[News] [Germany] German courts rule that an eleven year old German transgender girl can legally be institutionalized.
Stephanie Stevens
German courts rule that an eleven year old German transgender girl can
legally be institutionalized.
Scallywag | March 24, 2012 0
[Photo: <http://bit.ly/GOYmv0> Alexis Kaminsky]
The case of an eleven year old child who goes by the alias Alex
Kaminsky has once again stirred debate as to Germany’s stance towards
gender neutrality, sex and clinical devices of purity, especially in
light of its torrid history with respect to forced sterilization and
aspirations towards racial purity.
At the heart of the matter can a young girl and her mother decide what
is best for her daughter who biologically was not born a girl but
wishes to pursue a female gender or are they obligated to subscribe to
the courts view which at present allows open the possibility of the
child being institutionalized whom according to human rights group now
fear the child will be exposed to a type of redressing with the
expressed intent of correcting what is implicitly perceived to be
mental deficiencies of a the child.
The commotion came about as Berlin’s Kammergericht this past Thursday
re affirmed a lower court’s decision allowing the state to
institutionalize an eleven year old. At the time of the ruling, the
child’s mother who had sought therapy for her child but to date has
been inexplicably denied reiterated that she will now take her case to
the constitutional court in an effort to allow her eleven year old to
remain living as a female despite being born a male, something the
mother supports.
The incident initially found itself in front of the courts as a
consequence of the girl’s parents separating and being of different
opinions as to how the medical treatment of the child should proceed,
with state youth office mandating that the child should be treated in
an institution before eventually being made available to a foster
family.
Implicit in the court’s decision is the very real possibility that the
child may now be preempted from pursuing her desire to live as a
female, and exposed to a type of indoctrination that does not promote
gender neutrality or choice. Also of concern is whether the child is
too young to completely understand the ramifications of her choices
and the technical legality that German law requires before one can
have a sex change or at least begin the process of hormone adaptation
to become one’s innate sense of gender.
To date the youth office has asserted that it believes the best
interest of the ‘child ‘ would be achieved if it were removed from a
sphere of influence that is predisposed to the girl asserting a female
identity . This of course raises the question can a child’s
‘transsexuality’ be induced without the child resisting?
To date no reported incidents exist where a child was forced to accept
a gender re alignment against their will, which has stirred the
plaintiff’s lawyer to argue that a nurse which the youth office
assigned has on the back of one single solitary hour long meeting been
able to insist that the mother has sought to unduly influence the
child in their choice of gender. The plaintiff’s lawyer has also
expressed shock and reticence that to date their client, the mother
and daughter have been denied the right to an expert report or
therapy, something that the youth office is unwilling to yield to.
Come this Monday at 3pm, human right activists will protest on behalf
of the child. Argue the group who go by the banner attache ‘Stop Alex
forced into institutionalization at once’: “Institutions like the
youth office and the Charité use force on humans through enforcement
and psychological pressure! Each gender and each gender identity is a
right, not a disease.”
Activists are particularly disturbed with the state’s view that the
child might be mentally diseased and thus seeking to institutionalize
it to ‘correct’ what it perceives to be mental deficiencies which
would run counter with the notion that gender isn’t necessarily what
one is born with but what one innately relates to and chooses.
Already a signature campaign as organized by British transsexual
activist Katrina Swales is under way to challenge the court’s
decision. Asserts Katrina Swales who to date has amassed over 9000
signatures: “This young girl gets taught that her feelings are wrong.
She gets pushed into self denial more and more. Something that has
already cost the lives of so many transsexuals.”
In light of the court’s current stance a deep mistrust amongst human
activists has been instilled who fear clinical assessments may be
adopting sterile dispositions towards gender choices and other aspects
of human rights manifestations especially in light of a nation known
to have had a torrid history with respect to gender rights,
discrimination and what has to date been publicly left unsaid,
previous ethnic purity aspirations.
As translated by google: taz.de
<http://www.taz.de/Streit-um-elfjaehrige-Transexuelle/!90229/>
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