Cincinnatti transgendered teen gets court approval to begin medical treatment.
A transgendered teen gets the approval of the courts to live with his grandparents and start therapy. His parents tried to force him into dangerous Christian reparative therapy after they denied him the proper medical care.
CINCINNATI -- A 17-year-old Hamilton County boy who has spent more than a year fighting to be recognized by his family and the world as a boy finally has just that.
A ruling handed down Friday by Juvenile Court Judge Sylvia Sieve Hendon awards custody to the boy's grandparents, with whom he currently lives and who have supported his gender transition.
On the other hand were his parents, who lawyers say insisted he receive Christian therapy rather than be allowed to pursue hormone replacement therapy (HRT) or sex reassignment.
The judge ruled the boy's grandparents shall have the right to determine what medical care will be pursued at Cincinnati Children's hospital with the caveat that a psychologist unaffiliated with the hospital shall first evaluate the teen to ensure consistency between the child's gender presentation and feelings of nonconformity.
His parents have been granted visitation rights, and Hendon encourages them "to work toward reintegration of the child into the extended family."
Supporters of the trans community say acceptance is important.
"As they experience love and support in coordination with that, they become their best selves," said Dan Stultz of Lighthouse Youth & Family Services. " And they're able to contribute their strengths to the community.
Hendon concluded her ruling with commentary on the legal system, encouraging lawmakers to set up a framework to evaluate minors' rights to pursue gender therapy.
"There is certainly a reasonable expectation that circumstances similar to the one at bar are likely to repeat themselves. The Legislature should consider a set of standards by which the Court is able to judge and act upon that minor's request based upon the child's maturity," Hendon wrote.
That type of legislation would give a voice and a pathway to kids in similar situations without embroiling their families in relationship-damaging litigation, Hendon wrote.
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I'm glad to see that the court made the right decision but the state legislature needs to do their job and ban any form of religious therapy for LGBT minors. The city of Cincinnati does ban reparative therapy for minors.
Sounds like an oxymoron to me.
Good. At least that's something.
Religious therapy kills people, even those at the heart of it admits it. Reading the bible doesn't cure anything, except maybe logical thought.
Both the professional psychologists and psychiatrists associations state that there is absolutely no evidence to support any positive effects of religious conversion therapy.
And they would say it's "god's will."
Indeed.
Which is why such "therapies" are and should be banned.
Conservative religious people never take responsibility for their actions. Their religious policies and prayer don't work but somehow it's always someone else's fault.
Why take responsibility when it's "god's will?" Quite convenient.
wonder who is paying for this?
He is a minor so the state of Ohio is likely paying for it via Medicaid.
I don't know about Medicaid per se since that would depend on the financial situation of the parents or grandparents, but the HRT being requested is dirt cheap. The shame of it is that the kid hasn't been receiving appropriate treatment during his latter puberty and that can be psychologically traumatic, although possibly less of a medical problem for a trans male since the puberty changes aren't as dramatic or as permanent as for a trans female.
If you read the full ruling the judge makes some rather disturbing comments about the court being coerced by suicide threats and about whether the court needs to take jurisdiction every time a teen is unable to get a desired rhinoplasty or other cosmetic surgery. So while the ruling is somewhat OK, it's clear the judge really doesn't get it.
The abuse suffered because of his religious parents will probably be a bigger problem that the fact that he is transgendered. Trans people need to be screened for PTSD because of the emotional abuse that they commonly suffer.
The version of the story that as in the Akron paper said that his parents told him to kill himself because they would rather have a dead child than to have a trans' son because of their conservative beliefs. I hope that he has supportive friends because he is going to need that network. Most millennials and such do not see the problem of being trans' that their parents have. It is just not an issue to them.
He is living with his grandparents who likely are on Medicare, and I doubt that the courts are going to force his parents to pay for it, so he is considered to be a ward of the state. Medicaid will likely pay for the medications and therapy. Testosterone therapy is cheap. I hope that he is able to find a good gender therapist because that is the most pressing concern at this stage of his transition. Unless he chooses to attend a religious college, which isn't likely, he won't have a problem as a freshman.
How screwed up must this family be when the grandparents are more accepting of gender identity than the parents?
That part is a bit confusing. Pg 2 of the ruling states that the parents have been continuing to pay for the counseling sessions but were unwilling to pay for the hormone treatment (which is much cheaper). And I'm not sure who pays for the child's healthcare when they're in the custody of the county's family service dept.
He would qualify for Medicaid as a ward of the state. He is covered by either CHIP or Medicaid.
That's why I found confusing the court's statement that the parents were paying for the child's counseling despite him being a ward of the county.
I can't imagine that his parents didn't cite their religious beliefs as a reason for their refusal to pay for medical/psychological therapy.
Was this teen covered under a parents healthcare plan provided by their employer? If that is the case then he might have better treatment options than what is available under Medicaid/CHIP.
At the very least they should have made an insurance claim to cover the exorcism of the transgender demon.
25 years ago many insurance companies common treatment of the transgendered was to try to reinforce the birth gender with psychotherapy. With the time that nonsense was proven not to work so they were forced to pay for hormonal therapy and transition.
Good to see the judge do the right thing. While it's not surprising that Ohio's laws are still pretty regressive on this issue, the sad part is that even Pakistan is more progressive in their laws than Ohio or any red state.
Transgendered people are protected in Iran because they view it as a medical disorder with subsidized medical treatment, as long as the person is heterosexual in their identified gender role.
Yeah, Iran is a weird and rather coercive case where even some gay cisgender folks have had surgery in order to avoid being executed.
Pakistan I found interesting because the new law was approved by an Islamic court before it was passed by the parliament. I suspect that's because south Asia has a long tradition of cultural and even legal recognition of a third gender, but at the same time the cultural anti-trans bias is so strong that the new law might not have much effect.
Vigilante justice driven by religious belief is more likely.
insisted he receive Christian therapy
Thank goodness his parents didn't get their way. That therapy would have screwed him up past the point of no return.
Many people who undergo reparative therapy end up dead of suicide because of what it does to the person.