Sex-change cop was a macho man

By STEVE HOPKINS - Sunday News | Sunday, 22 April 2007

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As Constable Steve Lurajud, he was a macho-man cop with a bushy moustache and a No1 haircut who once risked his life to pull a pensioner from a burning building.

But when the self-confessed former "blokey bloke" returns to the Christchurch police next month it will be as ultra-feminine Constable Sarah Lurajud - New Zealand's first sex-change cop.

Lurajud, a strategic traffic group officer, had gender-reassignment surgery in Phuket, Thailand, three weeks ago.

"Now I can go on and lead the life I was always meant to have," Lurajud, 48, told Sunday News after dismounting from a powerful Suzuki motorcycle at her Halswell home.

"Now I'm just an ordinary middle-aged woman leading an ordinary middle-aged existence ... if anything I'm conservative."

Lurajud - sporting a styled bob of brown hair, purple eyeliner, manicured pink nails, figure-hugging tight blue jeans and pointy black boots - said she was now "accepted as a woman" wherever she went.

"When I go into town I'm accepted as a woman, when I go to work I'm accepted as a woman and when I'm at home I'm a woman," she said.

Lurajud denied a formal request for an interview but then said "transitioning" on the job after 23 years on the force - including manning the very public booze bus - was not easy.

"It took a lot of careful planning and the changes I made were subtle," the senior constable said.

"I think I was just awkward in the beginning.

"I didn't know how to act and the wigs were a bit of a nightmare ... you just have to learn as you go."

Lurajud has slowly been changing her appearance since 2005.

The transition was all the more radical as Steve Lurajud had a reputation as a "tough and in-your-face officer", said colleagues.

"I was a real blokey-bloke.

"That's what trans-gender people tend to do.

"They chuck themselves into the manliest environment they can find because they don't want to face up to it," Lurajud said.

"I would rather have died than face up to it but eventually it just wore me down."

Lurajud was stamped with a heroic tough-guy reputation after he received a police bravery award in 1994 for rescuing an injured 84-year-old woman from a blazing building.

But Sarah said she had been accepted by her colleagues and had the full support of police management.

"They've been fantastic.

"They didn't want to lose me as a police officer and have been fully supportive. They couldn't have been better," she said.

But Lurajud said publicity in 2004 over her intention to change sex was "cruel", as she had only just made the decision.

Workmates were sceptical about whether Lurajud could cope in the male-dominated workplace. One said: "There is no way you could survive."
Other officers told a newspaper she would be unwelcome in both the male and female locker rooms during the transition.

Lurajud took several weeks' sick leave after being outed but said it quickly "blew over".

"Once they realised I didn't have three eyes and a tail it was fine," she said.

Lurajud, who was also one of Christchurch police's two gay liaison officers, was married for almost two decades.

Now single, she laughed off the question when asked if she was seeking a partner.

Lurajud said her sex-change operation was performed by renowned gender-reassignment surgeon Dr Sanguan Kunaporn, who had done a "great job".

The Phuket Plastic Surgery Centre website advised patients to take up to eight weeks off work after the $15,000-plus surgery.

Heavy exercise should be avoided for a further three months, the site warned.

When Lurajud returns to work she will have been be on sick leave for several weeks