#235 Daddy Rhon - Biker Style, and then some

I've known Daddy Rhon since 1996, although we lost touch for years. Rhon is visiting Michelle and Dags from Texas and it was so good to see her again after all these years. I drove from the SF Bay Area to Sacramento, CA to see Rhon and meet up with all Rhon's fabulous butch and femme friends, including the lovely Miss Sabra, pictured below.

Rhon is a proud long-haired butch with a style that makes me feel at home (more of that biker thing, yeah, I like it). Rhon is as warm as they come. So good to see Rhon again!

#234 Daywalker

What can I say? Perhaps it's my hippie youth spent listening to hair bands and hanging out with bikers. I don't know, but I found Daywalker extremely appealing in a butch Ozzy Osbourne kind of way. His wife, Mrs. Daywalker (Lady Flamez), is great too. She's from Tennessee and says that butches go by "he" there. So does her husband, but like Dags below, he is not transgendered.

#233 Shelley is single

Shelley is a fabulously interesting butch who is single and "on the market." She's warm, into sports (swimming, hiking and weightlifting), spirituality and works as a parent educator for the parents of disabled kids.

She's 38 and lives outside of Sacramento. Her friends say she's funny. I'd have to agree, she had that vibe about her. I tried to grill her on why she was single (I just never understand how such appealing people aren't hooked up), but we got off topic.

Want to know more? Email me: butchsightings at gmail dot com.

#232 Tigger

Tigger was taking photos all night, just like me. She called me over to talk and find out exactly why I had taken her photo earlier (with her wife's permission). She used to be a club kid, before she was married with kids. She is not 25, although that's the age I guessed. Tigger is parent to two teenagers and says that she no longer has an identity outside of "Mama." I tried to reassure Tigger that one can get their sense of personal identity back, but also commiserated; parenting changes everything.

Along with loving clubs, photography, her kids and wife, Tigger is an accomplished balloon artist who can do with balloons what a great caterer can do with food. She once made a 8' x 7' Incredible Hunk from baloons, and then stuffed it into her car, head out the sunroof, arms out the windows. A cop drove by and "whooped" his siren, then pulled up to say that she was doing "an awesome job with that."

Tigger is good people.

#231 Dags

Dags is a butch who goes by "he." Not transgender but not female identified. Dags teaches math and science and is a great appreciator of his partners phenomenal art and Rag Doll cats. They have six rescues, including one named Gianni and another who looks just like him named Versace. Dags and Michelle live out in the country where they enjoy a quiet life with their cats, art and nature.

They are a beautiful couple.

#230 Lori, illuminated

Lori was walking into the bar as we were leaving and I just couldn't resist doing one more butch sighting.

#229 Dallas

Yes, I met two butches named Dallas last night. And they didn't know each other. This is Dallas. She is the long time neighbor of Tigger and her wife.

#228 Frannie

Maybe it's being outside the immediate Bay Area, but Sacramento seemed filled with butches. Not only the ones I was with, but others at the bar and walking by. Frannie was in the bar with friends and I felt compelled to approach her to ask the question.

#227 Dallas

Dallas and her wife have baby twin girls, 7 months old, but adjusted age 4 months. They were premies and the story of their entrance into the world is harrowing and painful. As a woman who has experienced pregnancy and birth trauma myself, I felt especially moved by Dallas's story. Her girls are now 12 lbs each and she and her wife are just starting to talk about what they went through. I appreciated that she shared the story with me and send much love and empathy.

#226 Christie claiming butch, perhaps for the first time

In my usual somewhat tactless fashion, I butted in on a conversation between Christie and an old aquaintance of hers last night at the bar while I was waiting for my drink to ask if she identified as butch.

She seemed a bit taken aback by the question, but not as much as the woman she was talking to who actually got mad. Christie said she loved women, didn't have time for men and didn't seem to own the word "butch." She showed me her bra as if to say, "I'm not butch" but then thought about it and decided she was. All in the span of about two minutes.

Later Christie joined me and my friends at our table to talk about butch. It seemed to me she had a kind of epiphany, and although stumbling on what the definition of butch meant (she chops wood but so do femmes), felt that it was the right term for her.

Christie's ink

Christie and your mistress of butch sightings

#225 Coffee Butch

I stood behind Jamie in line at Peet's Coffee trying to figure out when I was going to ask. Hoping I wasn't misinterpreting the neck tattoo or stance from the back. She ordered, I ordered and then I found her and asked the question. Not only does Jamie identify as butch, her girlfriend has a femme blog called Outspoken Femme.

Jamie is a landscape gardener and former pastry chef. She drinks a dry, triple shot, whole milk cappuccino. She is very friendly and easy going. Hope to run into her at Peet's again sometime.

#Oops

Today I was talking to the director of my son's summer camp. It was my first time meeting her and she was so clearly a butch, that I almost skipped the question "Do you identify as a butch" and asked her if she would agree to be sighted.

But I didn't skip the question and she responded thoughtfully by saying she had always been Tomboygirlish. There was nothing girlish about her. I thought she was using that term and not butch as some kind of new/old gay slang, but it turns out, she's never been queer - not in the 70s when she found out wearing plaid had a certain dykely connotation, and not during the many years she's been married to her husband. I know because I asked, "and you've never been with women?" She hadn't, but she had also had the question/assumption enough (for years) that she was okay with the conversation and I didn't feel weird/ashamed for asking. I appreciate her even more for that. She'a also got a kick ass summer camp!

#224 Cathy

I surprised Cathy with my question on a sunny afternoon out at the shops. I spotted her when we arrived and waited until she came out of one shop before popping the question.

My guess was that it could go either way: identified as butch or as old school lesbian feminist who lived, at one point in her life, on the land. Truth is, she was intrigued by how she was seen by others, definitely likes the softer energy of more feminine women, and believes that all women carry feminine and masculine within themselves. Cathy still lives on the land part of the time, and the rest in San Francisco, where she grew up. She is a Leo with a birthday coming soon, and we had a lovely and interesting discussion. I introduced her to my son, partner and our butch friend Toby - hoping to make her feel at ease.

Sometime I would love for someone who has been "sighted" to write what it was like from their perspective.

Toby had coffee this morning at the Temescal Farmer's Market

Lucky us

#223 A Self Made Butch

Kitty was walking by on the waterfront under the San Francisco Bay Bridge when I spotted her. She is about to move back to Bethesda, Maryland after 12 years in San Francisco. Kitty grew up in Washington, D.C.; Athens, Greece; and Frankfurt, Germany. She has children and grandchildren and is single (like her, let me know, maybe I can hook you up).

She is a self-made butch who started very successful businesses. And she is very friendly, easy going.

Thanks for playing along Kitty! Nice to meet you.

(that's my partner in the background, she puts up with a lot)

#222 Charlene

The new Rosie the Riveter Museum and Visitor Center recently opened in Pt. Richmond, CA and so naturally, butch sightings are increasing.

This is Charlene.

Queer ASL Butch/Femme Gotye - Whoa!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hUt4W8sE8Ns

#221 This butch is a peach

Jen was checking out the produce when I asked her the question. It took her a second to register (as it always does, being apropos of nothing), and then she said yes. I saw her later with her partner and baby. Adorable family.

#220 Trader Joe's Comes Through Again

This is J. J was looking at her phone when I asked if she ID'd as butch. She looked up, laughed a little, surprised but not unhappy about it, and replied, "Why yes." She immediately told me about her wife, Thea, who gets frustrated at being invisible as a femme. Something many of us femmes can relate to.

J and Thea have been together for 12 years. They moved from the foggy side of San Francisco to Oakland a couple of months ago. J answers questions and asks them too - a very engaged person, easy to talk with, kind, interesting. I met Thea too after she walked in to the store from BART which she took home after work.

J is a scientist. I love that. Let's welcome J and her wife to the neighborhood.

#219 Nothing says "Potluck" like a hot butch

I met Devon and her beautiful fiance Cassie at a potluck yesterday. Ah, queer life! She was happy to be sighted. Lovely.