Trans-formational Courage: Vickey Lynn Jameson’s Journey to the Airwaves Back
During the six months prior to her transition, Vickey Lynn Jameson went to her corporate job every day and listened to co-workers talk about a transgender woman in another department. “They said things like, ‘look at that thing,’ and ‘isn’t that just disgusting,” Vickey remembers. “They called her it.”
Their taunts were not enough, however, to deter Vickey, who’d spent years ignoring who she really was. “I never really paid attention to me,” she admits. “When I was 18 my brother was fooling around with a gun and accidentally shot and killed himself. I’d even told him I wasn’t comfortable with him playing around with it,” she remembers.
“That experience changed my life. I ignored myself. I didn’t want to be me.”
Vickey carried the tragedy of her brother’s death with her for years. “I wasn’t willing to release him,” she says. “Then one night a friend asked me my greatest secret and I said, ‘I’ve always wanted to be a woman.’ It was a second awakening.”
After Vickey completed her transition, she was discriminated against nearly every day, both at work – being called “it,” receiving nasty looks, and even having a co-worker stop talking to her – and in her personal life – overhearing comments in public places and having a bartender refuse to serve her. “I discovered that indifference is worse than hate,” she says.
Despite the negativity, Vickey kept a promise she’d made to herself. “When I first transitioned, I asked myself how I would handle questions,” she recalls. “I could become evil and nasty or I could become a person who would like to answer the questions so the next transgender person they meet might not have such a difficult time. I made up my mind I would talk to someone as long as was necessary until there were no more questions.”
Vickey’s role as a transgender educator is rooted in her family. “At first, I lost my family,” she says. “My wife of 30 years divorced me; my kids didn’t want me around. It’s like a road you go down. When I first started transitioning, I had to teach them what it means to be transgendered.” She remembers someone asking her if the transition was hard. “It’s hard for my friends and family,” she replied, “but not for me. I’ve always been this way.”
After hurting her back several years ago, Vickey was no longer able to do her job – making motherboards for missiles and rockets, including New Horizons and the Trident missile system. “I came across TransFM, created by Ethan St. Pierre, who coordinates the Annual International Transgender Day of Remembrance,” Vickey shares. “I thought, we need something like that down here. There are GLBT radio stations, but none devoted to transgender issues. I needed a career change and we needed a voice.”
She founded the non-profit V109FM last spring and the station, located in an office building off Route 19 in Clearwater, has grown to eight shows, including TransChat on Thursday evenings. The lineup includes Arica Love, Michael Keeffe from Transgender FORGE, Inc. (Florida Organization Regarding Gender Equality), and the Faith Hour with the Christ the Cornerstone Church, which broadcast their Christmas Eve service on the station.
“This time next year, I’ll be happy if the radio station is paying for itself,” she laughs. “I want to syndicate the DJs and shows.” Her other goals include hiring a sales person to acquire sponsors, finding someone to do news and weather, and perhaps a political show. Vickey is open to people approaching her with ideas for shows and emphasizes it’s not about gender or sexual orientation. “We treat everyone the same,” she says, “as a person.”
Most of Vickey’s family and friends have now accepted her for who she is and that love is reflected in the support she receives from the station’s DJs and the GLBT community. “I’m in awe of all the people who enjoy listening,” she smiles. “I always feel so blessed for all the people who want to get involved. It’s a very beautiful thing. In a year’s time, the sky’s the limit on this.”
You can listen to the station at www.109fm.com and contact Vickey at v109fm@v109fm.com
Staci Backauskas is a professional writer, facilitator and owner of TheLanguage of Light. Staci loves supporting others on the path to “knowing who they are by learning who they’re not”.
