Transition: Crossing the Gender Divide| 1, 2, 3, 4

In 1993, at the age of 50, Moore sent a letter to Hofstra officials announcing she was a transsexual and beginning with the fall semester was going to live life as a woman.

Moore says that while her news came as a shock, most of her colleagues were surprisingly accepting. It was tougher for her children, who were then 10, 14 and 22.

PHOTO: Michael Cervieri

Rusty Moore and Chelsea Goodwin crossed the gender divide together

"They weren't crazy about losing their father," Moore says. She points to a picture of herself as a man with short hair. "They liked me when I looked like this."

Moore says she didn't suffer the taunts and abuse many transsexuals experience, in part because her androgynous features and medium height made it easy for her to "pass" as a woman. Many of her friends accepted her new identity, although some clearly felt uncomfortable.

"The men, of course, are always the problem," she says. "Women are more accepting. Men have trouble with their male hang-ups."
Two years after coming out as a woman, Moore jetted off to Belgium with Goodwin to seal their pact of love. Two days apart, each underwent gender reassignment surgery, together crossing the primordial barrier that divides the sexes.

Dr. Michel Seghers, one of the world's experts in the surgery, removed Moore's testicles and inverted the skin of her penis to create a vagina. From the nerving endings at the tip of her penis, the surgeon was able to fashion a clitoris. The operation cost about $6,000, a bargain considering the price in the
United States can surpass $20,000.

"There's a concern that you will lose your sexual feeling," Moore confides. "You have to accept the feeling that you may never have an orgasm again, but I felt that wouldn't happen to me."

As it turned out, Moore had her first orgasm two months after the surgery -- quicker than some women who have gone through childbirth. "That was a relief," she says, reaching out a hand to Goodwin. "I've had a lot of orgasms since then."

Though Moore has always considered herself bisexual, she and Goodwin see themselves as being in a committed lesbian relationship. Other transsexuals identify as heterosexuals and forge relationships with
people of the opposite sex.

While Moore is satisfied with her new body, she still regrets that she had to interfere with nature. "I wish I had been born a woman," she says. "I wish I could have borne children."