Angelo's first morning at the home for troubled teen girls, many of them runaways was a marvel to him.
In the eyes of all of the girls (and most of the staff), he was a troubled 15-year-old girl whose name was Angela; having arrived the previous night after being picked up at the bus station.
But soon things would begin to change.
"Did you meet Gigi in the bus stop," one slender, almost anorexic black girl asked as they gathered, along with eleven other girls for a breakfast of oatmeal, toast, orange juice, and bananas.
"Yeah. You know her?"
"Most of us do. Did she come on to you?"
"Yes," he answered, in a shy, almost reluctant voice. "I was afraid of her. She creeped me out."
"It's good you were. It kept you from just going with her," the girl said. "By the way, I'm Charlene. She tried to pick me up, too."
"I'm Angela," he said, "She sat next to me on the bus. I was scared."
"Angela, I'm not sure if you're ready for the big city," Charlene said. "Did you know why she was after you?"
"She said she had a place for me to stay, but I didn't know what she meant. She was scary, and so was that guy with her."
By now all the others were listening in on the conversation, and several had begun to laugh. Angelo knew they were laughing at him. Did they suspect he was really a boy, was his first thought.
"Well, honey, she did have you a place to stay, but it comes with a price," a rather large girl named Jo Marie interjected. "They wanted you to turn tricks."
"Turn tricks," he asked, not sure what that meant.
They wanted you to whore for them."
"Oh?!" Angelo said, suddenly realizing how naïve he was about the ways of the world.
"Maybe, you should have gone with them," Charlene chimed in. "You're just what they want. So darn pretty and cute. Such a dainty little thing. Exactly what the johns are looking for. And white, too."
"I bet she's a virgin," Jo Marie chided.
Angelo was embarrassed and obviously showed it. He quickly realized these girls here had much more experience with life on the streets than he did.
Angelo looked down at his food, saying nothing. Suddenly, he felt a fear, a fear that he was in a situation in which he was incapable of protecting himself.
Maxine had been sitting opposite Angelo. She was a tall, Amazon-like girl that had been saying nothing but kept looking at Angelo, studying him steadily through breakfast.
Angelo glanced at her several times, but she quickly averted her gaze each time. Angelo wasn't sure what to do about Maxine's intense interest in him and it was making him uncomfortable.
"Oh yes," Maxine finally said, in a deep raspy voice. "Those white boys would pay a fortune to enjoy your tight, sweet, virgin honeypot. You're just too cute for words."
Angelo forced a smile while looking at Maxine, hoping she'd stop.
"Whatsamatter? Cat got your tongue cutie," Maxine continued. "No worries, maybe later, I show you how it's done."
Charlene suddenly interjected, "Shut your damn mouth. Leave Angela alone. Can't you see she's frightened?"
Suddenly, tears began rolling down Angelo's cheeks. He felt so alone and scared in this foreign place. These girls were beginning to frighten him. He had never been alone in a big city, and here they were talking about sex and things he knew little about. He desperately wished now to be in the warm arms of his foster mother.
Charlene placed a light hand on his arm, patting his arm sympathetically, helping him to stanch his flowing tears.
At that moment, Karen, the community worker, entered. Unaware of what had been going on in the room, she began speaking loudly, "All right, girls. Finish your meal. In the next five minutes, I need you guys to be done. We're going to have a little meeting in the lounge. And be kind to Angela, please."
As they finished breakfast and headed out of the dining room, Maxine appeared alongside Angelo. Her strong hands grabbed his slender bicep, and she whispered, "Sweetie, you need some education. I'll get to you later."
"What do you want? Leave me alone," Angelo told her quietly.
"Oh, the little baby girl wants to be left alone," Maxine said sarcastically. She let it a creepy little chuckle then left Angelo to head out onto the back porch for a quick smoke.
Smoking was officially prohibited at the shelter, but for the most part, the staff looked the other way. They realized that the vice, at that time in the girls' lives, was the least of their problems.
Karen called Angelo into a side office after the meeting. There, she informed him that things weren't going as well as they had hoped. The Denver County Child Welfare agency had talked with Angelo's home county child welfare department,
and had, as of yet, been unable to change their thinking about Angelo's placement.
"They're convinced you're being corrupted by Mrs. Dayton and have got to be removed from the horrible situation," Karen said.
"But she's NOT corrupting me. She's a wonderfully supportive person and she's made me so happy," Angelo said.
"I know. I understand that, but to them, they think you should be raised in a masculine setting. They feel they have a responsibility to see that you're a young man ready to enter the world on your own at age eighteen," Karen explained.
"Oh, they're just awful. I'm not a man, and I'll never be a man. Look at me. Why can't they see I'm a girl? Oh not totally, not yet, but a girl nonetheless."
"I know, Angela," Karen said, still using his feminine name.
Karen then informed Angelo that the law required her to turn him back to his own County and that Ms. Pentecost was insisting it be done quickly.
"I have no choice honey, I'm sorry. If I don't, I will lose my job. I can stall until Saturday, but that's it," she told him.
"Miss Karen, you've been so nice. I don't want you to lose your job."
"I know you don't, honey. Like I said, I can delay for a couple days and then tell them that your foster mom showed up and took you. In the meantime, hopefully, something can be worked out and they will change their mind."
Karen then told Angelo that she had talked with Mary Elizabeth earlier. She said his foster mother told her that Michael and Heather had been working on his behalf, too, but we're having little success with the gay rights group they were petitioning. The group, she explained, rarely assisted transgendered persons, claiming that gays and lesbians had enough issues to deal with.
"Michael, however, went to the ACLU and she told me that they seem interested in your case."
"ACLU?"
"Yeah, the American Civil Liberties Union."
"What can they do?" Angelo asked.
"Well...for one thing, they might seek a court injunction prohibiting child welfare from removing you from Mrs. Dayton's home."
"Really. They can do that? And can they make it permanently?"
"They could do that, but not permanently honey, just until the case is considered in court."
Angelo smiled to learn that his foster mother and his best friend's sister and her boyfriend cared enough about him to try to help him be able to remain with Mary Elizabeth and to continue to explore his femininity.
"It's a civil rights issue," Karen explained. "The foster care system has no right to interfere with your need to live as a boy or a girl or as some combination of that. At least, that's the point the ACLU is trying to make."
Karen explained further that the case would be difficult to win since transgendered persons currently are not protected under state anti-discrimination laws, however, the state did have a law protecting persons against discrimination for sexual orientation, that is, being gay or lesbian.
"Oh?" Angelo pondered. "So nothing's certain, yet?"
"Not really, honey. But just stay as sweet as you are. You have lots of people on your side that want to help you."
Karen reminded Angelo that Mary Elizabeth would be driving to pick him up in a couple days and that in the meantime, Michael and Heather would be working with the ACLU to get the injunction. Angelo smiled at the prospect of seeing his mommy again.
"You should be able to stay with Mrs. Dayton," Karen said. "She's treated you well, but realize you will likely have to continue to try to live outwardly as a boy for now. "
"Yeah, I was having to do that already, Miss Karen, until I ran away."
Karen smiled with a twinkle in her eyes, "Now, go out and mingle with the other girls, honey. We'll be having some classes on feminine hygiene starting soon. It won't hurt you to learn about that; maybe you'll have second thoughts about becoming a woman." She chuckled and gave Angelo a hug as they parted.