{"id":61513,"date":"2024-07-05T10:16:56","date_gmt":"2024-07-05T17:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/?p=61513"},"modified":"2025-04-21T12:56:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T19:56:49","slug":"sf-queer-latino-machismo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eltecolote.org\/content\/en\/sf-queer-latino-machismo\/","title":{"rendered":"Untangling machismo as a Latinx trans activist in San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lea McGeever (she\/they\/he), 39, describes their upbringing as \u201ca lonely existence.\u201d Raised as the eldest daughter in a Catholic, military family, McGeever was often \u201ckept home\u201d while their younger brother went out with friends. \u201cI was taught as a woman that I was responsible for this boy,\u201d McGeever recalls. \u201c[My parents] used to blame me for anything bad my brother did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until their 30s that McGeever began questioning their upbringing and identity. \u201cI basically grew up thinking I’m a white American,\u201d said McGeever, whose father is Irish and mother is of Mexican descent. \u201cI didn’t have any sense or connection of being Mexican, or indigenous, or anything.\u201d In exploring their history, they discovered that their maternal grandparents were from a farmworker family in the Central Valley. \u201cI’m rejecting the colonialism side, military and white supremacy side,\u201d said McGeever. \u201cThat was a big motivator for why I wanted to reconnect and build my Mexican identity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On becoming a queer couple<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2006, McGeever married their partner, Erin McGeever, who was then male-presenting: \u201cWe looked like a typical heterosexual couple.\u201d By December 2021, their spouse came out as a transgender woman. \u201cWhen my partner first came out, I truly believed I was a heterosexual, cis woman,\u201d said McGeever. \u201cSo I had to reevaluate that, because if my partner is now a woman, and I believe I’m heterosexual, that means I can’t be with my partner anymore. And I severely love my partner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, McGeever identifies as both a woman and a man and considers themselves lucky to have the support of their mother and grandmother. \u201cMy mother, she has been the most receptive out of my immediate family,\u201d said McGeever. \u201cAnd my grandmother, she’s very religious, Catholic. She has candles and prayers and whatnot set up on her dresser \u2026 She told my wife recently that she saw her and she supported her, she loved her and she saw how happy she was now.\u201d Despite their support, McGeever says, \u201cNo one else really talks about it or acknowledges that about me in my family, period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since becoming a visibly queer couple, McGeever said the way they are treated in society \u201chas changed immensely.\u201d When they presented as a \u201ctypical, heterosexual couple,\u201d McGeever would be treated as a woman \u2014 they were ignored and constantly interrupted. Now, McGeever, who sports a shaved haircut, says they get treated like the male in the relationship. \u201cMy wife gets completely ignored by whoever’s working the cash register or whether we’re renting a car, paying for groceries,\u201d said McGeever. \u201cI am the one that is spoken to by other men.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a trans woman, McGeever says their wife also experiences more physical harassment and is constantly bumped against walls. \u201cWhen she looked like a man, there’d be a bubble of personal space that people wouldn\u2019t enter,\u201d said McGeever. \u201cNow that is completely gone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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