It’s hard to find a club between Sarasota, Tampa Bay and Orlando that hasn’t heard of Arica Love. The admittedly loud, larger than life personality has hosted shows, benefits and special events at clubs of all sizes, and her continued presence on the microphone has attracted a devoted following.
But there’s more to the St. Pete Beach resident than meets the eye. Love is a happily married post-op transgender woman who has a story to share – and it looks like the world is ready to hear it.
With the help of FilmFlo Productions and director Jamal Badra, Love’s life has been transformed into the documentary Life of the T-Girl which has been submitted to film festivals across North America. The trailer for the film has already received national attention and could be screened by a number of film festivals later this year.
The documentary was filmed entirely in Sarasota and introduces viewers to her husband, her friends and the real woman behind the microphone.
A young girl in a boy’s body
As a young child, Arica Love knew she was different than other boys, and so did her parents. When conceived, Love was one of a set of twins – a boy and a girl. But doctors say the biologically female fetus didn’t survive, and Love is convinced that part of her sister’s essence is a part of her today.
“In the womb I absorbed my sister,” Love says, adding that the two fetuses shared residency for eight months in their mother’s womb. “I truly believe I have some of her attributes which has helped make me the woman I am today.”
Love’s childhood wasn’t easy. She says she was sexually molested at five years old by older children in her neighborhood and at the age of 16 she became emancipated from her parents – which they allowed with one condition.
“I had to get my GED,” Love says. “That was the condition and I jumped at it.”
When Love got her first driver’s license, the clerk at the DMV put a female gender marker on it based on her appearance. Unfortunately, the state later required her to return the license and replace the “F” gender marker with an “M.”
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do,” Love recalls.
In her mid-teens, Love was a regular at clubs on both sides of Tampa Bay. She always looked older than her age in those days and was always perceived as “just another girl at the bar,” despite not yet having gender reassignment surgery.
Love was “discovered” by Tampa club owner Steve Donahue, who asked the young Love to be a shotgirl.
“It’s so strange when you think about it,” she says. “I was stealth as a young transgender woman before surgery and now I’m out as a post-op transgender woman today. I’m proud of who I am and I don’t mind people knowing who I truly am.”
While she’s proud to share that she’s a transgender woman, Love recognizes that she doesn’t necessarily represent the transgender community as a whole, especially considering her involvement in drag shows and other stage performances.
“I get that not all transgender people are entertainers,” Love says. “It can be hard because I am so out, some transgender people don’t know how to interact with me.”
But that has never stopped Love, who continues to work at clubs across the state.
“Entertaining is what I was meant to do,” Love says. “It can be a tightrope walk. You can’t please everyone, but I’m always trying to do what’s right.”
While Love works with a lot of female impersonators and drag queens, she does not refer to herself as a drag queen. Although, she does admit to “dragging it up” for certain events and functions in order to promote her entertainment value.
“The Arica Love on stage is a little different than the Arica Love sitting here talking with Watermark,” she explains. “All performers take on a stage persona, and I’m no different. While I’m not a drag queen, I organize and promote drag shows and have numerous friends who are drag entertainers.”
The T-Girl Life
Sharing her story is important to Love, who says the documentary has given her chance to talk about being a survivor – beginning at birth.
“I had to literally fight for my life in the womb,” she says, referring to her in-utero sister. “I have lived through bullying, sexual abuse, discrimination based on being a woman, discrimination as a young boy discovering he is transgender – but I’m proud to say I survived it and found true love and amazing friends.”
Love has been married for 16 years, and she’s know her husband for much longer. The two met in a Tampa Rave when they were teens, and have remained close ever since.
“His friends were checking me out that night,” Love laughs. “Eventually he came up to me and apologized for his friends. I ended up giving him my beeper number. That shows how long ago it was! Later that weekend he invited me over and we spent the weekend at his parents’ house watching Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes.”
Eventually, their friendship began to evolve into something more, and Love made sure early on that the man she was falling for knew everything about her.
“He didn’t bat an eye,” Love recalls. “He said he was falling for this person he knew. Nothing else mattered.”
The two began building a life together and both Love’s mother and her husband were by her side when she had gender reassignment surgery at the age of 30.
It’s T-Time
Whatever the forces are behind recent events, Love feels like the time is right for an outspoken, transgender woman to be in the spotlight, and she believes it’s supposed to be her.
“Transgender issues are the hot topic right now,” Love says. “T-issues are on talk shows, scripted dramas, the news…it’s everywhere.”
And if that “hot topic” helps educate the public while boosting Love’s career, so be it.
Love says she’d like to be the next Oprah or Ellen Degeneres. She sees herself as a talk show host someday interviewing celebrities on a regular basis. She is also hopeful that a reality series will follow her documentary.
“There’s a market for it and a niche,” she says. “Life of the T-Girl is the beginning of this next chapter. I already have people in place to help take this to the next level. I’m confident the documentary will take off and agents are already interested in marketing me. I feel like it’s my time.”
With success at any level there comes some costs, and Love is no stranger to controversy. She knows that some in the community love her while others are less than fans. But all she can do, she says, is hold her head high and continue doing what she believes is right.
“I’ve been in this business awhile and you get raised up, and then you get knocked down,” she says. “All you can do is crawl back up and do what you can to maintain. Sometimes you have to cut ties with those who hold you back or with those who don’t respect you. But moving forward is the best way to continue on this path, and that’s what I plan to do – move forward.”
