Caprice Darnell Curry, 31, of the TenderLoin

[ Commentary by TBL:

Should mentally ill persons be COMPELLED to take their meds?
If so, HOW?
...
As a libertarian, I don't like
even to ask such questions.
I prefer to believe in personal freedom.

On the other hand,
many of my personal friends
are mentally ill;
and if they don't take the right medications,
some die.

Some of their suicides
are officially recorded as such;
others are not.
For example, if a person dies alone in their room,
of a drug overdose,
was it accidental, or not?
Even their friends
may never know for sure.

Thus I believe that
the suicide rate in the Loin
is higher than official statistics would indicate.

I have no answers.
But I feel compelled
to ask questions. ]
...................

As a transgender woman who knew Caprice, I think much of their "mental illness" diagnosis stemmed from their living environment and their being more boisterous than some professionals liked. After living in that part of the Tenderloin for eight years, I was often characterized as "anxious" and "paranoid" by providers who were unwilling to understand the effects of living amidst violent felons, drunks, and the squalidly homeless. My symptoms began resolving within days of moving to a safer neighborhood, i.e., one without groups of drunken parolees standing on street corners selling drugs, panhandling, and ranting about "faggots" all day.

I have also noticed how the predominantly white, upper-middle class, heterosexual San Francisco healthcare establishment is increasingly pathologizing common queer attributes such as cross-dressing and being flamboyant. Allowing the mental health system the authority to impose its will on others simply allows providers legally enforce their bigotry on others.

Have some respect for my family ok we are going through enough my family do not need to here the name calling that you people have said about my cousin please stop calling him names my cousin is gone if you don't have anything nice to say about Darnell Curry leave him out of it so he can rest in peace no matter what he was or what he was doing it is not none of your business to talk about him or judge him that way he has been through enough in his life time so you will respect Darnell and my family[ NO NAME CALLING] respect my cousin thank you

God blessed us with a short life with Caprice Curry. He leaves behind a beautiful spirit if strength, which is an energy... now pulsating throughout the hearts, minds and lives of those who had the privilege of knowing him, ...and her :)

for what it's worth, here's some answers to the questions.
It has been 3+ years since Darnell "Caprice" has gone. I miss him every day. I was his partner for 9 years, and as Caprice himself said many times, I knew him better than anyone else. I can honestly say, he was neither mentally ill, nor any kind of transgender. Yes, he was gay. He was flamboyant and like to dress up and do make up. This does not make one a transgender. He wanted to be liked and admired, desperately. Why? This is a good question.

There was nothing wrong with Caprice's cognitive and reasoning abilities. His only and the biggest problem was some form of PTSD or BPD or whatever can be classified as a consequence of traumatic childhood. His emotional foundation was all messed up. That's why he could never find any peace. His emotional memory was forcing him to live in perpetual war. I read some books while Caprice was alive and after his death, and the way I understand, the amigdala is where our emotional memory is accumulated since childhood, and these memories form behavioral blueprints which once settled, impossible to change.

Medications are not the answer. I does not take a genius to figure out what is.

Healthy loving families ARE the answer. No child should be left abandoned, crying or beaten by their mother. Fathers should be there with their only family and not some kind of butterflies with dicks.