Shout out to trans women who arenāt computer scientists or musicians or avant-garde artists or whatever.
Shout-out to tgirls who work at Taco Bell. Thank u queen, society would collapse without you
Over twenty years ago my big brother got me a job at a Taco Bell in the St. Louis suburbs-West County. He warned me that it was the āgay Taco Bellā, but since I was coming from the āgay Howard Johnsonāsā I wasnāt shocked. It turns out it was the black trans women Taco Bell complete with black trans women in management. And theyād worked out an arrangement with the local teen Narcotics Anonymous group so that twice a week we would shut down the drive thru and the dining room and exclusively serve 60+ teens in various stages of recovery. And many of the women I worked with were in various stages of being out or transitioning and they were from all generations from teens to over 50. One woman I worked with had a regular corporate job presenting as a man 9-5 Mon-Fri and then came to Taco Bell and worked 6pm -2am Friday and Saturday night so she could be herself surrounded by other black transwomen in those stolen weekends. And we had customers come from all over the metro area because they knew they could be themselves in the dining room. I only worked there from 1999-2001 but for young me, this was a vital, formative experience. Some of the girls came from north city all the way out to the āgay Taco Bellā on Manchester in west county because they heard it was safe to work there. Like- I know times have changed but they havenāt changed much in 20 years. Iām still convinced that for lgbt youth, finding a job at your cityās version of the āgay Taco Bellā is key to survival.
Thank u for sharing this with us
