Lake Worth City Manager Susan Stanton, formerly Largo City Manager Steve Stanton, is the subject of a two-hour CNN documentary scheduled to air this weekend .

She hopes it will alter public perceptions about gender change.

“I hope to give people another perspective,” Stanton said. “I’m hoping when people see it they’ll say: ‘I get it. I understand why people do this.’”

CNN crews followed Stanton around for two years and made use of video monologues and diary entries to produce Her Name Was Steven, scheduled to air at 8 and 11 p.m. today and Sunday and the following days at 2 a.m.

“It’s something I’m very proud of,” Stanton said. “I gave CNN intimate access to my life. They were in the operating room.”

A CNN crew also was in Sarasota when Stanton was served with divorce papers.

Parts of the film that include Stanton’s son, 16-year-old Travis, are highlights for the Lake Worth city manager.

“The main story line is the love of a father and son,” Stanton said.

Steve Stanton had worked for the Pinellas County town of Largo for 17 years when he was fired in February 2007 after city officials learned of his plans to become a woman.

Largo commissioners complained about the disruption and said they’d lost trust in his leadership. One pastor proclaimed that “if Jesus was here tonight, I guarantee you he’d want him terminated.”

“This is the story of one person,” said Bud Bultman, executive producer of the documentary, who has traveled the country with Stanton promoting the work at film festivals. “It’s not the story of all transgender people. It gives you a feel for what Susan dealt with — the pain of that transition and the joys as well.”

The documentary ends with a note that Stanton was chosen in April for the $150,000-a-year job as Lake Worth’s city manager.

“It’s sort of like the happy ending that she got the job in Lake Worth,” Bultman said.

Based on the national discussion sparked by Stanton’s firing in Largo, other local governments such as Lake Worth and Palm Beach County updated their codes to prohibit discrimination based on gender identity.

“She was hired because she was the best candidate for the job,” Lake Worth City Commissioner Suzanne Mulvehill said. Mulvehill said she hopes the documentary portrays Lake Worth as “a welcoming community.”

Stanton, 51, is scheduled to have her first review as city manager on March 29.

“We’re a very, very open city,” Mayor Rene Varela said, adding that the city commission hires people “based on the content of their character, not on the wrapper on the outside.”

Tony Plakas, chief executive officer of Compass, the Lake Worth-based gay and lesbian community center, said the Stanton documentary is educational and reflects well on Lake Worth.

“There’s a strong sense of social justice in Lake Worth,” Plakas said. “Somebody referred to us as the San Francisco of Florida, and we’re quickly becoming that.”