Bullets were fired at her house and car years ago. She's received anonymous hate calls. A businessman tipped her off that a group of men meeting in a bar had discussed plans to kill her.
But the Iron Range is home for Karen Hummel. So when the City Council of Crosby, Minn., passed an ordinance in 2012 designed to prevent her from using the women's locker room at the local community center, she fought back.
Hummel, 62, is a transgender woman. A retired nurse, she is married to another woman, a bank teller, and was born and raised in Crosby, northeast of Brainerd.
Other states and the federal government have squared off recently in legal battles over whether transgender people can use restrooms that match their gender identity. But Hummel's experience — years before the issue was a national topic — shows that these bitter disputes can also take place in Minnesota, even though there is no state law on transgender people and bathrooms.
Hummel, whose first name used to be Timothy, began transitioning to a woman in the mid-1980s.
Five years ago, Hummel, who was born with physical characteristics of both sexes due to medication her mother took during pregnancy, started going to the Crosby community center's women's locker room, with the approval of the center's staff.
A woman complained of Hummel's presence, and when the center defended her right to use the women's locker, the woman took the issue to the Crosby City Council.
Hummel said a Crosby police official told her that the police were opening a criminal investigation and she could face voyeurism charges and if found guilty, be designated a sex offender.
