Wednesday, August 3, 2011

If I Won the Lottery

If I won the lottery, what would I do?

Would I buy a house? Yes, a big one.

Would I buy a car? Yes, a minivan or a small bus.

Would I buy new clothes? Yes, lots of them.

What would you do if you won the lottery? Would you spend money on houses, and cars, and clothes?

I would. But there is a little bit more to it than that.

I suppose I should begin at the beginning. After I found Metropolitan Community Church of Topeka, and thereby found myself, I also found that there were a lot of transgender people who need more help than I can provide. But I decided that maybe I could help some by being open about who I am, and trying to educate people about transgender issues.

Then, one day, this amazing lady, named Joyce Jenkins, came into my life. She was the new girlfriend of another amazing lady, Annette Billings. I was there when Joyce and Annette were married, and when Joyce died, far too soon after their blessed day. Joyce came to see me talk in the Topeka/Shawnee County Public library about my book, "My Long Walk Home - A Transexual Journey". She did that four days before she died. That's just the kind of thing that Joyce Jenkins did.

When Joyce and I met, we talked about the work I was doing to try to facilitate change for transgender people. She talked about the work she had done with the City of New York, helping people find solutions. Among the people she helped were the homeless transgender people of New York. She spoke with passion about the need for a place for them to go because the homeless shelters could not or would not properly accommodate them.

So if I win the lottery, I will buy a house. I will buy a bus or a minivan. I will buy clothes and lots of other stuff. I will put all this stuff, I will park my minivan, at the Joyce L. Jenkins Home for Transgender People (if Annette doesn't mind me using Joyce's name).

There are a lot of other things that the money could do as well. Scholarships for surgery. More extensive transgender education. Legal fees, the costs of therapy, name changes, and more.

If I win the lottery, I will buy a house. Maybe two.

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