City of Progress – I                                                                                            Ethics Moment         April 2007

  

Suppose you are the city manager of a thriving community of 67,000 whose motto is a “City of Progress.” You have received outstanding performance evaluations over the 14 years you have served the city as the city manager. The city commission was so pleased with your performance over the past year that the awarded you a 9 percent pay raise. You regard members of the city commission and high ranking appointed officials such as the police chief and fire chief as good friends and colleagues who, like you, have the best interests of the community at heart. You truly love your job and want to continue as city manager until you retire, some 12 years from now.

 

Alas, you have a long hidden personal secret. Since childhood, you have felt more like a woman than a man and have cross-dressed for years when vacationing out-of-state. Your wife is aware of your gender challenge but your 13 year old son is not. You are, of course, deeply concerned about how your son will be treated if it becomes known in the community that you are trans-gender and may even become a woman. After much anguishing about the situation, you decide to begin gender reassignment discreetly. The hormone treatments go well but the change in your body begins to be evident when you find that you can no longer keep up with the police chief during your weekly jogging with him.

 

What should you do? Should you bring the police chief into your confidence? What about the mayor who has always been a good friend and strong supporter? Should you approach other members of the city commission? The deputy city manager?

 

Since you manage a self-proclaimed city of progress, you are confident that city employees and the community at large will accept you as a woman if that moment arrives. Still, as an intelligent, high profile public official, you worry that the media may discover your secret before you have had time to educate your friends and city employees about trans-gender challenges. What should you do?

  

Source: Based on a real case, see St. Petersburg Times, February 28, 2007; March 1, 2007.