By MIKE GARRETT
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
TRINIDAD - In the city known as the "sex change capital of the world," a group of local ministers blame the practice for unleashing gender and morality confusion.
Some ministers and congregation members are asking what kind of spiritual, emotional and physical damage the sex-change operations are having on recipients and the city's reputation since Dr. Stanley Biber began offering the surgeries in the late 1960s.
They say that such surgeries really aren't necessary, citing Johns Hopkins University studies that conclude that they don't successfully treat most patients in dealing with their gender identity issues. After originating the sex-change operations, Johns Hopkins has since discontinued them based on those studies.
Since last November, some Trinidad Ministerial Association members and their respective congregations have been circulating petitions asking that Mount San Rafael Hospital and resident gynecologist and sex-change surgeon Dr. Marci Bowers cease performing the operations.
"This is thinly-veiled bigotry and I'm really saddened by it," said Bowers, a protege and former patient of Biber, the now retired sex change surgeon. She said critics should personally ask her patients how they feel about themselves after their operation and not base their actions on flawed, superficial misinformation before casting moral judgments.
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