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9 Whittier J. Child. & Fam. Advoc. 367 (2009-2010)
Is It a Boy or a Girl - Not the Baby, the Parent: Transgender Parties in Custody Battles and the Benefit of Promoting a Truer Understanding of Gender

handle is hein.journals/wjcfad9 and id is 369 raw text is: IS IT A BOY OR A GIRL? NOT THE BABY, THE PARENT: TRANSGENDER PARTIES IN CUSTODY BATTLES AND THE BENEFIT OF PROMOTING A TRUER UNDERSTANDING OF GENDER By Shannon Shafron Perez1 INTRODUCTION Christine Smith might have seemed like one of the best-loved little girls in the world. After a difficult year, her mother Victoria relocated the family to a new town so that Christine could start fresh at a new school.2 Victoria bought her clothes and girl stuff, just like she wanted.3 Victoria even took Christine to a support group where she could meet others like herself.4 However, Christine's parents are divorced and Christine's world was turned upside down when the Ohio Court of Common Pleas decided to change her residential placement.5 Now she lives with her father, Kevin, who requires her to dress as a boy, attend school as a boy and prohibits her from attending the support group.6 How did this happen? For transgender children like Christine, life is one battle for self- expression after another. Even before her parents divorced, Christine, who was identified at birth as a boy, expressed a desire to be a girl.7 When her parents separated, Victoria was originally granted custody and Kevin was granted visitation.8 Victoria then decided to look into Christine's interest in being a girl.9 She conducted research on the 1. J.D. expected 2010, University of La Verne College of Law. Thank you to my wife Natalie, my parents, Professor Diane Klein, Laura Fehr, and my editor and reverend Evelyn Park for all the good laughs. 2. Smith v. Smith, 2007 WL 901599 at *1 (Ohio App. Mar. 23, 2007). 3. Id. 4. Id. 5. Id. at *6. 6. Id. at *5. 7. Id. at *1. 8. Id. 9. Id. at *2.

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