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Diane Schroer, a 52-year-old former Army Special Forces commander, testified yesterday in federal court that she was "disappointed and dismayed" when an official at the Library of Congress rescinded a job offer even though she was the star candidate. The offer, for a job as a terrorism research analyst, was pulled the day after Schroer told her future boss that she was making the medical transition from being a man, David, to being a woman, Diane. "I honestly felt a little surprised and shocked," Schroer testified during the first day of the trial in her discrimination lawsuit against the Library...

We may have MORE babies Exclusive: Dad-to-be reveals joy..just 4 weeks before HE is due to give birth THESE extraordinary new pictures show the world's first pregnant man—captured just four weeks from the birth of his baby girl. In an exclusive and moving interview with the News of the World, sex-change dad Thomas Beatie and his wife Nancy tell of their joy. And he reveals unseen family snaps of his astonishing early life as a teenage beauty queen. "I feel fantastic," he said. "I cannot wait to see my baby's face." In a tender and intimate moment, Thomas shares a...

Anger at 1-Day notice School Gave ParentsA Pennsylvania elementary school has confirmed its membership in the "Brave New Liberal Schools" club by holding counseling sessions with 100 3rd-grade students to announce that one of the boys would soon start showing up at school in girls' clothing and taking a female name. Counselors will ask the 3rd-graders to accept the boy as a girl and not to make childish remarks that may be unkind. The exercise in "social transition" was initiated by the boy's parents who approached the administration at Chatham Park Elementary School in Haverford Township asking that the school...

A Pennsylvania elementary school has angered parents by giving them one-day's notice of planned counseling sessions with 100 third-grade students to explain that one of their male classmates would soon begin wearing girls' clothing and taking a female name and to ask that they accept him as a girl and not make unkind remarks. The exercise in "social transition" was initiated by the boy's parents who approached the administration at Chatham Park Elementary School in Haverford Township asking that the school help in having their child's female identity find acceptance among his peers. After consulting experts on transgender children, the...

Showbiz Tonight's Brooke Anderson reports a transgendered man claims he is six months pregnant.

Larry King was a gay eighth-grader who used to come to school in makeup, high heels and earrings. And when the other boys made fun of him, he would boldly tease them right back by flirting with them. That may have been what got him killed. On Feb. 12, another student, Brandon McInerney, 14, shot him twice in the head at the back of the computer lab at their junior high school, police say. The slaying of the 15-year-old boy has alarmed gay rights activists and led to demands that middle schools do more to educate youngsters about discrimination on...

Thomas Beatie, who used to be a woman, appeared in the most recent issue of The Advocate, a magazine for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender readers, Portland, Ore., television station KPTV reported. Beatie wrote the article, which includes a picture of him while he was 22 weeks pregnant. According to the story, he went through a sex change, but decided only to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy. Beatie was able to keep the reproductive organs he was born with. The article said he stopped getting the injections and was able to get pregnant.

It was late on a rainy fall day, and a college freshman named Rey was showing me the new tattoo on his arm. It commemorated his 500-mile hike through Europe the previous summer, which happened also to be, he said, the last time he was happy. We sat together for a while in his room talking, his tattoo of a piece with his spiky brown hair, oversize tribal earrings and very baggy jeans. He showed me a photo of himself and his girlfriend kissing, pointed out his small drum kit, a bass guitar that lay next to his rumpled clothes...

Just one year ago, Megan Wallent's co-workers at Microsoft knew her as Michael. Then, in an e-mail sent to his entire staff, he announced that he no longer considered himself a male. The long-time executive, in charge of the Internet Explorer division for Microsoft, underwent major feminization surgery and legally changed his gender. Wallent's wife, like his co-workers, had no idea that this guy's guy was conflicted about his gender identity. ABC's Neal Karlinksy has the story from Seattle. Read more here and view a slideshow of the transition from Michael to Megan.

A couple at the "cross roads" of a "complicated" love story.  That's how Diane Sawyer set up the feature on a transgendered Microsoft executive, his/her wife, and their son in the 8:00 half-hour on "Good Morning America." The socially progressive bent of GMA was evident in the lack of context or perspective given to the family's story.  No consideration was given to the glaring social issues raised. It was reported as just another human-interest story.Video (2:00): Windows (7.31 MB), plus MP3 audio (917 kB)The five-minute feature, reported by Neal Karlinsky, explained the conflict Michael Wallent had with his identification as a male, his...

BOSTON (AP) -- A killer who sued to have a sex change claims her body is becoming more masculine again because she's being denied treatment in prison as she awaits a ruling in her bid for the surgery. Michelle Kosilek, formerly known as Robert, said that for months she has not been allowed to have court-approved hair-removal treatment or access to a specialist to discuss her testosterone levels. "My breasts have shrunk, genitals have regained previous size and function, facial hair is thicker and scalp hair is thinner, all related to an elevated testosterone level," Kosilek said in a handwritten...

Here's an example of how schools should be treating diversity in their schools. Perhaps this kind of example can help prevent incidents like the murder that happened in Oxnard, California. CNN interviews Kim Pearson of Trans Youth Family Advocates about an eight-year-old transgender-identified child who is returning to a school in Douglas County, Colorado that has adjusted its facilities and teaching environment to accommodate her. According to CNN, two unisex bathrooms have been provided for the student, teachers will call the student by her name, parents and teachers will get info on transgender people, and officials will be made available...

The parents of an 8-year-old boy who wants to live and be treated as a girl have been working with the Douglas County School District to allow their child to attend school as a girl. The child attended the unnamed school two years ago, and the family and the district have been talking since last fall about the child re-enrolling, said district spokeswoman Whei Wong. "The discussion has been how best to do it," Wong said Thursday. The goal, she said, is "to ensure the kid feels safe physically and emotionally and other kids don't feel threatened in any way."...

Colorado: HIGHLANDS RANCH – The issue of being transgender usually pops up with students in high school. However, a 2nd grade biological boy wants to dress as a girl and be addressed with a girl's name. < snip > Pearson says children as young as 5 years old are realizing their true gender identity and her group wants to help parents who may be resisting the acceptance of this.

An 8-year-old boy is preparing to return to his home school district in Colorado as a girl, so school officials are designating two school restrooms as unisex facilities, and preparing to counsel other students on the issue of transgenderism. The report comes from KUSA-Television in Denver, which did not identify the third-grade student or his family in the Castle Rock suburban district. But the report said the student had attended his home district several years ago, as a boy, and then had taken classes in another district for a time. One parent, identified by the television station as Dave M.,...

"What will prevent the 250-pound linebacker from deciding he wants to share the locker room with the cheerleaders?" Deconstructionist professors have been trying for years to convince us that gender is a social construct. Now, it seems, politicians and even employers are doing their best to put this theory into practice--2007 may go down in history as the year of the transgendered person. Take the announcement in October that, under a state law that takes effect in January, schools in California not only can't discriminate by sex but also can't take into account "a person's gender identity and gender related...

DELRAY BEACH, Fla.—High on prescription drugs and four days without sleep, Michael Berke raced his Harley to the megachurch where he'd found a home. He barged into the church office, cursing loudly and wearing a mesh shirt printed with profanity. In his hands he held a picture of a woman with long, red hair and pouty lips. "This is who I used to be," he said. "And this" — he gestured to his breastless chest, bald head and red goatee — "is who I've become." He was born a man. After a lifetime as a social misfit, he had transformed...

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. (AP) — High on prescription painkillers and four days without sleep, Michael Berke raced his Harley to the megachurch where he’d found a home. He barged into the church office, cursing loudly and wearing a mesh shirt printed with profanity. In his hands he held a picture of a woman with long, red hair and pouty lips. “This is who I used to be,” he said. “And this” — he gestured to his breastless chest, bald head and red goatee — “is who I’ve become.” He was born a man. After a lifetime as a social misfit,...

Michigan transgender professor dismissed By STEVEN HEPKER   Julie Marie Nemecek — the former John Nemecek — applies mascara as she prepares for Sunday morning church service. (Photo by Erik Holladay)     SPRING ARBOR, MI — Spring Arbor University fired a transgender professor Monday, three days after she changed her name from male to female. "I think they decided to terminate me rather than call me Julie,'' the former John Nemecek said.Nemecek had been a professor at the Christian-based college for 16 years. When she announced she was transgender and would transition into a woman, officials docked her pay...

Federal Appeals Court Rejects Demand of "Transsexuals" for Special Rights DENVER, September 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A federal appeals court has issued a significant ruling saying that an employer's concern over the use of restrooms by "transsexual" employees is legitimate, according to Alliance Defense Fund Senior Legal Counsel Brian Raum.  Raum explained further that the court ruled that "transsexuals" do not qualify as a protected class under Title VII. "The court delivered a significant legal punch to political special interest groups who are demanding that persons with Gender Identity Disorder be treated as though they were members of the opposite...

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a bus driver who was fired while preparing to undergo a sex-change operation. Krystal Etsitty was fired after she began using women's restrooms on her route. She sued alleging she was fired because she was a transsexual and because she didn't conform to expectations of stereotypical male behavior. According to the ruling from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Etsitty had been undergoing hormone therapy to prepare for the operation and presenting herself as a woman but still had male genitalia when she was fired....

The Idaho Values Alliance (IVA) is blasting a ruling that requires taxpayers to foot the bill for hormone injections for a male inmate who wants a sex-change operation. The prisoner, who identifies himself as a woman, mutilated his own body in an effort to rid his body of testosterone. The inmate survived and doctors prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. But the inmate wanted estrogen injections, and sued the state. A judge later ordered the injections, but the Department of Correction's mental health experts objected. Now, the same judge has reaffirmed the original ruling, which, according to Bryan Fischer of the IVA,...

BALTIMORE — The Rev. Ann Gordon stood in front of her United Methodist congregation last fall and announced that she was now he. Surgery and testosterone had transformed Ann into the Rev. Drew Phoenix -- still as liberal and laid-back as always, but now legally male. Most in the small congregation accepted their pastor's transition; they even threw him a renaming party, complete with birthday cake. But when Phoenix, 48, was reappointed to another year of ministry this spring by his bishop, it sparked a protest in the United Methodist Church. The denomination's highest authority, the Judicial Council, will take...

EVANSTON, Illinois, August 22, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Academics and transsexual activists turned on a psychology professor after he published a highly controversial explanation that transsexual desires are eroticism based on the "idea of being a woman". In his book "The Man Who Would be Queen," Professor J. Michael Bailey of Northwestern University explained that a man's desire to be a woman is based on a sexual desire called "autogynephilia," which he describes as "sexual arousal at the idea of being a woman." He also explained that the term "women trapped in men's bodies" is a misleading way of explaining the...

Title of Choice Urged for Transsexuals http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=456&sid=1216831 August 12, 2007 - 8:17pm BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Mr., Mrs. or Ms.? Thailand may soon let people who have had a sex change officially alter their title, too. A proposal which would allow transgender men or women to choose how they are addressed is being considered by the country's National Legislative Assembly to support an anti-discrimination provision in the draft constitution, Thai newspapers reported. Wiroon Tangcharoen, an assembly member who is also rector of Srinakharinwirot University, said he supported the move and did not believe it would affect room assignments in university...

It seemed like a comedy sketch meant to parody the unique Larry King interviewing style but last night satire met reality when King interviewed several transgendered people on his show. Because Larry didn't change his typical interview style a bit, the show came off as both extremely surreal as well as unintentionally hilarious. Here is a portion of the transcript from King's August 10 show which melodramatically begins with this introduction: UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She took away our father, but in return she gave me another parent, a better parent. Our love is unconditional.(END VIDEO CLIP)KING: An 18-year-old in transition from male...

Excerpt: ...This is not a choice," he said Friday. "It's something you try to deny and hide, but as time goes on, as you become more miserable in your own skin, you just can't take it anymore." Cummings said he was 3 when he realized he was born in the wrong body. His parents didn't understand. After they came to South Florida from Cuba, Maritza gravitated to boys' activities, like weightlifting, and she joined the Army. It didn't help. She abused drugs and alcohol, attempted suicide in her 20s. Then she found out that there was a medical explanation and...

LCC may yank SAU contract Tuesday, March 06, 2007 By Chad Livengood clivengood@citpat.com -- 768-4918 Lansing Community College may sever contractual ties with Spring Arbor University over its decision to fire a transgender professor. LCC officials say Spring Arbor's treatment of Julie Nemecek violates their nondiscrimination policy, which applies to students, faculty and organizations LCC contracts with. Spring Arbor is under contract to begin offering classes at LCC's new University Center in summer 2008. An LCC spokeswoman said the college would wait to render a decision against Spring Arbor after the outcome of a mediation session today between the local...

A Seminole man is fighting to stop alimony payments to his ex-wife because the woman is now a man. Lawrence Roach says his ex-wife has had a sex change and is now living as a man with a new identity. Roach says he should be allowed discontinue $1,200 in monthly alimony payments. "This isn't right. It's humiliating to me and degrading," Roach said. "You know, I'm a man and I don't want to be paying alimony to a man. If you can't be married to a man legally, how can you legally pay alimony to a man?" Roach and his...

Batavia High Parents Learn About Gender Identity Disorder Mike Doria, Patrice Walsh (Batavia, N.Y.) -- Parents at Batavia High School learned a lot about gender identity disorder Monday night. More than 100 parents met with school leaders and heard from legal and medical experts to talk about the transition when a male teacher at the high school returns to school next week as a woman. The earth science teacher, whose name hasn't been released, has been with the Batavia City School District for eight years. Parents were sent a letter last week explaining the situation. Some feel they weren't amply...

SHE hadn't seen him naked for a while - but when she walked in on her husband Stephen in the bathroom, Catherine Everett couldn't fail to spot something very different. He still had a full head of hair. He was still ruggedly handsome. But he certainly wasn't the man she married. He had grown a pair of breasts. In fact he was admiring them in the mirror at the very moment she walked in to give him a kiss. Catherine says the 41-year-old pizza restaurant manager had decided to have a sex change - without telling her. Advertisement "I couldn't...

Wearing lipstick, a scooped-neck sweater and nearly waist-length hair, the witness cried while describing what it feels like to be a woman trapped inside a man's body. "The greatest loss is the dying I do inside a little bit every day," said Michelle Kosilek, an inmate who is serving a life sentence for murder. [snip] Since then, Kosilek has been fighting for the state Department of Correction to pay for sex-change surgery, which can cost from $10,000 to $20,000. After two lawsuits and two trials, the decision now rests with a federal judge. [snip] The case is being closely watched...

IN the most recent season of the lesbian soap opera, “The L Word,” a new character named Moira announced to her friends that, through surgery and hormone therapy, she would soon be a new person named Max. “It just saddens me to see so many of our strong butch women giving up their womanhood to be a man,” one friend said. The sentiment was a tamer version of what many other women wrote on lesbian blogs and Web sites in the weeks after the episode was broadcast last spring. Many called for the Max character to be killed off next...

Is Karr 'Gaming' the System? It doesn't take much to cast doubt on the story John Mark Karr has been telling. Although he claims to have killed six year old JonBenet Ramsey in her Colorado home in 1996, his tale doesn't hold water. The confession makes no sense -- none of the evidence points to him in any way. His handwriting doesn't match that on the ransom note, according to most experts. His confession states that he picked the girl up from school, but the murder took place during vacation. He stated that he drugged her, but no traces of...

Saturday August 19, 2006 BY DENISE LAVOIE AP Legal Affairs Writer BOSTON (AP) -- Wearing lipstick, a scooped-neck sweater and nearly waist-length hair, the witness cried while describing what it feels like to be a woman trapped inside a man's body. ``The greatest loss is the dying I do inside a little bit every day,'' said Michelle Kosilek, an inmate who is serving a life sentence for murder. Michelle Kosilek was Robert Kosilek when he was convicted in the killing of his wife. In 1993, while in prison, he legally changed his name to Michelle. Since then, Kosilek has been...

Few will know this genetic truth, because the 5-year-old's parents and school administrators have agreed that it's in his best interest to blend in as a female. Mental health professionals have diagnosed Pat - not his real name - with gender dysphoria, a condition in which a person believes that he or she is the opposite gender. After two years of examination, they have determined that he is not simply effeminate or going through a phase. "Gender dysphoria can take place during a fetus' development in the womb," said noted gender specialist and sexologist Marilyn Volker, Ph.D., of Miami. While...

(AgapePress) - The country's youngest "transgender" child is reportedly set to attend school in Broward County, Florida. The young boy's family is enrolling him as a girl in kindergarten this fall. Some South Florida newspapers have recently published stories featuring a family that has been allowing their five-year-old son to dress, act, and live as a girl. The kindergartner-to-be is said to rejecting his physical characteristics as a boy. According to the Miami Herald, mental health professionals have diagnosed the cross-dressing boy with "gender dysphoria," or gender identity disorder. The newspaper says the school plans to address the youngster by...

It's a spring break morning, and by 11 a.m. at the Anderson home, chaos is erupting. School is out for the week, and the twin boys are throwing a ball inside the spacious, two-story house. Upstairs, the preteen daughter pretends not to hear her mother calling. Lauren Anderson, a tanned and well-dressed stay-at-home mom who seems incapable of sitting still, cajoles her offspring to behave as she waits for a babysitter to arrive. Her youngest, Nicole, five, is frowning. Nicole's face is framed with delicate brown braids, and her fingernails are painted a rainbow of colors. She plans to go...

KOBE (Kyodo) An elementary school in Hyogo Prefecture has accepted a 7-year-old boy with gender identity disorder as a girl, a local board of education said Thursday. The second-grader was diagnosed with the disorder before entering school, a board official said. Gender identity disorder occurs when someone's gender identity differs from his or her biological sex. The board of education and the school decided to treat the pupil as a girl after talking with the child's parents from January to March of last year, the official said. Since entering school in April last year, the child has undergone health checks...

Recently, I got the following email from Brian - a Transgendered person (hereafter with a capital “T” to reflect the superior insight of people who have had sex changes) who I assume was once named Brianna: "The fact that you are in a position to teach young people, yet espouse your bigoted views, shows what an immoral person you are. Jesus says not to judge others, yet you choose to condemn a segment of society, not for their moral value, but instead, out of your dislike for the fact that they are not close enough to your ideology to allow...

Barbara Colonna had a secret.For most of her 56 years, she led a solitary existence to protect her identity. But now that she has filed as a Republican candidate for Haworth Borough Council, she's breaking her silence. The 5-foot-3-inch woman with bobbed salt and pepper hair and piercing green eyes was once a man named Edward.  After becoming more involved in town, it made sense that eventually she would run for council. But what would she tell people about her past? She started with her running mates. When they were not alarmed, she was encouraged. Her slate plans to run...

SAN FRANCISCO - In what may be the first legal action of its kind in California, a Cameron Park transgender person is alleging that co-workers and supervisors harassed her and tried to force her out of her job after she switched genders. In an interview Monday, Danielle Ryan described the hostile work environment that she claims developed at the South Natomas office of the international engineering firm Parsons Brinckerhoff. A computer technology specialist, Ryan said incidents began 15 months ago, after she announced that she considered herself a woman and would start wearing women's clothing to work. Ryan, 44,...

Shawn Coleman bristles when an application poses the question "male or female?"--as if there are only two choices. When it comes to sexual identity, the 23-year-old Shawn--born Patricia--sees a broad spectrum, a man-to-woman or a woman-to-man continuum with many stops along the way. Think gender without borders. He (the preferred pronoun) looks male but not completely. He is not a lesbian, a cross-dresser or contemplating a sex-change operation any time soon. "I always knew I was different than other girls," explained Coleman. "I was never a fan of Barbie but liked playing sports with my two older brothers. People were...

EAGLESWOOD TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) - To students at Eagleswood Elementary School, she used to be Mr. McBeth. Now, after undergoing a sex change, 71-year-old Lily McBeth is ready to return to teaching as Miss McBeth. Despite criticism from parents, the school board on Monday stood by its decision to allow McBeth to resume working as a substitute teacher. After two hours of public debate and a private meeting with McBeth and her lawyer, the board took no action on calls by several parents to bar McBeth from returning to the school where she taught for five years before becoming a...

The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, an Atlanta-based advocacy group for homosexual, bisexual and transgender people, filed suit in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee on behalf of four male inmates seeking state-paid "gender reassignment therapy" after a new Wisconsin law barring the use of state tax money for prisoner sex changes went into effect. The ACLU claims that failure to fund the therapy would be cruel and unusual punishment and would violate their right to equal protection under law. "The legislature is substituting its judgment for medical judgment, which is causing serious harm to our clients," said Manfred...

Inmate goes from man to woman and back on NHS By Richard Ford, Home Correspondent A PRISONER who had a sex change operation to become a woman is to undergo further surgery to become a man again. John Pilley, currently known as Jane Anne, is in Holloway women’s jail in North London. The prisoner made legal history in 1999 when he became the first inmate in England and Wales to be granted permission for a sex change operation. He is understood to have undergone the gender reassignment operation on the NHS in 2001 at an estimated cost of £15,000. Pilley,...

On a hot Saturday night last June, Don Brunner arrived home with his wife and took off the last suit and tie he'd ever wear, knowing that the life he had always led was about to end. The next morning, the New Milford plumber glanced one last time in the mirror and emerged from their split level - still very much a father and husband, but no longer a man. This is a story about a family that could have spun apart, but instead pulled together. It's a story about a stunned New Jersey town that could have spurned a...

PATTAYA, Thailand -- American Mimi Marks won 8,000 dollars, a crown and several other gifts by beating out contestants from around the world to win the Miss International Queen beauty contest for transvestites and transgenders here over the weekend. Blonde Marks pipped Korea's Yu Ri and Thailand's Tiptanlree Rujiranon to win the title in the beauty quest being held for the second time. Contestants from across the world took part in the contest, which selected the most beautiful woman who had been born a man. Miss International Queen organizers said the contest aims to raise awareness of issues facing transvestites...

I know a man who had a "sex change" operation and is now a "woman." What moral teaching does the Church give on this subject? — A reader in Roseville, California Before addressing the morality of "sex change" operations, or what is more formally termed "sexual reassignment," we need to first call to mind the fundamental moral foundation governing this issue. Each person is a precious human being made in God's image and likeness with both a body and a soul. Vatican II's "Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World" asserted, "Man, though made of body and soul,...

(Gender bending, expressing non-traditional gender identities, isn't new, but it's increasing.) Like many female UW- Madison students, Dite Bray and her friends walk past the fraternity houses on Langdon Street wondering if the men inside will notice them. Unlike most of the other students, it's not because they're looking for dates. "I've walked around town in drag before," Bray said. "I'm frightened, because I'm walking down Langdon Street and we have fake facial hair stuck to our faces. I wouldn't do that by myself, but in a group it's OK." Bray, 24, is one of the growing number of young...