A Down Day…

This morning I wrote about how hard it is to find a job if you are trans, now another down story…

Transgendered Parents Face Uphill Battle For Child Custody and Visitation in Court
Main St.
By Juliette Fairley
May 20, 2015

“It’s never too late to transition,” said Jim Patterson, a human rights and lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender civil rights advocate. “It’s never too late to come out of the closet. It’s never too late to tell your mom, your wife, your kids and your friends about your true sexuality.”

However, in some states, sex reassignment can obstruct custody and visitation of children.

“It could create an obstacle to adopting or being the presumed parent of a child who is not one's own offspring but the offspring of one's partner,” said James Dwyer, professor of law at the William & Mary School of Law in Williamsburg, Va.

The legal standard that applies has to do with the best interests of the child.

All it takes is a parent who is vengeful and a judge who is biased and a trans parent might be cut-off from their child.

“Historically society has regarded such persons as mentally-ill and unrestrained in their sexual behavior thus for both reasons posing a danger to children,” Dwyer said. “A co-parent might fear this is harmful to the child and a judge might agree.” 

Here in Connecticut we have very good guidelines to stop this from happening, but in other states we are not so lucky.