The Red Light Runner

Dr. Bob Lancaster was a family physician with a buried secret: he felt more natural and comfortable as a woman. As a child he concealed his feelings for fear of being bullied; during adulthood, he was afraid of losing his reputation and practice. When he did confess to a priest at fourteen, he was told his desires were sinful. Even as he became a husband and father, he engaged in cross-dressing and dreamed of being female.

After years of yearning and despair, Dr. Bob gave up and planned suicide. He recovered after his attempt failed, but his depression continued. When he suffered a stroke and confronted his own mortality for the first time, he finally underwent gender confirmation surgery shortly before his sixtieth birthday.

His transition from Bob to Bobbi was not painless; he was fired from his job as the director of a rehabilitation center and hospice company. But Bobbi reverted to her hobby and first love, the game of golf. She became a professional golfer and attempted to qualify for the LPGA tour. The resulting publicity made her a minor celebrity, and today she uses her fame to educate and lobby on behalf of transgender rights.

Dr. Bobbi Lancaster, MD, is a family physician and retired professional golfer in Gold Canyon, Arizona. She hid her female identity from the world until she decided to undergo gender confirmation surgery at the age of sixty. Today she divides her time between her patients, motivational speaking, and also lobbies for transgender acceptance and equality in Washington, DC, and at the state capitol in Phoenix, Arizona.