Jerrine Kaiulani Jeffries

As a child, I was already feeling like I knew I was different.  I would sit at the front living room window and watch my neighbor from up the road walk in front of our house and have this feeling of “uuuuuuu.”  As I got a little older, I remember being teased by my friends about me acting very “sissy” and “mahu.”  I would get embarrassed and cry a lot because of that.  But that still didn’t stop me from the way I was feeling. 

Living with my foster parent and foster siblings was a happy and fun time.  Those days, back in the 50’s & 60’s, were the best years of my life despite all the teasing and stuff.  Unfortunately, after I turned seven years old in 1960, the social worker notified my foster parents that she had found information about the whereabouts of my biological father, and that if I would be willing, that I should spend time with him to get used to my new family.

At the time I really had no choice, so I agreed, little beknown to me that my biological father had been seeing a divorced woman with six children living in a two-bedroom home in rural Waialua.  Life from that point on became very difficult, aside from me being a stepchild to a new family and being the way I was, feminine, soft, I was really feeling uncomfortable.  I didn’t quite get along with my new stepmother, who sent me to the hospital after hitting me on the head with a kitten heel shoe which left me with five stitches.  The doctor told us that, whatever happened, it was just centimeters away from my brain. 

I got along with my stepmother’s other children (sort of).  Her older son Lawrence was a little standoffish towards me, but later we got along.  She would constantly pick on me, make me do chores and anything and everything in the house, babysit my step brothers and sister, do the laundry, cook for my older stepsisters and family, and she would constantly abuse me verbally and tell my father, “Look he acting like one Mahu.”

So many times, I ran away from home and rode my bike to my foster parents in Waipahu. They would ask me why, and I would cry and explain. They would say, “they’re your new family now, so you have to listen to them.”  Then, they would call my father, and he would drive to Waipahu and pick me up.  I ran away from home a lot, which landed me in Juvenile Home at least twice a month. At one point I asked to stay with my second oldest stepsister.

Growing up in my teens and young adulthood was another hardship.  School was not for me.  I started to cut school as early as grade six.  I was sexually assaulted more than once.  I started cruising the park restrooms and bus station at an early age, 13 or 14. I think around age 17ish, I walked into the Glade Cocktail Show Lounge and was amazed at what I saw!! Showgirls in beautiful costume and big hair.