This Side Up

The power of belief

Posted 6/30/15

I recognized the free flow of the handwriting immediately. Gloria Walker still sends written notes, not emails or text messages, although I imagine she could do that, too. Better yet, she has her own …

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This Side Up

The power of belief

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I recognized the free flow of the handwriting immediately. Gloria Walker still sends written notes, not emails or text messages, although I imagine she could do that, too. Better yet, she has her own stationery. It’s her.

I pulled out a note card as bold as she is. A black, leafy design serves as the backdrop to a red rectangle, with her name in capitals perfectly centered.

The first line of the note was unassuming and intriguing: “Wondered if you’d be interested?”

The next sentence was the bait.

“Leonard Bernstein, the composer of so many famous musicals, has a niece, Karen, who makes movies or documentaries of incredible lives full of great accomplishments.”

This is not what I was expecting from “Grandma Gloria,” as she is known to the faculty and students at Wickes School, or the eccentric Gloria I have come to know at the Pilgrim Senior Center. Her smile and colorful attire have a way of standing out.

I thought Gloria was writing to point me to the achievements of Wickes’ students or an upcoming event she thought I should cover. She believes in children, and they love her for it.

But no, she was opening a window to her past, and to a Rhode Island story that would have shocked people and prompted rejection and discrimination had it been widely told at the time.

As I read on, I learned Karen Bernstein, the Emmy and Grammy award-winning producer, would be in Warwick to film a documentary about Brian Belovitch, who is likely Rhode Island’s first transgender person to get married. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Gloria didn’t mention that Brian was transgender – he changed his name to Natalia “Tish” Gervais – or that the marriage came apart after five years and Brian, in his search for self, stopped taking the hormones and being a woman. He is now openly gay and married to Jim Russell. In between, Tish was an actress and entertainer, and Brian – who also played in the limelight – wrote a book and a play and worked for People magazine.

Rather, Gloria told me that she took Brian into her home when he was 15, almost 45 years ago, and that Bernstein would be interviewing her for that part of the story.

As Gloria explained in her note, her son, Paul Bricker, who was a year older than Brian, came home and asked her if Brian could stay because his parents told him he couldn’t live with them anymore.

“Of course, I agreed,” she wrote.

What she didn’t write is that what she thought might be a weeklong stay turned into years and that the bond has grown stronger with time. More of the story unfolded when I met Karen, Brian and Jim at Gloria’s apartment.

“I said he should have been a girl,” Gloria said as she recalled her first meeting Brian and seeing his delicate features. It was the ’70s, and Gloria had a makeup and bridal consulting job. She and her son Paul had gone through a tough time, which perhaps explains why they were so willing to help Brian.

Gloria’s husband, Peter Bricker, committed suicide. Paul’s older brother, Dennis, also committed suicide when Paul was a young child. The family was just the two of them.

Paul and Brian were close friends.

“We became like twins, we sounded exactly alike,” Brian said, recalling how Gloria couldn’t tell their voices apart on the telephone.

Although underage, Brian and Paul frequented The Gallery, a gay disco bar, and were drawn to the environment. Throughout, Gloria remained nonjudgmental and supportive, and so did Paul.

As we talked – Brian on the couch with his right arm around the shoulder of Jim, and Gloria sitting in her rocker that every so often would squeak – Karen moved in and out with the camera, recording the conversation.

The story takes many twists, and for those who are interested in a more complete account I would recommend viewing the trailer on Karen’s website, bernsteindocumentary.com, or going to the link https://

vimeo.com/bernsteindocumentary/igtmylm2015.

In short, Brian wanted to become a woman and started taking hormones while still a teenager. He underwent silicon breast implants, which were illegal at the time. As Tish, she sought to find a place.

“I was determined to succeed,” Brian said. “Paul believed in me while many didn’t.”

Then as Tish, Brian met “a doorman at a bar” and “promptly fell in love.” They were married in a church ceremony with members of both families in attendance. Tish’s husband was in the Army, and the couple lived in Germany for a while. After the marriage came apart, Tish returned to New York, where she became a singer and entertainer.

Some of the story is recounted in an Aug. 25, 1983 edition of the Providence Evening Bulletin.

Gloria gives me a copy of the story featuring a picture of Tish and Paul at the Makeup Center in Manhattan. The story is focused on Paul and how he is making $150 an hour as a makeup artist for clients who are featured on MTV videotapes, fashion magazines, record albums, book covers and on network TV appearances. I doubt the reporter knew Tish was transgender, or maybe the editors considered it too risqué and out of the mainstream to even be brought up at the time.

The Bulletin story quotes Gloria saying she knew Paul, who was then in his late 20s, wanted to go to New York, and how she knew he would be sorry if he waited. It tells how Tish, described as a friend and actress, moved into a “sleazy hotel in the Bowery,” and how Paul focused his nights working toward his hairdressing license. Tish went on to become an actress and entertainer, although she did not go through the operation for gender reassignment. After 15 years as a woman, she reversed genders and had the breast implants removed.

Again as Brian, he wrote a book and a play, Boys Don’t Wear Lipstick, in 2000 that was performed off-Broadway. His story is one of accomplishments and notoriety, the depths of depression, drug and alcohol addiction and attempted suicide.

Paul, who became an acclaimed makeup artist, died in 1984 in Milan, Italy from an aneurysm. He is such a force in the story, but so also is Gloria.

I wonder if the full story could have been told in Warwick or Anytown, USA in the ’80s, or even a couple of decades later.

There are those who will remember the shock of this community when a Baptist pastor disclosed to his parishioners he was gay and that he would be leaving. That was about 30 years ago, and much has changed since then, with last week’s action of the Supreme Court best defining how as a nation things have changed.

Brian’s story is remarkable, a life of contradictions in many ways, yet resolved with purpose and definition in later chapters. It is a documentary, but it is also a larger story of unconditional acceptance and love. Without Gloria or her son, Paul, life would have been very different for Brian.

Brian understands that. He talks about it; he can feel it. Today, he uses his experience to help others through consulting.

Gloria never doubted Brian would find himself, but she confesses, “I’m glad it’s all over.” Her story is a powerful testament of what people can do when they believe in one another.

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