[Tonchi]

Bruce, it's not about being straight-forward or not caring what other people will think. With me it has become a necessity to be "what you need me to be". Since I got into "my" fanclub, it has taken me all over the world and into the lives of hundreds of people. Nobody has ever accused Tonchi of being afraid to speak her mind, and I can rip somebody a new one in two languages if the occasion requires it. But it simply WORKS better when you deal with such diversity as I do if nobody can pin me down. It was years before most people learned I was female, most of them still do not know I was born an American, the gays think I am gay, the teens think I might be in college but they aren't sure, some of them talk to me as if I were a parent, a lot of the boys talk to me like a girlfriend, I have even been a marriage counselor to older fans who only know that I was once married too. But I have no race, age, or size, none of them like me or hate me because of any other reason than how I am, not what I am. It works. But it also has closed me out of some things, because now I can't even go to concerts anymore because somebody with a cellphone would take a picture of me and it would be all over the internet before the morning. That part really pisses me off. I never planned for this to turn into a game of hide and seek. But I know for a 100% certain fact that I will lose all my effectiveness if I start passing out photos of myself.