Tommie Lauer, M.D.

Tommie Lauer's journey began in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she was born.
She was only 4 when she told her parents she was a girl. Not surprisingly, though, Lauer's parents dismissed the claim and took their son for psychological testing, thinking the boy was mentally unstable. They also strongly discouraged any further talk of their son being a girl, and Lauer learned to repress those female instincts.

In 1971, she enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and earned a four-year chemistry degree in two years, graduating magna cum laude. From there she went to the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, graduating in 1977, and then began her psychiatric residency at what is now Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem. She was chief resident in 1981, her final year.

Lauer opened a private psychiatric practice in High Point, North Carolina in 1982 and quickly became a well-known figure in the local medical community. By 1987, she had become medical director of the Smith Psychiatric Center at High Point Regional. She served six years on the board of directors of the Mental Health Association in High Point, and served as secretary (1988) and president (1990) of the High Point Medical Society.

Lauer officially transitioned - that is, assumed the role of a woman, including dressing as a woman - on September 8, 2003 in Ghent, Belgium. She transitioned there, at a conference of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, because she knew she'd be surrounded by people - researchers, therapists and other transsexuals - who would accept her.

She volunteers at Higher Ground - a day center in Greensboro, North Carolina for people infected with HIV - and at an addiction treatment center and a prison. She'd like to see a gender center open in the Triad (Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point) area of North Carolina, to help people with gender identity disorders.

All information was gathered from Karen Serenity's website