(r&b music) - (Mark) You can just
put it in your purse. There we go. - (Cassie) Cross my legs or... - (Mark) You can do whatever you like. - (Cassie) Or like this? - (Mark) Whatever's comfortable for you. All right, Cassie, where are you from? Where'd you grow up originally? - I grew up in Modesto, California. - (Mark) And tell me about your family. You had both your parents
when you were a kid? - Did I have what? - (Mark) Did you have both
your parents when you grew up? - No. - (Mark) Where was mom and dad? - Mom and dad were on drugs, so my grandmother raised me. - ( Mark) How was your childhood? - My childhood was good. - (Mark) Yeah, no abuse, no crazy events? - No. - (Mark) What kind of kid
were you in high school? - I didn't go to high school. - (Mark) When was the last
year of school you had? - Seventh grade. - (Mark) Okay. And where did you go? Did you run away early or what? - I did run away. And at some point I kept
getting into trouble when I was going to school. It was like a school for discipline kids. So I went to that school
and I kept missing classes and missing classes and missing classes. So they ended up taking me away from my
auntie who really raised me. And I went to a group
home, our juvenile hall, and from juvenile hall, a cousin had came down there
and said she'd take care of me. And when I went there, I did
good for about four years. And I turned 18. So from there, I went to
my mom, my dad, again, who are drug users. And after that I started using drugs. - (Mark) Were you living on
the street at some point? - At some point then? No. At some point after that, yeah. - (Mark) The transgender thing
kind of kicked in for you at what point? Or when did you realize that that was...? - I've always felt like that. - (Mark) You were born that way? - I think, yes. - (Mark) Did that cause
problems with your family, or in school or anything like that? - No, not at all. My family always accepted me. Some of the guys in my
family would tease me because I didn't play ball or anything, but most of my family accepted me. So my mom, my dad, the one
that raised me, my aunt. - (Mark) That was nice for you. And were drugs a part of the picture? - Drugs is always been
a part of my picture. - (Mark) What did harder
drugs start for you? - The first thing I did was
used a needle for heroin. - (Mark) At what age? - 13. - (Mark) And what are you using today? - What am I using today. Well, I'm proud to say-- - (Mark) Not today, Saturday, but in 2020. - I have something proud to say. I smoked crack for 10 years straight before I met my boyfriend. And since I've been with him, I've been with him for 13 years, I stopped smoking crack. But two years ago I came
out to San Francisco and I started smoking crack again, and everything was off the hook, All my whole life revolved around crack. And it was sad because I lost some of my morals and respect for myself and others. And so I actually had a client, a date who gave me $4,000, and when I got that $4,000, I went and I left everything I owned in an alley and I just grabbed my
dogs and my boyfriend, and we went to a motel and
that's when I stopped using, and I bought a car and all that. - (Mark) Good for you. So what are you using now? - What am I using now? I don't smoke crack no more. - (Mark) Good for you. - So I like Xanaxes, I like alcohol, I like crystal once in awhile and I like sex. - (Mark) And you said you
work as a sex worker as well? - I am a call girl. Online. - (Mark) And you'll make how
much in a night doing this? - Last night, I made $750 on two dates, two clients. - (Mark) Very good. And this morning I caught you, so have you slept last night or you've been up since...? - I just woke up when you saw me. I just took a shower. I was in the room at the Civic Center. I took a shower and left and I was gone. I was going to buy me some eyelashes but I saw my boyfriend and my dogs. And he's a little insecure. - (Mark) So you make enough money that you can get a hotel
room for the night? - Oh, most definitely. - (Mark) So you're not
living on the street? - No. - (Mark) And your customers will typically be what kind of guys? - They're all types of guys. - (Mark) Do get some
like strange requests? - Yes, but I get a lot of
good clients too from online 'cause I also prostitute
out on the streets, too. - (Mark) You've been arrested before? - I've been arrested before. - (Mark) And that's
usually for prostitution? - Yeah. - (Mark) Do you still have
contact with your aunt or your grandmother or anybody else? - (Cassie) My aunt I do. She's dying to cancer. I have a sister I'm in contact with, but other than that, no,
my mom and my dad are dead. My brother's dead. All I have is my boyfriend
and my three dogs, which one of them got stolen by one of the drug addicts around here. - (Mark) Do you find this
lifestyle gets you down sometimes? You get depressed? - (Cassie) It does get me
down and depressed sometimes but also I enjoy some of it. - (Mark) Are you addicted to
do the lifestyle you think? - (Cassie) I am. - (Mark) Yeah. I hear that a lot. - (Cassie) I am. - (Mark) Are you saving money at all? - (Cassie) Am I saving money at all? - (Mark) Yeah. - (Cassie) Boy, I wish. I need to, I just don't trust
anybody to give my money to, and then once I get it, I go blow it. I don't go blow it. I go and buy me clothes, wigs, stuff like that. - (Mark) How old are you? - (Cassie) I'm 38. Actually, my birthday
was just a few weeks ago. I'm Aries, 4-5-82. April. - (Mark) As a transgender sex worker, or I mean, as a transgender, do you find that you're
kind of almost forced into some kind of sex work
because you can't get a job? - I think it's just the easiest way because every job I applied for, they judge somebody. - (Mark) Yeah. It's hard
for you to get a very... So what do you think the
most misunderstood thing about transgenders for people
that are not from that world? You get judged very harshly, right? - Every day. I think that they think
that they're better than me or that I'm a
disgrace to the world. Some people that talk crap to me is the ones that really are
struggling with their selves because they see me as sexy and they see me as compelling and that they might want
to explore that avenue and it really messes with their brain. - (Mark) Yeah. Do you get
roughed up on the street or do you get some kind of-- - No. - (Mark) You can take care of yourself? - Yeah. I don't take no BS. I know a lot of people
around here who has my back. But even if it didn't, I have my own back. - (Mark) Have you been in love before? - In love? Yes, I have. I'm in love now - (Mark) With the gentleman
I saw you with the dogs? - Yes. I've been with him for 13 years - (Mark) 13 years. That's great. And he allows you to do all this stuff you're doing for money? - He don't like it and
he's a jealous M effer. But I pay the bills, he was going and he met me doing this. So, I mean... But I feel sorry for him too though, because he says I use this as an excuse and sometimes maybe that's true. - (Mark) Yeah. Are you generally, would you describe yourself as happy? - I am happy. - (Mark) Yes. You seem to be fairly. - But I can get pissed off real quick and I have a bad attitude
because I was spoiled and I'm always used to
having the things that I want and the things that I
need, especially for men. But out here in San Francisco,
'cause I'm from Modesto, out here in San Francisco, people are always robbing people,
taking things from people. So I never get the opportunity to meet new people that
are willing to trust. - (Mark) Do you think if you
had a different childhood that things may have been
different for you now? - No, because I had a good childhood. - (Mark) Yeah, but it
sound like your parents were out of the picture of early on. - Yeah, but I had a decent caretaker. - (Mark) And something
made you bail out of school after seventh grade? - Yeah. - (Mark) Do you think if
you had stuck with school and maybe graduated high
school, things may have been-- - If I wasn't on drugs
and I wasn't a prostitute I think I would want to, well I wanted to be a
model when I was younger because I used to look a
lot better than I look now. I wanted to be a model. But now if I think I had
all my stuff in control and under life's terms, then I would want to be, I dunno what it's called, but you know, on "Dateline" and
"Nightline" and "48 Hours" the one talking behind the scene, talking about unsolved
crimes or stuff like that. I would want to be one of those. A detective, basically. - (Mark) Do you think your personality is, or things about you has changed from all your years of
living this lifestyle? - Yeah. - (Mark) In what ways have you changed? - I have an attitude sometimes. I don't let anybody get
over on me or punk me. I'm a little bit ruder, not to certain people, to people out on the streets because when they see I have money, they all come up bum rushing me. Can I get this? Can I get that? Or I have a bag of Taco Bell or KFC going back to me and my
three dogs and my boyfriend, Can I get some, can I get some, and it just makes me feel like
they do the same thing I do. Why don't you go buy you some food, too? But I just share with people, also. - (Mark) What's the roughest
thing about your life? What's the hardest? - Right now, the roughest
thing about my life is one of my dogs got stolen, and I got mom, dad, and daughter. So with the mom gone, the
other dogs are very sad. I'm just devastated. And so is my boyfriend. - (Mark) What's the most
important thing you've learned? - In what? - (Mark) In life, in your 38 years. What's the most important
thing you've learned? - (Cassie) Rarely trust anybody. And if you want something
done, do it yourself. - (Mark) All right, Cassie. Thank you so much for talking with me and good luck with wherever you go. - Thank you. - (Mark) Thank you.
