The mother of a transsexual who is fighting for custody of his children testified Wednesday that a sex change operation did not change the way she felt about her child.

"I feel that I was blessed twice," said Irene Kantaras, 75. "Now I'm blessed with a young man who has compassion, honor, integrity — I don't think anything else counts. He's never given us a day to doubt who he is."

Irene Kantaras told the court that even as a child, Michael Kantaras displayed a masculine side.

At the toy store, she said, "he went straight to the toys for cowboys and Indians. We bought him a cap and guns, and he was the proudest kid you ever saw."

Her son had an aversion for girlish things, Kantaras testified. "I think I bought him [a doll] one Christmas, and he then went and threw it to his other sister Kathy and said, 'Here, you know what to do with these.'"

He also disliked girl's clothes. "Michael had a habit of passing out on me every time I put dresses on him," she testified.

All of these likes and dislikes finally made sense to Irene Kantaras when her son told her about his decision to have a sex change. At first, the revelation was a shock, she said, but now, "Michael is Michael to me ... He's been Michael for 15 years."

He was Michael when he married Linda Kantaras in 1989. The 33-year-old schoolteacher — who knew her husband had been born Margo Kantaras — already had a son, Matthew. Kantaras adopted Matthew that year, and the couple had a second child, Irena, in 1992 using sperm from Michael Kantaras' brother.

Linda Kantaras' central claim in the case is that her husband, who underwent hormone therapy and the removal of his uterus and ovaries, is still a woman because he hasn't taken the final step — replacing his vagina with a surgically grafted penis. She has argued that their marriage is therefore void under a 1998 Florida law banning same-sex marriages.

Lawyers for Michael Kantaras, however, say that the process of "sexual reassignment" should not require phalloplasty — the surgical implantation of a penis made from skin and fat taken from the patient's own body — because the process is costly, dangerous and often unsuccessful. His lawyers have also tried to paint their client as a loving father.

Michael Kantaras' father, John Kantaras, testified that in 1998, after the couple had separated, he often took groceries to Linda Kantaras and the children at Michael's request.

But in July 1998, he went to the house but was left standing on the porch. "Nobody opened the door," he testified. "I feel terrible to go to my daughter's house and can't even see my grandchildren."

Pam Thomas, sister of Sherry Noodwang — the woman with whom Michael Kantaras was allegedly having the affair that caused him to seek a divorce in 1998 — testified that Michael Kantaras got on well with her children and his own.

They all really liked him," Newdang said. "He was very witty, funny and relaxed."

Thomas also told the court that on July 4, 1999, Linda Kantaras confronted her in her home.

"I told her she had no business being there, and she said, 'Well, [your sister] broke up my family,'" Thomas said.

"I took Sherry by the arm and said 'Sherry let's go in the house.' [Linda Kantaras] said, 'Well do you know your sister is a lesbian and Michael's a woman?'"

Ted Huang, the plastic surgeon who performed Michael Kantaras' breast removal surgery.

The Anatomy of 'Man'

Also testifying Wednesday was a medical doctor who was involved in Michael Kantaras' physical transformation.

"Surgery is not a piece of cake," testified Ted Huang, a doctor who has treated more than 120 female-to-male transsexuals.

Some surgery is necessary, Huang said. "When a patient has a problem with their own sex identification, the only treatment that is effective is to try to change the body configuration to fit their mind."

But when Karen Doering, the lawyer for Michael Kantaras asked the doctor, "Is a penis necessary to make someone a man?" the surgeon replied, "No."

Referring at times to the implanted penis as a "meat tube," a "sausage" and a "pee-pee pipe," Huang differentiated between breast removal surgery, which he said nearly all of his patients chose to undergo, and phalloplasty, which he had only performed on 15 of his patients.

According to Huang, the procedure can sideline a patient for more than a year, and leaves him with a penis that is functional neither as a sexual tool nor as a conduit for urine.

The result of this surgery "at best would be a tube of skin and meat hanging in between your legs," Huang said.

To have sex, Huang said, the patient would have to insert a stiff plastic rod into the phallus. Even then, the surgeon testified, "the whole segment of that meat tube can go in and out of the vaginal [cavity] but the patient does not know whether it's in or out. In the true sense of sexual intercourse, it really does not take place."

And with time, Huang added, the phallus would degrade as the fat layers changed shape. "Even though the patient may be happy soon after surgery, with time it will change," the doctor said. After a while, he said, "to me it kind of looks like a dried-up cucumber."

Through his testimony, Huang implied that Michael Kantaras has taken his sex change operation as far as should be required under Florida law for him to be declared male. But when Huang asserted his belief that Kantaras was legally a man, Circuit Court Judge Gerard O'Brien interjected to say that it wasn't the doctor's decision to make.

"It's this court that has the duty of defining whether or not he is a legal male," Gerard said. "It may be that the medical path and the legal paths will join at some appropriate time, but until that happens, the courts have to make up their minds as to what is a legal male."

O'Brien, who alone will decide the trial's outcome, has taken an active role, extensively questioning both Huang and Dr. Michael Bockting, the psychologist who testified Tuesday.

On cross-examination, Linda Kantaras' attorney, Claudia Wheeler, seized upon Huang's personal convictions to try to portray the doctor as an extremist.

"Do you think it's even necessary to distinguish between male and female?" the attorney asked.

"It was necessary in the past," Huang said. "Today it becomes unnecessary. This practice came from our animalistic beliefs. We found out we were wrong. Regardless of the sex, they're just as good — equally good or equally bad."

Testimony will continue at 9 a.m. Thursday. The trial is being broadcast live on Court TV.