Gossips in a small, bucolic town are ruining a black female horsebreeder's business by falsely claiming she's a transsexual ever since she launched a plan to house migrant workers in mobile homes on her farm, she says in a lawsuit.
``They really don't want me here. They're trying to drum me out and I'm not going to let it happen,'' said Patricia Renee Pina, 45, who opened the Aces Wild Farm and Ranch in Plympton seven years ago.
She's suing town officials and countered the gossip with a very personal declaration filed in federal court in Boston. Pina revealed she is a hermaphrodite.
``I was born on Aug. 15, 1959, with a physical condition characterized as, and commonly referred to as `genital ambiguity,' '' she wrote. ``This problem was resolved in my early childhood. I am a woman of Cape Verdean extraction, African-American, who is perceived not to be a woman by persons in positions of power in the Town of Plympton.''
She included a copy of her North Carolina birth certificate noting her sex as female. In an interview, she also noted she was married for 11 years.
Pina is 6 feet tall and her deep voice echoes across a clearing as she calls her sheep on an autumn afternoon. The herd runs to meet her.
``I've always been better with animals than with people,'' she says.
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=46035
``They really don't want me here. They're trying to drum me out and I'm not going to let it happen,'' said Patricia Renee Pina, 45, who opened the Aces Wild Farm and Ranch in Plympton seven years ago.
She's suing town officials and countered the gossip with a very personal declaration filed in federal court in Boston. Pina revealed she is a hermaphrodite.
``I was born on Aug. 15, 1959, with a physical condition characterized as, and commonly referred to as `genital ambiguity,' '' she wrote. ``This problem was resolved in my early childhood. I am a woman of Cape Verdean extraction, African-American, who is perceived not to be a woman by persons in positions of power in the Town of Plympton.''
She included a copy of her North Carolina birth certificate noting her sex as female. In an interview, she also noted she was married for 11 years.
Pina is 6 feet tall and her deep voice echoes across a clearing as she calls her sheep on an autumn afternoon. The herd runs to meet her.
``I've always been better with animals than with people,'' she says.
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=46035