july. 20.2001 * J m t M t
M aking
the
T ransition
Through veracity and conviction,
D ebra Walker has learned how to be herself
by
T imothy K rause
iiT H
or two years, rumors had gone on here,” Debra Walker
recollects, “as if the mailman would knock on the door,
JL deliver the mail and ask, ‘Have you heard about the
sergeant in the sheriff’s office having a sex change.7’
Soon, however, it was Walker who was doing the talking. In a
candid interview with the McMinnville Neuss-Register last Febru
ary, this 50-year-old sergeant from the Yamhill County Sheriff’s
Office openly discussed her recent transition from male to female.
She revealed intimate details of how he became she, how Dave
became Debra.
“This is a hard place to have done something like this. I’ve
had a bad two years here," she remarks. “It’s been hell, but I’ve
made the best of it and tried to keep going because I’m educating
implications, meeting with therapists and researching what they
quickly learned to be gender dysphoria— a recognized disconnect
over gender between mind and body.
In 1983, the couple moved from their native California to
McMinnville. Walker joined the sheriff’s office, and Cathy began
studies in nursing. But after experiencing years of ongoing frus
tration and depression, Walker resolved to make a change rather
than suffer the consequences, including the risk of suicide.
“I’m someone who deals with weapons and the people who
find the efficient ways to commit suicide,” she explains. “I’ll give
you a dozen ways you’ll do it right the first time. But it is also
something that, from my job, I know accomplishes nothing. The
rational side of me says you don’t think about that, because it only
causes harm to other people.”
Instead, Walker began to plan for permanent gender transi
tion. “I pretty much just said that when I retire, I’m going to go
there, and hopefully Cathy will come with me,” she relates.
And Cathy did.
“We’re both very much in love with the person, not the gen
der,” Walker has said. “It’s what’s on the inside that counts.”
Cathy told the McMinnville News-Register: “Sure, we’ve had to
“We do it in part because we want our neighbors and people
from our church to meet other gay people,” Hutchinson says.
“Everyone always has a good time.”
In fact, their openness has worked miracles in many ways,
Hutchinson says, noting that one of their elderly neighbors
“chased Lon Mabons people off her porch with a broom.” He
adds matter-of-factly, “We are friends.”
So, as the couple look forward to celebrating their 43rd
anniversary in March, they insist their love never has been
stronger.
“1 never, ever stopped loving him,” Hutchinson says as he
glances over at Swantek. “I love him more and more each year.”
Swantek agrees. “We work well together. It has never occurred
to us that we wouldn’t be together. We are together...we help
each other...we love each other.”
As the interview comes to an end, Hutchinson stands behind
Swantek, gently massaging his shoulders. They continue to finish
each other’s sentences. They continue to talk about a life well
lived.
If only everyone could be so lucky.
“We work
well together.
It has never
occurred to
us that we
wouldn’t be
together.
We are
together...
we help each
other...
we love
each other.
”
— Lee Swantek
everybody here as we go. They’ve watched this transition from
Day One. They’ve seen that there isn’t a giant change in person
ality. There’s just a change in appearance.”
In many ways, Walker could be considered a role model for
successful gender transition. Although faced with significant
obstacles, she didn’t lose her spouse. Unlike many, she didn’t lose
her job. And she didn’t move away from her home.
Walker first knew something was different when she was a
child. She was bom a boy but knew inside she was a girl. When
she acknowledged the discrepancy between her internal feelings
and her external body, she didn’t know what to do about it.
So she continued life as 3 male, serving in the military, join
ing law enforcement and getting married. It wasn’t long into the
relationship, however, before she confided in Cathy her true feel
ings. Both struggled with this emerging identity, discussing the
work it out. There are times when I’m sure we would’ve both
thrown up our hands and walked away, but we didn’t.”
Her spouse explains: "For me, it became such a strong com
pulsion. I was becoming that person more and more. Stxmer or
later, it was going to be found out that I had a second life.”
Walker’s growing compulsion didn’t allow her to wait the five
years until retirement. She began electrolysis in 1995 and hor
mone treatment in 1997.
Two years later, the changes were so evident that she felt both
encouraged and constrained to go public. In April 1999, with
reassignment surgery planned for February 2000, she announced
her transition to the sheriff’s office and the community.
"In my law enforcement career, I’ve kicked down doors of drug
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