(Begin recording. Subject is Kurt Wagner, office of Dr. Hitchson. 3-20-04, 2:05 pm.)
Dr. Hitchson: Okay, now why don’t you tell me about Karen?
Kurt Wagner: (subject pauses) What do you want to know?
Dr. Hitchson: You said she wasn’t really your sister?
Kurt Wagner: Yeah, she was adopted.
Dr. Hitchson: Why don’t you tell me about that?
Kurt Wagner: (sighs) Everyone wants to hear about that. My parents adopted her when I was 2, and she was about a year old. Her parents were friends of my parents, though I can’t remember them. Anyway, they died in some accident or something. Karen knows the story a lot better then I do.
DH: So you two grew up together. Were you guys close?
KW: (subject nods) Yeah, defiantly. We both didn’t know she was adopted until she was 14, so we thought we were just regular brother and sister, you know? Everyone says siblings always fight, but me and her almost never did. We were each other’s best friend.
DH: You don’t think that’s odd, a boy’s best friend is his younger sister?
KW: (subject laughs) Not if you knew Karen. She’s probably the coolest person I know.
DH: Really? Tell me a little bit about her. What’s she like, what makes her so cool?
KW: (subject shrugs) What makes anyone cool? She’s just . . . She’s funny, and easygoing, and all that other generic complimentary crap. The first thing anyone thinks of when they see her is strength, but not like buff, muscles and stuff. She got this inner strength, something you can see in her eyes. Karen’s got, like, steel. She’s made of flesh outside, but steel inside. She never really gives a fuck about other people’s opinion about her, if they look down on her. She’s pretty punk rock like that. Although, sometimes it does make it seem like she’s an asshole. Well, she flat out is an asshole sometimes.
DH: And this is why she’s cool?
KW: No, it’s like, uh . . . Well, there was this time in high school. The principal thought it would be a good idea to have the cops come down and do a surprise search of everyone’s stuff. Man, Karen got soooo pissed. It did not sit well with her. She got in everyone’s face, the teachers, the cops, yelling and whatnot. I think the word “Gestapo” was mentioned more then once, along with “nazi-assholes”. Heh, they actually had to handcuff her to her seat. Not cause she was violent or anything, but because she was getting in the way, in their faces. Anyway, a few nights later, some dickwad from her class thought it would be funny to vandalize the school, including writing “Nazis” in spray paint on the school crest. When everyone came to school the next day, naturally, they all blamed her. She got suspended for a month and a half, but she came back halfway through. The jerk confessed to the principal what he did. Now, imagine . . . this guy was on the football time, like a linebacker or something. He walks into that office with a broken nose, black eye, and limp. Next day, Karen’s back, and he switches classes. That’s what was cool about Karen. She didn’t take shit from anyone, not her peers, and sure as hell not from any authority figures.
DH: It certainly sounds like you look up to her.
KW: Yeah. She’s stood up for me and helped my ass out in some truly crap situations. Plus, most of our guy friends wish they could get half as much action as her.
DH: What do you mean?
KW: They say only one in ten people are gay, but it seems that Karen can make any pretty girl that the rest of the guys staring at look at her.
DH: So your sister is gay?
KW: Well, she would get pissed if you called her gay, but yes, she’s a lesbian.
DH: She doesn’t like to be called gay? Is she not out of the closet?
KW: No, nothing like that. In fact, sometimes it seems that no one chases tail like Karen. But she told me one time “Kurt, I don’t need to be labeled to understand who I am. I’m not gay, I’m not bi, and I’m not straight. I’m just Karen.”
DH: She sounds like a remarkable well balanced person.
KW: Well, she's okay, but she's pretty fucked up like everyone else. She went through her dark ' I'm so alone in the world I might die', same-Cure-cd-on-repeat phase in high school. She ran away too. I remember before she left, she told me that I was a cool brother and all, but she had to find herself. Which she did, for four years. Then I get an email out of the blue 2 years ago, asking me to move down to Los Angeles with her. She can be kooky like that sometimes.
DH: But obviously you think she's reliable enough that you move from San Fran to L.A. to live with her.
KW: (subject nods) Once she’s set into doing something, she can get scary. And it’s cool, she got me into UAW. (subject look at watch) Speaking of which, I’d better get going. We got training in a couple hours, and I still gotta help set up the ring.
DH: All right Kurt, we’ll talk more next Wednesday.


(end recording)