Worker 'lied' about sex change

2010-07-23 22:57

Johannesburg - Chrlstine Ehlers, a transgender woman claiming she was unfairly dismissed from her company lied about undergoing a complete sex change, the company's lawyer said.

Advocate Louise Charoux, who represented Bohler Udderholm in Ehlers' case against them in the Johannesburg Labour Court, said on Friday Ehlers lied to employees about getting the "final operation" in the process of changing from a male to a female.

Ehlers admitted to this, as he only had his testicles removed and received hormone treatment, but had not had the final operation, removing his penis.

Charoux accused Ehlers of lying about several other incidents, including denying during her testimony that she ever called her colleague Natasha Alves, 22, a "little bitch", and being called "immoral" by Alves' mother and superior at the company, Fatima Lage.

Ehlers laid a grievance against Alves after Alves sent her an SMS reading" "I will never have respect for a low class wannaB woman", after Ehlers parked Alves in at a office party and refused to remove her car.

Witnesses testified Ehlers said: "That little bitch can wait".

She laid a second grievance against Lage, after an argument with her in which she claimed Lage called her "immoral" for undergoing a sex change.

Charoux said it was only Alves who discriminated against Ehlers, and not the company.

Issues

Ehlers, however, felt the company also discriminated against her as they "condoned" Alves' actions.

Charoux said the company dealt with this grievance and that Ehlers had no "new" issues.

During cross examination Ehlers said all the witnesses, including Lage, Alves and another colleague, Sherry Engelbrecht, who said she was moody and aggressive lied in testimony to the court.

She said she never had mood swings, as they testified, and by ignoring them she was honouring a request from the company's management to keep away from them.

"They miscontstrued being aggressive with being perplexed," she said.

She said she was drawn into the conflict in the sales office at the company because of comments made about her sexual identity to and from customers and sales employees, but couldn't give any details about who made the comments and what they were.

Ehlers, previously known as Chris, told the court earlier she tried to cut off her own penis when she was five years old.

The 43-year-old said she had a "very difficult" childhood and was depressed most of the time.

"I knew there was something wrong with me and I couldn't associate with other people because of my gender.

"I tried cutting off my own penis when I was five-years-old. At the age of five, I didn't know what the problem was, but I knew there was something wrong."

'Strange situation'

Ehlers was dismissed from steel company Bohler Uddeholm in Isando, Johannesburg in 2009, where she worked as a sales representative. She claims the company unfairly discriminated against her by dismissing her.

Her psychiatrist and sexologist Dr Bernard Levinson, who diagnosed her with being a transsexual "trapped in the wrong body", testified earlier that the 43-year-old Ehlers suffered from a "biological syndrome" and was in fact a woman in a male body.

"That is such a strange situation. The fact that she has a penis, that's so bizarre. That doesn't make her a male. What makes her a male is her whole personality. A persona inside that's masculine.

"She doesn't have that. She has a feminine persona. She is a woman. She is a woman with a disadvantage of having male genitalia that has to be removed, and a vagina has to be created," said Levinson.

In his 30 years as a sexologist, he had diagnosed and treated over 100 people who suffered from this condition, of which he said one in 2500 people suffered.

"We know that it is a biological thing. They are being born this way. It is not a whim or a ploy, or something that will pass, a phase in their lives."

He told the court a transsexual person had to be under his observation for two years, functioning completely as a woman, before he could give a surgeon permission to go ahead with the final operation.

"I would like them to dress and function as a woman to know whether they would be able to really manage this. Is this a reality or are we going to play some kind of a sad game?"

Classic case

He said he was surprised to learn that Ehlers "was masquerading as a male to satisfy her work world, although her boss clearly knew she would inevitably dress as a woman".

Levinson said Ehlers was a classical transgender patient, who always believed she was a woman.

"Her nursery teacher would tell the class 'all the boys stand against this wall, and all the girls against the other wall', and she would ask: ‘what about me? Where should I stand?'."

He said Ehlers was discriminated against and rejected throughout her life and felt angry and depressed.

Ehlers was dismissed after rejecting an offer to take up a freelance sales position.

The post was offered to her in an attempt to separate her from other staff at the company, to resolve bitter squabbles in the sales department.

- SAPA