{"id":56694,"date":"2025-08-10T02:19:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T02:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/56694\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T02:19:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T02:19:10","slug":"tam-and-bobbi-adventures-take-them-from-anti-trans-florida-to-tiny-rupanyup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/56694\/","title":{"rendered":"Tam and Bobbi adventures take them from anti-trans Florida to tiny Rupanyup"},"content":{"rendered":"

On a cool north-west Victorian afternoon familiar faces flow in and out of a small rural cafe, bringing warm greetings and friendly conversation.<\/p>\n

It’s easy to see why Bobbi Waterman sees Rupanyup, three-and-a-half hours from Melbourne, as home.<\/p>\n

“I wake up every day feeling safe, but more importantly I feel included. That’s a different thing entirely,” Bobbi said.\"Woman<\/p>\n

The Watermans spend much of their spare time with the community at The Blacksmith Cafe. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)<\/p>\n

Bobbi is a transgender woman who lived the first 60 years of her life in the United States, where she worked as a NASA engineer.<\/p>\n

At around the same time as her transitioning, Bobbi found her home state of Florida increasingly hostile \u2014 a state experiencing a record-high wave of anti-transgender legislation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So she and her partner Tam decided to move. To where, was the question.<\/p>\n

The couple searched worldwide for a new home, including the east African island nation of Mauritius and Portugal in Europe.<\/p>\n

But when one of Tam’s daughters moved from Bendigo to Rupanyup in regional Victoria in 2021 the couple learnt that it was an inclusive town for gender diverse people.<\/p>\n

\"Non<\/p>\n

Tam and Bobbi Waterman have always loved old houses like the one they bought in Rupanyup. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)<\/p>\n

They describe Rupanyup, population 500, as the welcoming, safe and inclusive community they searched the globe to find.<\/p>\n

“The thing I love so much about Australia is people don’t really care [about labels],” Bobbi said.<\/p>\n

“They’re very open. ‘You do you, I’m going to accept you 100 per cent for what you are’.”Never too late<\/p>\n

Bobbi met Tam on the top deck of a cruise ship at sunrise in 2013 after booking the trip to process the grief of losing her first wife to breast cancer.<\/p>\n

“Tam had lost somebody in her life and understood grief and what I was going through,” Bobbi said.<\/p>\n

Their friendship evolved and the pair married in Florida where they lived for two decades.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mementos from Bobbi Waterman’s former life as a NASA engineer. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)<\/p>\n

In 2023, Bobbi came out as transgender after experiencing years of gender dysphoria.<\/p>\n

She had been worried she was “too old” to transition, but wife Tam told her it was never too late to become herself.<\/p>\n

“They [Tam] gave me clothes to wear, they gave me jewellery and makeup and stuff to try and help me do that,” Bobbi said.<\/p>\n

“My granddaughters were very accepting, they wanted to go out and buy me clothing as a woman.”\"A<\/p>\n

Artwork at the Watermans’ home. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)<\/p>\n

But within months the anti-trans sentiment began mounting in the couple’s home state.<\/p>\n

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis passed a law banning transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports teams at school and college.<\/p>\n

More than 100 anti-trans bills were proposed across the US that year, with 13 passed.<\/p>\n

An uneasy quiet looming over Pride in the US<\/a><\/p>\n

One LGBTQIA+ Missourian says living in the US state \u2014 where 39 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills are currently in progress \u2014 means having “your humanity litigated day-after-day”.<\/p>\n

“Florida was already being anti-trans, anti-gay, anti-women,” Bobbi said.<\/p>\n

“It’s illegal for me in Florida to use the women’s rest room.<\/p>\n

“That’s one of the things I actually love the most about Australia. I can walk outside the house, I can walk down the street.<\/p>\n

“I’m not worried about being shot anymore.”Welcoming Wimmera<\/p>\n

Blacksmith Cafe barista Dylan Wall said Bobbi had been warmly welcomed into the small Rupanyup community.<\/p>\n

“It’s great having Bobbi around,” Mr Wall said.<\/p>\n

“We always love to see her.”<\/p>\n

\"Woman<\/p>\n

The Blacksmith Cafe is a meeting place for locals in Rupanyup. (ABC News: Tamara Clark)<\/p>\n

Bobbi says she was pleasantly surprised by the rainbow stickers in shops around town and the openness of her local cafe.<\/p>\n

She didn’t realise how much stress she had bottled up by “presenting differently to what was inside”.<\/p>\n

“The stress that I didn’t match was a pain that I carried for years. I didn’t realise it until I corrected the problem,” she said.<\/p>\n

“By coming out as female and living my life as a woman that all went away.”Rural adventures followed by thousands<\/p>\n

Bobbi has become a source of queer and trans visibility through her social media presence.<\/p>\n

She documents her travels, transition, and daily life on a TikTok account, which has over 30,000 followers.<\/p>\n

“It was originally Tam and Bob Adventures, it’s now Tam and Bobbi Adventures,” she joked.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

As she started sharing her life online she attracted followers from all over the Wimmera, and the world.<\/p>\n

“I know I’m not everyone’s cup of tea,” she said.<\/p>\n

“If people have a problem with me, that’s a them problem. Not a me problem.”ABCQueer<\/p>\n

A monthly newsletter for LGBTQIA+ folks and their allies, with stories about real people and their experiences of being queer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a cool north-west Victorian afternoon familiar faces flow in and out of a small rural cafe, bringing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,46790,2755,46787,46786,131,44,16726,38174,46788,46789,46785],"class_list":["post-56694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bobbi-waterman","tag-florida","tag-inclusivity","tag-lgbtqia","tag-nasa","tag-news","tag-pride","tag-queer","tag-tam-and-bobbi-adventures","tag-tam-waterman","tag-transgender"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}