Nov 18, 2008 4:33 pm US/Eastern
Top Model Talks About Being Transgender
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
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Isis King was a contestant on "America's Next Top Model."
CBS
If all humans are created equal, then why do only two Maryland jurisdictions have laws to protect a group that includes hundreds of Marylanders? It's a statewide conflict over transgender discrimination.
Sally Thorner reports people close to the issue say it's time for a change.
Life wasn't always a walk on the runway for Marylander Isis King.
She's now strutting her stuff, cool and confident, as a contestant on "America's Next Top Model," But it wasn't so long ago, Isis was trapped in the body of Darrell Walls.
"Darrell was somebody that I had to be. He had to be a certain thing. Darrell was never me. Isis is me. I'm free, I'm happy," she said.
Like more than 100,000 other Americans, Isis is transgender. Few regions have laws to protect this group from discrimination.
"My whole life basically I knew that I was born in the wrong body," said Isis.
A week before her 21st birthday, Isis freed her true self. She went out dressed as a female for the first time.
"And I really realized this is who I've always been, but now it's time to take it to the next step," she said.
Just two years later, Isis is a celebrity.
"I'm helping people realize that just because you're transgender doesn't mean you're a freak or doesn't mean that you're different from anybody else," said Isis.
But being transgender goes beyond appearance. Like Isis, Montgomery County resident Maryanne Arnow is preparing for gender reassignment surgery with hormone treatments. But that's not the biggest hurdle.
"You go into a grocery store, somebody reads you and they start pointing, and they start whispering to other people," said Maryanne. "This is insulting, this is humiliating."
Currently Baltimore City and Montgomery County are Maryland's only jurisdictions where citizens can be fined for transgender intolerance.
Activists like Maryanne are pushing for a statewide transgender anti-discrimination law to protect them public ridicule and workplace bigotry.
"Even though I was told I was one of the most qualified applicants that they had ever seen, I was never able to get a follow up," said Maryanne.
"If there's any kind of discrimination, no matter what it is, then it should be accounted for," said Isis.
Ruth Jacobs is a member of an advocacy group that petitions against the transgender protection law. Jacobs believes while the law protects one group, it restricts others from speaking freely.
"It just hits at the core of a woman's privacy and safety. I just can't imagine going into the bathroom and being faced with a male and not being able to say something to protect myself," she said.
Isis and Maryanne say those fears boil down to ignorance.
"If somebody is transgender, it doesn't mean that they are going to touch you or any of these other crazy things that some people think," said Isis. "Unfortunately, we were born in the wrong body and most of us try to fix that by transitioning."
Maryland lawmakers say they will push for a statewide anti-discrimination law again next session.
Meanwhile, Tyra Banks, host of "America's Next Top Model," is offering to pay for Isis' gender reassignment surgery.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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