(The following is one in a series of sneak peeks at the upcoming People of Chelsea additions by Photographer Darlene DeVita. The new work will ultimately appear on the fence of the Chelsea Public Library (CPL) this fall in a collaboration between the People of Chelsea project and the CPL.)
By Darlene DeVita
I couldn’t afford anything in Somerville, and I banked over to Chelsea, and I didn’t understand why everybody said this place was so bad because it’s kinda cool. It’s [waterfront] like Back Bay. I wanted to be here. Then I moved myself over in my car, there were several gay men living here at the time, and they would all sit around and watch me move in. They were like, it’s never going to end! She keeps moving her stuff in; it’s been months now! So I lived here with the gay men for a bunch of years until I met April in 2007. April lived in Fall River. April: ‘I bought a place on Addison St. that’s how I got to Chelsea. I thought if I live on Addison St. and we don’t work out, I can get on the bridge, and I’ll never have to see you again…but what ended up happening was we were inseparable. We would ‘winter and summer” in opposite places. We’d winter at Aprils’ place on Addison because it had more space, and in the summer, we’d come back here because we have the porch and the view and the neighbors.
Pep: I had known I was trans since I was 11 but there weren’t a lot of options for me in 1976, so I just swept that under the rug for 43 years, and 3 yrs ago, I decided I was going to do something about it. My “coming out” was at City Hall in Chelsea. They needed someone for the flag-raising for the LGBTQ Coalition, and I spoke and came out. I was terrified, but it’s been fine. I never wanted to be the ‘man’; I just wanted to be me. I’m a lot happier than I ever was.
April says that she wishes the world was different because Pep hasn’t changed. ‘The trans is why Pep is the way Pep is. There’s been more pain than we needed to go through because of the fact that he is in the wrong body, but the things you fall in love with are all the same.