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May 09, 2007
Transgender deceiver
Former Largo, Fla., city manager Steve Stanton attended a conference at city expense and dressed as a woman for two seminars without telling the city. Was he deceiving the citizens of Largo or just being incredibly prudent?
By Joanne Herman

The St. Petersburg Times reported that both Largo, Fla., city manager Steve Stanton, now out of a job, and Largo city commissioner Andy Guyette, one of the five who voted for Stanton’s dismissal, attended the same National League of Cities conference in March. The Times disclosed that Stanton attended at least two of the seminars dressed as Susan and that Guyette did not know about this at that time. Guyette was quoted as saying he was disturbed that Stanton "misrepresented himself on the city’s dime" and that this behavior was one reason he "no longer trusts Stanton to run Largo City Hall."

Ah, yes. For those who feel that being transgender is a bad thing, having been in close proximity to a transgender person without realizing it is even worse—as if it should be obvious that a person is transgender. So when it’s not obvious, the trans person gets accused of willful deception. Thank goodness Stanton’s only punishment was dismissal from his job. California teenager Gwen Araujo was brutally murdered in 2002 when her lovers discovered she was trans.

Stanton was actually dealing prudently with one of the challenges faced by those who transition to female after several years living as a male. For better or worse, society expects women his age to behave a certain way, especially women in public positions. How do you acquire these social skills without the benefit of the socialization most girls experience in their teens?

What Stanton did is fairly common. Most therapists (remember—it’s very difficult to transition genders under the generally accepted treatment standards without professional supervision) recommend some period of part-time presentation prior to transition. Their first recommendation is often to meet others like yourself at the local transgender social group, if there is one, or a regional transgender conference, if you can afford it.

But eventually you need experience being a woman in the “real world” before facing those who know you. In my case, the best I could do before transition was to visit a large shopping mall outside Boston once a week presenting as Joanne. I was able to make purchases thanks to a second credit card in my current name that I had added to an existing account. That experience of transacting with others definitely allowed me to assimilate more easily when I transitioned.

But Stanton, a public servant facing far more scrutiny than I, had an opportunity to be Susan at a business conference. By taking advantage of it, he received valuable real-world experience away from almost all who know him.

Would Guyette have accepted Stanton’s action if prepared ahead of time? I doubt it. Society still suffers from what I call MIDS—Man in a Dress Syndrome. We seem to have accepted women in the workplace, but when men put on the clothes of women they are immediately presumed less capable. Could this be one of the reasons that working women as a whole still earn less than men? Feels to me like evidence that the patriarchy lives on.

Some others who did not know of the seminar episode accused Stanton of willfully hiding his transgender status while on the job as Steve. One citizen said, “I don’t think we should be paying him $150,000 a year when he’s not been truthful.” Another said, “The issue is not the gender change here...it’s that he deceived people.”

About what? His cross-dressing? Stanton admitted in another Times story that he had gone through periods of cross-dressing in private before reaching his very recent decision to transition. Cross-dressing is also something not uncommon among male-to-female transitioners.

But really—women have been wearing male-like suits for years, ever since that was a prerequisite for corporate advancement in the 1970s. Are the objectors saying that men can’t even dress in a female way in private? Seems like further evidence that feminine appearance is discounted.

Then there were those who objected to not knowing sooner about Stanton’s transition plans. The Times says that Stanton came out to then-commissioner Pat Burke, the fire chief, the police chief, and the mayor in the year preceding his dismissal. He knew his news would be controversial, and so he did what any good manager would do—build support so that others would more easily accept the change and so the city would continue to function smoothly.

He was wise to do so—witness the circus that followed the unplanned early release of his news to the general public, costing him his job.

Throughout the Stanton firing the St. Petersburg Times provided comprehensive coverage, including Howard Troxler’s excellent commentary "Stones Fly in Largo; Society Is Thus Saved," highlighting the religious hypocrisy in some of the comments at the hearing where Stanton was dismissed.

However, the fact that someone is transgender remains headline news, and it bears noting that it was the St. Petersburg Times that outed Stanton in the first place. Editor Diane Steinle admitted so in a story, denying the claim of a local church that the Times was somehow “in cahoots” with Stanton about his plans. Steinle said that when she heard the news, she immediately “called Stanton and refused to grant him an off-the-record interview...a public figure’s planning to get a sex change certainly was important news.”

"Certainly"? God forbid anyone be deceived about a person’s gender!

(Note to readers: Stanton previously asked the public to use male pronouns until his transition, and I have respected that.)