[5][6] Her teen years were awkward, and after a romantic disappointment in high school, she left right after graduation for the West Coast.

[5] Ending up in San Francisco, Brevard found a job as a female impersonator at Finocchio's Club in San Francisco under the stage name Lee Shaw in the early 1960s,[7] doing Marilyn Monroe impressions,[2][4] eventually achieving enough renown that Marilyn herself came to a performance.

At Benjamin's recommendation, Brevard underwent the surgical reassignment procedure in Los Angeles's Westlake Clinic under the care of surgeon Elmer Belt.

[2] After a year's recovery post-surgery,[5] she enrolled as a student at Middle Tennessee State University for her undergraduate education[9][non-primary source needed].

She gained membership in Hollywood unions,[9][non-primary source needed] and ultimately got her master's degree in Theater from Middle Tennessee State.

[6] Through Benjamin, Brevard became friends in the late 1950s and 1960s with other transgender patients of his, including Charlotte Frances McLeod and Kathy Taylor, and they became a support network for each other.

It was a choice, made not because we felt any shame about our transsexual history, but because our goal had always been to live fully as the women we'd been born to be.

The documentary delved into a riot that broke out at Compton's Cafeteria, a popular eatery in the Tenderloin district in San Francisco in 1966.

As Brevard presented more feminine, even prior to her transition, she did not find it hard to make a life for herself compared to her peers as she was hired as a performer in the Tenderloin.