Darlene Fike shifts in a chocolate brown recliner seated on a heating pad in a small two-story apartment near the University of Memphis and recounts her life.

It hasn’t been long since the last remnants of Darlene’s manhood were surgically removed, and she’s sore.

Bronzed baby shoes that would fit a boy or girl sit near the television along with a picture of a mother and little boy in a sailor suit.

Darlene, 58, gingerly climbed the stairs to use the bathroom, past a framed box of ribbons and medals, military honors presented to David, the man she used to be.

Two years ago, David, a retired Air National Guard Lieutenant Colonel who served as a navigator and fighter pilot, told his wife, Mary, something he’d kept inside all his life. He was a woman in a man’s body.

See Ex-fighter pilot listens to feminine voice he’d tried to ignore

Memphis Commercial Appeal

* Tags = gay men gay news lesbian news transgender bisexual

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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/06/ex-fighter-pi…

Tennessee seeks to ban gay adoptions

For the second year in a row, a bill has been filed in the Tennessee Senate that bans adoptions by gay and unmarried straight couples.

Senator Paul Stanley (R-Memphis) filed the bill today (Thursday, Jan. 29) that “prohibits any individual who is cohabitating in a sexual relationship outside of a marriage that is valid under the constitution and laws of this state from adopting a minor.” See Tennessee seeks to ban gay adoptions
Out & About, TN -

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Original source : http://gay_blog.blogspot.com/2009/01/tennessee-see…

Transgender prostitute slain in Memphis shadows

It took a bloody jailhouse beating by police to bring Duanna Johnson out of the shadows.

With a video of the beating making the rounds on the Internet, people who would never have known she existed — and likely paid her little mind if they did — were suddenly talking about her.

Angry residents sent letters to the local newspaper and a federal grand jury launched an investigation. The mayor and police chief voiced outrage at her treatment.

But it wasn’t long before Johnson, a 43-year-old, 6-foot-5 transgender prostitute, slipped out of the spotlight and back to working the dark streets of a tough inner-city neighborhood, little noticed once again by mainstream Memphis.

And there she died with a bullet in her brain. See more of Transgender prostitute slain in Memphis shadows
The Associated Press