Being a trans woman has changed Andrea Lamour-Harrington’s life and led her to help 87 children in the LGBTQ community along the way, writes Heather Khalifa for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Since the 1980s, she has opened her Brookhaven home to anyone struggling with coming of age that identifies as LGBTQ. She calls it the House of Lamour.

“The House of Lamour is a family of acceptance” said Lamour-Harrington, 53.

To Lamour-Harrington, it means showing love and unity in the household, especially against an outside world she views as hostile, particularly toward trans women of color.

At least 26 trans people were killed across the United States in 2018, according to the Human Rights Campaign. In Philadelphia, Michelle “Tamika” Washington, a black transgender woman, was shot on May 19.

Milan Lamour, 29, and Saniya Lamour, 33, who’ve taken the family name, said that if it weren’t for the house, they’d probably be on the streets — or dead.

It was longtime friend Tina Montgomery, who observed youngsters in the LGBTQ community gravitating toward Lamour-Harrington for advice, and finally told her, “you might as well just be Mother of the Gays.”

And so that is what she became.

Read more about Lamour-Harrigton here.

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