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S.D. Lawmaker Plans to Undergo Sex Change
Newsday.com ^ | 5/3/04 | CHET BROKAW

Posted on 05/03/2004 5:29:30 PM PDT by NYC Republican

After getting involved in a fight in the Legislature over a bill to ban civil unions, Tom Murphy decided to reveal a secret he had kept for four decades, through school, an Air Force career and then as a member of the City Council: He feels more like a woman than a man.

In fact, he plans to undergo a sex-change operation. Tom will become Marla.

"I hope to be happy," the never-married, 48-year-old retired master sergeant said in an interview. He said he feels as if he has deprived himself for a long time.

Murphy thought he might have to leave town after going public. But to his surprise, he said, the reaction around this Black Hills city of about 60,000 has been largely supportive. Outside of one neighbor and a casual acquaintance, no one has criticized him to his face, he said.

The transition from man to woman will not happen until after he completes his term on the council. He has decided not to run for another term next year.

He will continue to attend City Council meetings dressed as usual in a shirt and pants, but plans to start dressing as a woman increasingly in his private life. He is taking hormones that are making his body softer, more female, and he is growing his hair longer.

Jean French, a conservative fellow member of the City Council, said Rapid City residents and council members seem to support Murphy's decision.

"I guess I just really hope and pray that this is what it will take for him to be happy with himself. I think he as a person has so many wonderful qualities," French said. "I think we all want Tom comfortable. I don't know anybody who is out to headhunt Tom."

Sid Goss, a professor of sociology at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City, said he is pleased and a little surprised at the community's response.

"South Dakota may be as open to personal preferences as the rest of the country," he said.

"It may have to do with the openness and honesty that Tom has shown, that he's been up front about the situation and said, `Here's the way it is,' and the community is dealing with it," Goss added. "It shows a great strength in him, and that's probably being respected."

Murphy said he has known since he was 18 that he wanted what is called gender reassignment surgery. But he feared that if people found out, they might try to blackmail him or discriminate against him. He said when people talked about male and female issues, he would run away because he was afraid he might say the wrong thing.

He revealed his secret after getting involved in a fight in the 2004 Legislature against a proposed state law that would have banned civil unions and domestic partnerships.

Murphy testified in February at a hearing on the bill and wrote a series of letters that appeared in the Rapid City Journal. He eventually disclosed his secret in a letter to the editor and an interview with a local paper.

He said he made his decision after someone expressed hatred of gays in a letter to the editor. "I said it's time for me to make him quiet, just put him to rest and let him know I'm around and where I stand," he said.

Murphy was born in Arkansas and served 22 years in the Air Force -- much of that at Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City -- before retiring in 2000. He was appointed to fill a vacancy on the City Council in 2000 and then won elections in 2001 and 2003.

"It goes back 40-plus years that I've had this in me, that I've had the wants to be a female," he said. "It just got stronger and stronger as time progressed."

He said he will probably not be ready for surgery for at least three years. To qualify, he must live as a woman for a year and get the approval of a psychiatrist.

(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: South Dakota
KEYWORDS: genderiddisorder
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Must be a Dem... If it was a GOPer, you know they'd scream "GOPer wants sex change"... Note that they don't even list the party affiliation!
1 posted on 05/03/2004 5:29:31 PM PDT by NYC Republican
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To: NYC Republican
OMG I just spit iced tea all over my keyboard.
2 posted on 05/03/2004 5:32:38 PM PDT by expatguy (Fallujah Delenda Est!!)
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To: NYC Republican
Perhaps mercifully, internet photos of this clown are hard to find.
3 posted on 05/03/2004 5:36:55 PM PDT by martin_fierro (Chat is my milieu)
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To: NYC Republican
Saw the thread title and assumed Little Tommy was going to become a man.
4 posted on 05/03/2004 5:37:02 PM PDT by Still Thinking
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To: NYC Republican
"I've had the wants to be a female"

*speechless

If he is a democrat, he's prolly trying desperately to get two votes in the 2004 election, one as a male and the other as a female...

5 posted on 05/03/2004 5:37:06 PM PDT by LurkedLongEnough (Bush '04 --- in a F'n landslide.)
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To: NYC Republican
I myself know how he feels. I feel like a millionaire trapped in a working mans body.
6 posted on 05/03/2004 5:37:34 PM PDT by Falcon4.0
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To: NYC Republican
The transition from man to woman will not happen until after he completes his term on the council

After screwing the taxpayers he doesn't need it anymore?

7 posted on 05/03/2004 5:37:49 PM PDT by red-dawg
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To: LurkedLongEnough
If he is a democrat, he's prolly trying desperately to get two votes in the 2004 election, one as a male and the other as a female..

LOLOL!!!

8 posted on 05/03/2004 5:40:12 PM PDT by NYC Republican (It's President Bush, not Bush. He deserves respect, NOT the scorn Disgraceful Libs dole out.)
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To: NYC Republican
"It goes back 40-plus years that I've had this in me, that I've had the wants to be a female," he said. "It just got stronger and stronger as time progressed."

You can be a female(sort of) without getting castrated , but hey, go for the mutilation, you sound like you deserve it, haha.

9 posted on 05/03/2004 5:40:50 PM PDT by X-FID ( ". . . . I'm making steps. . . . I look at an issue. I'm not afraid to run away from it,")
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To: NYC Republican
I guessed Tom, but I got the last name wrong.
10 posted on 05/03/2004 5:47:16 PM PDT by F.J. Mitchell ( Maybe JF Kerry was once a hero, but he's been a zero, since Hanoi Jane Fonda feminized his libido.)
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To: NYC Republican
Some things we just don't need to know about.....
11 posted on 05/03/2004 5:49:09 PM PDT by b4its2late (Two wrongs do not make a right, but three lefts do.)
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To: NYC Republican
I suppose that what gets whacked off is going to auctioned on ebay.
12 posted on 05/03/2004 5:52:45 PM PDT by doug from upland (Don't wait until it is too late to stop Hillary -- do something today!)
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To: martin_fierro
Perhaps mercifully, internet photos of this clown are hard to find.

Front row: Martha Rodriguez, Mayor Jim Shaw, Rick Kriebel, Council Vice-President Bill Waugh
Back row: Council President Ron Kroeger, Alan Hanks, Jeff Partridge, Sam Kooiker, Ray Hadley, Jean French. (Not pictured - Tom Murphy)

You aren't kidding...the only person missing in this photos is good ol' Tom.

13 posted on 05/03/2004 5:52:50 PM PDT by hattend
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

Comment #15 Removed by Moderator

To: NYC Republican
Once he's emasculated he can gun for Daschle's job.....
16 posted on 05/03/2004 6:13:31 PM PDT by yooper (If you don't know where you're going, any road will take you there......)
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To: Still Thinking
" Saw the thread title and assumed Little Tommy was going to become a man "

ROTFLMAO !!
17 posted on 05/03/2004 6:14:00 PM PDT by Wild Irish Rogue ( John Kerry's new slogan-Help, I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up !!)
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To: NYC Republican
Tom will become Marla.

It just sounds so....right.

He must want to get hosed by The Donald.

18 posted on 05/03/2004 6:22:16 PM PDT by ErnBatavia (Because Democrats are liars, they assume Republicans are too...)
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To: ErnBatavia
I wanted to become Marla too but my baldness talked me out of it.
19 posted on 05/03/2004 6:37:25 PM PDT by meenie
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To: NYC Republican
If he becomes a municipal employee in San Francisco he can get the operation free. I couldn't believe that when I read it, but it's true.
20 posted on 05/03/2004 6:38:12 PM PDT by janetgreen (Wake Up, President Bush - California has been invaded!)
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