Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories.

This week, People’s District is telling five stories from D.C.’s LGBT community in honor of Capital Pride. These stories were collected in collaboration with the Rainbow History Project. Read more stories from: Daaiyee, a gay Imam; Annie, a DJ who uses music to unite the LGBT community; and Dan, an Indian immigrant who only learned about homosexuality after moving to the states.

“I have always felt like a woman. I can remember the times when my father would buy me baseballs, footballs, and all of these manly things as a child, but I would always just play with my sisters dolls and dress in their clothes. That was what made me comfortable. I never thought that anything was wrong with it because I felt that I was supposed to be a woman. While I was comfortable with it, my parents struggled with it at first. It was hard on my them, but my mother sheltered me and let me know it was okay.

“People used to ask me why I chose that life, as if it were a choice. People would tell me, ‘You could have been a gay man and been more successful in life.’ My issue is that I am not a man. I have always felt comfortable in my current shell as a woman. I learned to be proud and comfortable from my mentor, Tina Teasley. She was a few years older than me and was instrumental in my life and my transition. Tina was an amazing role model and showed me that you could be transgender and successful.

“Thanks, in part, to her, I started taking hormones at 17 and then got my breasts. After that, it was all about being a woman at all costs. I would save my money for the operations and back then, all of us girls, would go to the same doctor in NE. Now that I am older, I like to say that I live a normal life. This is me.

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Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

“Sometimes I feel like I am paying for the sins of my youth now with HIV, being on dialysis and waiting for a kidney. As a child, I was adopted by my adopted mother, a cleaning lady who worked for rich white people, and my adopted father who worked for People’s Drug Store. My birth mother in South Carolina refused to sign the set of papers for my adoption, so my parents had to bribe her with a set of clothes. Can you imagine, my birth mother gave me up for a set of clothes? I didn’t learn that I was adopted until I was eight when a neighbor told my teacher. My mother was so pissed when she found out, and she sat down and told me the story.

“When I heard the news, I felt uncomfortable with it. I developed this feeling that someone did not want me. That feeling fueled my rebellious stage. I started telling my mother that she was not my real mother and started hanging out with the kids on the corner. I can only imagine the pain I inflicted from those statements and my lifestyle.

“In middle school, I learned about shooting drugs, prostitution, and hustling. On the street, people tell you how it goes. We learned to get the drunks on the corner to buy us wine. I learned about sex from the older men in my neighborhood. The whores taught me how to hustle, steal wallets, and look fabulous. I used to hustle by the bus station with these two little white boys. We would be out there in jeans a t-shirts and go get our work done at the hotel across the street. I just loved the thrill of being a whore. It was so exciting and empowering.

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Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

“As parents, my partner and I were looking for a different kind of educational experience in this city for our kids. It saddens me to see that the trends in education are away from the concept that learning can be great fun and towards solely the acquisition of knowledge. I think that learning should be fun. When you do that for kids, they will want to continue to learn as they grow up.

“While there are lots of strong schools in D.C., we wanted a place with project based learning that related to the real world. Before Two Rivers, there was only one other school in D.C. doing that, Capital City Public Charter School, which was not in this neighborhood.

“We organized a grass-roots effort with other parents to open this school. As they say, it really does take a village. There were a large number of people who gathered and volunteered their time and resources to get this started. It took a lot of time and effort, but we worked together to create this place out of love seven years ago.

“For me, it is a dream come true to be able to help found and run a school that has as its critical components, all the things that I care most about. I have always felt that it is important that kids learn more than just the nuts and bolts. For example, we live in an amazing city and part of our job at the school is to take advantage of those resources when teaching our kids.

“One of my favorite parts of what I do is standing at the door in the morning with the other administrators to greet the kids. It’s important for me because it reminds me of why we are here – to connect with these amazing kids. We want kids to be excited about learning and realize how fun it can be.”

Jessica Wodatch is the Executive Director of Two Rivers Public Charter School.

Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

“D.C. was great when I was growing up, but this ain’t no place to raise children any more. Now that I got two kids, there isn’t too much that I like about D.C. I really want to get out of here. Don’t much mind where I go, as long as it is not here. I am being for real.

“I was raised uptown in D.C. and then moved to Maryland. I liked it there for my kids because it was safe and quiet, but I be going crazy with nothing to do. I recently got an apartment in Southeast. I really didn’t want to move there, but an apartment came through the city where I would be able to live on my own with my two kids.

“I tell you, Southeast ain’t nothing but corruption. I don’t want to live or raise my children here. It’s like every time my son gets up out of the house, he gets into it with somebody. And my son is only four years old. My daughter is one and too young to deal with all of this. What is wrong with these parents where my son can’t just go outside and play? These parents ain’t raising their kids right.

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Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

“I came to this country as a young man almost 50 years ago. When I came here, I knew nothing and had nothing. I arrived in Washington with 35 cents and didn’t speak any English. I had a job waiting for me at the Turkish Embassy, but didn’t have enough money to pay for the taxi ride from the bus station to the embassy. The doorman at the Turkish Embassy paid it for me. I remember it was 95 cents and I eventually paid him back.

“After some time at the job, I started to make some money and learned the language. In my early days here, I met this girl who invited me on a date to go and see The Beatles play at the Uline Arena. I knew about The Beatles from Turkey, but just thought they were weird and had long, shaggy hair. We went to the concert, and remember, I couldn’t speak English, so this girl took my hand and let me around like a child.

“When The Beatles got on stage, the place went berserk. I never saw so many crazy people in my life. You couldn’t hear anything because of all of the screaming. All of those girls must have lost their voices during the show. The whole time, I am thinking, all of this for some weird guys with long hair?

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Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

“Like many people, I came here because of the federal government. I am from San Diego, and moved here ten years ago to work as an auditor for the Department of Labor. The city really is everything I thought it would be. It’s eclectic, full of history, and there is lots to do. I wasn’t sure how long I would stay when I first got here, but this place is definitely home now.

“I think that a big part of why it feels like home is because I bought a house a couple of months back and I also got Maggie, my baby girl. I never had a dog before, but always wanted a miniature dachshund. Maggie is even better than I could have ever imagined! I come home from work and it is so nice to have a warm body waiting for me who is always happy. And, she’s even come to take on my personality. She is very laid back….and she doesn’t bark!

“I see how much different things are for me now that I have a dog. Day-to-day, we, as citizens, don’t really speak to each other much. Having Maggie changes that for me. A dog invites people to engage and say, ‘hi’. People always stop me to ask my dog’s name and if they can pet her. Before Maggie, I fell into the category of keeping my head down and handing my business. I didn’t really talk to strangers if I had no reason. Now, that I have a dog, I find that I am more open to conversation. I notice dogs and people more, and am always inquiring about different tips and treats, and a plethora of other topics.

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Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

“Man, everything done changes. Don’t matter if you are talking about neighborhoods or hair, ain’t nothing stays the same. I have been in the game of cutting hair for 2o plus years. I done seen the Caesar, the pompadour, the jheri curl, the S curl, the fade, the bald look, and now, the dread locks. In the neighborhood, I done seen things change from the hood to high living. Everything changes. Things come and go. I can get into most things, but no matter what happens, you will never find me in no skinny jeans!

“At the barber shop. I keep up with the style by taking things one day at a time. I look at different trends and get ready for what’s coming. Here, we don’t discriminate. If you got something, we’ll cut it. Don’t matter if it is hair, finger nails, or toe nails! My father and uncle were the same way. My father spent 30 years in the game. My uncle got 45 years in the game. They started cutting hair on T Street and then moved to 13th and Florida. Now, we are on 12th and V. Spott’s got 40 plus years in the game of cutting hair.

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Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

“You all need to know school really is, and why kids be dropping out and stuff. People need to know that because them grown-ups don’t get it. They just be like, ‘You should go to school and be somebody.’ Come on now, it is not that simple. If you are put in a place that is not a learning environments, why should you learn anything? You just gonna follow the click. Just because you call it a school don’t mean that people be learning, especially when most of the teachers don’t believe in their students.

“I do my work and all, but school is boring. I used to go to a charter school, and they took us on field trips and gave us activities. People had school spirit and cared about something. Now, I go to public school and we got none of that. I try to do my best, but I be seeing people drop out everyday because they stop caring. They think that school is boring and it don’t prepare them for nothing. They probably right.

“Even if people here don’t be believing in us, my mother and my brothers believe in me. They don’t want me to be no bum. They are encouraging me to graduate and be the best that I can be. I want to go to college and study journalism. I like to write, but it gotta be about something interesting. I want to tell the stories that people actually want to know about in this city. There are a lot of crazy things that happen here. Just look at the schools. I want people to know that we have no diversity in our schools. I spend my life around black people. The only caucasian people I know are teachers. I wish that would change. I want to get on TV and tell stories that will help change our schools and stop all them kids from dropping out.”

Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

SpeakeasyDC and Danny will be hosting a DC storytelling night on stage at Town next week. The event will be March 8, at 8pm at Town. Tickets are $10. Details are here.

“I’ve been fixing cars since before most of you were born. I started in Jamaica, where I was born, and have been doing it for the forty years I’ve been living in Washington. I started fixing police cars over at Northeast Ford on West Virginia Avenue. After nine years there, I left to open my own business. My first shop was on 14th and Belmont, and then I moved to Georgia Avenue.

“A ways back, I returned to Northeast. Now, they call me the Mayor of Congress Street. I have been working as a mechanic here for a long time….and I mean a long time…..like 27 years long time. I can tell you everything about everything here. When I first got here, there was nothing around here and the place was rough and tough. I knew that one of these days, it was going to get better. It did.

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Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

“Until moving to the states, I never really thought much about my accent. I was born in Liverpool and raised in Bangalore. To me, it is just a typical convent-educated, urban Indian accent. It is the accent of my sisters and all of my friends.

“Here, a lot of people can’t quite place me because of my accent. A lot of people have told me their mental image of me before we met is tall with long hair and white. I have had times when I go out to meet someone for an interview, and we have trouble connecting because they are looking out for someone else. Now, I just tell people, I am short, brown, and have a nose ring. It’s funny, I was meeting a cop once and described myself, and he said, ‘Great, I am six foot four, in uniform, and I carry a gun.’ We joked that we would have no trouble finding each other.

“Before going into radio, my plan was to do television. I did my master’s degree in communications in India and then did a second degree in broadcast journalism at Urbana-Champaign. While in school there, I interned for a TV station and they let me do everything, but wouldn’t let me get on the air. They said that people wouldn’t understand my accent and the ratings would drop. The station encouraged me to learn an American accent if I wanted to get on television. I thought about it a long time, but I knew that people would eventually realize that who I really am was not matching my American accent. I felt like they wouldn’t trust what I was saying, and trust is the most important thing in this line of work.

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Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

“This city has such a strong influence on who I am. D.C. gave me the best and worst of life. As a child, the city gave me the opportunity to travel to Brazil through the Ambassador’s of Hope program. That experience opened my eyes to the world and helped me realize that life was so much bigger than just my neighborhood. At the same time, the city was also responsible for my 16-year-old sister getting murdered behind a church in Simple City.

“Now, I am 26 and have lived everywhere from the hood in SE to Georgetown. When I was coming up in Simple City, it was the murder capital of the murder capital. There was a lot of violence and drugs, but there were also a lot of nice things, too. I hate it when people talk badly about SE. My family lived there because it was the best they could do. When you have a family and money is tight, you can’t just pick up and move anywhere. Despite the bad environment, me and my siblings were all high achievers. I was a good student and into art. My sisters were smart and really successful track stars. My older sister almost made the Puerto Rican Olympic team.

“When I was 12, I wrote an essay and won an opportunity to go to Brazil through my school. It was my first chance to not only leave the country, but the city. I went with my teacher, Ms. Miller, and three other students. We traveled the whole country and it was the most humbling experience of my life. Where I was from in SE, I always thought that we were poor. In Brazil, I met kids who had ten times less than me. That experience changed my life. I would tell everyone that education is good. College is good. But, there is no better learning experience than traveling.

“When I came back, all I wanted to do was travel. I saw that life was so much bigger than Simple City. I went to Duke Ellington School of the Arts, and loved spending time outside of my neighborhood. I mean, I will always love SE to death, but I got so tired of the violence and drugs. All of my friends wanted to be gangsters.

“I made a decision to leave the neighborhood and never move back after my sister was murdered in 2002 by her boyfriend. She was 16 and just had his baby. He was the same age, and didn’t want her to have the kid. Well, people in my neighborhood don’t always have the most common sense and can tend to handle things with violence. He shot her behind the church next to our house. The baby, Destiny, survived.

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Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

“I came to this country from Puebla, Mexico with my family when I was a small child. We lived in Tucson, Arizona and I became a citizen when I was six-years-old. I have seen a lot of this country now that I am 38. I lived in Texas, Connecticut, New York, Baltimore, and have been in Washington for 26 years.

“Politicians in this city come-and-go, and they all make promises about helping the immigrants. We are a country of immigrants, but we go through times when people don’t like us very much. Just look at what is happening in Arizona. Look at the politicians from all over the country who live in my city and want to make like hard for all of the hard working immigrants who live in America.

“Remember, I am an American and can work, but people still see my skin and think that I am not one of you. Do you need me to remind you that we are all immigrants? Look at Obama. His father is from Africa.

“I don’t know, maybe things were better back with Washington and Lincoln because I don’t see much change with Bush and Obama. Our presidents go off and travel to India and China and start wars abroad rather than go to places like Honduras or El Salvador. If people here cared about immigration, they would try and help the people in those countries, so they wouldn’t come live here. Instead, we are a country that collects enemies. We need to change how we live.

“I hope that things will change. If not, I guess I will go back to Mexico.”

Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

“In 1999, I had just finished a job up on East-West Highway and New Hampshire Avenue when the hit and run happened. I work with my hands and was putting my tools away in the back of my truck. I can’t explain it, but I had this feeling that a car was heading towards me. I guess it was just instinct, but I jumped up in the air. When I came down, I had no legs. A car smashed right into me and took off my legs below the knees. Had I not jumped, the car would have hit me in the mid-section, and I would have died.

“They rushed me to the hospital and tried to save my legs. You know, they were going to make me a midget and throw away the bad parts of my legs and just reattach my feet to my knees. That didn’t work out, so they gave me prosthetics instead. Funny thing about that is I tricked the doctors into giving them to me before I was supposed to get them. I was stuck up in that hospital for so long, and couldn’t stand it no more. I needed to get out and had plans to get married on Hains Point, so I started to do my own kinds of rehabilitation. Most of this stuff is just mental. Once I convinced my brain that my legs were gone, I stopped having the phantom pains and started to learn how to walk on my own. You can be sure, I made it to my wedding. Now that was a beautiful day.

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Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

“I have consistently tried not to be the first in life. I was the first black student in my high school in Long Island. We were the first black family in our town. I was the first woman in the pulpit at 19th Street Baptist Church. Now, I am the first woman to found a Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. that is recognized by the American Baptist and D.C. Baptist conventions. For the sake of history, the firsts are important, but it can be a difficult and painful process.

“In seminary, I remember the men saying to me, ‘Well, surely, you are not going to preach. You are a woman, and women don’t preach.’ As a woman, men believed I was meant to be an associate minister, work in the children’s or youth ministry, or support of the pastor in different ways. These were all important positions, but I had a very powerful calling and wanted more.

“After serving for seven years as an associate minister at the First Congregational Church and then as associate pastor of the 19th St. Baptist Church, I heard my calling to found the Pavilion of God. At the time, I was gravely ill and in the hospital. When I got out, a young man called to ask if I was still doing counseling. He knew a couple that needed help. I told him that I was very ill, but would find someone else. He called me back the next day and said, ‘Are you sure you can’t do this?’ I said, I am really, really sorry, but I can’t. The next day, the man in need of help called back and asked if I could meet with him. Finally, I said, okay, but for a very short time, as I could barely talk and was still on oxygen.

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Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. He launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. You can follow People’s District on Twitter @PeoplesDistrict, and can read his previous columns here.

“Being a marijuana lobbyist is definitely the coolest job that you can have. It always makes for good conversation at a cocktail party and tends to be more interesting than the folks who work at any given corporate lobbying firm. I love every minute of what I do and really think it is the Lord’s work. Everyday, I work to keep people out of jail for a substance that is less harmful than alcohol, yet we still waste our nation’s blood and treasure waging a failed war on drugs.

“I got into this after working as a Democratic campaign operative in Colorado. During the 2002 election cycle, I was part of a winning campaign, but I didn’t care to work for candidates anymore. I wanted to work on issues that I really cared about, so I came to D.C. to work with the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) in March 2003. I had some personal experience with recreational marijuana use and also was around people who saw positive effects from medical marijuana, I just couldn’t get over the fact that it was illegal. It seemed so stupid to me.

“Before doing this, I never really talked with my buddies in politics about my thoughts on marijuana because I didn’t think that anyone agreed with me. Now, one of the remarkable things about being a marijuana lobbyist is like a priest, people come and confess their marijuana use to me. This job gives me such perspective into how many people have had experiences with marijuana and how much of a failure our laws really are.

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