Wisonsin State Journal – Brenda Ingersoll – bingersoll@madison.com
Michelle Labagnara feels anxiety and fear.
She reports to the Dane County Jail today to begin a 10- month sentence, but when she gets there, they will classify her as a male.
That’s because Labagnara, 46, of Portage, hasn’t yet had the more than $20,000 surgery to transform her from a man to a woman. She says she is a female who was born in a male body. “I grew up terrified to tell people I felt female,” Labagnara said. “My mom actually caught me trying to curl my hair. She ripped the curlers out of my hair. I was 7 or 8. She was furious.”
She legally changed her name in 2004 from Michael to Michelle, and her driver’s license lists her as female. But conflict over her gender identity hasn’t subsided. As she prepared to start her jail sentence she doesn’t know if the jail will give her hormones she has been taking to make her breasts grow.