Los Angeles Times - affairs column -

I’m a trans woman. And, for once, I wasn’t fetishized.

“For the next two weeks, I could not bring myself to read his letter to me. It just felt too painful. When I called my mom and told her, she said we never truly lose people we love; the memories of them are something that can’t be taken away — that I should relish those memories. I read his letter after my mom and I got off the phone.
Yet on my best days, I stop relying on my fingertip, let a tear fall, and read the last line he wrote, “Take care of yourself, that’s an order!
It’s not a new promise to keep, but a reminder of what I deserve”

Words by Jesse Herb