Substitute teacher
defends sex-change decision
Says she felt like
woman all her life
BY BRIAN PRINCE,
Asbury Park Press from the Web, February 24, 2006
LITTLE EGG HARBOR — Ask her,
and Lily B. McBeth will say she has felt like a woman her entire life.
But to the rest of the world, she has only been a woman for about a year, since
the 71-year-old had a sex change and went from William to Lily.
McBeth — the father of three children and a husband for 33 years — is now living
fully as a woman, having divorced her wife.
"This is not just something they allow people to do whimsically," McBeth said
Thursday afternoon at her Little Egg Harbor home. "It's not something that
came out of me in a late-life moment."
But McBeth's decision has drawn the ire of at least one parent in Eagleswood,
where McBeth was hired to work as a substitute teacher.
Mark Schnepp, who has two children in the prekindergarten-to-sixth grade
district, said Tuesday the idea of someone who had a sex change teaching his
children is an affront to his convictions.
"It violates my religious beliefs," the 39-year-old father said.
Schnepp took out a full-page advertisement last week in a local newspaper urging
parents to attend the Board of Education's upcoming meeting, where school
officials plan to discuss the situation in private session.
For McBeth, the situation comes down to what she called the "F" word — fear.
"This is a matter of gender," she said. "This is not a matter of
sexuality."
According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the law agrees.
In July 2001, the Appellate Division of the Superior Court of New Jersey
determined that denying employment to a transgender person amounts to sexual
discrimination. The court determined that the hospital, West Jersey Health
Systems, violated the law when it fired a transgender employee.
"You can't discriminate against a man for not living up to the stereotype of
what a man is supposed to be," said Ed Barocas, legal director for the ACLU of
New Jersey.
Deborah Jacobs, executive director of ACLU of New Jersey, said while the issue
is settled law, more explicit language is needed in the state's Law Against
Discrimination. Clearer language will give better direction to businesses
or small town governments unfamiliar with case law, she said.
McBeth said she was never a full-time teacher, but that she began working as a
substitute nine years ago after retiring from a career as a medical marketing
executive.
Working first in Pennsylvania, she began substitute teaching in this area about
five years ago after moving to Little Egg, and has worked in the Pinelands
Regional and Little Egg Harbor school systems as well as Eagleswood.
McBeth does not substitute teach in the Little Egg or Pinelands school districts
now, she said.
"I tell people I may be retired, but I'm not dead," she said.
McBeth has undergone a full name change, and applied for the substitute job in
Eagleswood as Lily McBeth. The school board, she said, was well aware of
the situation. McBeth added that when she reapplied to the district she
underwent another full background check, and the school board was well aware of
her operation.
McBeth stressed that she does not have an adversarial relationship with the
school board, who she describes as a "wonderful group of people." She
added that she will attend the board's executive session, which is closed to the
public, to discuss the issue.
"I trust in the fairness of the community, that they will see the situation
through to a happy ending," McBeth said.
Brian Prince: (609) 978-4537 or
bprince@app.com. Staff writer John
Vandiver contributed to this story.
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