TheSouthEnd.TypePad.com – Joseph Gojcaj – Contributing Writer
As she brushes her brown bobbed hair away from her wiry gold frames, Karen Liedigk admits something that few would expect on first meeting: Liedigk is transgender.
Soft-spoken and reserved, Liedigk, 66, has struggled for acceptance since her 1997 gender reassignment surgery, when she changed her sex from male to female. She is married and has three daughters, and serves as a transgender activist in Michigan.
According to Liedigk, transgender people live all or substantial portions of their lives expressing a sense of gender other than their birth sex. Many undergo expensive medical treatments, such as surgeries and hormone replacement therapies, to change their physical sex so that it is in harmony with their gender identity.