for much of her life, with the exception of an early period when she returned to Texas and joined the Army in an attempt to become straight and cisgender. She extensively describes the scene of sex workers and LGBTQ people who spent time at Compton's Cafeteria and the neighboring Chukker Club, as well as her transition, professional history, and the experience of sex work in the Tenderloin. Elizondo witnessed the 1960s cultural shift among gender-nonconforming sex workers in the Tenderloin, in which they ceased to present themselves as feminine men and embraced the identity of trans women. Portions of this interview were used for Stryker and Victor Silverman's documentary Screaming Queens.

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View At: https://glbt.i8.dgicloud.com/node/25633
Citation: Cite

Item Information:

Identifier: np193968d
Collection: Oral Histories with People of Color
Institution: GLBT Historical Society
Creator(s): Stryker, Susan
Contributor(s): Elizondo, Felicia
Date Created: 2001
Dates Covered: 1960 to 1969
Genre: Oral Histories
Subject(s): Chukker Club
Felicia Elizondo
Harry Benjamin
Leslie St. Clair
Screaming Queens
Tenderloin
Wendy Kohler
Places: California > San Francisco County > San Francisco
San José > Hospital
Topic(s): Closeted transgender people
Crossdressing
Detransitioning
Drag community
Drag queens
Gay sex workers
Gender expression
Gender-affirming surgery
Hormones
LGBTQ+ bars
LGBTQ+ communities
LGBTQ+ people in the military
MtFs
Police raids
Public sex
Sex work
Transgender community
Transgender sex workers
Resource Type: Moving image
Digital Format: Duration: 1:06:18
Language: English
Rights: In copyright
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