"When I was in school, I was still a boy. Maybe, I was afraid that my parents would be angry with me. If I wanted to be tree, I had to move out so that my parents didn't know that I was a girl. Then I become like a girl, wearing girls' clothes."
Chelsea B's story is a little different from the other Waria in the group because she was a bit older when she became transgender at the age of 18, "At home in Makassar, I was not like this. I still dressed like a boy." After Chelsea's parents both passed away in 2010, she felt that she had more freedom to become transgender, "I had to move out from my city so I could change my appearance and become like a girl. When I was Surabaya, in 2013, I started to change my appearance. I had started to feel different before - I had some girls' clothes - but I was ashamed in front of my family. Now I'm free, and I can go back to Makassar with my condition like this. It's okay because my parents have passed away."
Coming from an economically poor family in Makassar, Chelsea is the youngest of seven children, although two of her siblings have passed away as well. In elementary school, Chelsea remembers having feminine tendencies, but she kept them hidden for many years. "I got that feeling, like a girl, playing with the girls, overall like a girl, but I wore boy's clothes." After finishing elementary school, Chelsea started working at the age of 12 to help support her family. She worked (as a boy) for a cleaning service in the malls and then later at a hair salon. When she became transgender she started doing sex work on the street.
Just like the other Waria, Chelsea B has worked hard to make herself more feminine. She used to wear a wig, "because my hair was still short and not yet long" and she got silicon injections for her breasts in 2015. Chelsea tried taking hormone injections but stopped, she said, "because it made me weak." During a discussion about becoming more feminine, Chelsea said she was fine not changing her sex organ. Her friend Rara, however, declared, "Yes. I want to change mine." This was a reminder of the religious pressures these Waria feel as the Muslim traditions of the promised eternal after life would not accept them if they die with changed gender.
Chelsea is educated about the health risks of sex work, and she tries to always use a condom. However, she admits, "It's not a hundred percent of the time. Because everyone is different, we don't notice if they're using a condom or not. We don't see. There are some clients who don't want to use a condom. So many people request that. They want to pay more without a condom. But, I say, no. It's better to prevent a disease."
Chelsea is a quiet, thoughtful person and easy to be around. She seems to be content living in Waria, "There are many bad people. But I just want to be like this. I have many friends here. We just want...we like out togetherness. I don't want to live alone. So, we have to know each other."
