Florida (Largo)
— Steve Stanton loved this city he ran for 14
years. This week, he asked the city to love him back - to
accept his plans to pursue sex-change operation and let
him keep his $140,000 job as city manager.
It didn't.
Almost 500 people packed
into City Hall Tuesday night for a special meeting to
decide if they would accept Susan instead of Steve as
their top official.
And while many spoke
eloquently in his defense, more called for his
ouster.
"If Jesus was here
tonight, I can guarantee you he'd want him terminated,"
said Pastor Ron Saunders of Largo's Lighthouse Baptist
Church. "Make no mistake about it."
At the end of the 3 1/2
hour meeting, the City Commission voted 5-2 to begin the
legal process of firing Stanton, only a week after he was
forced to reveal his secret by a local newspaper. He is
on paid leave while the city begins the legal process to
end his contract. He can appeal and the commission must
vote again to formally fire him.
Transgender activists on
Wednesday called Stanton's firing a "shameful display of
ignorance and bias." But they suggested Largo's quick
decision to fire a respected government official may be
the anecdote they need to convince Congress to extend
employment protections to gays, lesbians and
transsexuals.
"We think this is a
really clear example of the type of employment
discrimination that transgendered people face every day,"
said Simon Aronoff, deputy director of the National
Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, D.C. "By
all accounts, he was doing a good job. The only reason he
was fired is because he made the brave decision to live
openly."
Mathew Staver, founder of
the conservative Liberty Counsel legal group, said the
city had a duty to reconsider the employment of a top
official planning such a drastic change.
"The city hasn't changed
the work environment. He has changed the work
environment," Staver said. "He has to take into
consideration the consequences of that personal decision.
I think it would be more difficult for the city to retain
this person because of how it might undermine the
representation of the city in the eyes of the community.
It could become very awkward."
The vote to oust Stanton
came only a day after a Christian university in Michigan
fired a male professor living as a woman a few days after
she legally changed her name to something more feminine.
The university claims the former John Nemecek did not
honor the terms of her contract.
"I think they decided to
terminate me rather than call me Julie," said Nemecek, an
ordained Baptist minister who worked for 16 years on the
faculty of Spring Arbor University. Both sides are
scheduled to be in court ordered mediation in
March.
Despite such high-profile
setbacks, Aronoff said the transgender movement is
gaining ground.
"We think this is our
year," he said.
Last summer, a judge
ruled a Westchester, N.Y., cook who claims he was fired
from an upscale restaurant because he was a woman living
as a man was covered by the state's human rights law,
even though it doesn't mention sexual orientation. The
ruling cleared the way for a $3 million discrimination
lawsuit to proceed.
The Human Rights Campaign
Foundation, which also lobbies for gay, lesbian and
transgendered rights, estimates 10 states and more than
90 local governments have included gender identity in
their nondiscrimination policies.
Stanton supported a
similar ordinance in Largo in 2003, but the fact he kept
his personal life a secret then intensified the anger
directed at him Tuesday night. Many in the crowd accused
him of harboring a hidden agenda.
"I do not feel he has the
integrity, nor the trust, nor the respect, nor the
confidence to continue as the city manager of the city of
Largo," said Commissioner Mary Gray Black, who introduced
a resolution to fire Stanton.
Stanton listened with
hands clasped throughout the 3 1/2 hour
meeting.
"It's just real painful
to know that seven days ago I was a good guy and now I
have no integrity, I have no trust and most painful, I
have no followers," Stanton told the crowd before the
commission voted. "Hopefully after all this is behind us,
we'll be better for it."
The surprise announcement
stunned this city of 76,000 near St. Petersburg. Stanton
said he had planned to reveal his secret this summer when
his 13-year-old son was out of school.
Stanton, who is married,
said he struggled with his secret desire to be a woman
since childhood and hoped to "outrun it." In 2003, he
began counseling to deal with his feelings and ultimately
decided to pursue a sex-change operation.
In a memo to city
employees last week, Stanton said he intended to "live as
a woman for one year" as part of a process to prove he is
ready for a sex change. He said he has only gone out in
public as a woman a few times in cities far from
Largo.
At Tuesday's meeting,
there was nothing womanly about his appearance as he
faced the crowd at City Hall in a dark suit and
tie.
Stanton has not yet
scheduled the surgery, but is undergoing counseling and
hormone replacement therapy in preparation for the
operation.
"I'm going to be
embarrassed if we throw this man out on the trash heap
after he's worked so hard for the city," said Mayor
Patricia Gerard, one of a few Stanton chose to share his
secret with before last week. "We have a choice to make:
We can go back to intolerance, or we can be the city of
progress."
Commissioner Gay Gentry
praised Stanton, but supported his firing.
"I sense that he has lost
his standing as a leader among the employees of the
city," Gentry said. "We have need of an organizational
leader that employees will follow."
Stanton left the room
before the votes were cast, head down.
Gerard and Commissioner
Rodney J. Woods - the first black commissioner in the
city's 102-year history - cast the only votes in his
favor.
