CHICAGO — It’s been almost nine years since former Chicago Tribune columnist Dawn Turner introduced us to Gloria Allen, a transgender woman aka “Mama Gloria.” At the time, the then 66-year-old was leading a charm school at the Center on Halsted, wherein she taught teens etiquette — from dining to how to dress and comport themselves. The profile led to Allen’s story being taken to the stage in Philip Dawkins’s play “Charm.” And that led to a film that features Allen’s trans journey, a documentary by Luchina Fisher entitled “Mama Gloria: The Story of Legendary Trans Activist Gloria Allen.”
“It’s just like a dream for me,” Allen, 75, said during a recent phone interview. “Everything turned out to be so good and I’m so grateful and thankful to her. I just couldn’t believe all these people are looking and talking to me.”
The documentary takes viewers from Allen’s youth growing up on the South Side in the 1940s and ‘50s, knowing at the age of 7 or 8 she was a girl, to her current life in Northalsted. The hour-long film starts with Allen receiving an award for her work and presence in the trans community; she thanks God for her trans sisters and brothers, because they are “a blessing.”
Allen shares pictures and pivotal moments of her life with viewers about her childhood and adulthood. Allen’s recollections are vivid — from abusive relationships to her love of ballroom culture in her youth and her reassignment surgery at the age of 37. While life provided variables, Allen’s constant was family support. Her late mother, great-aunt and grandmother supported her and made sure that Allen put her best foot forward when it came to fashion, makeup and accessories.
“I came from a household where the women were just so charming and refined; I picked all that up,” she said during the interview. “I learned a lot, because my mother, my great aunt, and my grandmother, they watched me and taught me a lot, and I’m so grateful and thankful to these women that I always wanted to be like. I learned from the best.”
Allen passed that knowledge on to the teens in her charm school, which has since closed. Alongside her charm school stories, Allen shares details about the struggle to be a senior trans woman in light of ongoing violence against the transgender community. Record high levels of violence were recorded in 2020. The documentary states 1.5 million people in the United States identify as transgender, and 14% of that number are senior citizens. That was in 2016; transgender estimates have risen since then.
“The older trans girls, we’ve been here, we paved the way,” Allen said in the the documentary. “Young trans girls think they can’t make it to 40, they shouldn’t have to feel that way. People have to know what we go through as a transgender person. Sometimes it’s difficult and scary, and then sometimes it can be beautiful.”
We talked with Allen ahead of this year’s International Transgender Day of Visibility, a day of support and solidarity in the transgender community marked on March 31, a day annually recognized since 2009. Allen shares her thoughts on love, forgiveness and activism in the trans community. The following interview has been condensed and edited.
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Q: “Legendary” is in the title of the documentary. Do you feel legendary?
A: I do. For my peers to pay tribute to me and look up to me, I feel so blessed, because I never thought I would make it to the age of 30. I never thought that, because I had been in so many bad relationships where I was beaten up. It was rough.
Q: Homicide numbers within the transgender community have increased this past year. How can we solve this violence problem?
A: My solution is the news media. These men that are killing and attacking trans women — put their pictures on the news. I think if they would constantly do this, it would curtail it a little bit. No man wants his picture to be planted on the news, because his friends will see it, his family will see it, and they don’t want that. Because at an alarming rate, these young people are being tortured, murdered, beat up and everything. I tried to instill with the trans girls to stay off of these websites trying to get a boyfriend or man. You’re just asking for your life to be taken away from you. My grandmother used to tell me: “Baby, you don’t pick up. You don’t go to a strange man’s house, because the ramification of that, you’ll end up dead or you’ll wish you were dead.
Q: You mention in the documentary that RuPaul couldn’t put a candle to the men and women who attended the balls of your youth on the South Side. Are you still attending balls regularly?
A: No. This day and age, it’s all about the youth. They have balls and stuff, but the younger generation, they don’t care about anybody who’s older.
Q: But there’s so much to learn from older generations.
A: Yes, they can, but they don’t want to. I look at them and say to myself, this is such a shame, because when I was coming up, the older trans, gays and lesbians, they took me under their wing and taught me so much. And they looked out for us. You help your community, help your friends, because life is about love, and we have lost that in this day and age. Systemic hate … it’s terrible. I made it through by the grace of God. I thank him today for holding on to me. Trans girls need to know what I went through and how I navigated through the things in life to get here today.
Q: Were there any aspects of your life that weren’t included in the documentary?
A: There were some things I didn’t include, because I’m writing a book. The good stuff really goes into the book.
Q: When can we expect to see the book?
A: I hope at the end of the year. The book, believe me, it’s going to knock everybody off their feet. If I tell everything, nobody’s going to want to read the book.
Q: What’s your secret to longevity?
A: Love is my secret, because I love myself, and my mother always showed me that you love everybody if you can do it. I did that and everywhere I went in my life, I always met wonderful people. I’m not going to go through life hating people for what they did to me. I’m not gonna let that happen, and I overcame it. Besides, all I want to do is put on a beautiful dress and a pair of hot pumps and go on about my business and travel.
Q: Do you have advice for the trans community and parents of trans people?
A: I tell them to do your own thing, your family will catch up or they won’t, but just be you. Parents are going to worry about their children, but your parents can’t live your life for you. So, be respectful to your family, love them unconditionally. And you will see, if you give out love, it’s going to come back to you.
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“Mama Gloria” will premiere Monday on the World Channel series “AfroPoP: The Ultimate Cultural Exchange.”