Originally Published: 2/25/2012
Transgender minister addresses PSU Berks students
County resident making transition from male to female
by Becca Y. Gregg
Reading Eagle

http://readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=367239

It was a bedroom that resembled one like most other teenage boys had in the 1960s.

Sports memorabilia plastered on the walls, photos of Pittsburgh Pirates greats Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski. Model cars and airplanes - particularly from the World War I era.

And hanging above the bed on the ceiling, a classic poster of a young Raquel Welch.

But the teenager who called the Valley Forge-area bedroom his own was holding a secret.

"I prayed every single night, 'God, when I wake up, can you please make me female?' " recalled the Rev. Barbara K. Peronteau, a transgender Berks County resident who began the transition from male to female nearly two years ago.