NOTE FROM FIELDS AND DENNIS — FOR SOME RECOMMENDATIONS OF BOOKS AND VIDEOS ABOUT THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIVORCE AND ABOUT PARENTING PLANS, VISIT HERE.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIVORCE, VISIT HERE.
Custody of Trans Children part III: Father jailed in dispute over 4 year old’s gender
Joshua Baish looks uncomfortable in his orange jumpsuit as he tells his story in a video conference call at the Denton County Jail in early August. Fifteen video monitors line the walls inside the small visitation room, and nearly all of them are in use this Sunday afternoon. Several children patiently wait to see their fathers, who are behind bars for various reasons, since a video call won’t connect until a minute before each meeting.
No one is waiting to see Baish, who says he hasn’t seen his 4-year-old twin daughters since the judge sentenced him in late July.
In June, he drove to his ex-wife’s house on Father’s Day to pick up his daughters for a weekend visit and was met by two Denton police officers and a freshly filed temporary restraining order. “The accusation?” he wrote on Facebook. “I was forcing Lily to be a boy. And that it constitutes abuse.”
When one spouse changes gender, can the marriage be saved?
On April 18, 2015, Pam Balentine arrived in Philadelphia with her husband of 15 years, Ken. Two weeks later, she returned to her South Dakota home with her wife, Kendall.
Just before the multiple surgical procedures that changed her spouse’s sex and both partners’ lives, Pam was blunt with Ken.
“If you go through with this, one of us will be very unhappy,” she said. ” That will be me.”
Read more here.
NOTE FROM FIELDS AND DENNIS — FOR SOME RECOMMENDATIONS OF BOOKS AND VIDEOS ABOUT THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIVORCE AND ABOUT PARENTING PLANS, VISIT HERE.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIVORCE, VISIT HERE.
My Child Is ‘They,’ And It’s Society, Not Language, That Needs Fixing
Before anyone asks, no, I’m not some sort of new age, millennial, hipster-chic parent living in a commune, attempting to raise genderless, nameless offspring who will one day grow up and decide these things independent of their father and me. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s just not us. My husband and I learned all three of our kids’ biological sexes via ultrasound and we planned accordingly. I dressed my boys in blue, my girl in pink.
I’d always hoped to have a child of each gender. And God, in only God’s divine way, was brilliant enough to give me one of each: a cisgender male, Jack, born in 2000, a cisgender female. Kate, born in 2002, and a few years later, when my third and last child was born, well, God threw all caution to the wind and decided to confuse everyone and make the ride just a little more fun.
The Trans Mental Health Debate is a Lot More Complicated Than You Think
“Transgender people are mentally ill!” It’s a phrase that I get constantly as a trans writer. It invariably follows me everywhere I go on the internet, from comments sections on my articles to Twitter and Facebook. What I don’t ever say is that they’re half right — let me explain: my diagnosis is called gender dysphoria. Dysphoria is what we label the effects of having an internal sense of gender that is a mismatch from your assigned sex at birth.
The commonly held interpretation is that I am “a woman trapped in a man’s body,” but the truth is much more complex than that.
Read more here.
NOTE FROM FIELDS AND DENNIS — FOR SOME RECOMMENDATIONS OF BOOKS AND VIDEOS ABOUT THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIVORCE AND ABOUT PARENTING PLANS, VISIT HERE.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIVORCE, VISIT HERE.
Mental Health Concerns More Common Among Transgender Children
Transgender children are more likely than their cisgender peers to have a mental health diagnosis, says a study in Pediatrics. The study says gender dysphoria may play a role in this phenomenon. Gender dysphoria is distress that occurs when a person’s assigned gender does not match their gender identity.
Previous research has documented higher rates of suicidal thoughts among transgender populations. A 2012 study found two-thirds of transgender people have considered suicide. In the same study, 26% of trans women and 30% of trans men said they had attempted suicide in the past.
Read more here.
NOTE FROM FIELDS AND DENNIS — FOR SOME RECOMMENDATIONS OF BOOKS AND VIDEOS ABOUT THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIVORCE AND ABOUT PARENTING PLANS, VISIT HERE.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIVORCE, VISIT HERE.
Custody of Trans Children Part II: Free Speech Rights, Parental Rights, and Children with Gender Dysphoria
An interesting Arizona appellate decision in the case discussed in a previous blog post here, rejecting a court’s assignment of a treating therapist, and rejecting a gag order that limited parents’ discussions with the child.
Paul E. (“Father”) and Courtney F. (“Mother”) married in 2004 and thereafter had three children together, including L., born in 2007. Father and Mother divorced in 2010. The decree of dissolution gave the parties joint legal custody of the children, with final legal decision-making authority awarded to Father with respect to L.’s and one of the other children’s education, medical care, and dental care. Mother was awarded final legal decision-making authority with respect to the remaining child’s education, medical care, and dental care. The parties were awarded equal parenting time with respect to all three children…
Read more here.
NOTE FROM FIELDS AND DENNIS — FOR SOME RECOMMENDATIONS OF BOOKS AND VIDEOS ABOUT THE PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIVORCE AND ABOUT PARENTING PLANS, VISIT HERE.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF DIVORCE, VISIT HERE.
Custody of Trans Children Part I: Why parents are losing custody of trans and gender non-conforming kids
The divorced parents had joint custody of their three children and equal parenting time.
But soon after the mother began allowing their male child — identified in legal documents as “L.” — to wear a skirt to school, the father took his ex-wife to court.
Arguing that the mother, “through various acts, was pushing a female gender identification on L.,” the father asked for sole legal custody to make decisions about the child’s health care and schooling, according to court records. He also requested L. live with him full-time.
Read more here.