Felicia Elizondo (July 23, 1946 – May 15, 2021) was an American

transgender woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may transition; this process commonly includes hormone replacement therapy and som ...

with a long history of activism on behalf of the

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term is a ...

community. She was a regular at Gene Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco during the time of the Compton's Cafeteria riot, a historic LGBT community uprising.

Early life

Assigned male at birth Sex assignment (sometimes known as gender assignment) is the discernment of an infant's sex at or before birth. A relative, midwife, nurse or physician inspects the external genitalia when the baby is delivered and, in more than 99.95% of birt ...

in San Angelo, Texas, Elizondo struggled with

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...

molestation Sexual abuse or sex abuse, also referred to as molestation, is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using force or by taking advantage of another. Molestation often refers to an instance of sexual assau ...

, and

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...

issues. Her father, a sheepherder, died when she was three years old. From the age of five, she knew that she was "different". At age 14, she moved to

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

, with a gay man, and began to spend time in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco in her teens. At age 18, Elizondo joined the U.S. Navy and volunteered to serve in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

, thinking she would either get killed or come to terms with her gender identity: "If the military doesn't make me a man, nothing will." After serving in Vietnam for six months, she confessed that she was gay. She was interrogated by the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

, and

dishonorably discharged A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve. Each country's military has different types of discharge. They are generally based on whether the persons completed their training and the ...

in 1965. She later successfully petitioned to have her discharge changed to honorable.

Activism and career

In the 1960s, Elizondo was a patron of Gene Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco, where the Compton's Cafeteria riot, an LGBT community uprising, occurred in 1966, three years before the

Stonewall riots The Stonewall riots (also known as the Stonewall uprising, Stonewall rebellion, or simply Stonewall) were a series of spontaneous protests by members of the gay community in response to a police raid that began in the early morning hours of Ju ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She was featured in ''Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria'', a 2005 documentary co-directed and produced by

Susan Stryker Susan O'Neal Stryker (born 1961) is an American professor, historian, author, filmmaker, and theorist whose work focuses on gender and human sexuality. She is a professor of Gender and Women's Studies, former director of the Institute for LGBT Stu ...

and Victor Silverman. Elizondo transitioned to female in 1974, while working as a long-distance operator. She worked at a number of other jobs, including receptionist, clerk, and nurse's aid. She was also a sex worker for a time. She performed as a drag queen for charity, and at

gay clubs A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities. Gay bars once served as ...

under the name Felicia Flames. Elizondo was diagnosed as

HIV positive The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of '' Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of the immu ...

in 1987. She worked for non-profit organizations, including P.A.W.S.,

Shanti Project The Shanti Project is a non-profit human services agency based in San Francisco and founded in 1974 by Dr. Charles Garfield in Berkeley, CA. Its goals are to provide peer support and guidance to people affected by HIV/AIDS, cancer, and other l ...

, and the

San Francisco AIDS Foundation The San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing services for people with HIV/AIDS, with a mission to end the AIDS epidemic in the United States. They were founded in 1982, at the beginning of the AIDS ...

, that seek to improve

quality of life Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...

for people living with serious illnesses. She contributed panels to the

AIDS Memorial Quilt The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, often abbreviated to AIDS Memorial Quilt or AIDS Quilt, is an enormous memorial to celebrate the lives of people who have died of AIDS-related causes. Weighing an estimated 54 tons, it is the largest piece o ...

, and helped raise funds for non-profits including Project Open Hand and the

San Francisco LGBT Community Center The San Francisco LGBT Community Center, also known as the SF LGBT Center, is a nonprofit organization serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community of San Francisco, California, and nearby communities, located at 1800 Marke ...

. As a

Latina Latina or Latinas most often refers to: * Latinas, a demographic group in the United States * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America. *Latin Americans Latina and Latinas may also refer t ...

, she worked with other transgender

women of color The term "person of color" (plural, : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "White people, white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily a ...

to combat racism in the community. Elizondo moved to San Francisco permanently in 1991. In 2014, she worked with San Francisco supervisor

Jane Kim Jane Kim (born July 9, 1977) is an American attorney and politician, and the first Korean American elected official in San Francisco. She represented San Francisco's District 6 on the Board of Supervisors between 2011 and 2019. She is a member o ...

to get the 100 block of Turk Street renamed to Vicki Mar Lane in honor of her late friend, drag performer Vicki Marlane. In 2016, she again worked with Kim to rename the 100 block of Taylor Street to Gene Compton's Cafeteria Way. Elizondo appeared at a number of events in 2016 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Compton's Cafeteria riot. Elizondo served as the lifetime achievement grand marshal in the 2015 San Francisco Pride Parade.

Death

Elizondo died on May 15, 2021, in San Francisco, at 74.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Elizondo, Felicia 1946 births 2021 deaths People from San Angelo, Texas Military personnel from Texas LGBT people from San Francisco LGBT rights activists from the United States LGBT people from Texas LGBT Hispanic and Latino American people Transgender rights activists Transgender women United States Navy personnel of the Vietnam War American female military personnel of the Vietnam War Transgender military personnel American military personnel discharged for homosexuality United States Navy sailors 20th-century American women Hispanic and Latino American drag queens People with HIV/AIDS