Cincinnati, Ohio Transsexual Police Officer Wins $320,000 From City

Philecia Barnes on the steps of City Hall

[CINCINNATI, OH] A federal court jury has awarded $320,511 to a transsexual police officer who said the city discriminated against her. The jury on Wednesday ordered the city to pay back wages and damages to Philecia Barnes, formerly Phillip Barnes, a police officer for 22 years and a former Marine Corps sergeant.

Barnes, 43, said Thursday that she will request a court order to force the city to reinstate her as a police sergeant. She became a probationary sergeant for six months in 1999, then was demoted to an officer's rank.

City officials haven't said whether they will appeal the jury verdict. Police Chief Thomas Streicher said his department didn't discriminate against Barnes.

Barnes notified the city two years ago that she had changed her name and considered herself to be a woman, her lawyers said. Barnes said Thursday that she had begun identifying with the female gender long before that.

"This process started almost 11 years ago," she said at a news conference on the steps of City Hall. "It doesn't happen overnight."

Barnes said the city, in denying her promotion to sergeant, discriminated against her and violated her constitutional right to equal protection of law.