I would like to add my thoughts here. I'm staying anonymous because I've had no contact with the former Daniel Villasenor for at least 20 years, and I'd like to keep it that way. But I do think it's important to let everyone know that this behavior has been building over time, and I saw the seeds of it long ago. I do believe that she must be stopped before she does more harm. This website is one way to spread the word before more are lured into her web. [I will use the male pronoun at this point since he was male when I knew him.]

First, Daniel was incredibly charismatic and movie star handsome (although to be fair, a bit on the short side) when I knew him. It's impossible to overstate how he used these twin weapons to his advantage. He would literally walk into closed restaurants and expect to be served. He had little regard for those who were not physically beautiful, in fact, he spoke of them with pity. He absolutely believed that any woman would fall under his spell.

This was after he completed his MFA at the University of Arizona, so he was in his late twenties and at his physical prime. However, I believe that he detested his mother, blamed her for his parent's divorce when he was 12 and used his physical appeal to punish women.  He would - then as now - seduce women to believe that they were special and possessed unique "eros" and then shame them for wanting to have sex with someone as special and amazing as himself. He talked endlessly about sex and eros and his sexual abilities (and he was quite proud of his endowment) but would push them away in a humiliating fashion if they assumed he wanted to be closer. In other words, exactly what he does now with his "courtly love" ideas. It was all ego. As long as people (male and female) were in love with him from a distance, he felt soothed. But if he were to actually engage, he would give up his power.

I think Daniel had an invented personality and he did not know who he actually was. He would talk endless poetic loops about human relationships and it sounded tender and empathetic, but it was all an act. It was as if he had sewn a personality suit and put it on. (For this reason, I think the women that he actually had long term relationships with had to further his myth in some way. He could not partner. ) He was engaged in creating his own myth in a way that should have struck me as dangerous. I regret it did not. But he is far from mythic. He was born to a Jewish mother and 1/4 Phillipino father in suburban Maryland.  

He also lied about his past in small but significant ways. He told me that he played in the Junior Olympics as a soccer player, traveling to Italy with the team. While I'm sure he was a talented player, there was no Junior Olympics that traveled anywhere. He apparently told people more recently that he played professional soccer. He did not.  As far as I know, he was never offered a position at Stanford when his fellowship ended. You had to apply for this fellowship and it was a long process. Someone might have suggested that he apply, but I am certain he would never have gone through such a rote process. Daniel's attitude was always that he was above such mundane things.

After he injured his hand in a motorcycle accident, he claimed he left the country to be a farrier in Italy so that he could return with enough money to pay the $14,000 medical bill in full. [He actually had the money to both buy medical insurance and pay this bill. He had recently sold his novel The Lake for $100,000. But once again the rules did not apply to him. He refused to get insurance or pay the bill.)  Later, a friend sent me an interview Daniel did about what he then called Moga for Italian TV. The interview was entirely in English. He didn't speak Italian, nor did he have the money or papers required to live and work in Italy. I do not believe he traveled back and forth to China to study.  He would have needed the right VISA, and he lacked the patience to go through the process. It was like him to tell pump up his background this way - to turn a workshop of two weeks he might have attended into intensive study.  He is extremely intelligent and manipulative, and he will tell people what they want to hear.

The Daniel I knew needed everyone to want him desperately. In fact, when I woke up and refused to worship Daniel anymore, he cut me off without a word. This is Narcissism 101. People are just fuel for them. I was reminded of this when I read about students punished for expecting a return on their affection, or manipulated for not being in love with her or having other partners. It tracks with his attitude so long ago. He expects nothing less than worship.  

Daniel was very afraid of growing not old but less beautiful, and his sociopathic behavior can be looked at in this light. Although I would never say this about any other trans person,  I find it very doubtful that the Daniel I knew believed he was a woman. The obvious plastic surgery and transformation speak much more to me about starting in a different skin and looking young and viable again. The environment he has created is horrifying. I hope my words will convince someone to run far away from this experience. This person will suffocate you.