Jamie Nicole Anderson says she just wants to be treated like everyone else.

The York woman is a 42-year-old ex-Marine who takes her 11-year-old son to school and never misses his football, baseball or hockey games.

Anderson has consistently made the dean's list at Harrisburg Area Community College's Lancaster Campus and earned a 3.8 GPA. She wants to become an X-ray technician.

In May, she got a sex change operation, from male to female, and she says that's when the trouble started.

While in a HACC clinical program held at two local hospitals and an out-patient facility here, Anderson claims she was discriminated against.

"It was an intimidating atmosphere," Anderson said.

She filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission Oct. 16, according to a commission spokeswoman.

On Nov. 25, the commission began investigating it.

"HACC has received no notification of any filing, and does not comment on pending litigation," a HACC statement released Thursday said. "However, HACC's policy strictly forbids any discrimination."

Anderson said she was banned from using a women's rest room and was repeatedly referred to as "he" and "his" by her clinical instructors.

Anderson said she was unfairly suspended and ultimately kicked out of the program — all as a result of her sex change.

"I believe it was on purpose," she said Thursday. "Every patient I did X-rays on said, 'Thank you, Ma'am,' or 'Miss.' With the X-ray techs I interned under, it wasn't that way.

"One of the facilities was like heaven. The other two facilities were pure hell. ... I would get physically sick before going."

She said she asked her program and clinical directors three or four times in early June to address the problem. She contends they did little to help her beyond holding a meeting that only a few of her co-workers attended.

Shannon Powers of the Human Relations Commission said the commission will attempt to foster a conciliation between Anderson and the college. If an agreement is not reached, the case will be brought before a public hearing.

The commission ultimately could order HACC to cease discriminatory practices and pay out-of-pocket expenses such as tuition, legal fees and transportation, Powers said.

The college also could be ordered to publish a diversity statement in student handbooks and to provide training for staff on non-discriminatory practices, she said.

Powers said she was not permitted  to say if HACC has been charged with discrimination before.

She also said no hospitals or parties other than HACC are listed on the complaint.

Jamie Nicole Anderson was born with the name James. She declined to give her original last name for this story because she wants a clean break from her past.

At 5 or 6 years old, Anderson knew something was different.

"I was given Tonka trucks and sports things," she said. "I wanted to wear dresses and play with dolls. I saw the baton twirlers in the York Halloween Parade and said, 'Why can't I do that?'"

Her struggle with her gender has persisted throughout her life.

She served in the U.S. Army from 1984 to 1987 and the Marine Corps from 1988 to 1994.

"I was trying to prove to myself what society was telling me," she said. "I thought if I could make it in the Marines, I could prove to myself I was a man.

"But that's not the way I feel. I still have feelings of femininity."

Anderson married for about 10 years before getting a divorce and joint custody of her son.

Her psychologist diagnosed her with gender identity disorder in 2001 and the next year, Anderson began hormone treatments to change her appearance.

Eventually, she legally changed her name and her sex on her birth certificate and driver's license.

Anderson said she was suspended for three days Oct. 2 by HACC for "insubordination," using the women's rest room after being told not to because some operating room employees said they were "uncomfortable" with her being there.

Anderson said she was dismissed from her program on Oct. 30 for her violation of a dress code that forbids more than two earrings in an ear.

"I forgot to take (one) out that day," she said.

Anderson said she filed the complaint because she wants the situation corrected for her and other transgendered people like her.

"There are thousands of others with stories exactly like mine," she said.

But she said she didn't want to be the poster child for transgenders or victims of discrimination.

"This is not something I asked for," she said.

Anderson said she hopes for reinstatement at HACC but is also applying to programs at other colleges.


Staff writer Ryan Robinson can be reached at rrobinson@LNPnews.com or 481-6032.