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Description
Susan Stryker interviews Felicia Elizondo, known as Felicia Flames, who was a sex worker, drag queen, and trans woman living in San Francisco's Tenderloin district. In this section, Elizondo describes her transition as a patient of Dr. Harry Benjamin, including the medical and social aspects of the experience. During this time in the early 1970s, Elizondo left sex work and got a job as a telephone operator, transitioning on the job. At work, she felt generally accepted by her co-workers, but the experience was still isolating, patronizing, and difficult. Stryker also talks to Elizondo about the history of her evolving self-identification as the available categories changed, and about clubs, bars, and other hangouts where she formerly spent time. Finally, the camera records older photographs of Elizondo and companions. Portions of this interview were used for Stryker and Victor Silverman's documentary Screaming Queens.
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