Aleshia Brevard - Bilbo's Bend

Full title: "Bilbo's Bend" by Aleshia Brevard.

"Trey Bilbo spent his early life on a Tennessee farm, the son of a loving Appalachian-born mother and a distant blue-blooded father. Young, handsome, and talented, he wins an art school scholarship that takes him to San Francisco. He finds himself an affordable place to live in the nefarious Tenderloin district, where he is befriended by a male street hustler with a flair for fashion design, a Cajun stripper who performs with his pet boa, and an assortment of 1960s social activists.

Trey experiments with several personas in his search for identity-as the boy-toy of a wealthy male art connoisseur, the husband of a pregnant friend, an ally to a transsexual high fashion model-all the while struggling to find himself. Does sleeping with another man mean he's gay? Why does that feel not quite right? In this coming-of-age novel, Trey Bilbo wrestles with probing questions about his sexual uncertainty, as he revisits many of the San Francisco haunts and wilder sides of streets that Ms. Brevard herself knew in her pre-gender-transitioning days.

Author Aleshia Brevard transitioned from male to female in 1962, not long after sex change surgery, as it was called then, became available. In the years since, she has often wondered what life as a boy might have been if gender reassignment had not been possible. This novel is her answer."

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2015, Aleshia Brevard, English, Interview,

Aleshia Brevard - The Woman I Was Not Born To Be

Full title: "The Woman I Was Not Born To Be: A Transsexual Journey" by Aleshia Brevard. This is her first biography. In 2010, she published her second biographical book - "The Woman I Was Born To Be" (2010).

"Told with humour and flair, this is the autobiography of one transsexual's wild ride from boyhood as Alfred Brevard (Buddy) Crenshaw in rural Tennessee to voluptuous female entertainer in Hollywood. Aleshia Brevard, as she is now known, underwent transitional surgery in Los Angeles in 1962, one of the first such operations in the United States. (The sexual surgery pioneer Harry Benjamin himself broke the news to Brevard's parents)."

I still cannot believe that Alessia is not around anymore. She was my best friend and my second mother. In 2013, we did a very long interview about how she coped with all challenges related to being transgender, and this is what she told me: "When I transitioned the term “transgender” had yet to be invented. At that time, in fact, “transsexuality” was generally thought of as a ‘condition’, an awkward period through which one must pass, like some bothersome adolescence. Our goal was to move forward, as seamlessly as possible, easing into mainstream society to live as our authentic selves. We wished to live among, work alongside, and compete on an equal footing with other women, including those who had been born female.

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2001, Aleshia Brevard, English, Interview, USA,

Aleshia Brevard - The Woman I Was Born To Be

Full title: "The Woman I Was Born To Be" by Aleshia Brevard. This is her second biography. In 2001, she published her first biographical book - "The Woman I Was Not Born To Be" (2001).

"For nearly 50 years, Aleshia Brevard hid the fact that she was one of America's first transsexuals from her friends, stepchildren, fellow actors and actresses, film producers, students, university administrators and even from her four husbands.

The Woman I Was Born To Be is a sequel to Ms. Brevard's earlier book, The Woman I Was NOT Born To Be. This book covers the second half of her exciting life, describing the many challenges she encountered and triumphs she achieved after having fulfilled her boyhood dream of becoming her authentic self and finding acceptance as the woman whom from boyhood she'd known herself to be."

I still cannot believe that Alessia is not around anymore. She was my best friend and my second mother. In 2013, we did a very long interview about how she coped with all challenges related to being transgender, and this is what she told me: "When I transitioned the term “transgender” had yet to be invented. At that time, in fact, “transsexuality” was generally thought of as a ‘condition’, an awkward period through which one must pass, like some bothersome adolescence. Our goal was to move forward, as seamlessly as possible, easing into mainstream society to live as our authentic selves. We wished to live among, work alongside, and compete on an equal footing with other women, including those who had been born female.

Read more »

2010, Aleshia Brevard, Bambi, Charlotte MacLeod, English, USA,