In Christine's Footsteps

Before his emasculation, George Jorgensen called himself a casualty of the "no man's land of sex." Afterward, he renamed himself Christine and took on women's clothes and ways. Last week in Copenhagen, the site of Christine's transformation, another fugitive U.S. male made his way into the women's lines. His name: Charles McLeod, 28, henceforth to be known as Charlotte.

Charlotte's life story resembles Christine's. He was a sensitive boy, quiet and lonely, with a penchant for dressing up in women's clothing. Like Christine, he was drafted into the Army; unlike Christine, he found it too hard. In 1948 he got a medical discharge from the Army after three months' service, on his own complaint that he "didn't have the strength" for Army life, and on other findings of doctors who agreed. In New Orleans, where he lived most recently, Charles was regarded as an efficient bookkeeper and typist, but he had trouble holding jobs because of his effeminate ways.

Last April, after carefully reading the news of Christine's treatment by Danish surgeons, Charles took ship for Copenhagen. He found that the Danish Ministry of Justice had ordered doctors not to perform an emasculating operation on any more foreigners. Charles told his troubles to a helpful taxicab driver, who took him to a quack. For a sizable fee, the quack performed a crude operation, using a kitchen table for an operating table.

Two weeks later, Charles dragged himself to Copenhagen's Bispebjerg Hospital, determined to complete the Christine treatment. Since his condition made him an emergency case, doctors gave him further surgery, and he received hormone injections.

In a year, Charlotte expects to have another operation, which he hopes will permit "a normal life as a woman," and to have a whirl at writing a book on the experience. Said Charlotte: "We are an army of people who live deeply depressed, under circumstances we cannot control. Now doctors have helped me, but my future seems darker than ever because it's now a question of a young girl's existence."

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