Interview with Carla Lewis

Monika: Today I am meeting Carla Lewis, a transgender woman and activist, software engineer, mother of two, and US army veteran. She lives in east Tennessee with her lovely partner, Jaime. Hello Carla! It is a sheer pleasure to interview you. Welcome to The Heroines of My Life!

Carla: Truthfully, I’m honored that anyone would care to know about me.

Monika: Honest as usual! What are you doing these days?

Carla: The only recent significant change in my life was a closed head injury as a result of a rear-end collision in December of last 2011. I’m plagued with constant migraine-like head pain that makes it difficult to do some of the things I normally take for granted. That aside, I’m part owner of a small computer service company. That keeps me busy during business hours.

When I’m not at work, I enjoy the hell out of science fiction and fantasy movies, hero comics, and a newfound love of sewing and cosplay. The highlight of every year is now our annual trip to Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia where I get to dress up as my favorite superheroine, Power Girl, and Jaime gets to be whichever hero I feel like creating for her.

Interview with Gina Grahame

Monika: Today’s interview will be with Gina Grahame, an American businesswoman, and writer from San Francisco, California. Gina is also a motivational speaker, coach, and creator of how to ‘be authentacious’, educating and people on personal authenticity, overcoming adversity, transgender, and LGBTQ issues. Hello Gina!

Gina: Hello Monika! 
Monika: What are you doing these days?

Gina: I’m a Global Sales Manager for a worldwide media company, specializing in the videogame industry.

Monika: You are involved in one project titled The Association of Transgender Professionals. How is it progressing?

Gina: It’s progressing well though my involvement is actually quite minimal. The group was in need of a corporate identity so I established an online contest whereby interested persons could enter their logo designs and association members would choose a winner. To stay true to the association’s core principle of financial equality, I initiated a cash prize for the winner. The charting of the group's course is in the very capable hands of others.

Interview with Lisa Du Preez

Monika: Today I would like to present to you Lisa Du Preez, a stunning model and successful businesswoman from South Africa. Hello Lisa!

Lisa: Hello Monika, lovely to meet you.

Monika: How did you start modeling?

Lisa: I met a photographer in London and he asked if I will do a photo shoot with him, so I thought as I know him I will give it a try, he was so impressed with my pictures that he passed it to a well-known photographer and he did a shoot with me, and this is how it all started.

Interview with Ar’lene D. Lafferty

Monika: Today Let me introduce you Ar’lene D. Lafferty, an American cosmetologist, and electrologist from Chicago, Illinois. Hello Ar’lene! Welcome to “Interviews with Transgender Icons”! How does it feel to be an icon?

Ar’lene: Hello Monika and Darling Friends, Sisters and Brothers. I never thought I was a community “icon”. Thank you for the honor! It makes me feel proud and willing to do more for our “Trans-family”.

Monika: What are you doing these days?

Ar’lene: These days, I’m writing my autobiography, a task that seems highly difficult for me. Since I have a lot of impasses. All my reasons for the impasses will be revealed in my book.

Monika: Where did you grow up?

Ar’lene: I was first raised in Chicago. At age fifteen (15), my family and I moved to Los Angeles after a vacation (holiday) visit. We started, first for a few weeks in Hollywood, until my parents located an apartment in Sherman Oaks; a San Fernando Valley Community.

Interview with Aleshia Brevard: Part 1

Monika: Hello Aleshia! I am very happy that you accepted this interview to be included in my series of “Interviews with Transgender Icons”.
Aleshia: Thank you for asking that I participate, Monika. I blush a bit at being labeled an “Icon”, but hopefully by my age, one has learned to embrace any and all positive comments that come along – while summarily dismissing the negative.
Monika: What are you doing these days?
Alexia: I recently turned seventy-five, hooray-hooray, so thankfully as a rather long-in-tooth retiree my time is pretty much my own. Gone are those bothersome pressures of younger years. Much of my time is now spent writing, having just finished the first novel. It comes on the tail of my two published memoirs and several produced plays. Most importantly, however, I’ve found contentment which I never even dream might be possible when I began my transsexual odyssey in the late 1950s.