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Court gave teen the right to change gender from boy to girl
From The SMH
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/court-gave-teen-the-right-to-change-gender-from-boy-to-girl-20100305-popg.htmlMarch 6 2010
THE Family Court has permitted a teenage boy to have hormone treatment to become a girl.
”Bernadette” was born a boy in 1992 but began showing signs of female ”behaviour, preferences and traits” from the age of three.
A judge in NSW gave Bernadette, supported by her parents, permission to have hormone treatment that would suppress the onset of puberty and – later – administer oestrogen.
The order was made in late 2007, when Bernadette was about 14, but the reasons were not published on the Family Court’s website until this week. The order said she could commence treatment in January 2008.
A psychiatrist believed she met the criteria for gender identity disorder. She said if the teenager did not receive the treatment there was the possibility she could harm herself.
The judge accepted that a person’s sexual identity was determined by their ”brain sex”, not their genitalia.
The former Family Court chief justice Alastair Nicholson, who heard the case of ”Alex”, a teenage girl who wanted to be a boy, said there appeared to be more of these sorts of cases. ”They’re difficult cases … you have a young person and you’re worried they might embark on something they might later regret.”
In a separate judgment published this week, the Family Court allowed for an Queensland girl, aged 11, to have a hysterectomy to help treat Rett syndrome.
Carol Nader
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1 Reply
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Unfortunately this article failed to report the more significant (for some of us) finding handed down by the Family Court – we’re still a gross aberration and continue to need ‘gate-keepers’ to protect us from ourself. The important bits didn’t deserve front page sensationalism so was buried on page 35 of SMH – Sunday, 07.Mar.2010
Don’t care what the ‘experts’ say. I’m normal, just different.
TRANSSEXUALISM cannot be called a normal factor of human development, the Family Court has determined, and parents who want their children treated for it will have to continue to seek legal permission.
Since 2004, the treatment has been placed in the same legal category as organ removal or sterilisation and requires a court order.
The court allowed “Bernadette”, born a boy, to have hormone treatment before puberty in 2007. Bernadette’s parents then launched a test case asking for other parents to be allowed to authorise the treatment without going to court.
In a judgment last week, Justice David Collier said medical knowledge had not improved enough for the court to consider the condition normal – and a parent’s responsibility.
“I am satisfied there still remains grave dispute within the medical community as to the best treatment that can be offered,” he said.
“Until there is a clear-cut line of authority within the medical profession, it would be difficult for parents to reach an informed conclusion in every case.
“I am unable to say that the medical evidence presented to me has demonstrated conclusively the cause of transsexualism so as to enable me to find that it is a normally occurring factor of human development.”
Bernadette, whose parents have appealed against the decision, began behaving as a girl from the age of three and enrolled in high school under a girl’s name.
Her psychiatrist said it was highly unlikely she would change her mind about her affirmed sex.
The NSW Department of Community Services argued the court should not make a general rule for parents. The Human Rights Commission said if transsexualism was considered a condition or disease requiring treatment, parents should be allowed to make the call.
A source familiar with the test case said parents had to spend up to $20,000 in the courts to seek permission for treatment that could help prevent suicide and make later surgery less invasive.
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/national/court…0306-pppj.htm
