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Greek DA Disbarred for T* Love
By NewsPlanet Staff
Contributed by Doreen
ATHENS
A majority of Greeks seem to think it's unfair that the Athens District Attorney could have had an affair with a woman or a man -- but never, never with a transsexual.
Athens District Attorney Giorgos Sakellaropoulos was disbarred last week by Greece's high court for his extramarital affair with Jenny Hiloudaki, a high-profile transsexual former sex worker, but public sentiment is on his side, according to an Associated Press report. Sakellaropoulos, whose "social character" was questioned by the court because of the affair, is considering appealing his punishment to the European Court of Human Rights in the belief that he has a right to privacy.
Hiloudaki has become a familiar figure in the Greek media since undergoing gender reassignment in 1990, making frequent appearances to speak on sex and gender issues. The current uproar naturally brought her an appearance on television, in which she said, "It is as if he sacrificed his career on the altar of love." She went on to claim that the affair has not ended, propose marriage to Sakellaropoulos, and remark that, "I will be hurt if he stays with his wife now."
Sakellaropoulos' wife is currently expecting their second child.
In a supportive open letter to Sakellaropoulos which appeared December 1 in Athens' "Vradini" newspaper, columnist Nikos Mastorakis declared that, "The system destroyed you because you fell in love with a woman who wasn't always a woman." One television station had listeners call in to "vote" on the situation and received 20,000 responses, 82% of them opposing Sakellaropoulos' firing. Many people believe that he would have been treated differently had he carried out the same affair with either a woman or a man who had not undergone gender reassignment.
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