When Trans-Parents’ Divorce

I just came across a guide for divorcing spouses with children when one parent is trans from the ACLU and the NCTE about when one parent uses the other transgender status against them in court during a divorce.

More and more transgender parents are fighting to protect their relationships with their children in the face of custody challenges. Yet they face significant obstacles. Parents who have come out or transitioned after having a child with a spouse or partner have seen their gender transition raised as a basis to deny or restrict child custody or visitation. Transgender people who formed families after coming out or transitioning have faced challenges to their legal status as parents, often based on attacks on the validity of their marriages.

Many transgender people have and raise children without encountering legal challenges to their fitness or legal status as a parent. However, such challenges are still all too common. And many parents have been treated terribly by the courts because judges have a limited understanding of what it means to be transgender and they have very little—and inconsistent—case law to guide them.

I urge you to read the rest of the legal guide if you are trans and are in the process of getting a divorce.

From what I have been told by lawyer friends, here in Connecticut the courts and state agencies cannot consider your status as a trans-person in their decisions.