美国国家公共电台 NPR For D.C.'s LGBT Community, A Police Liaison Who Can Relate

For D.C.'s LGBT Community, A Police Liaison¹ Who Can Relate 

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In just the last few years, transgender people have become more visible. Americans are debating who can use what bathroom. And you can now see parents helping⁴ their children transition before they hit puberty. But nothing is more a sign of the times than this - older Americans who have kept their identities secret for decades are now starting to come out. NPR's Gabriela Saldivia has the story of a woman who transitioned while working in one of the most traditional jobs in America.

JESSICA HAWKINS: Day 1 - February 11, 2014. I wake up. I'm like, wow, there's so many things I got to get done now. I haven't got my eyebrows⁵ done. I still got to work on makeup⁶. And - I mean, you got to make sure it's all perfect. At the time, I was wearing a wig⁷. I was like, oh, my goodness - spending so much time. And then I had a 45-minute drive. And that whole 45 minutes, it was just panic.

GABRIELA SALDIVIA, BYLINE⁸: Police Sergeant⁹ Jessica Hawkins was going to work for the first time as a woman. She's a cop at the Metropolitan¹⁰ Police Department in Washington, D.C.

HAWKINS: I really thought they were going to slash¹¹ my tires. I thought for sure my locker¹² was going to be on fire. My car would be vandalized. I expected all of that.

SALDIVIA: Hawkins knew her job was safe because D.C. law is clear - you can't discriminate¹³ based on gender³ identity. But her fellow officers - they were a different story. Before her transition, Hawkins was known as a real man's man kind of cop. So she reached out to find an ally.

BRETT PARSON: It was a phone call on my cell phone.

SALDIVIA: That's Sergeant Brett Parson, Hawkins' first boss at the department.

PARSON: I basically called everybody that I could possibly think of who would be supportive and made sure that they were there. The other phone calls I made were as, I guess, an enforcer - to say if somebody so much as [expletive] giggles¹⁴ in that roll call room, I'll have their [expletive].

HAWKINS: So I get there. I meet with a friend of mine.

PARSON: And I was waiting for her when she pulled up, and she stepped out. It's the first time I had seen her dressed as Jessica. And I looked at her and I said, I've only got one piece of advice for you - walk in like you own the [expletive] place.

HAWKINS: And he said, I'm proud of you, put his arm around me and just walked me in. And the folks who still supported me, they actually showed up, and it was standing¹⁵ room only. That meant a lot - a lot, lot, lot.

(SOUNDBITE OF CASHMERE CAT'S "MIRROR MARU")

SALDIVIA: Getting through that first day was hard enough, but it turned out to just be the start. Now she was walking the beat every day as a policewoman.

HAWKINS: You know, I had one lady - I was walking on 17th Street. And she asked me - she goes, are you really a police officer? Now I was wearing makeup and had my little stud earrings¹⁶. And I said, yes. She goes, well, I've never seen a male officer wear makeup before. It definitely hurt my feelings to the point I just walked away and found a little hole to cry in for a minute.

SALDIVIA: Hawkins doesn't feel as confident as she used to. But the daily harassment¹⁷ taught her how to be a better a cop.

HAWKINS: From transitioning, I have a lot more empathy, far more than I've had before. And it's like, I know what it's like to be discriminated¹⁸ against or to be told no because of who I am now.

SALDIVIA: Right after her transition, Hawkins took it upon herself to start showing up at crime scenes involving transgender men and women. Soon, she was given more responsibility. And now she's the head of the LGBT Liaison Unit, where she's helping to solve cold cases of transgender women murdered in D.C. Suddenly, her police work was personal.

HAWKINS: Because in those situations, it's like instant calm when I come on the scene because one thing they know for sure is I'm not going humiliate¹⁹ her. Or I'm not going to get the gender or the pronoun wrong or her name, and we use the preferred name. It kind of gives them hope from what I understand. A lot of them report back to me. And they're like, Jessica, we're so glad to see you.

(SOUNDBITE OF CASHMERE CAT'S "MIRROR MARU")

SALDIVIA: It's difficult to transition - period. But the later in life you are, the tougher it is. For one thing, as men age, their faces and bodies continue to become more masculine. Hawkins has hazel eyes and dyed blond hair. But she's square jawed²⁰ with large, muscular arms.

HAWKINS: I'm almost 6-feet-tall, broad-shouldered. It's hard (laughter). There's some things there's no surgery in the world that it's going to correct.

SALDIVIA: Now she's taking hormones²¹, developing breasts.

HAWKINS: You're going through a puberty process all over again. And it's a new body. Your hormones are different. And it affects the way you think and the way you do things. And it's best to equate²² it to - for me, think of the 14-year-old girl who is brand new at high school and she's not in the popular group - and whatever reason that sets her outside of the popular girls - and she wants to be part of that group.

SALDIVIA: Hawkins is trying to fit in and be accepted as a woman. She thought it would just take time. She wasn't expecting to have to compromise as well.

HAWKINS: When I see something - someone was like, I disregard everything else. And sometimes it's a good thing. Sometimes it's a bad thing because sometimes I get tunnel vision about what I want and I don't consider other things.

SALDIVIA: Other things - like how people in her life would react.

HAWKINS: I didn't think my wife would actually leave me. I thought it was something we can survive. Right now it's a big question of, starting into the person stuff of, like, you know, single, divorced. I do miss the life I had as a man. I miss that. I miss the outer parts of it. I miss having a wife, and I miss the way I was able to interact with my family.

SALDIVIA: Recently, Hawkins got to a point where she tried going back to being a man to get her old life back. Her wife had met someone else and gave Hawkins one last chance to save their marriage.

HAWKINS: She goes, if we get back together, there will be no Jessica. You'll cut your hair. You'll change your name back. You'll change your gender back - no more hormones and not even dressing²³ up on the weekends - nothing. So I tried. And then six weeks later, I realized, no, that's not going to work.

SALDIVIA: So now, Hawkins is somewhere in the middle. She stopped wearing makeup and jewelry²⁴. It just makes life easier.

HAWKINS: Basically, I'm just in this zone where I'm just more androgynous these days. And this way, if someone does refer to me as a sir or mister, it doesn't hurt my feelings. When I go on the street, all they see is a cop with long hair.

SALDIVIA: It's a way to protect herself. Hawkins isn't quite the woman she wants to be. But for her, it beats not being a woman at all.

HAWKINS: One thing I won't take back is the fact that, yeah, I now have the freedom to be who I am. Whether I maintain as a male or a female or somewhere in between, at least there's no more shame. There's no more secrets. My family, my employer, my friends - they all know my story. They know who I am. They know what I'm about.

(SOUNDBITE OF JUBI'S "BALMORHEA")

SALDIVIA: Gabriela Saldivia, NPR News, Washington.

(SOUNDBITE OF JUBI'S "BALMORHEA")

1 liaison   

n.联系，（未婚男女间的）暖昧关系，私通

参考例句：

• She acts as a liaison between patients and staff.她在病人与医护人员间充当沟通的桥梁。
• She is responsible for liaison with researchers at other universities.她负责与其他大学的研究人员联系。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 eyebrows   

眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Eyebrows stop sweat from coming down into the eyes. 眉毛挡住汗水使其不能流进眼睛。
• His eyebrows project noticeably. 他的眉毛特别突出。

6 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

7 wig   

n.假发

参考例句：

• The actress wore a black wig over her blond hair.那个女演员戴一顶黑色假发罩住自己的金黄色头发。
• He disguised himself with a wig and false beard.他用假发和假胡须来乔装。

8 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

9 sergeant   

n.警官，中士

参考例句：

• His elder brother is a sergeant.他哥哥是个警官。
• How many stripes are there on the sleeve of a sergeant?陆军中士的袖子上有多少条纹？

10 metropolitan   

adj.大城市的，大都会的

参考例句：

• Metropolitan buildings become taller than ever.大城市的建筑变得比以前更高。
• Metropolitan residents are used to fast rhythm.大都市的居民习惯于快节奏。

11 slash   

vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩

参考例句：

• The shop plans to slash fur prices after Spring Festival.该店计划在春节之后把皮货降价。
• Don't slash your horse in that cruel way.不要那样残忍地鞭打你的马。

12 locker   

n.更衣箱，储物柜，冷藏室，上锁的人

参考例句：

• At the swimming pool I put my clothes in a locker.在游泳池我把衣服锁在小柜里。
• He moved into the locker room and began to slip out of his scrub suit.他走进更衣室把手术服脱下来。

13 discriminate   

v.区别，辨别，区分；有区别地对待

参考例句：

• You must learn to discriminate between facts and opinions.你必须学会把事实和看法区分出来。
• They can discriminate hundreds of colours.他们能分辨上百种颜色。

14 giggles   

n.咯咯的笑( giggle的名词复数 )；傻笑；玩笑；the giggles 止不住的格格笑v.咯咯地笑( giggle的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Her nervous giggles annoyed me. 她神经质的傻笑把我惹火了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I had to rush to the loo to avoid an attack of hysterical giggles. 我不得不冲向卫生间，以免遭到别人的疯狂嘲笑。 来自辞典例句

15 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

16 earrings   

n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子

参考例句：

• a pair of earrings 一对耳环
• These earrings snap on with special fastener. 这付耳环是用特制的按扣扣上去的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

18 discriminated   

分别，辨别，区分( discriminate的过去式和过去分词 )； 歧视，有差别地对待

参考例句：

• His great size discriminated him from his followers. 他的宽广身材使他不同于他的部下。
• Should be a person that has second liver virus discriminated against? 一个患有乙肝病毒的人是不是就应该被人歧视？

19 humiliate   

v.使羞辱，使丢脸[同]disgrace

参考例句：

• What right had they to bully and humiliate people like this?凭什么把人欺侮到这个地步呢？
• They pay me empty compliments which only humiliate me.他们虚情假意地恭维我，这只能使我感到羞辱。

20 jawed   

adj.有颌的有颚的

参考例句：

• The color of the big-jawed face was high. 那张下颚宽阔的脸上气色很好。 来自辞典例句
• She jawed him for making an exhibition of himself, scolding as though he were a ten-year-old. 她连声怪他这样大出洋相，拿他当十岁的孩子似的数落。 来自辞典例句

21 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

22 equate   

v.同等看待，使相等

参考例句：

• You can't equate passing examination and being intelligent.你不能把考试及格看成是聪明。
• You cannot equate his poems with his plays.你不可以把他的诗歌和他的剧本相提并论。

23 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

24 jewelry   

n.（jewllery）（总称）珠宝

参考例句：

• The burglars walked off with all my jewelry.夜盗偷走了我的全部珠宝。
• Jewelry and lace are mostly feminine belongings.珠宝和花边多数是女性用品。