Melissa Sklarz is Director of the New York Trans Rights Organization and is playing a lead role in efforts to pass the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act (GENDA) in the New York legislature.

Although she snagged only a cameo in the 2005 film "TransAmerica" starring Felicity Huffman, Melissa Sklarz has played a long-standing role as one of the most respected and effective transgender community activists in New York. After proving an important mover in the recently successful push to finally get GENDA, a gender expression non-discrimination bill, through the State Assembly, she was just named one of ten New Yorkers on the Rules Committee of the Democratic National Convention set for Denver this August. In 2004, Sklarz was one of only six transgendered delegates at the convention in Boston.

A director of the New York Trans Rights Organization, she's currently the vice chair of National Stonewall Democrats' board of directors and is a former president of Manhattan's Gay and Lesbian Independent Democrats.

By day, Sklarz, 57, is the collections manager at the Actor's Fund Credit Union, having previously worked for Gay Men's Health Crisis and the Gay Games. A former high school varsity athlete, she's a center fielder on the Vikings team in the Big Apple Softball League, where she's played the last eight years.

A 14-year resident of Manhattan, Sklarz recently moved to Woodside in Queens. Growing up on Long Island, she went to her first transgender bar in 1976 and has "never really looked back."

Melissa Sklarz, who last year became the first openly transgender public official in New York State with her election as a Democratic county judicial delegate in Manhattan, spoke about the effect her transition in the '80s to a female identity had on her life.

"It eliminated my middle class upbringing," Sklarz said. "It eliminated my white skin. It eliminated my education. It eliminated my work experience. I started out new..."