Since we discussed the topic of transgender and transexuality, I caught a news interview on Larry King Live at the gym the other night... This is an article about the interview, which I thought you might be interested in. I copied and pasted it, but the link is also available if you want to check it out on the website....Just wondering what you think.
April 14. 2007 6:50AM
Fired transsexual city manager says he won't sue Largo
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
LARGO, Fla. -- A city manager fired after revealing his sex change plans announced Friday that he will not sue the city that fired him and he will begin living as a woman full-time by the end of May.
Steve Stanton, 48, also said during the taped segment on CNN's "Larry King Live," that he will be living as Susan within the next 30 to 60 days. Stanton also said he and his wife will separate.
Stanton had previously said taking Largo to court would be like "suing my mother," but the city of 76,000 west of Tampa had expected him to sue.
"I don't think that you go on Larry King to announce you're not going to sue the city," Largo City Attorney Alan Zimmet had said.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights said in a press release that Stanton has decided to focus on education and public advocacy on behalf of the transgender community instead of filing a lawsuit.
"It is tempting to seek retribution in the courts, but after much reflection and soul searching, I just cannot find it within my heart to sue Largo _ a city I have always and will always love. I do not want to punish the citizens of Largo," Stanton said in the statement.
The decision not to sue was a "incredibly difficult," Stanton said, also calling the decision to fire him "shocking and cruel, and clearly unlawful."
He told Larry King that he had chosen the name Susan because his mother said that would have been his name had he been a girl. He also said he plans to have gender reassignment surgery but did not say when and that he would probably continue living in Florida.
The former Largo City Manager appeared on the segment with his lawyer, Karen Doering, of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
After the City Commission voted to fire him in February and March, Stanton has been recruited to join a national fight for transsexual employment rights.
City commissioners said it was Stanton's judgment, not the revelation he was a transsexual, that prompted both 5-2 votes to fire him from the $140,000-a-year job he held for 14 years. Stanton was forced in February to reveal he was a transsexual and planned to begin living as a woman in preparation for a sex change operation.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs. ... 03&start=1
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