OK, seriously, the last place on Earth I'd want to be as a transgender woman is in rural Alabama.  But Ms Randi has lived her entire life there, in dignity with the respect of everyone who knows her.  Its a good sign of  the fine character of the locals, but most importantly its a reflection of who she is and how she has lived and presented herself as a genuine person.

Randi is one of those people who has managed to make the best of every moment of her life and she's still at it at the age of 51.  She's lived her entire life in Alabama.  She had loving parents and siblings in a rather conservative church going family.  Her father was a deacon, and as a young man she herself was a Sunday School teacher.  Her parents were ordinarily intolerant of of gay and transgender people, among others; she said, "I learned very early in life, it was best to hide and try to conform or my life would be a living hell. So, I learned to be a little redneck kid who followed my older brother around and ignored my sisters."  She stayed out of trouble, read books, delivered newspapers, and mostly kept to herself as a child.  Starting at the age of 10, she began quietly dressing up in her mother's old cloths when everyone else was out of the house.  In those days in rural Alabama, she had no way of finding out what she was or what it was called, thinking she was the only one.  So, she began years of youth, keeping quit and finding brief moments to dress and feel fulfilled and real, never telling a soul.  "I only know that I wasn't the boy everyone claimed I was and the only time I felt right in my skin was when I was dressed as a girl." She said.  How brave and lonely she must have been!

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