TransNation
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TransNation |
by Jacob Anderson-Minshall
Shannon
Minter has just won $100,000. He didn't win it playing poker or in the
latest state lottery. He doesn't even get to blow his winnings on a new
sports car or a trip to Hawaii. Minter, the legal director for the National
Center for Lesbian Rights--who gained national attention when he represented
transsexual father Michael Kantaras in the groundbreaking Florida custody
case—earned the monetary award the hard way: through dedication
and challenging work. His tireless work on behalf of the LGBT community
won Minter a 2005 Leadership for Change award from the Ford Foundation.
The $100,000 Ford Foundation grant
will allow NCLR to hire a managing attorney, so that Minter's time can
be spent on big picture projects, like "strategic thinking and strengthening
our alliances with people working in other movements."
Minter came out as transsexual while
working at NCLR and says that having a key staff member transition gave
the organization "an opportunity to deal with the issue." Minter
credits NCLR's openness to transgender issues, to their birth as a feminist
organization.
"[NCLR] was always paying attention
to the gender-based foundation of sexual orientation discrimination. So
it has been a very natural fit to take on transgender cases. It is one
of our core program areas now."
Minter points to the Michael Kantaras
case as a "real turning point" in the advocacy for transgender
rights because it reached millions of viewers when it was broadcast on
Court TV.
"It was the first time that the
country had a chance to hear the details of what it means to be transsexual;
the details about the medical treatment and the psychological aspect,
about transgender people being parents, getting married. We still to this
day hear from people who write us because they remember seeing that trial
on TV. And so many people said it opened their eyes."
In what Minter calls "a fascinating
and wonderful coincidence," one of those people was TV's Dr. Phil,
who got involved in the case after the decision was overturned by a Florida
appeals court. Minter credits the trial court win to Michael Kantaras'
presence and the testimony about his fathering skills, but the appeals
court never saw any of those things.
"All you get at the appellate
level is the chance to file a brief and make a short oral argument. They
don't get to see the person. They literally don't see the person. Unfortunately
that allows them to sort of fill in the blanks with their own imagination
which tends to be based on negative stereotypes. So that was a very disarming—to
be reversed on appeal."
After that disappointing reversal,
NCLR was delighted when Dr. Phil got involved and they were able forge
a settlement allowing Kantaras to retain his parental rights and access
to his children.
Another issue, which weighs heavily
on the activist lawyer, is that of trans youth, who are facing great odds
as they come out younger and younger. Minter, who founded NCLR's Youth
Program in 1993 argues that a significant percentage of these kids are
coming out really young, "like four or five years old."
When kids come out that early, they
face difficulties both at school and at home. The NCLR says that 90 percent
of gender variant youth surveyed nationwide reported feeling unsafe at
school because of their gender expression. In addition to their legal
advocacy, NCLR (www.nclrights.org)
provides free legal information to LGBTQ youth, and their supporters.
"We are getting so many calls
now from parents and teachers of very young children who are identifying
as the other gender and having big problems at school and sometimes at
home. We're getting custody battles where one parent is supportive and
another parent's not. We just were helping out with a case where [a] mom
lost custody of her child in Ohio, and there's a court order requiring
everyone to basically disregard the child’s gender identity. That's
really painful."
Trans FTM writer Jacob Anderson-Minshall can be reached at jake@trans-nation.org