No Peace After "Pat Doe" Victory

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04a8dfc3.jpg"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="06b63570.gif" border=0 width="99" height="87" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> </td> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=82 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04b8dfe1esnpes.jpg"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#336666" FACE="Arial" ><B>Unity Committee</B></FONT><B>     </B><B>|</B><B>     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Unity Committee"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id64.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Christie Littleton: Still Needs Help"><U>Christie Littleton: Still Needs Help</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Memorial For TG Fallen"><U>Memorial For TG Fallen</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id66.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Feminine Boy Shakes Up Small School"><U>Feminine Boy Shakes Up Small School</U></A>   |   <B>No Peace After "Pat Doe" Victory</B>   |   <A HREF="id72.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Transgender Student Wins Appeal!"><U>Transgender Student Wins Appeal!</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id71.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Restroom Use Sparks Controversy"><U>Restroom Use Sparks Controversy</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id73.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="TGs take Capitol Hill"><U>TGs take Capitol Hill</U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04b8dfc3.jpg"> <div> <I>No Peace After "Pat Doe" Victory</I></div> <div> No Peace After "Pat Doe" Victory Despite a court victory last week requiring a public school to allow her to dress in her self-identified gender (see PlanetOut News of October 13 <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.planetout.com/pno/news/article.html?2000/10/13/1" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.planetout.com/pno/news/articl"><U><B><U>http://www.planetout.com/pno/news/article.html?2000/10/13/1</U></B></U></A></FONT>).</div> <bR> <div> The Massachusetts transgender 15-year-old known as "Pat Doe" has not yet enrolled because of concerns for her safety there, the Boston Globe reported.  Negotiations are underway to work out how she can be protected from hostile students, although Brockton's superintendent of schools has ruled out assigning a security guard specifically to looking out for her.  Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Arial" ><A HREF="http://www.glad.org/press29-10-12-00.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.glad.org/press29-10-12-00.htm"><U><B><U>http://www.glad.org/press29-10-12-00.html</U></B></U></A></FONT>, which represented Pat in court, are urging training for all faculty, staff and students on sexual orientation and gender identity.</div> <bR> <div> The school district is expected to file an appeal of openly lesbian Superior Court Judge Linda Giles' ruling, which cited laws against sex discrimination and First Amendment guarantees of freedom of expression. That ruling has been publicly criticized by Boston University Chancellor John Silber, who wrote in an op-ed piece in the Boston Herald that,</div> <bR> <div> "There is a certain limited realism in calling this [a therapist's diagnosis of Pat with gender identity disorder] a 'disorder' rather than saying that Pat is simply exercising his constitutional right to be a girl. ... The court does Pat Doe no favor by indulging his disorder as something deserving constitutional protection and sending him back to an increasingly unhappy and disruptive existence."</div> <bR> <div> Silber described the therapist as abandoning Doe to "his" -- specifically criticizing Giles for using feminine pronouns to refer to Pat -- "obviously serious problem" by calling for Pat to be allowed full gender expression.  Pat's grandmother describes a year and a half of therapy as having greatly improved Pat's self-esteem.  Firing back at Silber, the Brockton School Committee and others who seem unable to distinguish between behavior and dress in this and two recent criminal cases involving cross-dressers was Globe columnist Eileen McNamara, who praised Giles for drawing, </div> <bR> <div> "a sensible distinction between a 15-year-old boy's feminine wardrobe and his provocative behavior... His behavior warrants discipline; his wardrobe, no matter how threatening it might be to his male classmates, does not." </div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>