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Natural Born Woman
Big boobs, big hair, big lips and a big personality -- Look out Charlotte, it's Tamalah Taylor. You can catch the "seductive and sensational Ms. Tamalah" doing the comic/MC/songstress thing at Sensations, where she uses her voluminous talents to entertain. She's come quite a long way from the little boy who grew up in the tiny, conservative town of Phoenix City, AL.
"I don't remember any gender identities being laid out to me when I was growing up," Tamalah said. "I always thought I was a girl until I went to school and they told me I wasn't. When they called me a boy, I just told them they were mistaken." Tamalah says this with the emphatic little head and neck waddle that only women can truly pull off. "I was picked on at school, but I didn't have this conflicted, tortured childhood. There was never a time when I experimented with 'being straight.' I knew from as early as I can remember that I was a girl. I didn't consider myself gay, I considered myself a heterosexual female."
When Tamalah was 18, her mother took her to the doctor for psychological evaluations. "They were backwoods Alabama people and had no idea what to do with me."
Tamalah's parents then took her to Auburn University for a series of physical tests. "According to the doctor I had XX and XY chromosomes. He said, 'OK this is a bona-fide medical condition, what do you want to do?'"
What Tamalah wanted to do was get sex-reassignment surgery -- in other words, go from an outy to an innie. "It wasn't supposed to be there," Tamalah explained.
She also had female hormone replacement therapy and breast implants. Now, not only did she feel like a woman, she looked like one -- and a bombshell to boot. "It was awesome," she says.
Both before and after the surgery, she presented herself as a woman, and was often asked out by men. "I figured what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them, as long as I didn't sleep with them. I did eventually tell them, but not right off the bat. And knock on wood, every man I ever went out with never had a problem with it. Some were a little freaked, but most were like, hey, let's give this a try."
Tamalah left Alabama when she was 23 and moved to Atlanta. She soon got a job at a place called Lipsticks singing, dancing and doing comedy. She lived in Atlanta for about five years, after which she moved to Raleigh. There she danced and stripped at several clubs, where she said no one suspected she was born a male. She continued stripping at men's clubs after she moved to Charlotte in the mid-90s. Today, the 30-something Tamalah ("You know you don't ask a lady her age") believes she's found her niche at the more "alternative" Sensations. "I love attention, I'm spoiled, and I'm a natural born performer, so I'm doing what I do best. Right now life is pretty great."
Walk Like A Man
Hollis Aiken is a rarity in the already rare world of transsexuals. He was born with female genitalia, but presents and considers himself a man. Only a tiny minority of transsexuals in America is female-to-male (F2Ms).
Hollis is about 5 feet 10 inches tall with broad shoulders and a bit on the hefty side. He has caramel-colored skin, short dreads, a goatee and a slightly rounded face. He's also thoughtful, articulate and deeply spiritual. Although born and raised in New Jersey, the youthful-looking 38-year-old projects a mellow, West Coast vibe. With incense burning, he and his fiancee, Charlene, took a seat on the floor of their small east Charlotte apartment and talked about their relationship, sexuality and growing up as a Jehovah's Witness. Like the other folks interviewed for this story, even as a child Hollis felt as if he had been born the wrong sex.
"Whenever somebody called me 'she,' it just didn't feel right. I wore makeup and dresses because I had to. But it just didn't fit. I thought that maybe some great conversion would happen. If it didn't, I figured I would just be celibate. This is the way I was thinking at 16."
A major influence in Hollis' life during that time was the Jehovah's Witness faith. "It was great for instilling values, but it was very rigid as far as sexuality and gender roles. We weren't allowed to fellowship with people outside the faith. There was no sex before marriage, and you dated only with the intent to marry."
