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On June 15, Richard Ramsey checked into Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol Township for major surgery. When he left three days later, Ramsey was no longer Richard, but Renee. Her first words to her doctor when she awakened after the operation were, "Now I'm the lady I always knew I was." Ramsey, a tall, lean woman, neatly turned out in black tailored pants and a lavender turtleneck sweater that used to be her wife's, is likely the oldest person in the United States to have surgery to change genders, experts say. She is 77. ... "I would have liked to...

By MIKE LEE mikelee@star-telegram.com FORT WORTH — The City Council voted 6-3 late Tuesday to expand its anti-discrimination ordinance to include transgender people, capping a marathon debate over a series of gay-rights proposals that were forwarded after a controversial inspection of a gay bar. A majority of council members spoke in favor of the proposal when it was introduced last week. The inspection at the Rainbow Lounge in June left a man injured and sparked protests in the city. Fort Worth officials appointed a task force to recommend ways to mend fences with the gay community shortly afterward. The vote...

(CBS) In June, Chastity Bono, daughter of entertainers Sonny and Cher, shocked the entertainment world by announcing that she was becoming a he. Now, in his first interview, Chaz Bono, as he now calls himself, speaks to "Entertainment Tonight's" Mary Hart about his transformation, his famous family and the struggle he's gone through since childhood. "I have to tell you that I was really quite moved with my time with Chaz. His honesty, thoughtfulness and warmth not only impressed me, but it helped me understand this very serious choice he's made," Hart told Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. According to...

Move over abortion. Here comes sex-change operations. Republicans may call for a vote on an amendment that would keep Obamacare (Pelosicare) from covering sex-change operations.

Josie Romero loves the colour pink, braiding her hair and having her fingernails painted. But life has not always been easy for this sweet and charming eight-year-old, who was born in the body of a boy. The transgender youngster, then called Joseph, knew at the age of four that she was the wrong sex and even told her parents: 'I am really a girl.' At five, she was refusing to have her hair cut and only wore colours like orange which were nearest to girly pink. By the time she reached six, Josie had been diagnosed as transgender and was...

Boy, 12, Is Having Sex Change, School Announces A school called an emergency assembly to tell children that a 12-year-old male pupil was having a sex change. By Murray Wardrop 18 Sep 2009 The youngster arrived for his first term at secondary school wearing a dress and with long hair in ribboned pigtails after his parents changed his name to a female one by deed poll over the summer holidays. However, the boy, who is preparing to undergo hormone treatment and sex change surgery, was immediately taunted by classmates who recognised him from primary school. As a result, the 1,000-pupil...

A BOY aged 12 turned up at school as a GIRL - after changing sex during the summer holidays. Teachers called an emergency assembly to order fellow pupils to treat him as female. The lad, whose parents have changed his name to a girl's by deed poll, arrived in a dress with long hair in ribboned pigtails. He is preparing for sex-swap surgery. Angry parents told yesterday how their kids were left tearful and confused after school staff announced the boy pupil was now a girl. They said the head teacher should have informed them in advance of the "sex...

A convicted killer who has been waiting years for a judge in Boston to rule on a request for a sex-change operation is now asking to be allowed electrolysis treatments. Michelle Kosilek was born as Robert and has been living as a woman in an all-male prison in Norfolk after being sentenced to life for the murder of his wife, Cheryl, in 1990.

AS many Americans know, last week Gov. John Baldacci of Maine signed a law that made this state the fifth in the nation to legalize gay marriage. It’s worth pointing out, however, that there were some legal same-sex marriages in Maine already, just as there probably are in all 50 states. These are marriages in which at least one member of the couple has changed genders since the wedding. I’m in such a marriage myself and, quite frankly, my spouse and I forget most of the time that there is anything particularly unique about our family, even if we are...

(ChattahBox) — A bizarre case of spousal abuse with an unknown motive ended in a transgendered woman pleading guilty to reckless homicide for exercising her 73-year-old husband to death in a swimming pool. Police in Middlefield, Ohio, said surveillance video showed 41-year-old Christine Newton-John (photo left) pulling James Mason around the pool by his arms and legs and preventing him from leaving. Mason eventually had a heart attack on June 2 after the extended swim session. Police Chief Joseph Stehlik said he counted 43 times on the videotape in which Newton-John prevented her frail husband from leaving the water. He...

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...

He has been called "demonic," "barbaric," and has been compared to Nazi doctors. And when you read about his work, it is easy to see why Americans are so outraged. Dr. Norman Spack is a pediatric endocrinologist at Boston Children's Hospital. Not long ago, he opened a clinic for what he terms "transgendered" children. Incredibly, he is giving kids as young as seven drugs that delay the onset of puberty—the first step in sex-change surgery when they are older. Spack injects children with hormone-blocking drugs to prevent them from developing secondary sexual characteristics, like breasts or facial hair. The idea...

Boston’s Children’s Hospital bills itself as the hospital for children — and now it’s also the hospital for children who want a sex change, a procedure some critics are calling “barbaric.” Dr. Norman Spack, a pediatric specialist at the hospital, has launched a clinic for transgendered kids — boys who feel like girls, girls who want to be boys — and he’s opening his doors to patients as young as 7.

"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.