Transgendered podiatrist alleges discrimination

A transgendered podiatrist was removed from her position as a director at the hospital where she works because of her sex change, according to a gender discrimination complaint. Gwen Greenberg, 53, who had served for 13 years as director of the podiatric surgical residency program at St. Luke's Hospital-Allentown in Pennsylvania, last week filed the first-of-its-kind complaint with the Allentown Human Relations Commission. Greenberg, formerly known as Gary Greenberg, received therapy and hormone treatments before changing her name and persona to that of a female four months ago. She said she had long suffered from dysphoria, a condition characterized by intense feelings of being the wrong gender. The complaint alleges that Greenberg notified John Bruno, the vice president of medical affairs, in May that she would be living as a woman beginning July 1. According to the complaint, Bruno told Greenberg two weeks later that the hospital was anxious about the reaction to her gender change and that her contract as director was being terminated. Greenberg has continued to teach podiatry in the program. St. Luke's vice president Susan Schantz declined to comment on the complaint but said, "Dr. Greenberg is a regular part of our podiatry teaching program at the Allentown campus." The city's first gender discrimination complaint names Elaine Thompson, president of St. Luke's-Allentown, and Richard Anderson, president and chief executive of St. Luke's Hospital and Health Network, which oversees the Allentown campus and several other hospitals.