STEVE STANTON, the city manager for Largo, Fla., made headlines recently when the St. Petersburg Times published a story about his plan to have a sex change operation to become Mrs. Stanton. Now the fight is on as to whether he will keep his job, even though he has successfully done it as a man for 14 years.
Our community is waiting for Matt Zimmerman to start as Emporia’s new city manager. If Zimmerman wanted to make a memorable first impression he might consider showing up to work as Mrs. Zimmerman.
Jayhawk_Emporia (anonymous) says...
I am unsure of the motives of this "Friday Comment" and I have a tough time understanding how it is light-hearted. The “writer” is correct that Mr. Stanton has done his job successfully for 15 years, basically a millennia in the job-hopping world of city management, and there is no question that he should keep his job. I cannot find a logical reason why he would be fired except for bigotry and closed-mindedness. I have no idea what this kind of gender confusion is like except to imagine that it is excruciating. For the “writer” to make what I assume is some sort of joke about his personal ordeal is atrocious and to fact not funny. Statistics indicate that there are people just like Mr. Staton in our community and this "joke" might make their struggle more difficult. I know that we live in a world of PC run amok, but there is a difference between political correctness and compassion and respect for human dignity. I know that Mr. Staton does not probably read the Gazette but I would like to believe that most of our community does and that the majority of our community is not so mute to the struggle of identity. I know we live in Kansas, and let's be honest we are often labeled as closed-minded, but maybe it would be nice if our media did not endorse that stereotype. I am not gender-confused or gay, but people in our community are and they make our community richer. Mr. Zimmerman was presumably hired due to his qualifications and abilities, as it should be, what else are we really interested in? As long as someone obeys the law, their orientation, gender, race or creed makes no difference. The only thing "light" in this musing is the weight of your journalistic abilities. One would assume, somewhere in Lyon County there is news, perhaps searching that out would better serve Emporians then having a chortle and the personal struggles of others.
I know I'll be told to lighten up, I just think that life is tough enough for people in this situation and perhaps we could find better things to laugh about. I am sure that this post will be lambasted, probably by some of the same people who continually post racist rants about our Somali population. I again assert they make our community a richer place.
March 30, 2007 at 1:51 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
OutofTowner (anonymous) says...
Richer, only if you don't get run over (or own an auto body shop)
March 30, 2007 at 3:57 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
joetho (anonymous) says...
I would imagine that a columnist who wrote such an insensitive remark would get in trouble with his boss.
No, "insensitive" isn't quite the right word. And now that I ponder this, maybe "columnist" isn't the right word either.
Bigotry left unchecked is bigotry approved!
Has there been any sort of apology or retraction?
-Out-of-towner #2
April 6, 2007 at 11:47 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )