Mexican transgender asylum seeker allowed to stay in U.S.
By Felisa Cardona
The Denver Post
Posted: 11/09/2010 01:00:00 AM MST

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16560073

When Alexandra Reyes' father caught her wearing her sister's shoes and clothes, he tied her up and beat her with spiked pieces of a tree.

"It was so horrible, I would scream," Reyes said in Spanish. "He told me he had a son, not a daughter, and he did not accept me."

Reyes, 32, was born a boy named Carlos but began living life as a girl at age 8, infuriating her traditional Mayan family in Cenotillo, Mexico. One night, an aunt walked into Reyes' bedroom and tried to kill her with a machete because she didn't want Reyes in the family.