Court Cases

Sites 5

• Columbia High Court Restricts Intersex Genital Mutilation (1999) Positive: two decisions restricting the ability of parents and doctors to operate on children born with atypical genitals. Press release in English, brief and opinion are in Spanish.
• Brockton MA Court Rules in Favor of Transgender Student (2000) Positive: A Massachusetts Superior Court ruled that a middle school may not prohibit a transgender student from expressing her gender identity even if that expression does not conform with the sex ascribed to her at birth.
• Hernandez-Montiel v. Immigration and Naturalization Service (9th Cir., 2000) Positive: A U.S. federal court of appeals finds that a transgendered Mexican woman "had a well-founded fear of future persecution and was entitled to asylum and withholding of deportation."
• Couple fights for son, 6, they say is girl at heart "A Westerville couple is fighting to regain custody of their 6-year-old boy, whom they said was taken by social workers because they let the child dress and act like he's a girl," a news story from the Columbus Dispatch.
• Schwenk v. Hartford (9th Cir., 2000) Positive: a federal Court of Appeals found that discrimination "because one fails to act in the way expected of a man or woman" may violate federal sex discrimination laws.