Chapter 13
Robert David Rodgers had been on the program for 3 months. He was past the rough part and was feeling much better. Caroline was always around seeing to her father and visiting with her mother. They had heard all the rumors about the "Doctor in Drag". So one day, Caroline and her father were sitting in his room in the hotel when he asked if her and Allen were getting along. "Sure we are. What makes you think that we might not be?"
"Well we are hearing the rumors about your husband and my doctor. Is he a Queen?" "No, dad, he is a transvestite. There is a difference. Yes they wear women's clothing but he just does it to escape the crowds and hide from the press. Its now more a theatrical thing now. Believe me, he is safe."
"I am more concerned with how you deal with it."
"Dad, it doesn't bother me. He told me up front about how it happened and I don't have a problem with what he is wearing. But the social ramifications are the problem."
"I have a feeling that will not be a problem any more. For the record, I don't care either. I just don't want it to damage everything you have worked for and he has worked for."
"Thanks for your help dad. I feel a bit better now that I know you are cool about it."
"Honey, I have to be cool. I am going to be wearing dresses very soon myself." They both laughed.
The conference that Dr. Gurber needed to have with the staff and inner circle of the hotel went very well. Everyone had guessed what was going on, but no one was really sure except those who had seen him. He had decided to be more open about Alice. It would make some of the patients feel much better about having to wear a dress. But some patients had a problem with it. So Dr. Gurber played it cool while on duty. But off duty, Alice would run around. Very few people actually knew it was Dr. Gurber. He didn't make a point of introducing himself to anyone either. You just had to know Alice. The press didn't know what to make of it either. They just thought it was some kind of publicity ploy to gain attention to the program and the plight of the patients on the drug.
Research on the drug was now world wide. There had been major breakthroughs in AIDS and other nasty things that had to do with the immune system. Seems that if anything that looked like a cancer would react to the drug. A team of researchers had found the link between the two problems as a direct of the mutation of the genetic makeup of both the AIDS affected cells and cancer cells. The results of the initial experimental trials were "most hopeful." What they would not tell the general public was that they had gained the same effect of eliminating the Aids virus with the same effect as cancer, a chemical sex change. The big problem was the pain involved. Pain was markedly increased with the Aids virus. They still didn't know why. The patient involved eventually died. A Patient could not tolerate the pain the drug induced and the drug was always addictive.
The research community felt that this was a great achievement. But the patient died. Dr. Gurber didn't feel very good about this. The patient died. If he had lived, then maybe, yes. But death was death.
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Chapter 13 Continued.
Loose Ends
The New Orleans city policeman who had come in a few days before the press conference was doing amazingly well. It had been touch and go for several days. But the HOTEL had a special facility in it for the very ill patients. The doctors who manned the clinic could do almost anything that an emergency room could do. We also still had one of the finest private labs in the country. As the hotel director, I had the job of welcoming the new patients and trying to meet their personal needs as well as could be expected. Ben Carter was your typical New Orleans city policeman. He was very much a Macho type. He was 5' 9" and average build. I was shocked to find out that the referring doctor had not fully explained to him what was going to happen . The first thing that I had to do was call the resident shrink and inform him of the situation. Then I called Dr. Gurber and Billie. They would not be happy at this news. I had the honors of telling the man what the program was and what was about to happen to him. (I once was a cop and could relate.)
"Hello Ben, I am Leslie."
"Please tell me what the hell is going on."
"Do you know where you are?"
"I think this is the place where you turn people into the opposite sex."
"Well, that is Somewhat correct, and We only do what we do for people who are dying of cancer. You were brought because you were dying. You have been administered the drug."
"I didn't consent to this treatment."
"We know. Your treatment was ordered by a local judge. The admitting doctor could not find a relative and you were going under. In the condition you were in, he couldn't let you go. This treatment was your only hope. We normally request that the paperwork be done before we admit a new patient to the program. You came in, in such bad condition that no one questioned the admitting doctors court order. It is now too late. You are now on the drug and it is either this or death. I cannot allow you to kill yourself in this clinic. You do know that you were dying and are the first patient to recover from such an advanced cancer condition?"
"How long do I have before I am one of those freaks?"
"Gee thanks buddy, I am one of "Those Freaks" too."
"Naaaa, I don't believe it. You?"
"Yes, I was a man at one time. By the way, I also once was a policeman too."
"No kidding?"
"No kidding!"
"Look, Leslie, I need to know if there is any way to escape this shit."
"No, it is too late. Once the process has started, it is too late. Your body is even now changing. You do feel better now don't you?"
"Well, I feel much better. I can't believe that my doctor did this to me."
"Settle in and we will take very good care of you. You are in the French quarter and on your own turf.."
I went to Dr. Gurber and reported Ben's attitude. I felt that he would eventually accept the situation. But I could bet you a banana that he was going to try to sue someone. Hopefully not us. After all, the admitting doctor had a court order.
Dr. Gurber had been checking on the new patient on a regular basis. He was the closest to death any of the patients had ever come and survived. His case would be a record. But after hearing about his problem with being on the program, Dr. Gurber decided to go and see him. After all, the clinic was operating with a doctors referral. Dr. Gurber would try to defuse the anger the man must hold within himself. It had to be there. He could not fault the Doctor in question for sending the patient to the clinic. He would surely have died without the drug therapy.
Ben was having a good day. He was sitting up in the bed, reading the literature on the history of the clinic.(Sanitized version) The clinic nurse was taking samples of blood and body fluids when Dr. Gurber came in.
"You must be the head guy around here."
"That is what I am told. This place just runs itself now."
"I have meet Leslie when I came to. I hope you have more like her around."
"Unfortunately, she is one of a kind."
"Too Bad, hey Doc, I don't want to be on this program."
"I know. But it is now too late. To discontinue this drug will kill you very painfully in two or three days."
"I don't want to be a girl."
"I can only tell you that surgery to reduce the breasts can be done, but you will still be female when its all over."
"No way out now huh?"
"No, I am very sorry."
"Well, I am contemplating legal proceedings against my doctor. I think that I would have chanced dying before choosing this option."
"Well, you are here now and there is nothing I can do except continue the drug and help you make the decisions you need to make. We make no judgments here."
"I am glad to hear it. I am also a level headed person. So I am not going to jump up and down and yell over something I can do nothing about."
"Good, I think we can help you. You do know that the son of the President is on the program now too."
"That is fine for him, but I still don't like it."
"I understand."
"By the way, can you send Leslie back up to see me. I would like to talk to her again. I think I can relate to her a little better than most. She told me that she was once a cop."
"Yes, she once was. I will see if she can come visit."
"Thank you."
Our new guest was going to be a tough one, Allen thought to himself.
The world was changing right before our eyes. One of the obvious changes was the unsexing of toilets all over the country. There were thousands of "Gems" now and socially, there were a lot of threatened people. Before a person would go out with a blind date, the first question was "Are you a GEM?"
We were starting to hear of several cases of pregnancy and childbirth's with a Gem. The first couple of patients who had the honor were our original first large group. The longer the patient was on the program, the greater, we hoped, the chance that they would not have a complication with childbirth. There were unusual characteristics of a Gem baby. The child was almost always born a Klinshmitt syndrome baby. (Hermorphadite) This could be surgically corrected. But the gender of the child was always in question. There was not enough data yet because these children were too young to tell. The research community was going to have a field day with these cases. But we were not concerned with anything except the health of both the baby and mother. We had done it. The line had been crossed. There were no barriers now for our patients. There were questions that had not been answered yet though. The new child had not been put on the drug. There were no side effects as we might have suspected. The blood work for the child was consistent. We didn't want any surprises.
Robert David Rodgers was at the magic 6 month period. We had dropped the requirement of changing dress. But, Caroline and David's wife felt that it was time for him to have an alter ego. He had the usual large breasts. They were always large for the Gem patients. His were "D's" and he was having some back problems as a result. But we had come up with an unusual solution for the large breast problem. It was a corset of unusual construction. It was high backed and boned so that the weight of the breasts were distributed over the whole surface area of the back. It was my design. (I had been wearing something similar to it as long as I could remember.) It was smooth on the outside so that you didn't see the ridges of its boning. It took a little while for the person to get used to it because it would cause some gastric problems. Before I became fully female, it had some attachments were I could attach the Gaff. But I didn't need it now. Also, my figure was almost just like Dolly Pardon's. I was just a little taller than her. But that was my figure type.
The corset helped many of the new 6 month patients. In fact, there were all kinds of little tricks we had come up with for the Gem. Some of us would get together and brainstorm over some coffee and up with new idea's.
The topic of this morning's discussion was the recent admittance of Ben Carter with out his permission. It would be impossible to keep that from happening again. After all, if you have a new patient on your doorstep barley alive and going quickly, you are going to do something. The doctor had a court order. It was obvious to all that he felt that this program was his only hope and had convinced a judge of that. You have to have a certain level of trust of a doctor who sent the patient. We all knew that there would be some kind of lawsuit against the doctor and probably us. Care first and legalities later. If you deny care, then you can be in more trouble than if you give care and start a Ben Carter.
One of the very unusual things about the Hotel was the clinic was becoming more and more public. Word was out that we would help any one who truly needed medical assistance. We would stabilize a patient and send them to the next available facility. We could not admit them to the hotel.
Several of the ambulance companies were transporting to our clinic, anyone who looked like a GEM. That usually included transsexuals and transvestites. Gunshot wounds and knife wounds were common. We even were giving some drugs to help with certain social diseases. But we could not help the AIDS community. We didn't even stock any of the known drugs for the decease. We could not afford the cost of some of these drugs.
Dr. Gurber and Billie were now actively looking for finical support to open the clinic to the community and help out. Money was out there for that kind of support and if anyone could find it, Billie and Dr. Gurber would find it. Tulane had offered to make the clinic an outshoot of their facility. But with the conflicts, Dr. Gurber had decided to back off and find other support. The interns were good, but Tulane was trying to take over more and more.
There were still reported cases of people trying to give themselves cancer. Asbestos was one of the better ways found to do it. But the added risks of lung problems in addition to the cancer made these people very pathetic. Dr. Gurber could think of several ways better and not as risky. Radiation had to be the better way. But not many people had that kind of access to a rad source. There was an X-ray tech. who had been caught giving himself a large amount of rads daily. By law, it was not allowable to make these exposures to yourself. He was caught under a spot film device shooting 1250 ma shots at large times. In technical talk, over 2000 mas at a time. (Radiation from X-ray machines is read in MAS, or Milliamps X Seconds.) With enough of it, you could get radiation sickness and develop a cancer if prolonged. Even though he had been caught, he had managed to get cancer. The hospital involved called the insurance provider and his insurance policy was promptly canceled. He was also terminated. The hormone hotel did not do charity cases anymore. We still don't know what he did to get the money. But he did and he did get what he wanted. It would cost him 100,000.00 over the next three years, Plus the radiation sickness which I wish on no one.
The legal battles over the gender issue grew to an intense level. It seemed that allot of the cases against employers were going against the employers. It brought the process of selecting employees to a high art. There were computer data bases that would look at your entire family records and determine if you were a candatite for cancer. The way we found out about this new wrinkle was a friend of Billie's. It seemed that he was a executive who was contacted by an insurance company about a prospective employee. "We cannot insure that individual." Was the answer. When pressed as to why, the answer was "He has a history of cancer in his family and we cannot be held to such a risk." He told the prospective employee and the SHIT hit the Fan. It seemed that the only record of Cancer in his family was on his mothers side of the family and then it was only a cousin. When the insurance company was sued, it had to disclose how the search was done and it was not very happy about it. The practice had to be abandoned and if caught, other companies could be sued for improper personal record searches.
Congress and the Senate was being bombarded with so many different kinds of new legislation that you could not get any of them to talk to you about the subject. There were even senators who were Gems. We had a very distinguished membership in the club.
The law suits were amazing. There was a lawsuit over admittance to a private Lesbian club by a Male to Female Gem who still liked women. (This was more the rule than the exception.) She had won. But it had the same effect that the Anti discrimination/Gay Marti- Grass ordinance in New Orleans had. People just shut down their operation and moved to another area. The person involved could move if she wanted to. But It was unlikely.
More lose ends.
Robert David Rodgers was beautiful as a woman. He would have no problems in society. There were those who didn't look like a genetic woman. (And never would. Marilyn was a good example of size and such.) Robert David would become Cissy Rodgers. This was the name She picked. No one questioned it.
Mary had opened her own club. She was famous as a performer in the New Orleans area. No one knew that she was once a he. And as a Gems patient, No one could tell. We frequented the club and enjoyed VIP treatment.
Then there were the RG's, or Rough Girls. This was the Gutter crew. These girls went to the roughest places in the quarter and never questioned as to their sex. But the risks they took were legendary. To become a RG, you had to go to the most outrageous place in town and stay till it closed. If you made it home in one piece, you were a RG. I went through the ritual and came out with only one or two cuts. It went like this.
One of the leather bars were advertising free food and drinks if you came attired (I use that word loosely.) in leather and heels. The badder (Vixen) the better. The catch was that you had to handcuff yourself to a chain over the bar and stay there all night. I had my own cuff (and the Key) and some leather gauntlets so that my wrist would not be chaffed the next day. The men would come up to you and make passes at you and pinch you ass. Some of them would try to make French kisses and grab your tits. That is what I meant by "IN ONE PIECE". I was very smart when I took a piece of chain and a small padlock and made a little weapon with the other hand. I was not as big as some of the other women. But I had to be stronger. The game was that the men would try to see if they could make it with all the women at the bar. I must have chained 10 guys that night. I got the certificate of "RG to the EXTREME". If Billie had been here, it wouldn't have been an even contest. She would have beat me hands down. I still go out to the place. Everyone knows who I am now. Seems that everyone connected with the Hotel and Clinic are famous in the Quarter.
Cissy Rodgers was beginning to venture out and see the world. The French quarter had become home to all the GEMS and we had become a fixture. We even had some of the locals working in the clubs and bars. Some even were working in the strip joints. They were the single ones who needed the money and could not go back to their original jobs. So they danced and no one was the wiser. In fact, the club owners were beginning to hire them over real women because they had unusually large breasts, and they were bigger (and stronger) than genetic females. I don't have to tell you that this caused all kinds of reverse discrimination suits. I still kinda enjoyed looking at the strippers. There was one place that went all the way. No latex on the nipples or bottom covers. They let every thing they had hang out.
I had gone in to Mary's club one night dressed very sleazy (and sexy) just to do something different from the dress for success suits that I usually wore and was just looking to be entertained. I knew who the GEMS were and everyone knew who I was. But there was always some one from out of town or a tourist. This tourist started trying to pick me up. I couldn't believe the guy. He wouldn't go away. I was only 5'8" and small compared to the other girls. He just liked me. He was rich and wanted to talk. Why not.
The conversation went something like this. "Honey, you look hot."
"Well thanks."
"You must be from out of town. You do know your in the bad part of town?"
"I was bored and just wanted to see what was going on."
"You cruising for a girl?"
"No, not really, I just wanted to talk and spend time with someone."
"Good, I am not a hooker."
"I didn't care if you were. I just wanted to talk."
"Married?"
"Yes. I hardly ever see her though. I travel so much. I am one of those traveling service types who get shipped all over the country."
"Why in the hell are you hanging around the Strip joints if you don't want to get turned on?"
"I don't know. I guess I didn't have anything else to do. What do you do?"
"I run a Hotel."
"Fancy that. Which one?"
"Down in the French Quarter."
"I might try to get a room there. I like the scenery."
"We don't except any one but patients in the Tulane cancer clinic."
"You run the sex change cancer clinic!?"
"No, I run the hotel. Other folks run that."
"Boy, I bet that is a strange place to work. I could not imagine having to change sex."
"Well, I can."
"Oh no, Not you?"
"Yes."
"Well, Well, you know, it might be an opportune thing that I bumped into you. I have been needing to talk to someone about my wife................"
His wife was on Kemo and was sinking fast. I explained that yes, she would get better and be able to live a normal life but, forget going back to life as you once knew it. It was not an easy road. Could he deal with having someone you have known all your life, changed into a different person. Now I know why he was down in the French quarter.
This was a very regular occurrence. People with problems would usually go to the quarter in hopes of finding someone like me. Those of us who did go out in the quarter were warned about this and how to deal with someone like this gentleman that I just ran into. I mean totally out of the blue. People would just come up to you. I was happy to do it though. They just couldn't be seen down at the clinic. They had to find someone who was going through the process or knew people who did.
We carried business cards for the purpose of referring these people to the clinic and we had an info line set up so people with questions could call and ask. This was where I sent this poor lonely gentleman with a problem. I of course answered as many questions as he could ask. The night was short and he turned out to be good company.
The wife was mid forties and the stay-at-home kind. He traveled and worked on the road. But with her sick and him on the road, it was a tough life. No wonder he wanted to talk. He wouldn't admit it. I normally pay my own way. But tonight, he insisted that he pay for dinner and my coffee. (I never drank anything alcoholic.) I had to work the next day and had to call it a short day. But I know he felt a little better. Poor guy, I do know how he felt. He would save his wife's life and lose her anyway. She would become a man before his eyes. There was no other way to save her. Life was cruel.
We still had the usual people coming through the Hotel. The new people on the program had to be taught makeup and body language. We had for a long time employed the first group of patients as counselors and teachers. It worked well. Seemed that we were always full up. People were knocking down the doors to get in. Yes, there were other clinics around the country. But we were in the French Quarter. One of the few places where these people could be themselves and not be embarrassed if they didn't act like they looked.
Marilyn was famous. It was going to be a very difficult job keeping her employed at the hotel and clinic. She was getting offers from some of the other clinics around the country and even some abortion clinics. But I had talked to her and she had made up her mind that she liked where she worked and was not going to move. That was good.
Up until now, we were very shy about giving the drug to children. It was difficult enough to give the drug to an adult and change their lives. But giving the drug to a child was a whole different thing. They had no idea what changing sex meant. Especially a 12 year old boy or girl. It was the cruelest of our cases. We didn't even know how to administer to their needs. They were unable to know what sex was all about and had not reached puberty. How do you teach a 12 year old boy to be a girl. How would other children act with these poor kids. If you didn't know, these kids can be vicious in nature and would emotionally tear the GEMS kids up. Not the best situation.