美国国家公共电台 NPR Her Aunt Let Her Be Herself. As A Transgender Woman, She Still Had To 'Play The Game'

 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It's time now for StoryCorps. Today, a story from El Paso, Texas. Dee Westenhauser grew up there in the 1950s, but had a hard time fitting in. Last year, at the age of 63, Dee came out as a transgender woman. She came to StoryCorps with her friend Martha Gonzalez (ph) to remember the one person who understood her, her Aunt Yaya.

DEE WESTENHAUSER: If you were to see Aunt Yaya back in the day the way I saw her, she was tall. She had a beautiful angular face with high cheekbones, and she had brown eyes. They almost looked like owl¹ eyes scanning everything.

One weekend, my mom and my dad, they decided² that I was going to go to Aunt Yaya's house. I was 9 years old. And once the door closed, she says, how would you like to change into something that's really comfortable for you? And what was there were a blouse and a wig³. I knew I was a girl. And so that weekend, I got to be me. We went shopping in my outfits⁴. Everyone in the neighborhood knew Yaya, and she would introduce me as her niece.

MARTHA GONZALEZ: Would you go home and mention anything like that?

WESTENHAUSER: No. She said when you go home, you have to be what they want because if you don't, and they find you out, you will be hurt. She was the one who taught me early on that I have to play the game. Yaya, she had a lifelong friend, and it wasn't until years later that I finally figured out that her friend was her lover and her partner. And you never spoke⁵ of that back in the day.

Yaya never got the love she was supposed to from the rest of the family. And Yaya wanted me to be everything that she wanted to be if she could live her life over again. I loved her. She loved me back. And behind that white door became my place to be the little girl that I needed to be.

(SOUNDBITE OF BLUE DOT SESSIONS' "FILING AWAY")

MARTIN: That's Dee Westenhauser, with her friend Martha Gonzalez at StoryCorps in El Paso, Texas. This interview will be archived along with hundreds of thousands of others at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

1 owl   

n.猫头鹰，枭

参考例句：

• Her new glasses make her look like an owl.她的新眼镜让她看上去像只猫头鹰。
• I'm a night owl and seldom go to bed until after midnight.我睡得很晚，经常半夜后才睡觉。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 wig   

n.假发

参考例句：

• The actress wore a black wig over her blond hair.那个女演员戴一顶黑色假发罩住自己的金黄色头发。
• He disguised himself with a wig and false beard.他用假发和假胡须来乔装。

4 outfits   

n.全套装备( outfit的名词复数 )；一套服装；集体；组织v.装备，配置设备，供给服装( outfit的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He jobbed out the contract to a number of small outfits. 他把承包工程分包给许多小单位。 来自辞典例句
• Some cyclists carry repair outfits because they may have a puncture. 有些骑自行车的人带修理工具，因为他们车胎可能小孔。 来自辞典例句

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。