Felicia Elizondo

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| name = Felicia Elizondo

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| image = Felicia Flames at Transform California launch.jpg

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| caption = Felicia "Flames" Elizondo speaks at a Transform California launch event.

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| birth_date = {{birth date|1946|07|23}}{{cite web|title=Testimonies: Trans Lives Matter|url=http://www.firstoakland.org/audio/2015/06212015/index.shtml|publisher=First Congregational Church of Oakland|accessdate=August 29, 2016|date=June 14, 2015|archive-date=September 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914092556/http://www.firstoakland.org/audio/2015/06212015/index.shtml|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Interview with Felicia Elizondo [6/29/2007]|url=http://www.memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.58042/transcript?ID=sr0001|website=Veterans History Project|publisher=American Folklife Center|accessdate=August 30, 2016|date=June 29, 2007|archive-date=September 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160923195316/http://www.memory.loc.gov/diglib/vhp/story/loc.natlib.afc2001001.58042/transcript?ID=sr0001|url-status=live}}

| birth_place = San Angelo, Texas, U.S.

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| death_date = {{Death date and age|2021|05|15|1946|07|23}}

| death_place = San Francisco, California, U.S.

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| nationality = American

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| known_for = LGBTQ activism

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| website = {{URL|feliciaflames.com}}

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Felicia Elizondo (July 23, 1946 – May 15, 2021) was an American transgender woman with a long history of activism on behalf of the LGBT community. She was a regular at Gene Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco during the time of the Compton's Cafeteria riot, a historic LGBT community uprising.{{cite news|last1=Sayed|first1=Khaled|title=Elizondo revels in lifetime of service|url=http://www.ebar.com/pride/article.php?sec=pride&article=179|accessdate=August 29, 2016|work=Bay Area Reporter|date=June 25, 2015|archive-date=January 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170114060855/http://www.ebar.com/pride/article.php?sec=pride&article=179|url-status=live}}

Early life

Assigned male at birth in San Angelo, Texas, Elizondo struggled with bullying, molestation, and gender identity issues.{{cite news|title=Two community leaders to be honored at SF Pride parade|url=http://www.ktvu.com/news/4732816-story|accessdate=August 29, 2016|work=KTVU|date=June 23, 2015|archive-date=September 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160924195941/http://www.ktvu.com/news/4732816-story|url-status=live}} Her father, a sheepherder, died when she was three years old. From the age of five, she knew that she was "different". At age 14, she moved to San Jose, California, with a gay man, and began to spend time in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco in her teens.{{cite news|last1=Bajko|first1=Matthew S.|title=Transgender women reflect on a lifetime of change|url=http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=69664|accessdate=August 29, 2016|work=Bay Area Reporter|date=April 24, 2014|archive-date=September 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911082542/http://ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=69664|url-status=live}}

At age 18, Elizondo joined the U.S. Navy and volunteered to serve in the Vietnam War, thinking she would either get killed or come to terms with her gender identity: "If the military doesn't make me a man, nothing will." After serving in Vietnam for six months, she confessed that she was gay. She was interrogated by the FBI, and dishonorably discharged in 1965. She later successfully petitioned to have her discharge changed to honorable.

File:Felicia "Flames" Elizondo at Compton's Cafeteria Riot 50th anniversary.jpg

Activism and career

In the 1960s, Elizondo was a patron of Gene Compton's Cafeteria in San Francisco, where the Compton's Cafeteria riot, an LGBT community uprising, occurred in 1966, three years before the Stonewall riots in New York City. She was featured in Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton's Cafeteria, a 2005 documentary co-directed and produced by Susan Stryker and Victor Silverman.{{cite web|last1=Pasulka|first1=Nicole|title=Ladies In The Streets: Before Stonewall, Transgender Uprising Changed Lives|url=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/05/05/404459634/ladies-in-the-streets-before-stonewall-transgender-uprising-changed-lives|website=NPR|accessdate=August 29, 2016|date=May 5, 2015|archive-date=August 29, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160829060019/http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2015/05/05/404459634/ladies-in-the-streets-before-stonewall-transgender-uprising-changed-lives|url-status=live}}

Elizondo transitioned to female in 1974, while working as a long-distance operator. She worked at a number of other jobs, including receptionist, clerk, and nurse's aid. She was also a sex worker for a time.{{cite web|last1=Hotchkiss|first1=Sarah|title=The Night That Trans Women Rioted for Their Rights at a Tenderloin Cafeteria|url=https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/07/21/in-66-on-one-hot-august-night-trans-women-fought-for-their-rights/|website=KQED|accessdate=August 29, 2016|date=July 21, 2016|archive-date=September 13, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160913234248/https://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2016/07/21/in-66-on-one-hot-august-night-trans-women-fought-for-their-rights/|url-status=live}} She performed as a drag queen for charity, and at gay clubs under the name Felicia Flames.{{cite news|last1=Nahmod|first1=David-Elijah|title=With 50th Anniversary Approaching, Trans Activist Seeks Recognition For Compton's Riots|url=http://hoodline.com/2016/05/with-50th-anniversary-approaching-trans-activist-seeks-recognition-for-compton-s-riots|accessdate=August 29, 2016|work=Hoodline|date=May 2, 2016|archive-date=September 21, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921145355/http://hoodline.com/2016/05/with-50th-anniversary-approaching-trans-activist-seeks-recognition-for-compton-s-riots|url-status=live}}

Elizondo was diagnosed as HIV positive in 1987. She worked for non-profit organizations, including P.A.W.S., Shanti Project, and the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, that seek to improve quality of life for people living with serious illnesses. She contributed panels to the AIDS Memorial Quilt, and helped raise funds for non-profits including Project Open Hand and the San Francisco LGBT Community Center. As a Latina, she worked with other transgender women of color to combat racism in the community.{{cite web|last1=Bajko|first1=Matthew S.|title=Ethnic Transgender Women Reflect on a Lifetime of Struggle and Change|url=http://newamericamedia.org/2014/04/ethnic-transgender-women-reflect-on-a-lifetime-of-change.php|website=New American Media|accessdate=August 30, 2016|date=April 25, 2014|archive-date=October 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161014075828/http://newamericamedia.org/2014/04/ethnic-transgender-women-reflect-on-a-lifetime-of-change.php|url-status=usurped}}

Elizondo moved to San Francisco permanently in 1991. In 2014, she worked with San Francisco supervisor Jane Kim to get the 100 block of Turk Street renamed to Vicki Mar Lane in honor of her late friend, drag performer Vicki Marlane.{{cite news|last1=Meronek|first1=Toshio|title=Trans community gets a public face|url=http://www.studycenter.org/test/cce/issues/144/CCX-144-3.pdf|accessdate=August 30, 2016|work=Central City Extra|date=May 2014|archive-date=June 30, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160630003716/http://www.studycenter.org/test/cce/issues/144/CCX-144-3.pdf|url-status=live}}{{cite news|last1=Williams|first1=Kale|title=S.F. block named for trans icon Vicki Marlane|url=http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2014/04/23/s-f-block-named-for-trans-icon-vicki-marlane/|accessdate=August 30, 2016|work=SFGate|date=April 23, 2014|archive-date=September 14, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160914183415/http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2014/04/23/s-f-block-named-for-trans-icon-vicki-marlane/|url-status=live}} In 2016, she again worked with Kim to rename the 100 block of Taylor Street to Gene Compton's Cafeteria Way.{{cite news|last1=Bajko|first1=Matthew S.|title=Political Notebook: SF honors transgender history with street naming|url=http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=71576|accessdate=August 29, 2016|work=Bay Area Reporter|date=May 19, 2016|archive-date=September 11, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911082540/http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=71576|url-status=live}} Elizondo appeared at a number of events in 2016 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Compton's Cafeteria riot.{{cite news|last1=Hopkins|first1=Brittany|title=Tenderloin, GLBT Museums Host Events For 50th Anniversary Of Compton's Cafeteria Riot|url=http://hoodline.com/2016/07/tenderloin-glbt-museums-host-events-for-50th-anniversary-of-compton-s-cafeteria-riot|accessdate=August 29, 2016|work=Hoodline|date=July 25, 2016|archive-date=September 21, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160921142306/http://hoodline.com/2016/07/tenderloin-glbt-museums-host-events-for-50th-anniversary-of-compton-s-cafeteria-riot|url-status=live}}

Elizondo served as the lifetime achievement grand marshal in the 2015 San Francisco Pride Parade.

Death

Elizondo died on May 15, 2021, in San Francisco, at 74.{{cite news |last1=Laird |first1=Cynthia |title=Trans activist and AIDS survivor Felicia Elizondo dies |url=https://www.ebar.com/news/latest_news/304996 |access-date=May 16, 2021 |work=The Bay Area Reporter |date=May 15, 2021}}