Hey, Ferrer, take a Walk on the Wild Side

Decades ago, my buddy Chef Mike and I were sitting at the bar of Le Booze II, watching people go by on Bourbon Street. His wife was an accountant there at The Royal Sonesta Hotel, so we got to drink half-price. Our boss (also a Mike) was married to the bar manager. In my young mind, I thought we should add up those haves and drink for free. It doesn't work that way. You have to be an optimist and satisfied that the bar tab is half full. Or half empty? Whatever. 

Chef Mike spotted a beautiful woman coming our way and implored me to check her out. 

"Beautiful" I said, "but that's a dude." Mike bet me a half-priced beer that I was wrong.

This person went into the drag bar across the street and quickly came back out with a sign and began hawking customers. Still beautiful in face but very flat chested. A lot of trans people took jobs like that to earn money for future surgery. This was about 1983 and New Orleans had quite a population of gays, trans and transvestites. Though I've never been to one, cornfed couples from Iowa loved drag shows. Simpler times. 

Here in non-simpler 2025, transpersons are every bit the rage on both sides of the aisle. Literal rage on the republican side, of course. 

On YouTube a couple weeks ago, I saw videos of two different, stunning transwomen. Beautiful, but in the non-flamboyant, really attractive, girl-next-door way. Even after 30 minutes of watching and listening to them, I was still doubting that they had ever been boys. I knew they had been, but- it wasn't that they were so convincing, it was that they were women.

It wasn't the first video for either of them, so I didn't have all the background. Don't think I really needed it. They probably never show photos of their before selves, I think because they were never really that boy. They've always been the woman they are now; it just took some time to get there. And of course, it wasn't easy. Ladies, is it ever?

I have a mind and an imagination, so indulge me when I say I think I can relate to other people, genders, races, whatever. I am what would be described today as a cisgendered white male. I think I'm just a Ferrerman (and no one truly knows what that is like, but stories for another day) but I get people. These two women didn't just hear a song one day and decide: "🎵Man- I feel like a woman." They were born that way. They are, who and what they were meant to be, in their minds. That's the only thing that counts. No government or religion should change that. We all should be who we were meant to be, critics be damned!