title: Format string from ISO-8601 date with original timezone in PHP
body: <p>I have a ISO8601 string with some arbitrary time zone. I <strong>don't</strong> want to convert to my time zone. Rather, I want to preserve the original time zone. I want to be able to format the output similar to how <em>gmdate</em> formats the date/time. For example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$output =  my_date_function( 'F d, ga', $thetime );
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Should output:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$thetime = '2012-09-24T21:00:00-0700';
       =&gt; September 24, 9pm
  
  $thetime = '2012-09-24T21:00:00-0500';
       =&gt; September 24, 9pm
  </code></pre>