Transgender

A Colorado man who says he bludgeoned his date to death out of rage and shock after discovering she was biologically male was convicted Wednesday of first-degree murder and a hate crime. Jurors deliberated about two hours before finding Allen Ray Andrade, 32, guilty of killing Angie Zapata, 18, of Greeley last July. District Judge Marcelo Kopcow swiftly sentenced him to life in prison without possibility of parole -- the state's mandatory sentence for first-degree murder.

To her sister, Angie Zapata was a teenage girl in every sense but the biological one. She spent hours spraying her long hair into compliance with Aqua Net, painting her eyelashes with L'Oreal and her skin with Cover Girl. She combed discount stores for clothes that would emphasize her curves. The effect was stunning. When the 18-year-old visited the store where her older sister, Monica, worked, men would make excuses to hover.

Stu Rasmussen promised a new administration if he was elected, and he's as good as his word: Silverton residents not only are getting a new mayor; they're also getting a new Stu. Rasmussen, longtime manager of the local cinema, was also elected mayor in 1988 and 1990, and served four years -- but that was when he was wearing slacks and sport shirts to council meetings.

In the most closely watched hearing of this small city's 102-year history, supporters made emotional pleas early into the morning Saturday to convince city commissioners that City Manager Steve Stanton, who has announced he is having a sex change, deserves to keep his job. It didn't work. After six hours of testimony and discussion, Largo commissioners voted 5-2 to reaffirm their earlier decision that Stanton had to go.

The security guard in the lobby of the Los Angeles Times couldn't help but ask the question. When he looked at the computer in front of him earlier this week, he saw the picture of a strapping blond man. The screen identified the employee: "Michael Penner, Editorial." But the person flashing the ID was a tall woman, with long, strawberry blond hair. "Ma'am, whose card are you using?" the guard asked.

Steve Stanton was fired as city manager in Largo two months ago after announcing his plans to become Susan Stanton. On Wednesday, Stanton, wearing a white skirt, pumps and makeup, vied for the top job in this cosmopolitan tourist town, and was turned down. The Sarasota city commissioners instead picked another one of the five candidates. Stanton was their third choice. "It's just too soon. It's too soon for a transgendered city manager....

Starting today, New Jersey joins eight other states in making it illegal for employers and landlords to discriminate against transgendered people. The law, which sailed through the Legislature in December, has received little attention in a state that's gaining a reputation for being welcoming to lesbian, gay and transgendered people. Earlier this year, New Jersey began allowing civil unions for same-sex couples.

a very different proposition from "When Harry Met Sally," on virtually every conceivable level -- the occasion seemed ordinary enough. Anne was the mother of a teenage musical prodigy. Lea was a journalist researching a profile on the girl. Or so that was the facade, not the first Lea had shown to Anne, as we quickly discover in the film "Another Woman." Anne senses something familiar about Lea, wondering if the two had previously met, perhaps at a museum.

The Rev. Ann Gordon stood in front of her United Methodist congregation last fall and announced that she was now he. Surgery and testosterone had transformed Ann into the Rev. Drew Phoenix -- still as liberal and laid-back as always, but now legally male. Most in the small congregation accepted their pastor's transition; they even threw him a renaming party, complete with birthday cake.

The woman pulled her resume from a pink file folder and handed it to a recruiter. Across the top of the page, in bold type, she had printed her name twice: first as "Mark," then as "(Meghan)." She was not quite sure if this was appropriate. At the nation's first transgender Career Expo, job seekers were encouraged to use their new gender names on resumes.