He had more integrity as a man, apparently.

LARGO, Florida (AP) -- The City Commission voted to begin the process of firing a top official less than a week after he announced plans to pursue a sex-change operation.

The 5-to-2 vote Tuesday started a three-step process to remove City Manager Steve Stanton from the job he's held for 14 years.

Stanton, 48, confirmed last week that he is a transsexual. With a solid reputation as a forceful and energetic leader, he had hoped to keep his $140,000-a-year job as he underwent the gender reassignment process.

Sad, but not shocking. The happy bit that comes out of this story are the two people who actually voted for him to stay:

"He's done a great job for us," [Mayor Patricia] Gerard said. "He's done what we asked him to do and taken the heat over and over and over again and now we're going to turn on him."

Even more sad is the article written after he first made his announcement. Poor guy sounds so hopeful in the thought that life will be better once he changes his body to suit his identity.

"I want to do this with a sense of dignity and worth," Stanton told the Times. "It's going to take more courage than anything I've ever done."

Largo Mayor Pat Gerard said she supports Stanton."He's a dedicated city manager and puts his job first," she said. "I don't believe he should have to go away and hide out and have to re-emerge. The fact that we do that as a society is pitiful."

Stanton, who is married, said he expects criticism of his decision to go public with his private life, but hopes his example will educate the community about gender reassignment.

"It's not in my nature to flee a challenge," Stanton said. "I can't. I won't."

I think I have a new hero in Largo Mayor Pat Gerard. I found an article (PDF) where the new mayor requested that comments made by citizens at city council meetings be something other than offensive and calling city council members names.

At the beginning of the public comment forum, Gerard asked speakers to "keep your comments on the constructive side, because if you make personal attacks, you are going to be asked to stop."

She's like the moderator in a flame war, how can you not love that? She probably won't get re-elected, but she's doing what's right.

Heroes of the Day? Steve Stanton and Pat Gerard.

Even sadder than all this is the fact that legally there's not much that can be done. The US courts have been historically unsympathetic to transsexual issues.

Idaho, Tennessee, and my home-state Ohio will not change governmental documentation such as drivers licences and birth certificates to reflect gender changes. Other states (New York, Texas, and sigh, Ohio) won't recognise gender reassignments when it comes to marriage. All attempts to include discrimination against transsexuals in the Civil Rights Act of 1964 have been shot down. This means it's perfectly legal for Largo to fire Steve just because he's transsexual.

This issue should really get people to think about why there's so little legal protection for the transgendered. There's protection for males and females, but not that difficult to define third category. Does it even need to be defined? What's the definition of male and female, anyhow? Genitals, body parts? If a man is defined by his penis and he somehow loses his penis, is he no longer a man? What is he? Is a female defined by the ability to bare children? What are barren women? Does the definition lie in how we act? Effeminate males are actually women? How about how we dress? I'm wearing pants, does that make me male?

This sort of issue makes it clear we cannot define ourselves as men and woman and whatever in between. We're simply people. Laws should reflect that.