Overheard in the pub across the way from the courtroom of Mr. Justice Liam McKechnie, where the difficult case of Dr. Lydia Foy (she used to be a he) is being heard in Dublin:
--The transgenders usually take their business next door, with the gay crowd, sir.
--Oh, you are much mistaken. I am a lady. Although my birth certificate lists my gender as male, it is wrong.
--Born a girl, so?
--I should have been a girl. Afflicted as I am with gender identity disorder, my birth certificate reflects what the physician saw on the outside. Hence, a grievous error was made and I was identified as male.
--Sorry?
--Gender identity disorder. My sexual identity is at odds with my physical appearance. My wife did not understand either.
--Wife? Ah, you're looking for the lesbian pub. Four doors down.
--My soon to be ex-wife is a lady, as am I, although I was the one to father our two daughters, while she gave birth in a very ladylike manner. Since that time I have corrected nature's mistake and am now a surgically crafted female. To complete the process and live with dignity, I must have my birth certificate corrected as well.
--Are you saying that at the time of your birth, you were male? Then the birth certificate's correct. I mean, you've got Y chromosomes and all.
--You sound like Mr. Justice McKechnie. He ruled on my case five years ago and said that very thing. But the European Court of Human Rights has ruled in a similar case since then and they stated that the rights of the transgendered to marry and enjoy a bit of privacy are breached by such barbaric judgments. One would think that my ex-wife would accept the wisdom of the European Court, but no, she's been fighting against me. All in a flutter, thinking that our marriage would be null and void since two women can't get married, and that would mean that we were not a family as defined by the Constitution. Worries that our daughters would lose their rights.
--When you filed for divorce, you must have accepted that you were a male when you were married, and when you impregnated the missus?
--It's not as simple as that. My birth certificate says I am male, but I am not. The laws must be amended to give transgendered people their rights. Mr. Justice McKechnie said as much when he first ruled on the case, and still nothing's been done by this government to ameliorate my trauma. At the very least, the court could issue a declaration that I am entitled to a corrected birth certificate, if they can't see their way to actually issuing the thing.
--Your wife, a woman, gave birth, and you say you're the other biological parent. Sorry, Dr. Foy, but only males can be the other biological parent when the first one's a female. It doesn't matter what a surgeon does to your body, or what you think you are. The European Court of Human Rights can't change the laws of biology, no matter how many writs and appeals and rulings they make. It's not as simple as that.
3 comments:
The laws of biology also create a brain with gender identity, and so crude an understanding as the learned judge is displayed in many a courtroom everyday. May God have as much compassion for the judge as he had for the human being before him. http://transworkplace.blogspot.com
Better that Dr. Foy have a bit of compassion for his children, whose legal status would become a nightmare.
There's many defects that arise during gestation, many that science does not fully understand. Acceptance of those with any defect of development would be a better idea, rather than trying to legislate what cannot be made law.
The transgendered individual in my community cannot erase the collective memory; she was once a man and we all know it. And no one much cares, because she's a decent human being and that's all that matters.
she gave birth in a very ladylike manner
OMG, that cracked me up! I've had two children myself, and I've attended 3 of my 4 grandchildren's births, so I can categorically state that there is nothing "ladylike," as in dignified, about childbirth.
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