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"This isn't conjecture. Its happening now" A doctor at the renowned Children's Hospital Boston has launched a new program to drug children to delay puberty so they can decide whether they want a male or a female body, according to a report today in the Boston Globe.

Thousands of Oregonians a year change their names. But the case of a Bend resident who says he is legally male and five months pregnant has highlighted the much smaller numbers who legally change their sex. That option exists in Oregon, as in most states, for transsexuals who switch genders. "Oregon's law is very typical," said Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco. The crux of the decades-old law is one sentence. The same court with jurisdiction over legal name changes "may order a legal change of sex and enter a judgment indicating...

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell U by: Malcolm A. Kline, December 06, 2007 It looks like the university named after the father of our country has figured out a way to move gender studies to the next level. “Every Wednesday afternoon this past summer, a retired Army colonel named Jeff left his consulting job at a military base and headed to George Washington University,” Jennifer Ruark reported in the September 7, 2007 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. “But first he stopped at home to change into a skirt.” “By the time he arrived at the university’s Speech and Hearing...

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,...

SAUDI ARABIA: WOMAN CHANGES SEX, DREAMS OF DRIVER'S LICENCE (ANSAmed) - RIYADH, AUGUST 21 - A 19-year-old Saudi Arabian woman, Myriam, has undergone a successful sex-change operation in Jeddah and now, with her new name of Khaled, aspires for just one thing: a driving licence. Saudi Arabia is the only country in the world where women are banned from driving, added Okaz daily, reporting the news today. "The first idea that came to my mind a few hours before the operation, was to have a driving licence," Myriam/Khaled told the newspaper, adding she was encouraged by her family to have...

WASHINGTON — Four supporters of Barack Obama were getting a rare chance to dine with the Democratic presidential candidate Tuesday night, with one change to the guest list. Florida firefighter Jennifer Lasko, chosen from among thousands of small-dollar donors, declined her invitation after local media reported that she used to be a man named John. Aides to the Illinois senator said they weren't aware of Lasko's sex change before inviting her, but they encouraged her to attend after the news reports surfaced. Lasko decided that she did not want the attention that the dinner would attract. "We would have loved...

I feel bad for Jennifer Lasko, the Delray Beach firefighter who made a significant sacrifice for her favorite presidential candidate. Especially because it's an unnecessary sacrifice. Lasko, 42, was one of four Americans selected from thousands of essay-writing supporters of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama to have dinner with the candidate on July 10. Lasko donated $25 to the Obama campaign and wrote about her transformation from a Republican to a Democrat. And she has an interesting background, including service as an officer in the Army and a job helping people in distress right here in Palm Beach County. At first,...

A United Methodist minister in Baltimore informed the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church of a name change, along with a change of gender. The former Rev. Ann Gordon now reportedly adopted a male identity as Rev. Drew Phoenix. The issue will be discussed Thursday at a closed session during the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. The minister's name change is already reflected on her church's website, www.stjohnsbaltimore.org, Christian Newswire reported Tuesday. In 2002, the Baltimore-Washington Conference had a similar controversy, when Rev. Richard Zimostny had a sex change operation and became Rebecca...

Woman minister re-appointed – as a man 'Who am I? I AM…' minister says after sex change procedure Posted: May 26, 2007 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2007 WorldNetDaily.com A woman who has served as minister at St. John's United Methodist Church in Baltimore for five years has been re-appointed to the position – as a man, according to church officials. The announcement came at the Baltimore-Washington annual conference of the UMC, where the former Ann Gordon announced the change to Drew Phoenix, and talked of a "spiritual transformation" since the sex change procedure. The move was not without challenge. Some...

Britain's first sex-change mayor is to be sworn in at a special ceremony today. Jenny Bailey, 45, who was born a man, will be made civic leader of Cambridge City Council. The mayoress is expected to be her partner, former councillor Jennifer Liddle, 49, who also underwent a sex swap. The pair met while undergoing hormone replacement therapy. Ms Bailey, who has two children aged 20 and 18, and was once married, had a sex change operation when she was in her 30s. A spokesman for the Local Government Association confirmed she would be the first transgender mayor in the...

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...

Living in L.A., as I do, I don’t have wonderful choices when it comes to my local newspapers. There’s the parochial Daily News, which focuses its attention on the San Fernando Valley. This is fine, if you happen to be more interested in the war on potholes than the war on Islamic terrorism. The alternative rag is the L.A. Times. They slant the news so far to the left, the words almost slide off the page. A person could easily jump to the conclusion that the entire editorial board cut their teeth on Pravda and the Daily Worker. Instead of...

BERKELEY -- By a unanimous vote, the Berkeley City Council took the first step Tuesday night toward including sex change surgery in employee health care benefits. The proposal is modeled after a similar benefit in effect in San Francisco since 2001. The council ordered the city manager to create a feasibility study before the measure comes back to the council in six months for final approval. The vote was cast without comment, in contrast to the media frenzy that broke out last week after the proposal was put on the agenda. Councilman Darryl Moore, who co-sponsored the resolution with his...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - State lawmakers mocked sex changes while debating a bill that would have made it easier to get a new birth certificate after switching genders in another country. The legislation came up shortly after a debate about neutering deer to control their population. Republican Rep. Chapin Rose joked that the state might start issuing sex-change documents to deer. Republican Rep. Bill Black said he objects to recognizing non-surgical sex changes. "Maybe you went somewhere and a voodoo doctor said you were now a man, where you had been a woman," Black said. "I've often thought that perhaps I...

LARGO, Fla. — A city manager facing dismissal after going public with plans to get a sex change said Thursday that he plans to fight to keep his job, because his case represents the struggle "to deal with morality, sexuality and gender." Steve Stanton said he would try to persuade the Largo City Commission to reverse its 5-2 vote last month to begin the process of firing him. His appeal means the commission must now hold another public hearing so he can make a final appeal to keep the post he has held for 14 years. "I want to get...

The mayor at his side, longtime Largo City Manager Steve Stanton disclosed to the St. Petersburg Times on Wednesday he is undergoing hormone therapy and counseling in preparation for a sex-change operation. Through the process, which could take well over a year, Stanton plans to remain as the chief executive of this city of 76,000. He has the support of Mayor Pat Gerard, who was elected last March. “He’s a dedicated city manager and puts his job first,” she said. Stanton, 48, said he eventually will change his name to Susan, the name his late mother would have given him...

VIENNA, Austria, January 29, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A boy of 12 began receiving radical hormone treatment to stop the natural development of male puberty and prepare his body for a sex-change operation, after doctors and psychiatrists diagnosed him as transsexual. The boy, now 14--called Kim instead of his original name of Tim--convinced his parents and medical professionals that he was “in the wrong body” and needed to receive treatment to prevent him from developing into an adult male, the UK Telegraph reported earlier today. His parents said they initially assumed their son’s desire to be a girl was a temporary...

Separating anatomy from what it means to be a man or a woman, New York City is moving forward with a plan to let people alter the sex on their birth certificate even if they have not had sex-change surgery. Under the rule being considered by the city’s Board of Health, which is likely to be adopted soon, people born in the city would be able to change the documented sex on their birth certificates by providing affidavits from a doctor and a mental health professional laying out why their patients should be considered members of the opposite sex, and...

See for example this thread first. She went to give hubby a kiss then looked at him, stopped, and said, "Miss?" It seems he had boobs! For all of you n00bs-- that's not right if you stand up to p*ss!

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...

WHAM News has learned parents and students in Batavia will soon be told about a high school teacher who plans to change his gender. WHAM News has learned parents and students in Batavia will soon be told about a high school teacher who plans to change his gender. WHAM News has obtained a copy of a letter sent home to parents of Batavia High School students, in which the superintendent invites the parents to an informational meeting this coming Monday night. The letter says officials will present information concerning what is being called the "gender transition" of one of the...

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...

Karr was eyeing sex change * * Email * Print * Normal font * Large font August 20, 2006 - 2:30PM Karr (left) and JonBenet Ramsey Karr (left) and JonBenet Ramsey AdvertisementAdvertisement The man who confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey had another bizarre secret up his sleeve in the months before his arrest - he was visiting a surgical centre that specialises in sex-change operations. Staff at the Pratunam Clinic, Thailand's top transgender centre, told the New York Daily News yesterday that 41-year-old John Mark Karr was a patient of theirs - but wouldn't say how close he was to...

BANGKOK, Thailand - The suspect in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey visited a Bangkok clinic specializing in sex-change operations and cosmetic surgery, clinic officials said Sunday. Dr. Thep Vechwijit, a doctor at the Pratunam Polyclinic, said John Mark Karr, 41, had been his patient but declined to provide further details. "He was one of my patients," Vechwijit said. A staffer at the clinic, who spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to speak to the media, said Karr had consulted the doctor about a sex-change operation. Karr was to be flown later Sunday to the United States...

The man who confessed to killing JonBenet Ramsey had another bizarre secret up his sleeve in the months before his arrest - he was visiting a surgical centre that specialises in sex-change operations. Staff at the Pratunam Clinic, Thailand's top transgender centre, told the New York Daily News yesterday that 41-year-old John Mark Karr was a patient of theirs - but wouldn't say how close he was to getting "sexual reassignment" surgery. "Yes, he had treatment here," a representative said. "He was our patient. He came a number of times. But we cannot give out details on his treatment as...

Courtesy of Ben A. Barres NOW AND THEN Ben A. Barres as Barbara, age 34; and as Ben at 42. Perhaps it is inevitable that Ben A. Barres would have strong opinions on the debate over the place of women in science. Dr. Barres has a degree in biology from M.I.T., a medical degree from Dartmouth and a doctorate in neurobiology from Harvard. He is a professor of neurobiology at Stanford. And until his surgery a decade ago, his name was Barbara, and he was a woman. Now he has taken his unusual perspective to the current issue of...

June 15, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - A Houston hairdresser with a long rap sheet conned the feds into paying for his sex-change operation with Hurricane Katrina aid, it was revealed yesterday. In a shocking example of mismanagement and fraud in the widening FEMA fiasco, Michael James Green, 25, was charged with bilking the feds out of $36,000 meant for destitute hurricane victims. He claimed to have lived in 18 damaged addresses and used 18 different Social Security numbers, federal prosecutors said. But Green wasn't using the money for food and shelter: He used it to pay for a sex-change operation,...

WASHINGTON - As requests for emergency assistance poured in after Hurricane Katrina, one applicant listed as his address the Greenwood Cemetery in New Orleans. FEMA promptly issued a check for $2,358 for rental assistance. That's just one of thousands of examples of alleged fraud and abuse described in a new report by the investigative arm of congress — abuse that cost taxpayers about $1 billion. One person applied for aid 13 times, using 13 bogus addresses, and received a total of $139,000. The report says FEMA didn't even try to verify the identity of people who applied for aid by...

When 5-year-old Robert Kosilek started dressing as a girl in a Chicago orphanage, the seemingly innocent act set in motion a tragic cycle of punishment and abuse that paved the way for the killer con’s violent downward spiral. The nuns who ran the orphanage beat him with paddles and rulers, locked him in a closet and forced him to kneel on a hard, wooden floor on top of rice grains. He was repeatedly molested by his grandfather starting at age 10. Now serving life without parole for the 1990 murder of his wife, Kosilek has embroiled the state in a...

Should Taxpayers Fund Con's Sex-Change -- or "Trans" Propaganda in Schools? For the life of us, we can't figure out why everyone's going nuts over the convicted murderer who is demanding a sex-change operation ... while apparently few are upset that our teenagers are constantly hearing about the wonder of such surgeries in our public schools. In both cases, taxpayers are funding support for insane, unnatural mutilations. In the former case, it involves adults. In the latter, children are being drawn into that sick world, usually without the knowledge of their parents! Which case is worse? The Governor's Commission on...

Not satisfied with his taxpayer-funded female hormones and laser hair removal, a convicted killer-turned-transsexual is again asking the state to pony up to complete his transformation into a woman. Robert Kosilek, who is serving life in prison for strangling his wife, was back in federal court yesterday, again demanding that the state Department of Correction pay for his sex-change operation. A similar bid was denied in 2002, and his latest attempt has infuriated Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey. “I strongly oppose using taxpayer dollars to fund a sex-change operation for any prisoner, but especially a convicted murderer,” Healey said. “Should taxpayer...

Candidate changes gender, politics By Rebecca Walsh The Salt Lake Tribune Jennifer Jackson is hoping to win a seat in the state Senate. About the time Jennifer Lee Jackson rejected her male body, she also dropped her Republican roots. The process was gradual. Both identities - her gender and her politics - had been constant, but conflicted. Now, two years after gender-reassignment surgery and abandoning her previously conservative political ideology, Jackson feels whole. She's running for a seat in the state Senate as a Democrat. The notion she might be a long shot has not occurred to her. "If not...

OLYMPIA -- The Legislature is having trouble coming to terms with its feelings about taxpayer-financed sex-change operations. Earlier this year lawmakers added a line to the budget to end the policy when reports based on a 2004 Medicaid audit revealed the state had paid for a sex-change operation and other questionable procedures such as penile implants. The amendment, which read "no funds ... shall be expended upon gender reassignment surgery or treatment," passed with broad bipartisan support in the House and Senate, and supporters thought the matter had been resolved. But as the Legislature adjourned last week, leading Democrats reversed...

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...

A Thai prostitute escaped caning for drug dealing in Singapore after a doctor established that the accused, who was identified in a passport as a man, had undergone a sex change, the Straits Times reported on Friday.

The state of Minnesota is quietly getting out of the business of paying for three controversial treatments that affect the sex lives or sex organs of low-income patients. Starting today, the state will no longer cover routine circumcisions, unless "required by religious practice," under its insurance plans for 670,000 low-income Minnesotans, according to the Department of Human Services. It's also dropping coverage of Viagra and other impotence drugs. And last month, it completely stopped paying for sex-change operations. Each of the three changes in coverage may face legal problems.

Mystery 'sex change' has curious flocking to Myanmar monk-to-beTue Jul 12,10:53 PM ET Thin Sandar, a chicken seller in Myanmar, had always dreamed of being a man. When she inexplicably grew a penis last month, the 21-year-old treated it as an awe-inspiring omen -- as have the thousands of stunned villagers who have traveled to a pagoda to see him. "On the morning of the full moon day of June 21, I noticed my thing (sex organ) was not the same as before," Thin Sandar, who now goes by the male name Than Sein, told AFP in an interview at...

You see them at night in big cities: men dressed up as women, complete with makeup, jewelry, and high heels. Despite their best efforts, it’s not a pretty sight. Nor is the sight of men who take a more drastic step: undergoing so-called sex-reassignment surgery. When these surgeries were first performed at Johns Hopkins University in the early seventies, one psychiatrist—Paul McHugh—started asking questions about the wisdom of this. After all, the outcomes were not women, but grotesque caricatures of them. When McHugh became psychiatrist-in-chief in 1975, he decided to test the claim that men who underwent sex-change surgery were...

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...

ABC flacking for Clinton again. DIanne Sawyer promises Slick will make a "major announcement," "only here on Good Morning America." No time set, but indicated it was today.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian who became a man to marry a female relative was dumped after the surgery, a newspaper reported Monday. Twenty-nine-year-old rubber tapper Kuttiyamma, born with both male and female genitals, had been in love with the relative, Laura, 25, for 15 years before having surgery to become a man and change her name to Binu, the Hindustan Times reported. But Laura became engaged to another man and Binu is suing her for breach of trust after spending 50,000 rupees ($1,150) on the sex change in southern Kerala state. "She had agreed to marry me after...

It will take four hours for Jacqueline Yanni to become a woman thanks to a Montreal surgeon and a sharp knife. But she needed a year to grasp the feminine mystique - the words, gestures, tone and melody contained in a simple "How are you today?" Every Wednesday, the 47-year-old Pennsauken hairdresser, who was born male, comes to Temple University Speech-Language-Hearing Center. Dark hair swinging around her face, she picks up the microphone to practice the everyday sentences of life in a new gender. Nothing is easy. Gesture from the wrists, not the elbows. Ask questions at the end of...

Photo by The Associated Press Judi, left, and Mikayla Howden pose at their home in Concord on Dec. 12. The two married nealry four years ago before Mikayla, then Michael, underwent a sex change which transformed the couple into a legally married same-sex couple, despite a ban on such unions in 40 states, including New Hampshire. CONCORD - Judi Howden found happiness in her second marriage, but only after a struggle with issues that have destroyed other families and divided the nation. With Michael Howden, she had love, another child and a home. It took all three to keep...

A Wisconsin inmate who has developed female characteristics as a result of state-paid hormone therapy is suing prison officials for not completing the sex change process. The suit is pending in federal court in Milwaukee, filed by an inmate who was born Scott Konitzer but who now uses the name Donna Dawn Konitzer. The plaintiff is serving 123 years for multiple armed robberies and for stabbing another inmate. The department has been providing Konitzer, 40, with hormone therapy to stimulate female development since 1999 but will not allow genital surgery. Konitzer claims a prison doctor said the surgery would follow...

In a country that has outlawed homosexuality, Frances Harrison meets one Iranian cleric who says the right to a sex change is a human right. For 20 years Mahyar has been a woman trapped in a man's body. As a small child Mahyar liked dressing up in women's clothes and experimenting with make-up but as she grew older it got more difficult. "I badly needed to do it but it had to be in secret," she says. Now she wants to have a sex-change operation - if she can muster the £2,000 it will cost in Iran. If her family...

They say that if you stack the US Tax Code one page upon another, the pile of paper will reach into the heavens. I’m sure that’s true, for two very simple reasons. First, like most laws written in Washington, those seeking special consideration in the code have lobbied for language that addresses their individual concerns, and nearly everyone is seeking special consideration these days. Second, if “we the people” knew exactly what Washington was doing with all of our hard earned money, there would be a lynch mob on the steps of congress before sundown…so keeping the details buried in...

CRIMES victims groups are angry a woman who disguised herself as a man to seduce a 15-year-old schoolgirl will not be jailed. The woman was found guilty of nine charges of sexually penetrating a child under 16 - potentially attracting a jail term of up to 90 years. But she walked free last month with a suspended sentence and a community-based order. The schoolgirl victim is devastated. And crimes victims groups are lobbying the Director of Public Prosecutions to appeal against "a ridiculously soft decision". The case arose from a sexual relationship between a woman, 22, and the schoolgirl in...

Copyright (c) 2004 First Things 147 (November 2004): 34-38. When the practice of sex-change surgery first emerged back in the early 1970s, I would often remind its advocating psychiatrists that with other patients, alcoholics in particular, they would quote the Serenity Prayer, “God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Where did they get the idea that our sexual identity (“gender” was the term they preferred) as men or women was in the category of things that could be changed? Their...

Oprah Winfrey, widely cited as one of the most influential and admired women in America, showed herself to be an agent of moral insanity when she featured a program celebrating young children who are seeking sex-change procedures and transgender identities. In one episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show," the true nature of our modern sexual confusion was made clear, and the broadcast should long be remembered as one of the most frightening hours in television history. The program, broadcast on Tuesday, August 24, began with Oprah introducing the children seeking a sex change. "This is going to be a very...