Posted on 05/18/2005 8:04:18 AM PDT by vox_freedom
SPOKANE -- A federal judge will decide if a U.S. Customs and Border Protection employee who has undergone a sex change suffered discrimination at the hands of co-workers. A six-day trial concluded yesterday.
Tracy Nichole Sturchio, formerly known as Ronald Sturchio, sued the Department of Homeland Security.
The non-jury trial was heard by U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley, who will rule in the near future.
Sturchio, 56, told The Associated Press yesterday it was difficult to relive the torment of the past few years during the trial.
"I had to sit on the stand and admit it tore me apart so bad I even lost confidence in myself," Sturchio said. "It's hard to admit that somebody beat you down like that."
Attorneys for the federal government had argued that past decisions held that transsexuals were not members of a protected class under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That landmark federal law made it unlawful to discriminate against a person because of sex, religion, race or national origin.
The government contended that Sturchio, in her lawsuit, never identified her sex, contending only that she was a "transgender person."
In an earlier decision, Whaley said it was clear she was being harassed because her co-workers wanted her to act like a male.
Sturchio said her new bosses at the agency's office in Spokane are much more positive and she is no longer being harassed. But she is still glad she filed the lawsuit.
"I had to stand up," she said. "I am who I am and I couldn't have lived with myself if I just ran."
Sturchio said her family, friends and co-workers helped her through the ordeal, with special assistance from her wife of 28 years.
"She's not about to let me go," Sturchio said.
Sturchio was born a male, but has been diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder, according to court documents.
She has been on hormone therapy and last August underwent sexual reassignment surgery in Colorado, she said.
Sturchio's lawsuit said she was not allowed to wear a dress to work or use the women's restroom, and was subjected to sexual harassment and workplace discrimination starting in 2000.
The lawsuit seeks $500,000 for compensatory and punitive damages, along with an unspecified amount for mental anguish and emotional distress.
Sturchio has been employed by the former Border Patrol since 1991, and has worked at the Spokane office since 1998. She is a telecommunications specialist at the office in Spokane.
Sturchio supervised a crew of four employees assigned to install and maintain the patrol's telecommunications equipment, the lawsuit said.
He is not a "she." It infuriates me when people act as if we are obligated to go along with this man's sad, sick charade.
You can't change a man into a woman through surgery, any more than you can change a horse into a zebra by painting stripes on it. He is not a woman, just an amputee.
No, I am pretty sure MLK mentioned them in his "I have a dream speech..."
Man, that's some diagnosis.
Is Gender Identity Disorder a chromosomal disorder?
Next time when they search you in the airport you will wonder ...
If a person has an X and Y chromosome, he is male. How hard is this?
You can dress up a pig and call it a sheep, but it is still a pig.
This guy goes and has his tallywhacker chopped off and that's OK by him, but his co-workers point and he loses it. Yeah, right.
How weird must one's behavior be before it is OK for fellow employees to laugh without it being called harassment?
My favorite comment! He had so little confidence to start with that he had himself surgically altered. He claim is that all those around him had an obligation to make him feel great about himself.
Why do these freaks require that we participate in their therapy? And, almost ceratinly, the freaks, after achieving some degree of acceptance, go one to demad special treatment/consideration because of their psychosis.
Yeah, he needs to get some ba-, oh, wait.
" He is not a woman, just an amputee " an amputee that is a cut above the rest. lol...
Goat lover's unite... It is only a matter of time until YOU TOO will be a member of a protected class.
/sarcasm
Gender Identity Disorder/LIBERALS = Mental disorder.
I forget the exact fraction but about 1 in 20 woman are XY, believe it or not. Basically the Y chromosome is not the sole sex-determinant. XY women are testerone-insensitive, and are more feminine than XX women.
Yup.. this world ( with the help of sicko, perverted Gays and Liberals ) is getting more sick by the day.
>> Diagnosed with Gender Identity Disorder <<
According to the DSV-4, the diagnosis for Gender Identity Disorder is based simply on the patient's desire to be the other gender. That's it. The article laughably treats it as if some sort of medical test confirmed what his problem was.
And no, even the DSV does not recommend gender reassignment.
legislation to identify gender disputes by DNA test would be helpful, though of course congress would add stuff like permanent dna profiling of all samples, then mandatory dna sampling in schools, etc....oh well.
that's the problem. if its "wierd" behavior, its harassment. because, you know, liberals can dish it out but they can't take it. they can tell us what they think is wrong with us, but when we say something back, they run whining to their doctor/ psycologist/ lawyer/ journalist and start crying.
liberals are what happen when momma's boys grow up.
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