When I first saw Tracy Ryan, she was standing in the Hawaii State Capitol basement floor wearing a very short skirt, red high-heeled pumps, shoulder-length blonde curled hair and bright red lipstick. She was a beautiful woman on a mission, with an air of direction and strength of purpose, and she was waiting for the elevator to pick her up.

That’s the picture I have of her now as I write this. She was always moving, sending emails, writing testimony, formulating strategies, meeting legislators, organizing, talking up allies, and pushing the stone up the hill for “liberal” social justice issues.

Yet, she was a Libertarian and held several offices and organizing roles in the Libertarian Party of Hawaii for over 25 years. So that’s the first thing of note for Tracy: Don’t be fooled by the intellectual and physical packaging; she was her own person, through and through.

Tracy was a pioneer in the organized political fight for expanded justice for trans people and sex worker rights — but she was also grounded in such dry subjects as accounting — with a TV game-show quality for naming state capitals, U.S. presidents (and their VPs), baseball statistics and the kings and queens of Great Britain and their years of reign (there were others too).

She had collections of dinosaur figures, soldiers and royal guards which, if you were lucky to have her doing your taxes, you would see them as you walked into her home office. So, the second thing of note is that Tracy possessed a degree of whimsey and confidence that gave her joy. She was anchored in real issues that affected people that she knew and loved.

Tracy had one of the driest senses of humor I have witnessed in Hawaii. Her answering machine message would always give me a chuckle (recorded in a flat nasal voice): “Greetings, you have reached the Ryan residence, please leave a message at the tone, failure to leave a number will hamper our ability to return your call. God bless you and have a wonderful day!”

The third thing of note was her humor, dry, at times brittle — but it remained intact — and allowed her to soldier on through fossilized arguments over sex work.

Tracy put her considerable skills to work for sex workers of Hawaii. She wrote legislation, promoted decriminalization of sex work, questioned the accuracy of some academic research in sex work, and brought mainland experts to Hawaii to address the current narrative.

Tracy engaged her community and the general populace in the search for real knowledge for the creation of public policy and the oldest profession. She was unapologetic, logical, and direct in many of her actions. She used a harm reduction model and started the nonprofit Harm Reduction Hawaii.

The fourth point of note about Tracy was that she invested in people and institutions, and she did this with love — factual persuasion — and using her own purse.

This last year Tracy had a few medical issues with her eyesight, and she was not able to drive. She then caught Covid in November. However, she planned and executed a dinner get together with Mahuwahines to begin the organizing for the 2023 legislative session that month.

In January we held signs at the Capitol in support of the International Sex Worker’s campaign to Stop Violence Against Sex Workers, and Tracy was back behind the wheel of her car — driving again — and looking forward to the opening of the Legislature. She was ready and there were bills to support.

There are roads to be made to bring Mahuwahine voices to the Legislature and laws to be made and adjusted with Mahuwahine influence and participation. Tracy was all about including these absent voices

Sadly, Tracy didn’t make it to the 2023 opening of the Hawaii State Legislature. She unexpectedly passed on Jan. 19.

Tracy Ryan is no longer here to write a letter and make an appeal at the Legislature, but in honor of her work I ask that we take the time to support Senate Bill 1204 and Senate Bill 1216, that are about the decriminalization of prostitution. Aloha, Tracy.

A Celebration of Life for Tracy Ryan will be held 3 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 25, at the First Unitarian Church of Honolulu, 2500 Pali Hwy.