A British Columbia Supreme Court judge has appointed a lawyer for an 11-year old Prince George girl who is undergoing hormonal treatment to transition to a boy, a process encouraged by the girl’s mother, but opposed by her father. The child’s parents are separated.
Children diagnosed with gender dysphoria are no longer staying in the shadows, as we read about child gender transitions around the world, including the United Kingdom and Australia. Below is an article I wrote in January 2011 entitled “Children Born in the Wrong Body”.
A Family Court Judge in Australia has approved sexual reassignment surgery for a 16 year-old schoolboy who suffers from a mild form of autism. Justice Linda Dessau heard evidence of the boy’s desperation to escape his gender prison and start his life over as a girl. The Court listened to testimony of significant distress, anxiety and depression, including at least one suicide attempt.
The boy’s family, six specialists and his independent lawyer all confirmed the boy’s maturity to make this life-changing decision. The Court also heard that the boy’s father enjoyed dressing in female attire while he was a young man, but had abandoned this practice as he matured.
The protocol for sexual reassignment treatment of children is to give them hormonal drugs which arrests their journey into puberty, thus delaying the development of breasts in girls and the growth of hair and a deeper voice in boys.
Experts believe this initial treatment gives a child the opportunity to decide if they wish to move forward with further hormonal treatment and later surgery. In this case the Court also ordered that the boy’s sperm be collected and stored in the event the female hormones impeded his ability to have children.
Sex change surgery is highly controversial, particularly for children, but it is not without precedent. Six years ago an Australian Court’s decision to permit a 12 year-old girl to begin hormonal treatment was met by public anger. At the age of 17 the Court also approved a double mastectomy as the girl moved through her reassignment treatment.
While it is reported that most people who complete the surgery are happy with their new lives, for others the surgery is anything but positive. The director of Australia’s only sex change clinic has been under fire for several years as a result of former patients suing her, the Clinic, and the Clinic’s other doctors, alleging negligence and errors in diagnosis.
After allegations were made in 2009, psychiatrist Dr. Trudy Kennedy of the Monash Gender Dysphoria Clinic in Melbourne, was forced to close the clinic for a time. It is reported that eight former patients have complaints against Dr. Kennedy and three lawsuits have been commenced.
One former patient who had surgery when he was 21, maintains that he was misdiagnosed as a transexual by Dr. Kennedy. He underwent surgery to reverse the original procedure and says he now lives as a “mutilated freak”. He received a damage award.
Another 66 year-old man settled out-of-court. He had been sexually abused by his mother for seven years and received the sex change surgery in Dr. Kennedy’s Clinic, despite an opinion from a psychiatrist that the surgery would not help him.
Dr. Kennedy believes that the desire to change gender is biologically based and thus, surgery is the only cure. Other experts say that child abuse and psychiatric ailments may cause gender confusion, which should be treated with psychotherapy, not surgery.
Transexualism is generally misunderstood and public education is lacking. Vancouver human rights lawyer barbara findlay Q.C. remarks:
“Transgendered people-both transexuals who are born in
the wrong body and other people who identify as neither,
or both, male and/or female, continue to suffer
horrendous discrimination.”
Lawdiva aka Georgialee Lang
Lawdiva's Blog 