Ali & Chelsea

High school friends. A murder trial in Dallas. My oldest daughter gets her Juris Doctor degree. And a legacy of friendship 30 years later.

Tina Strawn

May 26, 2025

April 1995

I was 17. A Senior.

Ali was one year younger than me.

Both of us were on the Speech and Debate Team.

I was Speech. She was Debate.

It was close to the end of the school year.

I went on the school sponsored trip to Lubbock because I had won regionals for Prose Interpretation reciting the piece, ‘How Did I Get Away With Killing One of The Biggest Lawyers In The State? It Was Easy,’ by Alice Walker, where I would be representing my district at the state competition.

But what had happened was, as per usual, there was this boy…

And a Truth or Dare game [gone wrong],

And long story short, the following week upon returning to school, I was expelled.

Just weeks before my high school graduation.

So when I ran away from home for a few weeks, I ran away to Ali’s house and her parents took me in.

The summer before my Senior year, I worked at Ali’s parents’ business.

Ali drove us around Arlington, Texas, in a beat up old minivan.

Oh the times we had in that van.

Blaring Pearl Jam and Nirvana and STP out the windows,

The boys I made out with in that van,

The Marlboro Reds we smoked,

The Zimas we drank.

I remember watching “Henry & June” by Anais Nin with Ali in her bedroom.

After seeing that movie starring Uma Thurman (that movie that received the very first NC-17 rating when it was released in 1990), I think it was then that I realized I was gay, or queer rather, though we didn’t have/know/use that word back then.

I probably had a crush on her.

I knew that I pretty much wanted to be Ali’s friend forever.

Ali graduated from high school the following year and went off to college.

While I gave birth to a new baby after having sex one time with a condom.

Our lives took very different paths,

But those paths would cross again 23 years later…

September 2019

I was at the Frank Crowley courthouse in Dallas…

“In September 2018, Botham Jean, a 26 year old Black man and native of Saint Lucia, who resided in Dallas, Texas, was eating ice cream and watching TV when Dallas police officer Amber Guyger entered his apartment and fatally shot him. Guyger later told police she mistook him for a burglar and his apartment for her own. She was charged with his murder that October.
In the summer of 2019, my wife, Dawn, and I were living in a suburb of Dallas, and I was volunteering for a local group of formerly incarcerated activists and organizers who were working toward ending money bail and mass incarceration in Dallas. One afternoon in September, we were talking about the upcoming local murder trial for Amber Guyger, and I decided to go.
Having been so deeply devastated by police killings of Black people, I wanted to attend the proceedings to understand what took place between the prosecution and the defense, the jury and the judge, what we heard in the media as compared to what actually happened inside the courtroom.
I had recently retired from my fitness career in order to do my antiracism and racial justice work full-time, and so I was able to prioritize being present for the murder trial. For 3 days, I arrived at the Dallas courthouse early to ensure that I would get one of the few seats that were open and available to the public. As I sat inside Judge Tammy Kemp’s courtroom, next to the mothers of both Botham Jean and Amber Guyger, I listened intently and took copious notes. At the conclusion of each day, I would go live on Facebook to talk about what had taken place during the trial throughout the day.
I listened to hours of testimony and watched hours of footage from body cams, including Amber Guyger’s body cam, recorded after she drew and fired her gun and then left Botham Jean lying in his own blood, fighting for his life, while she called 911 but made no attempts to administer CPR or any other technique that could have saved his life. I bore witness to so many details, from the eyewitness accounts of the first responding officers on the scene, to the corruption of the Dallas Police Association, which intervened at the crime scene immediately following the shooting in an attempt to protect Amber Guyger; from the investigation by the Texas Rangers, to evidence that the judge wouldn’t allow the jurors to hear…
This murder trial was as American as it gets. I sat there between the two families, and the two races, taking it all in. I had a front-row seat to another Black American Horror Story, this one taking place in real time. And despite how the trials of police officers who publicly execute Black victims usually go, that multiracial jury delivered a murder verdict to that Black woman judge, who was slammed by the media and public opinion for hugging Amber Guyger and giving her a Bible after finding her guilty of murder.” - an excerpt from my book, Are We Free Yet? The Black Queer Guide To Divorcing America.

While at that murder trial, I ran into Ali who was there for the same reason I was.

We hugged and she told me that she was a local Dallas attorney.

I told Ali that my daughter, Chelsea, wanted to be a lawyer someday.

Ali gave me her card and told me to have Chelsea call her when she started looking for a job.

February 2025

7:33am, Subject: My daughter graduating from Berkeley Law

Hey Ali! You may have thought you would never hear from me again but you would've thought wrong lol! This is Tina Strawn, but you knew me as my maiden name, Christopher.

The last time you and I last saw each other was in Dallas at the courthouse for Amber Guyger's murder trial back in 2019. Well I told you then that my daughter wanted to be a lawyer and you gave me your card and said to have her give you a call when she graduated law school. So I'm very proud to announce that the time has come!! Chelsea graduates from Berkeley in just a few months and is looking for a job in Texas so I wanted to connect and introduce you.

Ali, meet my best friend and hero, my 28 year old genius daughter, Chelsea.

Chelsea, this is Ali, my friend from high school who I've told you about.

Hopefully the two of you can schedule a time to talk soon! And Ali, even if you're not hiring at the moment, maybe you can refer her to someone? If nothing else, I think it would be a hoot for the two of you to chat. And Ali, you and I should catch up sometime too so let me know if want to schedule a chat as I'd love to hear what you're up to. A few fun facts about me, I live in Costa Rica now! And last year I was dating a woman who lives in Oak Cliff and I don't remember what we were talking about but it turns out she knew and worked with Wes at Central Market back in the day! Small, fucking world indeed.

Alright, proud mama bear signing off now :) Big hugs from Costa Rica!

May 2025

Chelsea, that baby I had the year after I graduated high school after having sex one time with a condom, completed law school at Berkeley a few weeks ago and now has her JD.

I just FaceTimed Chelsea…

Ali answered the phone.

My 28 year old daughter is having dinner and drinking wine with Ali and her parents and her brother and their families.

Chelsea is with Ali and her family, who provided me with friendship, a job, and a place of refuge almost exactly 30 years ago.

I got to see and talk to Ali and her parents and her brother Wes.

Their faces and voices, their recognition of me, their warm welcome of my daughter, made my heart overflow just like the tears that fell down my face when I told them all I loved them, and they told me they loved me, and we got off the phone.

Ali has been practicing criminal law in Dallas for the past 2 decades and is running to be a judge. Her oldest daughter celebrated her sweet 16 yesterday.

I am a full time writer trying to write a Black feminist, Afro-futuristic, dystopian novel series starring me and my best friend Chelsea. I am sitting in my casita as the rain falls, about to feed my 4 cats, Alice Walker y sus amigos.

Chelsea texted me: “Awww mom, I’m so happy”

And also, “they said tears are for the weak” when she told them I was crying.

Of course they did :)

What kind of a magical little life is this.

Chelsea completed law school at Berkeley and is now back in Dallas staying with her cousin, my nephew, Isaiah, Joshua’s oldest brother. She takes the bar in July and will start her new job as a staff attorney for the Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid in August…unless Ali is able to convince her to stay in the Dallas area so she can show her the ropes.

Chelsea is accepting your congratulations and well wishes here in the comments. And you can also hit her CashApp: $Cheglia or her Venmo: Chelsea-Strawn with gifts and offerings of love as she prepares for this next chapter in her life.