Trinidad, Colorado, Loses Its Identity

After two different surgeons made it the "sex-change capital of the world" for decades, that surgical practice has relocated to (surprise) San Francisco.
 
The Denver Post article describes the multiple economic impacts of Dr. Marci (née Mark) Bowers' decision. (She took over the practice begun in the 1950s by Dr. Stanley Biber.)

It may not be the greatest cataclysm the town of about 10,000 has weathered. Mines have closed. Railroad hubs have moved.

But regardless of its eventual place in Trinidad history, Bowers' departure reverberates now, in ways big and small, throughout this rugged town in the Purgatoire River valley.

Gender-reassignment patients didn't fly in and out overnight. Their procedures kept them in town for days, if not weeks.

That's why restaurants, hotels and gift shops will all be hurt, said Karin Murray, co-owner of Hometown Pharmacy & Medical on Main Street.