Untitled Document

First TG case under 1964 Civil Rights Act is settled

Florida Quietly Changes Birth Certificate Policy

Portland Gender Reassignment Surgeon Plans to Move

Rash of Transgender Murders in August Shock the Community

Transgender Veterans Asked To Share Their Stories

A British transsexual has won her battle in the European Court of Human Rights to be recognised as a woman and be allowed to marry. Christine Goodwin's solicitor called it a "milestone" in her campaign to be treated equally with other women. The 65-year-old told the court that English law had denied her the right to a new sexual identity. However, the ruling does not immediately override UK law - it simply means it will have to be taken into account by judges in future. Ms Goodwin can now apply again to the British courts in the hope they will do so.

The court found no justification for barring the transsexual from enjoying the right to marry under any circumstances

The judgment delivered in the Strasbourg court unanimously held that the UK's failure to recognise her new identity in law breached her rights to respect for privacy and her right to marry under the European Convention on Human Rights. The UK is one of four countries in the Council of Europe which does not recognise a sex change as legally valid. The others are Ireland, Andorra and Albania. But Ms Goodwin's solicitor Robin Lewis said the decision would mean the British Government would eventually be forced to change its laws. The judges said the ruling was based on a continuing international trend in favour of the social and legal acceptance of transsexuals. "There had been major social changes in the institution of marriage since the adoption of the convention as well as dramatic changes brought about by developments in medicine and science in the field of transsexuality," they said.

They said the fact that she was still considered male by the authorities affected her life where sex was of legal relevance, such as in the area of pensions and retirement age. Ms Goodwin had argued that her human rights had been denied because, unlike other women, she was unable to draw a pension until she was 65.

The court has said that the government's stance falls far short of the standards for human dignity in the 21st century

English law allows women to qualify for a pension when they turn 60 and men at 65. But the judges said the court "was not convinced that the inability of the transsexual to acquire all the biological characteristics took on decisive importance". The former bus driver, who had a full sex change operation in 1990, told the court she was not given a new National Insurance number after the operation. She says she suffered sexual harassment and embarrassment at work after her employers discovered she had formerly been a man. Mr Lewis said: "The court has said that the government's stance falls far short of the standards for human dignity and human freedom in the 21st century. "Christine Goodwin's victory will be seen as a milestone on the road to change. "This judgment will require the government to change the law... and any government practice which could lead to the history of a transsexual being identified will also have to be changed so as to respect the individual's right to privacy." A spokeswoman for the Lord Chancellor's Department said the judgment would be taken seriously. She added that it did not override UK law, but meant it would have to be taken into account by judges in the future. Ms Goodwin was awarded £14,685 for costs and expenses.

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Cleveland - A transgender woman called "Mrs. Doubtfire" by co-workers has settled an employment discrimination case against United Consumer Financial Services of Westlake to her satisfaction and strengthened TG worker rights in the process.

The case was the first to hold that the 1964 Civil Rights Act covers sexual stereotype non-conformity. After mediation, it was resolved to the mutual satisfaction of both parties on June 28, said attorney Randi Barnabee of Macedonia, who represented the 60-year-old Cleveland woman.

UCFS finances consumer purchases of Kirby sweepers and World Book encyclopedias.

Because the initial complaint alleged that UCFS violated the woman's right to privacy, her identity has not been made public and the amount of the settlement is also confidential.

Prior to filing the federal civil rights suit, the woman turned down UCFS's offer to settle for $1,500.

Barnabee told the Gay People's Chronicle in May 2001 that she felt the case had merit and would not allow her client to settle for less than a substantial amount.

UCFS fired the woman July 11, 2000 after she had worked ten days as a temporary worker through Reserves Network. The case was filed in the United States District Court of Northern Ohio in January 2001.

Notes kept by the temporary agency were used to document the woman's satisfactory job performance and the unusually thorough background check conducted by UCFS. The notes also record UCFS personnel officer Debbie Woodworth asking a Reserves Network representative if she "noticed anything peculiar about [the employee]."

Woodworth then told the representative, "Employees here have named her Mrs. Doubtfire . . . but they don't say it to her face."

Woodworth was also present at a July 10, 2000 meeting with collections manager Brian Davis and UCFS vice president William Ciszozon.

At that meeting, Ciszozon asked the woman if she was a man dressed as a woman, and what her gender was because, "by looking at [her], [Ciszozon] can't tell." Ciszozon also wanted to know if she had an operation.

When the woman protested the line of questioning, she was told that another employee had complained that "a man dressed as a woman was using the ladies restroom."

UCFS notified Reserves of the woman's termination the following day. UCFS was represented by attorney Lee Hutton of Duvin, Cahn, and Hutton of Cleveland, who asserted during initial mediation that the woman was unable to perform the essential functions of the job.

Hutton filed a motion to dismiss the case, claiming that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act cannot protect transsexuals. He said a court ruled in a 1984 case, Ulane v. Eastern Airlines, that Congress had a narrow definition of "sex" in mind, excluding transsexuals, when the act was passed.

However, Judge Kathleen McDonald O'Malley rejected Hutton's motion, finding that the 1989 U.S. Supreme Court decision Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins says a person cannot be discriminated against for not conforming to the gender stereotype behavior expected by another person or social norms.

This was the first time a court allowed a transgender person to sue an employer for discrimination on the basis of sexual stereotype non-conformity, according to Barnabee, who is transgender herself.

According to Barnabee, this case, "opens the door a little bit" to protect transgender workers, who otherwise have no discrimination protection.

Barnabee has submitted O'Malley's opinion to be published in the Federal Supplement, a collection of opinions used as guidance by federal courts.

Barnabee believes facts of the case had merit, too, but said that had a jury found in UCFS's favor, it could have weakened the persuasive value of O'Malley's opinion on future cases.

Barnabee stressed that the major success of this case was O'Malley's opinion replacing the old Ulane decision and allowing Title VII to protect transgender people.

"It's helpful, too," said Barnabee, "that [O'Malley's court] is part of the Sixth Circuit, which is notoriously conservative."

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The Florida Office of Vital Statistics recently began notifying people whose requests for sex-change birth certificate corrections were previously denied of a new Department of Health policy. Effective immediately, the Office of Vital Statistics will amend the birth certificate on receipt of a letter from any licensed physician attesting to the fact that either sex change has been completed or that the original birth certificate was in error. A certified copy of a court order changing one's name is required, also, if the birth name is to be changed.

"It's departmental (Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services) policy," wrote an Office of Vital Statistics representative who wished to remain anonymous. "We are treating it as correcting an error on the original (birth certificate). That's the approach taken by about half of the states."

Dale Lynn Simms, an advocate for the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA), was ecstatic when she received notice of the policy change. "We have been working for years on this," she said. "It seems that education was the key component to success.

"Intersexed individuals without complete documentation as well as transsexuals [born in Florida] will both now receive corrected documents."

Florida's action reduces to three the number of states that refuse to change birth records to acknowledge changes from the gender recorded at birth: Ohio, Idaho, and Tennessee. While Texas law provides for birth certificate correction, some recent applicants have been rejected on the basis of the Littleton ruling, which affects a portion of the state. In the Littleton case, the 4th Texas Court of Appeals ruled that, absent legislative action, sex was determined by chromosomes and could not be changed.

Intersexed and postoperative transsexuals born in Florida can arrange for corrected birth certificates or obtain additional information by contacting the Office of Vital Statistics, Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, P.O. Box 210, Jacksonville, FL 32231-0042. (904) 359-6929 or 359-6931.

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On February 28, 2002, Symphony Healthcare, a for-profit hospital company in Nashville, Tennessee, bought its first hospitals -- in Portland, Oregon. Symphony, founded in November 2001, purchased Woodland Park Hospital and Eastmoreland Hospital from another Tennessee hospital company, HealthMont, for an undisclosed amount.

In July 2002, Dr. Toby Meltzer, whose gender reassignment and other plastic surgery procedures account for more than 50 percent of the surgical workload at Eastmoreland, received a certified letter from the new owners. The letter advised Dr. Meltzer that he would not be allowed to perform gender reassignment surgery (GRS) or related procedures after July 31, 2002. Although that deadline has been extended to December 31, 2002, the hospital's popular VIP program, wherein patients could remain in a reduced care, reduced rate status while convalescing from surgery, has been cancelled. Patients undergoing male-to-female gender reassignment surgery, for example, must leave the hospital after three days and spend another week elsewhere before being allowed to travel home. Dr. Meltzer has made other arrangements for his patients, according to Linda Takata, Meltzer's Office Manager.

According to the Symphony Healthcare letter sent to Dr. Meltzer, the move to end the association of his thriving practice of gender reassignment and related procedures with Eastmoreland Hospital is due to Symphony's desire to change the focus of the hospital and the desire to diversify it's surgical offerings.

In an earlier letter sent to Modern Healthcare's Daily Dose newsletter, Symphony founder and CEO Kenneth Perry announced plans to buy and develop acute-care hospitals and surgery centers across the country in which physicians take an ownership stake. Physicians also are among the original equity partners in Symphony.

Ms. Takata stated that no surgeries have been cancelled or rescheduled as a result of Symphony's decision. Although surgery and immediate post-surgical care currently remain at Eastmoreland, patients can then be moved by members of Dr. Meltzer's staff to the Temporary Living Center at the nearby Meridian Park Hospital in Tualatin, Oregon, a Portland suburb. Patient assistance representatives as well as Dr. Meltzer and his nursing staff make daily rounds at the TLC. The cost of TLC convalescent care is comparable to that of the defunct Eastmoreland VIP convalescent program.

Local officials have written Symphony letters of strong support for Dr. Meltzer and his work. Takata was not at liberty to divulge details of the letters or their authors. She did remark that Portland (Multnomah County) anti-discrimination laws include gender-identity.

If there is no agreement with Symphony regarding his gender reassignment surgery practice, Dr. Meltzer's last surgical day at Eastmoreland will be December 31. However, negotiations are underway with six or more hospitals interested in associating with Meltzer's program. Takata expects to receive proposals from these hospitals by October 1. She was most emphatic in her assessment that the probable shift from Eastmoreland to a different hospital will have no impact on surgery schedules little impact on patients during the transition period.

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The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) recently unveiled a new area on their website dedicated to LGBT veterans. In collaboration with the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network (SLDN) and the American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER), HRC is collecting stories of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender veterans, some of which will be posted on their web site at www.hrc.org in honor of Veterans Day, November 11, 2002.

The project, "Documenting Courage: Veterans Speak Out," is part of a continuing effort to better inform the public, Congress and the administration about the many contributions made by LGBT service members.

"It is time to recognize the contributions of LGBT men and women who have given their time, talent and, in some cases, their lives in service to their country," said HRC Senior Policy Advocate John Vezina, who specializes in military issues. "The 'Documenting Courage' project is a way for us to preserve the stories of LGBT American vets for future generations and to demonstrate the undeniable contribution the LGBT community has made in service to the country."

The National Transgender Advocacy Coalition supports this project and urges transgender veterans all over the country to submit their stories to ensure that the transgender community is well represented in this project. Stories can be submitted via the form located at https: //www.hrc.org/ documentingcourage/sharestory.asp.

NTAC asks participating veterans to also paste a copy of the completed form in an E-mail sent to NTAC's Veterans Affairs Committee at veterans.affairs@ntac.org. Stories that cover all aspects of military service, regardless of whether they are good stories or tragic, are encouraged.

In addition to military stories, NTAC would also like to hear from transgender veterans -- particularly pre- and post-operative transsexuals -- regarding treatment by the Department of Veteran Affairs health system. Of specific interest are responses to quality of health care afforded veterans once out of the military and living in the new gender role, such as:

Have local facilities, offices, and VA personnel treated the veteran with respect?

Has the veteran been denied any medical services because of transgender status?

If denied services, has this impacted the veteran's health, financial situation, or ability to transition?

These are as important as the stories of how one fared while serving in the military, knowing that one was "gender different."

Monica Helms, Chair of NTAC's Veterans Affairs Committee states, "The American people and Congress need to see that LGBT people have served with honor and have been there for their country in every war this great nation has fought. Many have given the ultimate sacrifice for their country, even though their country did not want them to serve."

"Always remember this one important phrase," Helms says to America's transgendered veterans, "We served proudly, too. And, we will again."

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Only twelve days into August, 2002, and it is becoming one of the deadliest months on record for Transgender murders. According to the First Coast News station in Jacksonville, FL, on the morning of August 8, a man walking his dog along Spring Grove Road at the Northside found 28-year-old Deasha (Gerald) Andrews slumped over in her car. She had been shot more than once and apparently died on the spot.

According to Rusty Mead, the GLBT Community Lieason for the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office, this is not being investigated as a hate crime. Based on information that Mead has been given by the JSO, some of which she could not reveal, there is nothing that suggests a hate crime had been committed. Part of the reason that leads police to believe this is that Andrews had been found in a very violent part of town, an area that has had several murders in the past. Andrews has been known to frequent this area regularly.

The Jacksonville Sheriffs Office have also ruled that the Andrews murder is not related the murder of Terrianne Summers, a Transgender activist who was shot in Jacksonville on December 12, 2001. The only similarities are that both victims were Transgender, and both were shot. Mead informed us that the lead detective for the Andrews murder is the partner of the lead detective for the Summers murder. Both detectives had made a conscientious effort to show respect to the victims by ensuring that they refer to them with proper pronouns.

On August 12, 2002, violence struck again when two Transgender youths, Ukea (Deon) Davis, 18, and Stephanie (Wilbur) Thomas, 19, were found in the front seat of Thomas's Toyota Camry about 3:25 a.m. at 50th and C streets SE. According to the DC Police, both victims died at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds.

According to Earline Budd, a Transgender activist in the DC Area, witnesses say a car drove up beside the two youths, and a gunman fired shots from an automatic weapon. The gunfire killed Davis and critically wounded Thomas.

Another car drove up after the shooting, and an unidentified man got out and walked up to the driver's side of Thomas' car. The man pushed Thomas' shoulder to see if she was still alive. Thomas moaned in pain, but the man fled upon hearing the first car return. The gunman then got out of the first car and fired additional shots into Thomas' car, killing her.

According to Budd, firefighters from Engine Company 30, the infamous "Dirty Thirty" involved in the Tyra Hunter tragedy, responded to the scene - which ironically, was just one block from the intersection where Tyra Hunter was critically injured seven years ago. Adding insult to injury, the dead women were dragged out of Thomas' bullet-riddled car, and Thomas' body was dropped face first on the ground. Later a firefighter pushed Thomas' body over with his foot, as blood poured from her head and neck wounds, according to an eyewitness.

The firefighters were apparently afraid to touch the victims.

In honor of the slain teens' memory, the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition has begun a fund to be given to the Transgender Health Empowerment Center (THE) in Washington DC. Both victims participated in THE, and the money collected will help the organization provide a memorial service so that friends of the teens can grieve their loss

Yoseñio Lewis, outgoing Board Chair of NTAC, had previously met one of the victims of the DC shooting. "It is vitally important that we never forget that we are the village, these were OUR children," said an emotional Lewis after the NTAC board meeting. "We have a responsibility to them in death just as significant and meaningful as we did in life."

The statistics are staggering. Whether as hate crimes or other violence, murders of Transgender people are on the rise. This year alone, fifteen murders have been reported, approaching two per month. The Remember Our Dead list is now up to 242 names, with 199 of them being domestic cases and 43 being international.

With the two new victims bring the Washington, DC, total to seven, placing it in a tie with San Diego as the fourth deadliest city in the country.

When the District of Columbia is placed in the context with the various states in the US, it ranks seventh, tied with Illinois and Massachusetts. With the new murder in Jacksonville, Florida's total has risen to ten, and it is no longer sharing fifth place with Tennessee. The national Transgender Day of Remembrance is scheduled to take place on November 20, 2002.

For more information on Day of Remembrance Activities near you or for information on organizing your own event, contact www.gender.org/remember or Gwendolyn Smith at gwen@gender.org

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One recent Saturday, my mother and I were standing on opposite ends of a suburban Connecticut driveway, rummaging through tag sale trinkets, when she bumped into an acquaintance of hers ("Isabel"). When I noticed that my mother was talking to someone whose face I couldn't place, my reaction was to continue browsing separately from her, without so much as a familiar glance. This was not due to indifference, or calculated rudeness. Rather, I was allowing Mom to choose whether or not she wanted to point me out.

Does this situation sound at all familiar? Yes, I am one of the privileged few who tread the merry path of gender reassignment. I've been living in an unequivocally female role for just over a year now, and many folks from my hometown and my past have no idea that I'm in the midst of such an (apparently) radical transformation. With old friends and acquaintances, I address my metamorphosis only when the twists and turns of daily life require it. In the case of my immediate family's circles, I leave it up to them to decide whether to say anything about my gender issues.

In this instance, it turned out that Isabel was a casual acquaintance who knew little of my mother's children. After they had been chatting for a moment or two, she called me over and introduced me as Neve, her daughter. The brief conversation that followed was genuinely friendly and pleasant. A few minutes later, as my mother was taking her leave, I overheard Isabel say, "I really love your daughter. She's such a pretty girl." When Mom sat down in the car, she was obviously pleased with the positive impression that I had made. The same sort of impression, I guess, that is often made by a "normal" attractive girl in her early thirties.

Naturally, I was also pleased. I thought back to a few days earlier, when I was dropping my father off at his therapy session (he recently had a stroke). While I was walking down a hallway toward the rehab office, an employee of the nursing home asked me if I needed any assistance. My dad piped up, "Oh, he's with me. This is my son." Dad's therapist, who was standing outside her doorway watching us, looked at me quizzically. All I had to do was roll my eyes, smile and say, "I'm his daughter. Neve." She laughed a bit and said, "I kind of figured that," no doubt attributing my father's slip to his impaired memory. This was the reaction that I have recently come to expect from strangers, and I'm honestly thrilled to have reached a point where folks perceive me as female, even where someone slips and initially suggests otherwise.

It's fair to wonder how much these moments should even matter. Isn't the most important thing supposed to be how you view yourself, rather than how others perceive you? In an ideal world, of course, we would be judged only by the contents of our minds and of our characters, rather than by our physical beauty and our success in conforming to gender expectations. But our world is not that paragon of perfection. Instead, we flail about in this culture of visual stimulation, trying to stay afloat, and those of us who don't seem to "fit in" often have difficulty swimming among the teeming masses. For most transsexuals, the decision to "transition" from one sex to the other implicitly acknowledges that other people's notions about sex and gender are very important, and represents an effort to make oneself over to fit society's expectations.

I entered this stage of my life hoping for the most convincing transition possible. I'm not sure how comfortable I would have been putting myself and my family through such a process if I didn't think I could eventually "blend in" with other women in society. So, for me, it was tremendously heartening to learn about the availability of dramatic, skull-reshaping cosmetic surgery that is highly effective in erasing the scars of testosterone on one's facial structure. In seeking a "normal" life, I wasn't content to rest my revised gender "presentation" solely on the (vital) steps of depilation through electrolysis and the cultivation of a "female-sounding" voice. No, I went and took the extra step of draining my savings account and flying out to San Francisco, California, to place myself at the mercy of Dr. Douglas K. Ousterhout.

If you've never seen a "before-after" photograph of Doug's work on the net, let me assure you that his results are consistently impressive. Some of the women whom he has worked on have become so incredibly attractive that a prospective client may become intoxicated by the possibilities. To this day, I still get butterflies when I recall the first time I encountered a snapshot of one of his facially feminized patients. She looked so…well, real. Authentically, unequivocally female. What's fascinating about Doug's technique is that his goal isn't to mold your face into some specific image, and rarely is he able to picture in advance what the finished product will look like. Computers can't seem to reliably predict it, either. Instead, both doctor and patient must together await the ultimate aesthetic impact of the surgery. Though the effectiveness of his work would lead nearly anyone to call him an artist, I honestly think of Doug as more of a scientist, or a mathematician.

When I flew out to consult with him in August 2001, I asked him if there was a sort of "signature style" that causes his patients to resemble each other, just as any two paintings or sculptures by the same artist often bear a "family resemblance." He told me that all of his patients retain their personal essence, and showed me a number of photos, challenging me to find any two faces that looked like they might be related. I was pleased to see that I could not. Then, he explained the theory behind his work, which gave me a great deal of confidence in his methodology. Rather than trusting his own judgment, Dr. Ousterhout simply uses math to approximate the correct surgical results.

According to the likeable Dr. O, humans tend to perceive physical beauty as a function of a mathematical ratio (1.618 : 1) that was identified by the Greek mathematician Pythagoras, among others. This number is known as the "Golden Mean." Pythagoras discovered that this ratio occurs throughout nature, and is ingrained into the fabric of all life on earth. In the case of human beings, as the size of our digits, limbs, features, and other body parts increase, they tend to do so proportionally at a 1.6 : 1 ratio. The less that ratio varies, the more attractive we perceive the face or body in question to be. Also, we see beauty in symmetry, so a lopsided face looks less pleasing than a well-balanced one. Women are often characterized as being more aesthetically attractive than men for a very good reason: the absence of testosterone in development prevents their features from straying much from the "correct" proportion. Meanwhile, men tend to have exaggerated noses, chins, brows, ears, etc., which we instinctively perceive as less beautiful. Dr. Ousterhout's goal, then, is to bring the face more into conjunction with that "Golden Mean," which will leave it looking more feminine and more attractive.

I found this approach comforting: it was like having the laws of nature and physics on my side, instead of one man's subjective notion of beauty. After consulting with Doug, I decided that I would place the future of my face, and maybe my life too, in his capable hands. I thought to myself, "after 30-plus years of having to wear the face of a guy, and live as a guy, and please everyone else as a guy, I think that I've earned the right to look unmistakably female. And, come what may, I'm going to go for it." To me, it seemed to be worth the $30,000, and I'm glad to say that I have no regrets.

Doug has an advantage over many other cosmetic surgeons in that his degrees in medicine and dentistry qualify him to restructure the bone itself, rather than having to remain content with soft tissue alterations. With the help of x-rays, he measured the dimensions of my head and the proportions of my face, and identified a number of procedures that would benefit me. A few months later, I was back in San Francisco, where Dr. O and his kind staff spent over ten hours changing the contours of my precious noggin while I lay fully anesthetized on an operating table.

First, he made an incision behind both of my ears and along my entire hairline, and pulled the skin down over my face. He shaved off the brow ridge and re-contoured my forehead so that it would be smooth and slightly rounded, eliminating all traces of a masculinized, flattened plane. He then moved my hairline down three centimeters and sutured it shut, leaving a 5cm span between my hairline and my eyebrows. Next, he made incisions in my mouth, which allowed him to access my chin and mandibular cartilage. He cut a little wedge of bone out of my chin, reducing its length by a centimeter or two, and narrowed its breadth. Moving on to my jaw, he removed some cartilage to reduce its width. He then made an incision on the underside of my chin, and shaved the point off of my trachea. Finally, he returned to Mt. Nose, which was straightened, reshaped, and significantly reduced in size. When I woke up from the anesthetic at 8:00 p.m., my mom and Dr. O were both there, happily informing me that everything had gone quite well. They showed me a mirror, and even with bandages covering most of my face, I was still able to nod my approval of the changes I saw in the shape of my forehead. I could go into the story of my recovery from surgery, but I'll leave that alone for now. Suffice it to say that the pain wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared, and within two months I was feeling quite good about myself again.

So where am I now, eight months post-surgery? Well, all of the swelling seems to be long gone, and there hasn't been any noteworthy pain or deep soreness since my mouth incisions healed about three weeks after the operation. There is a small amount of tingly numbness still present at the bottom of my right nostril, and there are patches of reduced sensitivity on the crown of my head. The sensation in all of these areas should return to normal eventually. My nose cartilage, though no longer swollen, still remains a bit stiff in spots. Others who have seen Dr. O agree that it will regain its normal flexibility approximately a year after surgery.

I would imagine that my "final look" will not be very different from what's visible now, though many have said that I will continue to see subtle changes over the next six months, and maybe for another year following that. Also, many people have been telling me that I "really look great" during the past few months. It's hard for me to study my image in the mirror and put my finger on any clear change since, say, Memorial Day--yet, there are times when I stare at my reflection and feel honest-to-goodness giddiness at what I am seeing, which is certainly a new life experience for me. So maybe I have passed some sort of cumulative healing threshold.

Some people might expect that such a radical change to one's facial appearance would require an intense psychological adjustment, but this was not necessary for me. I was able to adapt to my new face the moment the bandages came off, and internalizing its changes has been as welcome and easy as eating a hot-fudge sundae. I am finally content with the image I see in the mirror, and for the first time feel like I'm close to being integrated as a human being. My confidence in society's acceptance of me as a woman continues to improve in leaps and bounds, and it sometimes surprises me when friends assume that I'm still worried about issues of "passing" that bothered me terrifically a few months ago, but don't trouble me any longer. Pinocchio's sister is fast realizing that she is, after all, a real girl.

Do I still have challenges to overcome, and unpleasantness to face? Absolutely. However, the level of relief that Dr. Ousterhout's surgery has brought to me is nearly incalculable, and I sense that his expertise has opened the door for me to live a life that bears a striking resemblance to "normal." For this chance to be my mom's everyday, girl-next-door daughter, a daughter whom she doesn't need to protect or hide from the world for fear of its ignorant retribution, I truly am grateful.

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