Ran across this news story on Yahoo today. As usual per the disgustingly low standards of news services these days, there is little actual details about the situation itself.
https://www.yahoo.com/beauty/a-mom-is-suing-her-transgender-...
From what I was able to gather though, the teen girl has apparently been living separated from the mother for some time (I am guessing possibly years here due to the time it would take to begin transitioning) without the mother showing or exhibiting any interest or effort in trying to bring the child back home. Using the laws and statutes in Minnesota the girl was able to obtain the counseling, guidance, and medical support to at the least begin hormone replacement therapy - and maybe further to possible surgery options although this part is not clear.
One commentary in the article I agree with is that this is largely a political bid to try and further restrict, or worse remove, any access a transgender individual would have available to them.
Personally, I find it despicable for a MOTHER to go and sue their own child while beating their chest and claiming grievance to having taken emotional harm over something that it would seem was a possible reason for the estrangement in the first place and was quite probably a factor in the separation and lack of contact between the two. Right.
A woman who has known where their child has been living, whom it seems has had no problem doing nothing to try and reconcile with and bring their child home, who refuses to even acknowledge the pain and emotions of the child by consistently refusing to admit their transition and using male pronouns, all of a sudden is trying to claim "Oh woe is me! I have been wronged! Look at me and my pain!". Yea, right lady. I so believe you - NOT. I call BS here, now go and suck up to your politically motivated "advisors" in a non-public place and leave the girl alone.
Comments
What kind of Parent is She?
I was first alerted to this story yesterday as I was reading the Minneapolis Star Tribune and was shocked and did some research on it. Now first off let me say I do not usually believe that the government would have the best interests of child in mind before a parent does. In this case however I am siding with the state. This girl has been living away from her mother for well over a year and a half, as she obtained an emancipation statement in June of 2015, which means she has been away from her mother for at least that long. How a woman could sue there own child is beyond insane. It is my feeling that this woman has been talked into the suit by someone who is ANTiILGBTQ here in Minnesota. Despicable to allow someone into talking you to harm your child.
It won't matter much the girl will turn 18 this coming summer.
Please don't jump on me for
Please don't jump on me for asking but is there any mention of employment by the mother or any mention of a father in her life at all?
If not then my mind immediately turns to her mother living off of government subsidies- "section 8", SSI, SSDI etc. No daughter means a cut in her benefits or a complete cancellation of whatever she was receiving on her daughter's behalf.
I suspect that a group is using her mother as well but she may not fully know it, only seeing money being taken from her.
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime
Is it mention
Is it mention anywhere about the financial comfort of the child. The mother in low income bracket might see a child in better chape than her as a mean to improved her bank account. It's still not good parenting.
Peace and Love tmf
No Father Mentioned
There is no father mentioned in anything I have read. Here is the article from the Minneapolis StarTribune http://www.startribune.com/minnesota-mother-sues-teenage-chi...
Some think this is actually a lawsuit that will ultimately challenge abortion laws is the state of Minnesota. The woman is being used and causing her child harm. Somebody needs to get to her.
Ah, Updated Time Of Separation
I see in this article that per the letter of emancipation from the attorney the girl was living apart from the mother for at least 6 months prior to the June 2015 date. That would be at least December of 2014, so almost 2 years separated at this point in November 2016.
And as the girl will be of legal age in about 8 months, all her lawyers have to do is to drag out the proceedings (shouldn't be all that hard considering the court system in America these days) until that time and the mother loses even the marginal legal claim over her that she thinks she has. So stupid.
- Leona
It's interesting to look at the lawyer
An anti-government christian. A radical thinker. As in fringe, weird radical.
I get the feeling that he was just looking for a good case to challange emancipation laws and figured a trans child would push conservative buttons in his favour in a court. (And appeal to his christian beliefs as well)
Annachie: The Thomas Moore
Annachie: The Thomas Moore Law Center has pretty much been on the wrong side of every social... and by that I mean religious issue, in the courts for many years. They lost the Dover Trial, they defended a teacher with the interesting habit of picking up the bible on her desk to read and make points to students... I think that they are primarily an instrument of the christian ideologue. In fact, the only thing that I can ever remember them doing... when they are not defending teachers who they feel have the academic freedom to substitute their sect's teachings for things like Biology, was to defend Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, as the American Freedom Defense Initiative, when they try to place their anti-sharia, Anti-jihad, advertisements with public entities. Their track record there isn't great. However, they have also been the victims of some deeply questionable rulings in these cases, and also of some amok political preconceptions on the part of the entities resisting the placements of the ads. Weird, as they are first amendment issues.
Often, they take cases for clients that no credible law firm would take, as they are essentially unwinnable, because they are more far more interested in the Interview, press conference, and sound bite, that they see furthers their religious agenda. I think that it is (only partly, which is more the pity), the fact that they take these cases pro bono, that keeps them from having people call for them to be disbarred... Well, not really, but given that any firm that put the client's interests first would tell their clients that their case was unwinnable, and that their best course would be to simply stop breaking the law, the likelihood exists that the clients themselves must share that Ideologue agenda. And... Seeking precedent, even where I happen to agree with them, isn't really wrongdoing.
They do have an interesting history, and one night I actually began examining by looking through lists of trial verdicts, to see if there were any cases that made them look like defenders of basic rights and freedoms for the little guy. Most were cut and dried religious rights needing to trump everyone else's rights of any kind, and I found none that I could identify as neatly secular. Needless to say, I tired of looking at those verdicts pretty quickly, so they may indeed look after their neighbors cats, while one of their clients is trying to have that poor neighbor dragged away and burned as a witch.
This case, though not moot, is simply one more - equally disgusting - maneuver to challenge what they don't like, pitting parental rights as a tool against the clear and unspeakable evil - Only the sin that they abhore while dearly loving everything about that poor misguided 'BOY' - to use against people like... us.
They are careful not to sue people who might ask their clients to pay court and attorney's fees, and prefer to go after governments and corporations to create precedent/precedents useful to their quest to save the good people from people like us.
Hope that helps.
Sarah Lynn
PS, on the semi-emancipated transgender.
P.S.
To say that the stupid on those comments has reached biblical proportions... isn't even funny any more. To say that those with knowledge, education, and wit are plagued by uncertainty, while the truly ignorant and uninformed speak with utter certainty, can't even grasp the degree of the problem.
i saw this a day or two ago
and it even states at the bottom that the trans girl has NOT EVEN decided to get GCS yet. but too many equate even HRT to "sex change", *sigh*.
Teresa L.
Just went there and commented.
I probably will get flamed by the genderphobic morons who seem to be controlling that comment forum. I don't care.
Catherine Linda Michel
Sorry. It appears that my comments are not showing up. Apparently the site owners don't like the truth.
As a T-woman, I do have a Y chromosome... it's just in cursive, pink script.
Uhm due to the emancipation,
Uhm due to the emancipation, Hippa laws forbid the "mother" from being informed, without patient consent, pretty cut and dry in that aspect, the fact she has been living on her own for a year and a half demolishes any incompetence claims, and lets not forget the dead naming and the implied action to try and undo what is keeping her daughter from being miserable. This won't go far, so many laws the mother wishes weren't didn't exist.
Yeah, wouldn't it be nice if it were only "one or two" people
About three years ago me, I had to ask friends to explain to me their understanding of the right and left thing. Because really... really... neither knew or cared. It seemed like a useless stereotype to me, at best. I mean, if I don't understand something which then catches my interest, Igo out and find information. Liberal friends are often so convinced that I am just so awesome... right up till the point that I just jerk the rug right out from under that opinion by having, and being able to defend, a position they diametrically oppose. Very conservative people will often think that they have found one of their own... until they realize that I have that rug on a spring-loaded remote control. Turns out, I make decisions political, rational, and moral, without regard to ideology. It makes me unlike almost anyone that I know, and I really don't like the way that most people react when something they thought they knew is challenged. I always make the same mistake: "If you really think that, then perhaps you can explain it to me so that I can understand it like you do."
In those three years, I have found two generalizations to be true. The majority of people are really ignorant of the underlying principals of most of what they 'Know.' Second, that although conservativeism seems to draw it's fair share of just ignorant people, and ignorance is often the basis of so many people's intolerance, there is a very vocal minority on the left who have somehow managed to surpass or equal the intolerance on the right. The levels of ignorance, and self delusion, and simply just listening-to/believing only those people who are saying that which you are already fond of... I'd say that they are both about equal in that regard.
In the end, though, it is just a sad and terrible mix. My hobby, of finding someone who does not agree with me, and talking to them, is rarely even possible now. It feels like the whole thing is broken.
I don't see any mention of love or concern
just the 'rights' of the mother. The comments attached to it are also nearly all hate type comments. It seems the world is swinging towards a right wing/conservative stamp on minorities attitude, which would go with jingoism and other hateful feelings, it strikes me that some sort of war is inevitable. Why is everyone so angry all the time? I know I am at the intolerance and stupidity of the majority of people today. It's also one of the reasons I've stopped posting, it seems people read my stories to find ammunition to attack me. I'm sorry but after giving thousands of hours and hundreds of pounds here, I'm very probably going to be moving on. So the shitheads have won, just like they did Brexit and the US election.
Angharad
don't let
one or two ignorant people get to you.
You have a lot going on right now so concentrate on what matters to you now. If that means moving on, cutting out the canker of unwarranted abuse then so be it - I'm available for talking at remotely or in person, you know where I am.
For some reason the individuals you are referring to have a lot of 'fans' on BC and comments from this side of the pond are deemed anti American at every turn and removed. As to why they are angry, sod knows, like most bullies they will have some jealousy, something they can't admit to, stuff they want to hide and ranting at someone thousands of miles away with no chance of real chastisement is easy, it is highly unlikely you or I am going to be knocking on their door to confront them. I believe the common term used for such a person is troll - which is in itself demeaning to Trolls who, despite liking goat meat and living under bridges, aren't all bad they just get bad press!
Madeline Anafrid Bell
For My Part
I haven't seen anything in what you have recently written that I can recall disagreeing with or that I thought was untrue. In fact, I've always appreciated Cathy's comments on the environment, people's rights, religion, and politics. What you do is of course your choice. I'd hate to see you go and would miss you.
Help us, Angharad Kenobi, you're our only hope
Please stay! Many of us upstart Colonials find you a breath of fresh air.
few global warming naysayers vs. consistently over 120 kudos.
Don't leave us all alone with these barbarians!!!
(Bike might have gotten a few comments from global warming naysayers
and such recently, but I think the consistently high kudos count shows
youre doing something that people really like. I sure couldn't do it...)
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
Ang, I don't really know what
Ang, I don't really know what to say. Yes, it does seem that the world is going to hell in a hand-basket, and that makes me sad, too. And I'm sorry that some people are making angry intolerant comments. I do think that most of us on BCTS are good eggs and appreciate what you have to offer on this site.
At times Bike has been the only thing that has kept me returning here. If you leave and stop posting, I may drift away, too.
I hope you take some time to relax, recover, and reflect. Perhaps you'll decide to stay around and continue writing and posting here. If not, I understand.
All the best, and thanks for many hours of enjoyable reading.
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
Just one vote of support
Hi, I don't share your view about anger and intolerance and stupidity but I respect your opinion. You are probably in the top five writers and to be honest I never read a bad story by you but I don't read your daily posts because I never started and I had long spells without signing in that was due to life's distractions. Having worked around the world and met many nationalities and seen my share of the effects of greed and corruption and seen characters like Philip Green rape companies I don't have much confidence in the status quo and politicians and the Financial Services sectors have a lot to answer for. If you watched Questiontime last week there was a very calm and realistic panel member who reminded us that if we could project 100 years forward and then look back the changes going on will be viewed more as an adjustment that a major change. For me our biggest challenge in the West is how to solve the problems of ISIS and conflicts in the Middle East. Doesn't BC give you chance to put your take on life on record? you must have helped a lot of people even if some were rude.
I don't think any of us know you well enough to give advice but some have quickly expressed their support and concern. You must be doing a lot right when I look at some of the comments and the authors.
Just be you and continue to set a great example for the site. If you do stop posting who is the winner? If you carry on who is the loser?
What comes next
We'll just have to wait and see ... I have to agree, The Donald wouldn't have been my first choice if just about anyone else had been running against him, but I heard the audio recording made of Mrs. Clinton commenting over her defense of the rapist of a twelve-year old. I could have forgiven her defending the guy, even her actually winning the case ... but I heard her laughing over the result. Frankly, from that point on I was no longer certain she wouldn't burst into flame if someone accidently sprayed her with holy water.
So, we have the Donald to contend with ... well, he's a businessman first and foremost, he lives and breathes The Deal. One can work with that, just keep the pressure on and don't take your eyes off him for a second. As far as Brexit goes ... well, I've been watching the news, and what's going on in Europe isn't refugees, it's a hostile invasion. Britain leaving the European Union may be a drastic response, but I'm not going to say it's the wrong one. Yes, I have to agree we're seeing a lot of hostility, jingoism and hate these days, but it's a response, not a cause. You can only co-exist with a predator from the inside.
I saw this and it broke my heart
Someone said "Every villain is the hero of their own story". I'm sure this misguided mom is doing what she feels is right (because thinking seems to have little to do with it).
I suspect many of us have wrestled with the expectations of others. The lucky ones get those close to them to expand their narrow view and realize the humanity and basic dignity and sense of self of their loved one transcends a limited worldview. The reality and humanity of their loved one forces a re-evaluation of a rigid, limited, insufficient, understanding of how the universe works (and manifests).
Sadly, there are others who feel threatened by, and unceasingly try to force what doesn't fit their inadequate worldview - to fit.
They are the ones who genitally mutilate their daughters to "purge evil urges" - as tradition (misogynistic tradition) demands. Who send their loving, trusting offspring off to "straight-camps" to be de-gayed (brutally pressured and brainwashed to 'get-with-the-program') and the ones who deny the reality of their own trans kids because they don't meet their misguided (often, literally PAINFULLY misguided) expectations.
If it seems like this story touched a nerve .....maybe.... ;-) But I pray this Mom's love for her child will force her to grow beyond her narrow world-view and accept her offspring for who she is.
There could also be some serious self-hatred and misogyny on the part of the mother, wanting her kid to be part of the ruling patriarchy rather than be condemned to the 'lesser' gender. Either way, I suspect Mom has some serious baggage - of one type or another. And she's making her child's life a living hell (more than it already is being a trans teen). I'll conceded that she thinks she means well. But so did the zealots who burned heretics (those they disagreed with) at the stake to "save" them.
I pray for enlightenment for the misguided mom and for strength and perseverance (and eventual peace of mind and forgiveness) for her tortured child.
K@