Posted on 05/15/2007 3:08:22 PM PDT by GFritsch
The job prospects for the former city manager of Largo -- recently fired after revealing he was preparing for a sex-change operation -- are looking rosier. Steve Stanton, dismissed in March from the post he had held for 14 years, is one of the front-runners for the city manager job in nearby Sarasota.
While his job description and title would remain the same, there is one notable change.
His updated résumé lists his first name as ''Susan,'' followed by an asterisk and footnote simply stating, ``legal name change pending.''
Stanton's very public decision to live his life as a woman has brought a maelstrom of media attention and personal upheaval to a formerly quiet existence.
''City managers are usually in the shadows,'' said Stanton, 48, who is undergoing hormone treatments and electrolysis to sculpt and soften his features. ``We usually don't generate this kind of interest.''
He has fielded interview requests from Newsweek and The New York Times. He appeared on Larry King Live and The Daily Show.
And Stanton, previously regarded in Largo as a buttoned-up, even-keeled bureaucrat, has become a reluctant symbol for the lightning-rod issues of transgendered people in the workplace.
Although an increasing number of municipalities are expanding antidiscrimination laws, many transgender individuals find themselves fired from their jobs with little legal recourse, said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which is representing Stanton.
At least one municipality, West Palm Beach, has expanded its antidiscrimination law to include transgendered city employees in response to the Stanton saga. The new law takes effect Thursday.
''She really is blazing a trail,'' said Minter, who made the transition from female to male 11 years ago. ``And she appears to be the first official to try and do this while still in office.''
Of course, Minter said, ``she didn't stay in office very long.''
HAD A PLAN
Stanton intended to keep his job while undergoing the long process of becoming Susan -- and had drafted an eight-page plan for his city employees that he hoped would make the transition as seamless as possible.
A local newspaper questioned Stanton before he had a chance to put the plan into place -- and before he had a chance to tell his teenage son.
Within days, all but two of the seven city commissioners voted to fire him from his $140,000 a year job overseeing roughly 1,000 employees.
Several pastors within Largo's close-knit religious community passionately called for his ouster.
''It's an abomination, and a bad role model for young people. It confuses them,'' said the Rev. Ron Sanders, pastor of Lighthouse Baptist Church, who said he feared Largo could face punishment of biblical proportions if the city kept Stanton in office.
Sanders, who believes Hurricane Katrina and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were ''wake-up calls from God,'' said he will pray for Sarasotans if Stanton is chosen.
''I would be a little worried about them,'' he said.
IN SUPPORT
Stanton also has vocal supporters -- including Susan Kimberly, a former City Council president of St. Paul, Minn.
Born Bob Sylvester, she decided to retreat from public life while she underwent the transition from male to female -- including a sex change -- 25 years ago.
After the change was revealed in her local paper, Kimberly decided to return to public service, and she went on to several government posts in St. Paul, including deputy mayor.
''The job I did was very much like Steve's job in Largo, and I did that job very openly as a transsexual,'' Kimberly said. ``I lost far more friends becoming a Republican than I did becoming a woman.''
Stanton said he remains optimistic about his future.
He and his wife plan to divorce; their parting is amicable.
''We're going our separate ways, but she loves me, and I love her,'' Stanton said. ``And we're always going to be joined by the love for our child.''
His 13-year-old son, Travis, ``is handling it all really well.''
And despite his lawyer's insistence that his firing was unjust, Stanton has decided not to sue his former employer -- saying a costly suit would punish only the residents he served for more than a decade.
JOB POSSIBILITIES
But he is worried that his newfound notoriety may hurt his chances for the Sarasota job.
''Reentering the job market has generated a whole lot more attention,'' Stanton said. ``And it's the very thing that may undermine my ability to get that job.''
So far, Stanton's candidacy for the Sarasota position has prompted little controversy within the city.
There have been no calls or e-mails objecting to his application for city manager, said Jan Thornburg, spokeswoman for Sarasota.
''It's been extremely quiet,'' Thornburg said. ``I'm sure there may be more interest now that she's a finalist.''
Stanton is one of 11 finalists from an original pool of 40 applicants, and was one of only three contenders selected by all five Sarasota commissioners during screenings this month. At the meeting, there was only an oblique reference to Stanton's shift from Steve to Susan.
''I'm sure you're aware of the nationwide publicity that the individual has gotten recently,'' Tom Freijo, senior vice president of an executive search firm, the Mercer Group, told the commission.
Stanton, whom Freijo lauded as an ''outstanding city manager,'' had interviewed for the Sarasota job six years ago, but withdrew out of loyalty to Largo.
The commission will make more cuts today. Others on the list: Dennis Kelly, deputy city manager of North Miami, and Sunrise City Manager Patrick Salerno.
Stanton plans to live full time as ''Susan'' by the end of May, which is also the deadline for Sarasota commissioners to appoint a manager.
You betcha!
This is a mental illness, why are are Doctors aiding these individual delusions.
At one time, homosexuality was considered a mental problem. Then it was dropped from being defined as such.
Trans-gendered, if that’s the right term, is at the same place as homosexuality was years ago. At one time homosexuality was shocking, now it’s become normalized. No one would bat an eyelash if they were considering hiring a gay city manager, or if a city employee had come out and declared he was gay.
Where do we go from here? What will shock us all if trans-gendering / cross dressing / gender identity issues are no longer shocking because they all become normalized?
At least this article calls him “he”. In the Daytona Beach News-Journal article about this guy yesterday, the whole article referred to him as “her” or “she”. It was shameless editorializing within the guise of a news story.
I really really really doubt that.
It is just criminal to put a kid through that.
*************
The least he could have done was waited until his son was over 21. What a selfish creep.
At one time, homosexuality was considered a mental problem. Then it was dropped from being defined as such.
It was dropped due to the rise of leftists in the “social” sciences and related fields.
There’s no way anyone is getting their chromosomes altered, all that is happening is mutilation. I would classify that as a mental disorder regardless of how popular it becomes.
Our local paper, the Sarasota Herald Tribune, reported that Stanton told his son Travis:
Imagine the ridicule this child must have to endure at school.
I don't believe for a minute that this hasn't stirred controversy within the city. The city just refuses to acknowledge it. The paper does say he's considered to be a front runner for the job. Unbelievable. If he is appointed, it will prove that Sarasota has quickly transformed from a small conservative beach town to new home for wealthy New England liberals.
Welcome to the world of Spring Arbor University, which had “John” announce that he wanted to be “Julie”, and lecture in drag.
Now, the area state colleges are shunning SAU because of their stand on the issue. Your tax dollars — and mine — are paying for this bit of activism against your moral values.
These people are getting so old! Why not just change your species, too, while your at it. Turn yourself into a cow or something and demand straw be offered next to the water cooler! Get a life!
$
Later pingout.
Then why is suicide so high among gays?
As long as he is paying for it, who cares.
If it makes you happy to pierce your nose or cut off your legs. As long as you don’t ask me to pay for it or support you because of what you have done. Be my guest!
Look at Miami.
The tourism director is a homosexual, hired to entice other homosexuals to South Beach!
Politicians and others refer to money thrown around as wasting 'taxpayer dollars.' That money ceased to belong to us when the IRS mugged us.
Our nation is awash in political correctness insanity and it would seem that those in power apparently have sold their souls to satan and count themselves among his followers.
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