fbpx

Oklahoma Bar Journal

Representing Transgender and Gender-Diverse Clients

By Shannon D. Taylor

©Savvapanf Photo © | #280859403 | stock.adobe.com

Last summer, I had the privilege of attending the National LGBT1 Bar Association Annual Conference and Family Law Institute in Philadelphia. Two primary areas of focus for the conference were gender equality and inclusion. Upon registering, I was given my name badge and a choice of stickers from which to select to designate my pronouns, the options being she/her/hers, he/him/his, and they/them/their.2 Despite my representation of many LGBT clients in the past, the conference was my first introduction to the importance of this question.

My time at the LGBT bar conference was filled with thought-provoking, insightful dialog with other attorneys, judges, and law students from across the country. I met brilliant, energetic lawyers, judges, law professors, law-students and advocates there for the purpose of exchanging ideas and experiences concerning representing LGBT clients. I heard stories, sometimes heart-wrenching, about transgender persons dealing with harassment and discrimination at work, in schools, in athletic organizations and in courtrooms.

I listened to stories of personal, professional, and legal battles of LGBT attorneys from around the nation, battles for equality, inclusion and respectful recognition. I learned about laws in other states insofar as adoption, name changes, athletics, education, civil rights and more, and gained an understanding of the impact of these issues in the legal community.

To effectively represent transgender, gender-diverse and LGBT clients, we have a duty to stay current on the law and legal issues, and we must also have a general idea of current social and cultural issues pertaining to these clients. We may have longstanding prejudices or unexamined preconceptions that could inadvertently undermine representation of persons in the LGBT community. We must become aware of our own internal biases and explore ways to overcome them. We must become more empathetic and understanding.

Effective representation of transgender, gender-diverse and LGBT clients may also require that we explore implicit biases lurking in our offices, such as, client intake forms with only male/female gender options or honorific choices limited to Mr./Mrs./Ms. We may need to examine ways to make our offices more welcoming to transgender, gender-diverse and LGBT clients. We may need to evaluate restroom policies and other office policies and procedures to eliminate implicit bias or prejudice.

It is my hope that this article will be informative and helpful as to LGBT terminology and issues our clients may be facing in this emerging and rapidly changing area of law.

BASIC TERMINOLOGY

With the onset of the year 2020, most people are familiar with the acronym LGBT3 and its recent expansion to LGBTQ,4 but what about LGBTQQIAAP,5 LGBTTTQQIAA6 or LGBTQIA+?7

As the acronym LGBTQIA+ suggests, there are multiple words that each letter of such acronyms can represent. For example, the G in LGBTQIA+ can refer to gay, genderqueer, gender-nonconforming or gender variant, the last three all referring to people whose gender identity is either both male and female, neither male nor female or who in some ways identify with a sex different from that assigned to them at birth.8

Pronouns typically reflect a person’s gender identity.9 A transgender person may prefer to be identified using third-person singular pronouns (e.g., she or he and her or him), third-person plural pronouns (e.g., they and them) or alternative pronouns (e.g., ze/hir, ze/zir, per/pers, ey/em, xe/xem).10

“Sexual orientation” typically describes the direction of a person’s romantic and physical attractions.11

“Gender identity” is one’s internal sense of being male, female, both or neither.12

“Sex” typically refers to the genetic factors and physical anatomy of a person.13

“Gender” typically refers to characteristics within a person that begin to develop in infancy and can include masculine feelings, feminine feelings or a mixture of both.14 Gender can also include characteristics that are uncommon for the culture in which the person lives.15 Although many cultures have historically viewed gender as binary, either male or female, today’s increased visibility and open dialog are
leading to increased recognition
of gender as nonbinary.16

“Transgender” typically refers to an individual whose gender identity or expression does not, in some way, conform stereotypical expectations based on their assigned gender.17 “Transsexual” typically refers to an individual whose body and gender identity do not match and who transitions by undergoing medical treatment.18 Although the two terms are commonly used interchangeably, transgender is becoming more widely used.19 A search for transgender case law should include both terms.20

“Female to male” (FTM) are those who are assigned the female sex at birth but identify as male; post-transition, they may identify as FTM, transgender man, transman, transgender or simply as a man.21

“Male to female” (MTF) are those who are assigned the male sex at birth but identify as female; post-transition, they may identify as MTF, transgender woman, transwoman, transgender or simply as a woman.22

In addition to transgender, other terms used for persons whose assigned sex at birth does not conform to their identified gender include, but are not limited to: gender-nonconforming, gender nonbinary, gender fluid, gender queer and gender-diverse.23

“Cisgender” refers to people whose internal sense of gender conforms with the sex they are assigned at birth.24 It is not indicative of gender expression, sexual orientation, hormonal composition, physical anatomy or how one is perceived in daily life.25

It is also important to know the difference between gender identity (one’s internal sense of being male, female, both or neither), gender expression (the way in which a person expresses gender identity through mannerisms, behavior, dress or appearance) and sexual orientation (typically used to describe the direction of a person’s romantic and physical attractions).26 It is also important to note that transgender, gender-diverse and cisgender persons alike may be straight, gay, bisexual or pansexual. Sexual orientation refers to whom someone wants to sleep with, whereas gender identity refers to someone who wants to sleep as.27

“Gender transition” or just “transition” is the process by which a transgender person begins to live in accordance with their gender identity.28 Gender transition may include medical treatments, such as hormone therapy and surgery, but is often limited to social transition.29 In a 2018 federal case in the United States District Court of Idaho, the court reasoned, “[n]ot all transgender people choose to undergo surgery as a part of the transition process. This is due to numerous potential factors, including whether surgery is medically necessary, and personal and financial factors such as lack of insurance coverage.”30 In other words, for many transgender and gender-diverse people, comfort is found within embracing their gender identity, role and expression without the desire or need for surgery; for others, surgery is essential and medically necessary to alleviate their gender dysphoria.31

“Gender dysphoria” is defined as the clinically significant distress experienced when gender identity or expression is incongruent with societal/cultural expectations based on the sex a person is assigned at birth, not the gender incongruence itself.32 “Gender Identity Disorder” (GID) is the underlying medical or psychological diagnosis used to identify persons who experience gender dysphoria.33 Many, if not all, LGBTQIA+ persons have endured ridicule, rejection, hatred, bullying, abuse and more. Many, if not all, have experienced some form of distress relating to fear of being outed before they are ready or to people from whom they fear such as rejection, ridicule, mistreatment, loss of relationships, loss of employment, loss of religious or spiritual community and so on.

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), formerly known as the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, has developed internationally accepted standards of care (SOC) which provide recommendations and guidance for diagnosis and best practices for care and treatment of gender dysphoria and GID.34 The WPATH’s SOC affirm that treatment is individualized.35 In other words, the requirements for gender transition cannot be satisfied by a single treatment or medical protocol. I cannot overstate the importance of this, particularly with respect to gender marker cases in states and jurisdictions where the court and/or vital records offices require a physician’s letter stating that the patient (client) has completed the full transition process. In many states, there is no statutory framework to change a gender marker. In my experience, some courts or vital records representatives interpret the phrase “gender transition” to mean complete medical/surgical body modification. However, not every person has full, or even partial, gender confirmation surgery. Some people choose not to have surgery and have hormone therapy only. Others may choose only to change their name and/or dress in a manner consistent with their identified gender. Thus, the transition process is very individualized.36

“Transitioning” is commonly used to describe the process of change from one’s assigned sex
to one congruent with one’s gender identity.37 There are various medical treatments available to help with transitioning, but not all transgender persons elect to have gender affirmation, or gender confirmation, surgery, or otherwise alter their physical bodies.

Once a person has completed their individualized transition process, whatever that process entails for the particular person, they may describe themselves as FTM or MTF or simply male or female.38 Some transgender persons may have difficulty exhibiting enough outward features to look like, or pass as, their identified gender.39 “Passing” refers to the ability to blend into society without being detected as a transgender person.40 In some cases, transgender individuals choose to go “stealth,” meaning they choose not to reveal that their sex assigned at birth is anything other than who they are now.41 Conversely, some transgender and gender-diverse persons are extremely open about their transition, life history and experiences.

HISTORICAL NOTES

As far back as settlement of the Americas, many Native American tribes have recognized gender as a spiritual aspect of a person, describing five genders.42 A person with a male or female body could have a spirit that corresponded with their biological sex, or a spirit opposite their biological sex, or the fifth gender, two-spirit, a biological male or female with both a male and female spirit.43 Two-spirited people were recognized as spiritual leaders and held a special place in tribal society.44 With the coming of the Europeans in the 1500s and 1600s, two-spirits were called derogatory things, often suppressed or even killed.45 Recognition and acceptance of two-spirits is reemerging in today’s society.46

Upon the emergence of psychology during the late 19th and 20th centuries, transgender and gender diverse persons were viewed as having some form of pathology, and in 1952, with the first publication of the DSM,47 began the pathologizing of people who varied from societal norms relating to male and female behavior. While there were some who resisted the idea of transgender as a disorder, later editions of the DSM coined the term gender identity disorder.48

In 1966, Harry Benjamin published his groundbreaking book, The Transsexual Phenomenon,49 wherein he argued against pathologizing transgender persons and asserted that gender and gender identity should be viewed as a spectrum between male and female.50 Benjamin was also one of the first professionals to address mental health issues common to transgender and gender-diverse persons, bringing to light the impact of societal and environmental pressures on transgender and gender-diverse persons, which, in turn, places them at increased risk for depression, anxiety, poor treatment by medical professionals, self-harm, homelessness and substance abuse.51

REPRESENTATION ISSUES

Legal issues impacting and affecting transgender, gender-diverse and LGBTQIA+ persons can arise in a variety of areas within the justice system and legal proceedings.

The following list is compiled from Transgender Family Law, A Guide to Effective Advocacy,52 and is intended to raise awareness of advocacy issues and areas of law that may be impacted by gender identity, sexual orientation and related issues. This list is not an all-inclusive list nor is it a detailed resource. For further information, please refer to Transgender Family Law, A Guide to Effective Advocacy:53

Recognition of name and sex/gender

  • Change of legal name
  • Change of legal sex/gender

Changing name and/or gender/sex designation on identity documentation

  • Birth records
  • Driver’s license or state identification cards
  • Passport
  • Social Security Database and Social Security Card

Relationship recognition and protection

  • Pre-transition marriage and marriage equivalents
  • Post-transition marriage and marriage equivalents
  • Marriage based social security benefits
  • Marriage based immigration benefits
  • Issues regarding transgender people in non-marital relationships

Divorce and relationship dissolution

  • Dissolution of marriage
  • Impact of gender transition on marriage
  • Issues potentially impacted by gender transition
    • Annulment
    • Gender transition as grounds for divorce and impact on support and property division
    • Dissolution of marriage equivalents
    • Dissolution of nonmarital relationships
  • Issues surrounding a non-transgender spouse’s use of the transgender spouse’s gender identity or gender transition in divorce and dissolution cases
    • Defensive – defending the transgender spouse’s gender identity or failure to come to consciousness about transgender status prior to marriage from allegations of fault, maliciousness or deception
    • Offensive – alerting the court to factors such as to how a transgender spouse may be impacted by transgender status, such as employment discrimination, future financial vulnerability, medical care expenses and societal discrimination

Protecting parental rights

  • Legal parentage
  • Attempts to terminate legal parentage due to transgender status
  • Child biologically related to transgender parent
    • Medical consents and legal agreements
    • Prebirth decrees, parentage judgments and adoption
  • Child adopted by transgender parent
    • Stepparent adoption
    • Agency adoption
  • Child born of a marriage and not biological related to transgender parent
  • Child born to unmarried parents and not biologically related to transgender parent
  • Issues concerning discrimination against transgender parents in custody/visitation disputes or anti-LGBTQIA+ biases and restrictive parenting orders
  • Issues concerning bias and restrictive parenting orders
  • Protecting children from parental alienation and psychological abuse based on a
  • parent’s LGBTQIA+ status

Custody disputes concerning transgender children

  • Standards of parental fitness and best interests of the child
  • When parents agree on how to deal with a transgender child
    • Supportive and non-supportive parents
    • Obtaining professional guidance
  • When parents do not agree on how to deal with a transgender child
  • Legal Standards regarding a transgender child’s medical care
  • Determining and allocating parental authority over medical decision making for transgender children
  • Qualifications of court-appointed experts such as a Guardian ad Litem or other court appointed evaluator – insist on expertise dealing with transgender children
  • Keep the focus on the child’s best interests

Legal protections for transgender children and youth (“the small ts”)54

  • Who is the client?
  • Social transition
    • Name change
      • When both parents consent
      • When only one parent consents
      • When neither parent consents
    • Sealing records and protecting the child client’s privacy
  • Medical transition
    • Extent of medical procedures
    • Timing of medical procedures
    • Payment for medical procedures
    • Insurance coverage
  • Supportive counseling
  • Emancipation
  • Transgender youth in state custody
    • Foster care
    • Juvenile justice system
  • Transgender youth in shelters
  • Education and transgender and gender nonconforming youth in schools
    • Use of child’s desired name and gender marker
    • Change of name, pronouns and gender marker in student records
    • School forms
    • Dress codes and uniforms
    • Bathrooms and locker rooms
    • Curricula and inclusive classroom practices
    • Special education laws
    • Bullying
    • Discrimination and harassment prevention and other school policies
    • Nondiscrimination laws

Intimate partner violence (IPV) involving a transgender spouse or partner

  • Incidence of abuse – research, tools and strategies concerning the prevalence of IPV in LGBTQIA+ communities55
  • When the LGBTQIA+ person is abused – examples of abuse
    • Physical, economical, emotional or intellectual abuse
    • Threats to “out” the LGBTQIA+ person to family, an employer or spiritual or religious community
    • Silencing – capitalizing on fears to keep an LGBTQIA+ person “closeted”
      Interfering with gender transition (withholding, destroying or otherwise interfering with medication)
    • Refusal to use post-transition name and pronouns/honorifics
    • Identity theft
    • Destroying or withholding gender specific clothing and accessories
    • Obstructing access to support groups, medical care
    • Ridiculing the LGBTQIA+ person’s body or challenging authenticity of gender identity
  • When the abuser is LGBTQIA+
    • Getting help for the abuser
    • Addressing institutional biases against transgender, bisexual, gay and lesbian people
    • Focus on behavior, not gender identity or sexual orientation
  • Impact of IPV on family law – legal and emotional hurdles
    • Challenges for survivors
    • Challenges for abusers
    • Protective orders
    • Criminal advocacy
    • Immigration remedies for survivors in IPV
      • Specific domestic violence remedies that can be used by immigrant IPC survivors56
  • Safety planning
    • Screening questions
    • Sex-segregated services/facilities
    • Resources for abusers

Estate planning and elder law

  • Surviving spouse or partner’s ability to inherit
    • Importance of formalizing the relationship and testamentary wishes of a transgender person and their spouse whenever possible
    • Intestacy
      • Contingent upon recognition of marriage or nonmarital relationship
      • May depend on legal recognition of the transgender spouse or partner’s post-transition sex/gender
    • Probate
      • Post-mortem “outing” to relatives or others who were otherwise unaware of the person’s transgender identity
      • Legal standing or lack of standing of unmarried surviving partner
    • Non-testamentary dispositions to avoid potential challenges in probate or intestacy proceedings
      • Life insurance policies
      • Retirement accounts
      • Investment and bank accounts
      • Importance of insuring beneficiary designations are properly recorded, particularly where a beneficiary has changed their name
      • Income, gift or estate tax consequences
      • Medicaid or Supplemental Security Income considerations
  • Medical decision making
    • Particular vulnerabilities of transgender persons in medical emergencies
    • Guardianship can be a quasi-public process that can result in “outing” a transgender person against their wishes
    • Health care proxy or Power of Attorney for Health Care
    • HIPAA compliant documents
    • Drafting end-of-life decision-making documents – advance directives
  • Financial decision making
    • Durable power of attorney (POA)
      • The POA should clearly acknowledge the client’s transgender status and all names the client, or principal, has ever been known by
      • If a named agent has changed their name, the document should include all names the agent has ever been known by
      • To remain effective after disability or incapacity of the client, or principal, the document must be titled “Durable Power of Attorney” and must set forth within the intent that the document shall not be affected (invalidated) by subsequent disability or incapacity of the principal, or lapse of time
      • Immediate effectiveness or contingent effectiveness
  • Post-mortem matters, particularly concerning unmarried life partners
    • Post-mortem instructions should be stated clearly in a “directive as to remains” or similar document, as well as in the client’s last will and testament and possibly a health care proxy or POA for Health Care
    • Include instructions as to the client’s preferred name and gender to be used

Housing issues for transgender elders

  • Bias and discrimination in elder housing
  • Negative treatment stemming from pervasive bias, lack of knowledge, information and education
  • The transgender elder’s reluctance to speak out about discrimination or bias
  • The transgender elder’s wishes concerning self-identifying as transgender to staff and fellow residence in subsidized housing, assisted living or skilled care facilities

Social security and veteran’s benefits

In each of these areas, it may be necessary to address bias and educate opposing counsel, the judiciary, jury and court personnel.

PRACTICE TIPS

As with any case, be aware of the client’s goals and objectives. Use the client’s post-transition name and pronouns in legal proceedings unless inconsistent with client’s priorities. For example, some clients may not prefer to reference a change in gender or pronouns in public documents, for fear of repercussions. Ask courts to refer to litigants with their preferred pronoun and, if appropriate and consistent with the client’s priorities, call ahead to inform the judge’s staff of client’s preferred pronouns or honorifics. Be aware of privacy concerns, potential media coverage, and/or social media attention.

Be aware of the client’s financial situation. Retaining experts may be unaffordable but often the client’s medical or mental health care providers can provide adequate testimony. Be aware that litigation is not always the answer. Be detail oriented and proactive about neutralizing and challenging discriminatory tactics. Be vigilant about protecting the client from irrelevant and discriminatory facts, arguments, and lines of questioning.57 Consider asking the court to seal records of minors.

In addressing bias and educating opposing counsel, the judiciary, jury and court personnel, it may be necessary to use expert witnesses such as psychological or medical professionals, cite social science research in briefs or, in jury trials, educating the jury through voir dire.58 Premise your arguments and representation with education. Reach out to local and national resources for information, support and guidance.

WHAT ELSE CAN WE DO?59

  • Watch films, interviews and performances by trans people. Listen to their stories, their own voices and experience. Many are available on YouTube.60
  • Explore resources listed with this article online.
  • Attend community forums and conferences, visit with panelists and other attendees.
  • Attend LGBTQIA+ or Trans Pride events, observe Pride Month (June), Transgender Day of Remembrance (November 20) and International Transgender Day of Visibility (March 31).
  • Imagine realizing you identify as a gender different from the sex you were assigned at birth.
    • How would you feel?
    • What concerns would you have?
    • Imagine sharing this with your friends, family, and your colleagues.
    • Consider how these people would respond.
  • Imagine yourself moving through your day in a gender identity different that the sex you were assigned at birth.
    • What would be different?
    • What might you encounter or feel?
      How might your perceptions of the world around you change?
  • How might your perceptions of those around you change?
  • Explore implicit bias.
    • How would you feel if your parent came out as transgender and began to transition?
    • How would you feel if your parent came out as gay or lesbian?
    • If your child came out as transgender or gay or lesbian? What about your spouse?
    • What about your child’s teacher?
    • What about your boss or a colleague or co-worker?
    • What questions, if any, might emerge for you?
  • Explore training programs, that include gender identity protections.

ADDITIONAL NOTES AND RESOURCES

Diana Courvant & Loree Cook-Daniels, Nat’l Coal. Against Domestic Violence Conference Handbook, Trans and Intersex Survivors of Domestic Violence: Defining Terms, Barriers, and Responsibilities (1st ed., 1998).

Stewart Landers and Paola Gilsanz, Mass. Dep’t of Pub. Health, The Health of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Persons in Massachusetts (July 2009) (last visited Feb. 26, 2020), www.mass.gov/eohhs/docs/dph/commissioner/lgbt-health-report.pdf.

CASES THAT HAVE SHAPED TRANSGENDER RIGHTS

[Alfred F. Carlozzi and Kurt T. Choate at 88-89]

  • Blatt v. Cabella’s Retail, Inc., No. 5:14-cv-04822, 2017 WL 2178123 (E.D.Pa. May 18, 2017).
  • Bradwell v. Illinois, 83 U.S. 130 (U.S. 1872).
  • Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (No. 1), 347 U.S. 483 (U.S. 1954).
  • Christian v. Randall, 33 Colo.App. 129 (Colo. Ct. App. 1973).
  • Cisek v. Cisek, No. 80 C.A. 113, 1982 WL 6161 (July 20, 1982).
  • Daly v. Daly, 479 U.S. 876 (Oct. 6, 1986).
  • Darin B. v. OPM, Appeal No. 0120161068, 2017 WL 1103712 (EEOC Mar. 6, 2017).
  • Doe v. State, Dep’t of Public Welfare, 257 N.W.2d 816, 821 (Minn. Aug. 19, 1977).
  • Doe v. U.S. Postal Service, No. 84–3296, 1985 WL 9446 (D.D.C. June 12, 1985).
  • Doe 1, et. al. v. Trump, No. 17–5267, 2017 WL 6553389 (D.C. Cir. 2017).
  • Etsitty v. Utah Transit Authority, 502 F.3d 1215 (10th 2007).
  • V. v. Barron, 286 F.Supp. 3d 1131 (D. Idaho 2018).
  • Franciscan Alliance v. Azar et al., 7:16-cv-00108-O (N.D. Tex. Filed Aug. 23, 2016).
  • Gloucester Cnty. Sch. Bd. v. GG, 853 F.3d 729 (4th 2017).
  • Holloway v. Arthur Andersen & Co., 566 F.2d 659, 662 (9th 1977).
  • In the Case of Claim for United Healthcare/AARP Medicare Complete, Docket No. M-15-1069, 2016 WL 1470038 (H.H.S. Jan. 21, 2016).
  • In re Petition of Richardson to Change Name, 23 Pa. D. & C.3d (Pa. Ct. Comm. Pleas 1982).
  • In re Winn-Ritzenbert, 26 Misc.3d 1 (N.Y. 1st Dep’t. 2009).
  • D. V. Lackner, 80 Cal.App. 3d 90, 95, 145 Cal.Rptr. 570 (Cal. Ct. App. 1978).
  • v. Health Division, Dep’t. of Health Serv. Of the State of Oregon, 277 Or. 371, 375 (Or. 1977).
  • KL v. State, Dep’t of Admin., Division of Motor Vehicles, N 3AN–11–05431 CI, 2012 WL 2685183 (Alaska 2012).
  • Littleton v. Prange, 9 S.W.3d 223 (Tex. App. 1999).

Author’s Note: Special thanks to Ann Butler, Oklahoma City University 3L
and executive editor of the OCU Law Review, for proofreading and cite-checking this article. Additionally, Oklahoma attorney Alyssa Bryant was a contributor to Transgender and Gender Diverse Persons, A Handbook for Service Providers, Educators, and Families, a publication upon which I have heavily relied in compiling this article. Alyssa is an invaluable resource, mentor, and friend. At the time of this writing, she is a staff attorney at Legal Aid. Kudos, Alyssa, and thank you!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shannon Taylor is a solo practitioner in Oklahoma City focusing on guardianship, adoption, probate and LGBTQ+ advocacy. She graduated from the OCU School of Law in 2005 and is a member of the Oklahoma County Bar Association, National LGBT Bar Association and Association of Family and Conciliation Courts.

Endnotes

  1. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender.
  2. Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder eds., Transgender Family Law, A Guide to Effective Advocacy (n ed. 2012). Other pronouns include: ze/hir or ze/zir, per/pers, ey/em, xe/xem, etc. See also www.mypronouns.org/.
  3. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender.
  4. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning.
  5. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, pansexual.
  6. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit (Native American), queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally. See KW Counselling Services, OK2BME, www.ok2bme.ca/resources/kids-teens/what-does-lgbtq-mean/ (last visited Feb. 26, 2020).
  7. Currently the most inclusive acronym, with each letter representing multiple terms, i.e. lesbian, gay/genderqueer/gender fluid, bisexual/bigender, trans/transgender, queer/questioning, intersex, asexual/aromantic/agender/abrosexual/bbroromantic/ally. The + is intended to encompass all others. See Urban Dictionary, www.urbandictionary.com. See also www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/style/lgbtq-gender-language.html.
  8. Id.
  9. Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder eds., Transgender Family Law, A Guide to Effective Advocacy 5 (n ed. 2012).
  10. Id.
  11. Id. at 2.
  12. Id.
  13. Alfred F. Carlozzi and Kurt T. Choate eds., Transgender and Gender Diverse Persons, A Handbook for Service Providers, Educators, and Families 10 (Routledge 1st ed. 2019).
  14. Id.
  15. Id.
  16. Id.
  17. Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder at 2.
  18. Id. at 3.
  19. Id.
  20. Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder at 3.
  21. Id. at 4.
  22. Id.
  23. Alfred F. Carlozzi and Kurt T. Choate at 11.
  24. Id. at 11 and 54.
  25. See www.transstudent.org/definitions.
  26. Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder at 2.
  27. Alfred F. Carlozzi and Kurt T. Choate at 12. See also, www.transstudent.org/definitions.
  28. Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder at 3.
  29. World Professional Association for Transgender Health, Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People 71, 97 (7th ed. 2012).
  30. F.V. v. Barron, 286 F.Supp.3d 1131, 1137 (D. Idaho 2018).
  31. World Professional Association for Transgender Health, Standards of Care for the Health of Transsexual, Transgender, and Gender Nonconforming People 71, 97 (E. Coleman, W. Bockting, M. Botzer, P. Cohen-Kettenis, G. DeCuypere, J. Feldman, et al. eds. 7th ed. 2012).
  32. Alfred F. Carlozzi and Kurt T. Choate at 3 and Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder at 11.
  33. Id.
  34. Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder at 5.
  35. See WPATH Standards of Care.
  36. Id.
  37. Alfred F. Carlozzi and Kurt T. Choate at 13.
  38. Id.
  39. Id.
  40. Id.
  41. Id.
  42. Id.
  43. Alfred F. Carlozzi & Kurt T. Choate at 14-15.
  44. Id.
  45. Id.
  46. Id.
  47. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Alfred F. Carlozzi and Kurt T. Choate at 15.
  48. Id.
  49. Harry Benjamin, The transsexual phenomenon, Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences, 29(4), 428–430 (February 1967) (retrieved from doi.org/10.1111/j.2164-0947.1967.tb02273.x). Benjamin, H. (1966). The transsexual phenomenon. New York: The Julian Press.
  50. Alfred F. Carlozzi and Kurt T. Choate at 15.
  51. Id.
  52. See generally Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder.
  53. Id.
  54. Alfred F. Carlozzi and Kurt T. Choate at 118, referencing the “small ‘ts’ in LGBT,” and quoting M. Tiefer, M. Tollit, C. Pace and K. Pang (2017). Australian standards of care and treatment guidelines for trans and gender diverse children and adolescents. Melbourne: The Royal Children’s Hospital, “Increasing evidence demonstrates that with supportive, gender affirming care during childhood and adolescence, harms can be ameliorated and mental health and wellbeing outcomes can be significantly improved.”
  55. See Additional Resources section online at www.okbar.org/barjournal/may2020/obj9105taylor.
  56. Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder at 195.
  57. Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder at 119 (citing In re Custody of T.J., No. C2-87-1786, 1988 WL 8302, at *3 (Minn. Ct. App. Feb. 9, 1988), wherein the appellate court affirmed a protective order issued by the trial court precluding one parent from getting information about the other parent’s transgender support group or deposing the group’s members. The trial court and appellate court viewed this as harassing discovery. This case also affirmed a trial court order granting custody to the transgender parent, noting, among other things, that the transgender parent’s status as transgender “does not automatically disqualify him from having a relationship with his child.” See also In re Welfare of V.H., 412 N.W.2d 389 (Minn. Ct. App. 1987) father's transvestism was no bar to his custody of daughter); Summers-Horton v. Horton, No. 88AP-622, 1989 WL 29421, at *2 (Ohio Ct. App. 1989); and Christian v. Randall, 516.P2d. 132.
  58. See generally Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder.
  59. See generally Jennifer L. Levi and Elizabeth E. Monnin-Browder and Alfred F. Carlozzi & Kurt T. Choate.
  60. YouTube videos: www.hrc.org/resources/coming-out-living-authentically-as-lgbtq-black-americans; youtu.be/QKL5hfovEi0 (Dwyane Wade talks about his child coming out as transgender); youtu.be/1MfxtM9N3fw (It Got Better featuring Laverne Cox).

 

Originally published in the Oklahoma Bar Journal -- OBJ 91 No. 5 (May 2020)