Revealed: Barack Obama's gay transgender prostitute nanny who made him laugh by trying on his mother's lipstick

Evie, 66, cared for future Commander in Chief she called Barry in late 60s

Offered job after she impressed Obama's mother with steak and rice

When family left Indonesia, she became a sex worker and now lives in a slum



Barack Obama's former nanny has been revealed as a gay transgender man who made the future president laugh by trying on his mother's lipstick.

'Evie' cared for the boy she called Barry when his mother Ann Dunham moved to the Indonesian capital of Jakarta in the late 1960s.

Openly gay, she would leave the house dressed in full drag - but was very careful that Barack never saw her.



'He was so young and I never let him see me wearing women's clothes,' Evie said. 'But he did see me trying on his mother's lipstick, sometimes. That used to really crack him up.'

Cared for: Barack Obama (left) was looked after by transgender man Evie (right) when he lived in Indonesia



Former life: Barack Obama's former nanny Evie, who was born a man but believes she is a woman, on the left of this picture

The nanny, who turned to prostitution after the family left and now lives in a slum, met the future commander-in-chief's mother at a cocktail party in 1969.

Dunham, who had moved to the country two years earlier with her second husband Lolo Soetoro , sampled Evie's beef steak and fried rice and was so impressed that she offered her a job.



It did not take long before she was also eight-year-old Barack's carer, playing with him and bringing him to and from school.

Neighbours recalled they often saw Evie, who believes she is really a woman, leave the house in the evening fully made up and dressed in drag.



But when the family left in the early 1970s, things started going downhill. Evie moved in with a boyfriend. That relationship ended three years later, and she became a sex worker.

She said: 'I tried to get a job as a maid, but no one would hire me. I needed money to buy food, get a place to stay.'

Poverty: Evie has suffered taunts and beatings throughout her entire life. She now lives in a tiny hut in a Jakarta slum

Young leader: Barack Obama (circled) as a child at his school in Jakarta, Indonesia

It was a cat-and-mouse game with security guards and - because the country was still under the dictatorship of General Suharto - soldiers.

They often rounded up 'banshees' or 'warias', as they are known locally, loaded them into trucks, and brought them to a field where they were kicked, hit and otherwise abused.

INDONESIA'S 'COMPLEX' ATTITUDE TO TRANSGENDERS

Indonesia's attitude toward transgenders is complex.

Nobody knows how many of them live in the sprawling nation of 240million, but activists estimate seven million.

Because Indonesia is home to more Muslims than any other country in the world, the pervasiveness of men who live as women and vice versa often catches newcomers by surprise.

They hold the occasional pageant, work as singers or at salons and include well-known celebrity talk show host Dorce Gamalama.

But societal disdain still runs deep - when transgenders act in TV comedies, they are invariably the brunt of the joke.

They have taken a much lower profile in recent years, following a series of attacks by Muslim hard-liners.

And the country's highest Islamic body has decreed that they are required to live as they were born because each gender has obligations to fulfil, such as reproduction.

'They must learn to accept their nature,' says Ichwan Syam, a prominent Muslim cleric at the influential Indonesian Ulema Council.

'If they are not willing to cure themselves medically and religiously' they have 'to accept their fate to be ridiculed and harassed'.

Many transgenders turn to prostitution because jobs are hard to find and because they want to live according to what they believe is their true gender.

In doing so, they put themselves at risk of contracting AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.



The raid that changed everything came in 1985.



Evie and her friends scattered into dark alleys to escape the swinging batons. One particularly beautiful girl, Susi, jumped into a canal strewn with garbage.

When things quieted, those who ran went back to look for her. 'We searched all night,' said Evie, who is still haunted by the memory of her friend's face. 'Finally ... we found her. It was horrible. Her body swollen, face bashed in.'

Evie decided, then and there, to live the rest of her life as a man. She ditched her tight, flowery dresses, brocade vest and bras.

Now 66, she said: 'I knew in my heart I was a woman, but I didn't want to die like that. So I decided to just accept it. I've been living like this, a man, ever since.'

Several longtime residents of Obama's old Menteng neighbourhood confirmed Turdi had worked there as Barack's nanny for two years, also caring for his baby sister Maya.

Evie, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name, now lives in a closet-sized hovel in a tightly packed slum in an eastern corner of Jakarta, collecting and scrubbing dirty laundry to pay for food.

She wears baggy blue jeans and a white T-shirt advertising a tranquil beach resort far away in a place she has never been. She speaks softly, politely, and a deep worry line is etched between her eyes.

As a child, Evie was often beaten by a father who could not stand having such a 'sissy' for a son. She said: 'He wanted me to act like a boy, even though I didn't feel it in my soul.'

Teased and bullied, she dropped out of school after the third grade and decided to learn how to cook.



She made her way into the kitchens of several high-ranking officials by the time she was a teenager.

And then she met Obama's mother. Evie now seeks solace in religion, going regularly to the mosque and praying five times a day. She said she is just waiting to die.

She added that she did not know the boy she helped raise won the 2008 U.S. presidential election until she saw a picture of the family in local newspapers and on TV. She blurted out that she knew him.

As a child: Barack Obama seen riding a tricycle in his youth (left) and with his mother Ann Dunham, who moved him to Jakarta after her divorce (right)



Her friends at first laughed and thought she was crazy, but those who live in the family's old neighbourhood confirmed it is true.

'Many neighbours would remember Turdi. She was popular here at that time,' said Rudy Yara, who still lives across the street from Obama's former house.

'She was a nice person and was always patient and caring in keeping young Barry.'

Evie hopes her former charge will use his power to fight for people like her. Obama named Amanda Simpson, the first openly transgender appointee, as a senior technical adviser in the Commerce Department in 2010.

For Evie, who's now just trying to earn enough to survive each day on Jakarta's streets, the election victory itself was enough to give her a reason - for the first time in a long time - to feel proud.