I was born in Houston but raised in Orlando. All my life all I ever wanted to do is go to college, but I wasn’t brought up in the surroundings that allowed you to think like so.
From the age of six, I watched my grandmother wake up at 4 o’clock in the morning to go clean toilets at Rollins College. She would meet me by the time school let out and let me help her work at her second job on the first-grade floor at my school as a custodian.
I remember her telling me “you’re a smart girl. Stay in them books so you won’t have to work as hard as I do.” Growing up I was always picked on because I was very tomboyish, always wore boy clothes, liked to play with boys. I was different and I realized that but I suppressed it.
At the age of 11, I was physically and mentally abused by one of my mother’s girlfriends. Yes, my mother is a lesbian. My mother was on crack cocaine and ended up in jail. I had so much anger because when my mother got out of jail, she went back to the lady that abused me instead of coming to me, so I threatened to burn my grandmother’s house down and I was taken away.
From the ages of 11 to 16, I was shuffled around the system; in and out of foster homes and treatment faculties. When I was 16 my mom got clean and got custody of me. She tried to do the best she could to be a mother, but I still had a lot of anger inside towards her. She then started beating on the girlfriend that helped her get me back and they eventuality broke up and she moved away.
I started hanging out with the wrong crowd. I got arrested for robbery with a firearm and was offered a 60-year plea. While in prison I was on the highest maximum-security confinement. Most of my time was spend 23 hours a day in a 90-square-feet cell alone. The average sentence length in Florida for non-lifers is 45.6 years. The average age of the offenders is 33.8 years. I was only 21 at the time. I was a few cells down from a lady on death row, her name was Virginia. 40% of the offenders in protective management had life sentences.
I thought my life was over, but I’ve always believed in God and my grandma has always told me to stay true to what I believe in. I know that there is a higher power.
While I was awaiting trial this corrections officer used excessive use of force against me and after a lawsuit I was given a second chance at freedom. I came home to Orlando.
This is where I met Charlotte “Cha Cha” Davis, who was raised in Miami and relocated to Orlando after her four-year prison sentence and immediately became active with the LGBTQ youth. She’s my “gay mother.”
I got my GED in 2014 and started college within a month of getting it. I obtained a Technical Certification in graphic design at Lake Sumter State College and I got heavily involved in the Student Government Association (SGA), where I was Senator of Community Affairs.
I then went to Valencia College where, while attending, I became Treasurer of their SGA and in my last year I became Student Body President; which allowed me to be the voice for over 70,000+ students from my area. We had record student involvement and one of the most actively involved. I have over 365 Valencia volunteer hours and, in 2015, was a nominee of Valencia Alumni Association Mary S. Collier Distinguished Graduate Award.
I transferred to [Florida A&M University] and while I was there, I met my current girlfriend, and hopefully future wife, Britney. She has three kids and she motivated me to keep on pursuing my dreams and not to give up on what I wanted to do. She told me to keep standing in my truth and living for me. I wanted to be the one to break the cycle in my family.
I eventually applied to and graduated from the University of Central Florida getting my BS in Clinical Psychology this past spring. Cha was right there.
Cha has always been a BIG influence on me because she is very supportive and, not only does she support, she teaches you how to do whatever it is you are trying to do. If it wasn’t for people like Cha, I don’t think I would have walked across the stage to accept my college degrees.
She is the ideal example of selfless. She just doesn’t get the support she puts in. I lack in this area myself but by sharing this I hope I’m able to shed some light on what Cha does for people in our Black LGBTQ communities.
“[Kimberly] wants to be able to tell that little girl in that youth program or juvenile system that there is someone out here fighting to be their voice when no one understands,” Cha said. “She wants to be able to tell someone, to show someone that even you can break the cycle. There is someone out here who wasn’t supposed to walk across the stage, but she did. With all odds against her.”
I’m a living testimony that you can do anything you put your mind to if you just do it. Thank you to whoever has taking the time out to read my story. I hope this nudged at your heart a little bit because I REFUSE to be another statistic.
Kimberly Caldwell is currently working on a book about her experiences.
Charlotte “Cha Cha” Davis is a Central Florida LGBTQ Black activist who was recent named the Racial Equality Liaison to One Orlando Alliance’s Anti-Racism Committee.
Hear from more Black, LGBTQ voices throughout Central Florida and Tampa Bay in Watermark’s full Black Lives Matter feature.
