AZCentral.com – Richard Ruelas – The Arizona Republic
After difficult metamorphosis, transsexual woman just wants to fit in
It sounds odd coming from a person whose large hoop earrings dangle near her Adam’s apple, who brushes her long blond hair away from her face with man-size hands and who, despite the strain to raise her tone, still speaks as a tenor. But Michele de LaFreniere, like other transgender individuals, desperately wants to fit in.
She has become a high-profile symbol for the Phoenix area’s transgender community, becoming involved in a possible discrimination action against a Scottsdale nightclub. But she is not looking to be singled out. Just the opposite.
De LaFreniere does not want the public to see her as a man who had surgery to become a woman. She just wants to be seen as a woman.