RGMCjim
09-30-04, 10:32 AM
Consider the impact if this ruling on intersexed children. If parents disagree on surgery, or on the gender identity of the intersexed child the child might be treated no different than this transgendered child.
There was a legal case a few years ago where agreeing parents were ordered to remove their transgendered child from medical care and force the child to attend school as a boy on the basis of a TEACHER'S objection. My son's best friend is a MtF teenager who has been living full time as a girl since age 8, was put on anti-androgen drugs to prevent male puberty and then started on female hormones at age 15 to begin female puberty. Her parents home schooled her to avoid the bigotry of teachers and administrators.
My own parents raised me as a boy because I identified that way, although I was originally loosely assisgned as female. A ruling like this would have put me at risk.
Rulings like this put our children in danger.
9/26/04
<http://hsconnect.com/news/story/0926202004_new04news092504.asp>
http://hsconnect.com/news/story/0926202004_new04news092504.asp
Ruling made in case of gender identity
STEUBENVILLE - A Jefferson County common pleas court judge has ordered a
male child must remain a male, despite the desire of the mother to diagnose
her son as having gender identity disorder.
A Jefferson County woman and her ex-husband, who lives in Colliers, are
involved in a custody battle for their 9-year-old son. At the heart of the
custody case was the boy's desire to wear women's clothing, at least when he
is with his mother.
The boy's mother had taken the child to a couple doctors, who diagnosed him
with gender identity disorder. Then, the boy's father took him to different
doctors, who did not diagnose him with the disorder.
GID is a disorder in which a male or female exhibits characteristics of,
insists they are and enjoys the activities of the opposite sex. To be
diagnosed with GID, a person must exhibit four of five main criteria listed
by the Harry Benjamin Study, the benchmark of GID studies.
Common Pleas Judge Joseph Bruzzese Jr. issued his ruling on the case Friday
ruling in favor of the father. In the judge's order, he stated the mother
embraced the idea of GID long before she took her son to the first doctor.
Bruzzese states in the order that when her son was 4 she told him "he could
grow up and be a girl" and has been taking the son to transgender support
groups. The order states the mother's boyfriend is an apparent male, who
used to be a female, that she met at one of these support groups.
"(The) mother has not only been supportive of (name deleted)'s female
identity, but has actually charged headlong into it with the apparent
objective of making it come true," Bruzzese's order states.
During hearings on the case, testimony was presented the mother enrolled her
son as a transgender at a Niles school. The mother said she was enrolling
her son as a transgender partly on the advice of two doctors. The doctors
suggested the boy undergo a real-life experience, during which he would
dress and live as a girl for an extended period of time.
However, both doctors said a real-life experience should be done in the
community the child lives in, based on the guidelines of the American
Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic Statistical Manual 4, which is a manual
of mental and emotional conditions that lists criteria for diagnosing
conditions.
The court stopped the enrollment when the father found out. This is also
when the court ordered the boy to be dressed as a boy and referred to as
such.
In July, the mother took the boy to Geauga Lake in a bikini, despite the
court order. The mother also violated the court order by referring to her
son as "she" and "transgender."
The parents have a shared parenting plan, where they are both the
residential parent during different days of the week. Before the ruling, the
mother was the majority residential parent.
Bruzzese ruled the mother will have the couples' two children from Sunday
evening through Tuesday evening and the father will have the children the
remaining five days. The judge also ordered the child not be permitted to
wear girl clothes or go by a girl's name.
Bruzzese said the boy cannot attend transgender support groups. He warned
the mother that, given her prior history of disobeying court orders, any
small infraction of the orders may result her receiving only supervised
visitation.
Bruzzese also said both parents should undergo psychological evaluations and
the child shall receive counseling.
There was a legal case a few years ago where agreeing parents were ordered to remove their transgendered child from medical care and force the child to attend school as a boy on the basis of a TEACHER'S objection. My son's best friend is a MtF teenager who has been living full time as a girl since age 8, was put on anti-androgen drugs to prevent male puberty and then started on female hormones at age 15 to begin female puberty. Her parents home schooled her to avoid the bigotry of teachers and administrators.
My own parents raised me as a boy because I identified that way, although I was originally loosely assisgned as female. A ruling like this would have put me at risk.
Rulings like this put our children in danger.
9/26/04
<http://hsconnect.com/news/story/0926202004_new04news092504.asp>
http://hsconnect.com/news/story/0926202004_new04news092504.asp
Ruling made in case of gender identity
STEUBENVILLE - A Jefferson County common pleas court judge has ordered a
male child must remain a male, despite the desire of the mother to diagnose
her son as having gender identity disorder.
A Jefferson County woman and her ex-husband, who lives in Colliers, are
involved in a custody battle for their 9-year-old son. At the heart of the
custody case was the boy's desire to wear women's clothing, at least when he
is with his mother.
The boy's mother had taken the child to a couple doctors, who diagnosed him
with gender identity disorder. Then, the boy's father took him to different
doctors, who did not diagnose him with the disorder.
GID is a disorder in which a male or female exhibits characteristics of,
insists they are and enjoys the activities of the opposite sex. To be
diagnosed with GID, a person must exhibit four of five main criteria listed
by the Harry Benjamin Study, the benchmark of GID studies.
Common Pleas Judge Joseph Bruzzese Jr. issued his ruling on the case Friday
ruling in favor of the father. In the judge's order, he stated the mother
embraced the idea of GID long before she took her son to the first doctor.
Bruzzese states in the order that when her son was 4 she told him "he could
grow up and be a girl" and has been taking the son to transgender support
groups. The order states the mother's boyfriend is an apparent male, who
used to be a female, that she met at one of these support groups.
"(The) mother has not only been supportive of (name deleted)'s female
identity, but has actually charged headlong into it with the apparent
objective of making it come true," Bruzzese's order states.
During hearings on the case, testimony was presented the mother enrolled her
son as a transgender at a Niles school. The mother said she was enrolling
her son as a transgender partly on the advice of two doctors. The doctors
suggested the boy undergo a real-life experience, during which he would
dress and live as a girl for an extended period of time.
However, both doctors said a real-life experience should be done in the
community the child lives in, based on the guidelines of the American
Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic Statistical Manual 4, which is a manual
of mental and emotional conditions that lists criteria for diagnosing
conditions.
The court stopped the enrollment when the father found out. This is also
when the court ordered the boy to be dressed as a boy and referred to as
such.
In July, the mother took the boy to Geauga Lake in a bikini, despite the
court order. The mother also violated the court order by referring to her
son as "she" and "transgender."
The parents have a shared parenting plan, where they are both the
residential parent during different days of the week. Before the ruling, the
mother was the majority residential parent.
Bruzzese ruled the mother will have the couples' two children from Sunday
evening through Tuesday evening and the father will have the children the
remaining five days. The judge also ordered the child not be permitted to
wear girl clothes or go by a girl's name.
Bruzzese said the boy cannot attend transgender support groups. He warned
the mother that, given her prior history of disobeying court orders, any
small infraction of the orders may result her receiving only supervised
visitation.
Bruzzese also said both parents should undergo psychological evaluations and
the child shall receive counseling.