In the Pursuit of Happiness: Gender Reassignment, Happening since the 60’s

I moved to Colorado in 1974 and played in several bands throughout the 70’s and 80’s, one of which was a regionally popular Chicano band. Rather than stay in hotels while on the road it was tradition within the Chicano community to have the band members stay in the homes of locals.  This led to some amazing all night after parties followed by a traditional menudo breakfast to help shake off the effects of the previous night. It also allowed us an opportunity to learn about the uniqueness of each community we visited.  One of the most distinct memories I have of that time was when we played in Trinidad, Colorado. This memory plays out importantly today in my ability to process the gender reassignment that Caitlyn Jenner recently unveiled as nothing new. The only thing new is that it involved one of our American Icons, Bruce Jenner the 1976 Olympic Gold Medal Decathlete.

The uniqueness of Trinidad, Colorado in the late 1960’s through 2010 was that it was known as “The Sex Change Capital of the World” thanks to the groundbreaking work done by Dr. Stanley Biber.  After my initial visit to Trinidad I returned several times as it is the county seat for Las Animas County and my day job at the time entailed searching property titles in outlying counties. Trinidad is fairly isolated in the southernmost part of Colorado about 200 miles south of Denver, so having spent many weeks there I got to know many of the locals and in particular several people who were going through gender reassignment and considering full genital transition. At the time this was a very arduous process that required psychological evaluation and counseling, living for at least a year, in gender, with the aid of hormone therapy. You just didn’t show in Trinidad for a sex change operation on a lark and many who came to Trinidad did not chose to have full genital surgery. This process has also been adopted as Standards of Care by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).

Dr. Biber was regularly performing an average of four gender reassignment, full genital surgeries per day! Most of them were male to female, as his very first surgery in 1969 was the result of a transsexual woman asking if such a surgery was possible. He learned by studying diagrams available from Johns Hopkins University and was assisted by the Catholic Nuns who operated the hospital. During this time he also managed a flourishing surgical practice delivering babies, replacing hips and knee joints, removing tonsils and lots of appendectomies.

While I never met the man personally I did meet several of his patients, staff members, and one surgeon from Boston who was there to be trained by Dr. Biber. He was greatly admired by everyone I met. In particular, a transgender woman from Belgium named Juliette who had attempted suicide the previous year. After some psychological counseling, her parents better understood their son’s self-identification as a woman and loving arranged for her to come to Trinidad to decide if gender reassignment full genital surgery was right for her. I only met her the one time but she was scheduled for full genital transition surgery in two days and was excited and highly emotional. I often wonder how her life was changed and regret that I didn’t exchange contact information with her.

The point of all of this is that gender reassignment with full genital transition has been going on in this country, and the world, for many years. Literally tens of thousands of people have gone through it and it is now to a point where the results are absolutely amazing and most importantly life changing. My life was changed in those early days of the 1970’s and as a result I am not the least bit judgmental or angry or hateful towards anyone going through gender reassignment. Conversely I am understanding, supportive and loving. All those things coming from my walk with God as it takes me from one life event to another in one continuous learning experience. There is no doubt that God has been in this from the beginning as he directed the lives of Dr. Biber, a Jewish man from Iowa, the Nuns who ran the Catholic hospital in Trinidad, CO, and Dr. Marci Bowers, the transsexual gynecologist who took over Dr. Biber’s practice in 2003 and ultimately moved it to San Mateo, California.

So the only thing new is that the world God made may now be ready to handle the little secret that has been happening for decades in a town called Trinidad, immortalized by a 2008 movie of the same name. Watch it with your family and maybe you can help the world outside of Trinidad, Colorado have a better understanding of transgender people and it will be safer for them to live anywhere without fear.

Caitlyn Jenner has not gone through full genital transition, more than likely because she and her doctors are following the WPATH’s Standards of Care. Understand that this operation is not required to be a transgender man or woman and only about twenty-five percent of transgender women have this surgery done. So given the fact that tens of thousands have had full genital transition surgery that means that there are a hundred thousand plus transgendered people living among us. You may even know some of them. If so treat them with the love and respect they deserve as they pursue their happiness.

‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’.

Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence