Loveless was born Thomas Patrick Ness in 1960, and spent the next 44 years desperately trying to conform to society’s rigid and arbitrary gender roles. As “Tom,” she founded Michigan’s longest-running independent music magazine, Jam Rag. She became a political activist in the early ’90s, following the death of her brother Scott to AIDS. Her efforts leading a successful national movement to legalize community radio in the late ’90s led the Green Party of Michigan to nominate her for Congress in 2000. After that campaign, she launched the Green House, a notorious political activism center in downtown Ferndale. Stephanie has been married to Susan Trescott since 1987.

In April 2004, Loveless publicly announced that her life as “Tom” had been a fraud. She lost her family and she and Susan lost their home as a result, and their 20-year business was destroyed.

In June 2005, she formalized her new legal name, Stephanie Angeline Loveless. And on June 5, 2005, Susan and Stephanie renewed their wedding vows at a large ceremony in Ferndale.

Earlier that year, she launched TVenture (to assist trans people in forming their own businesses) and TGMedia (a trans publishing project), as well as leading lobbying efforts in Lansing and elsewhere in pursuit of trans dignity. Most recently, her political activism included helping lead a successful ballot referendum in Ferndale regarding medical marijuana.

Loveless has lived as a woman every moment of every day since April 2004. She has been undergoing hormone therapy since Sept 2004, and her psychologists have determined that Gender Reassignment Surgery is medically necessary for her. Now she must raise the necessary funds.

Having given up playing music 25 years earlier, her mother’s death in August and being barred from that funeral inspired a whirlwind of song writing. Loveless has written 14 songs since that time, mostly inspired by her experiences as a transsexual.