july 21.20Û0 • Just orni 15
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Trans Evangelist Paula Nielsen credits religion for her survival
during Portland's conservative past by Katy Davidson
n a recent Tuesday morning, I
sat across from Sister Paula
Nielsen, nationally recognized
Trans Evangelist, at a Lyons
restaurant in Port
land and ate pancakes while some
four-eyed, grubby-handed grade
schooler burned stare marks into
the sides of our heads.
“If someone in public doesn’t
like the way 1 dress, they can kiss
my ass!” Nielsen hooted like an or
nery owl. As if waffles and omelets
weren’t savory enough, her com
ment gave the surrounding families
something tasty to chew on.
It was not the first time the pub
lic has singled out Nielsen. Stand
ing taller than 6 feet, garnished in
thick makeup and toting a suitcase
sized purse, she’s no dainty grand
mother type. In grade school and ^
high school in the 1940s and ’50s, >
when Paula was still going by her 2
original name, Larry, she was teased I
for being a sissy, for being different.
Nielsen was bom in Portland in 1938. When
she was 12, an “innately effeminate boy” at the
time, she accepted Christ as her personal savior
at the Powellhurst Baptist Church. She said she
never would have survived her tumultuous and
turbulent years without her religious convictions
and born-again experience.
“God accepted me as I am,” she said. “If I
didn’t have my religion, I wouldn’t have gotten
through it.”
In 1952, during Nielsen’s freshman year in
high school, Christine Jorgenson (formerly
George) became the world’s first known male-
to-female “transsexual,” a term coined by her
doctor, Harry Benjamin. That year, Jorgenson
traveled to Denmark to undergo the first sex-
change surgery.
“When I read Christine’s story in the Sunday
paper, I knew that was me,” Nielsen said.
During the early ’60s, Nielsen moved from
Portland to Oakland, Calif., then soon after to
San Francisco, where she transitioned from
male to female. She attended church and
worked as a secretary at an insurance company,
completely passing as a woman.
“I didn’t feel like I was fooling anyone,” she
said. “I was just being myself.”
She points out that during those years, the
only time it was safe for drag queens to dress up
was Halloween or New Year’s Eve and that trans
people could not legally change their names
without proof of an operation.
“Now, the trans thing is no big thing like it
was hack then,” she said.
While calling transsexualism “one of the
most misunderstixxJ subjects there is," she ac
knowledges the enlightenment that has come
through years of education and work. She con
siders the success of the 1999 film Boys Don’t Cry
a breakthrough in trans recognition; however,
“the people that should really see it are the ones
that won’t cross the street to go see it,” she said.
Despite these advancements, “Only trans
people can understand trans people,” she added.
During the past few decades, the trans com
munity has embraced the term transgendered be
cause it is more inclusive, she said.
“(The two terms) mean the same thing, but
transgendered makes it more acceptable for you
to be trans without getting an operation,” she
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said. “I like to use
the word trans as an
umbrella term.”
After
Nielsen
had soaked up enough of San Francisco, she
moved hack to Portland in the 70s. “As far as
I’m concerned, Portland’s the only place to
live,” she told me over breakfast.
Now, having spent much of her long life in
Rip City, Nielsen has a library’s worth of knowl
edge about what once was a very conservative
small town. She remembers Portland’s first gay
pride celebration as “a few literature booths and
a beer track at Waterfront Park.”
Back then, the event drew almost 200 peo
ple. Pride officials estimate this year’s festival
drew almost 30,000.
“I see gay pride day as a gay Fourth of July, a
gay Independence Day,” Nielsen said, adding
that she is put off by the divisiveness and mis
understandings in the community. “Gay people
are just like straight people. Everyone has their
own agenda.”
In 1989, Nielsen discovered a medium to
combine her religion and her unique perspective
on life: television. She launched Let’s Have
Church , a cable access show in Portland, and
began calling herself the D ag Evangelist.
“I wanted a term that would make me differ
ent than every other evangelist," she said. She
later took up the moniker Trans Evangelist.
About 10 years later, after becoming a pub
licly recognized figure in Oregon, Washington
and California and being interviewed by the
British Broadcasting Corp. and Strange Universe,
Nielsen broadcast her final program.
Regardless, religion still plays a major role in
her life. When she speaks, she assumes the deep
and convincing voice of a preacher; her views
are opinionated and unwavering.
“I’m very conservative in some ways,” Niel
sen said. “I believe prayer and the Ten Com
mandments should he in schools. But I also sup
port sensitivity training. It’s good to teach kids
about gays and lesbians early on.”
The 2000 Spirit of Pride Award recipient
recently turned 62 and officially retired. Next
up, she plans to create a biography and docu
mentary of her life.
“My purpose here isn’t done yet," she said.
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