A lawsuit has been filed against an Ohio judge for rejecting the requests of transgender teens for changing their names to match their gender identities. The plaintiffs, who are the mothers of three transgender teens, claim that Judge Joseph Kirby’s rulings denying the name-change requests may violate the adolescents’ constitutional rights. All of the teens have full support from their doctors and are going through therapy and medical treatment for their gender dysphoria.
Kirby, a probate and juvenile court judge for Warren County, Ohio, denied a name-change request for 15-year-old Elliot Whitaker, claiming that the adolescent does not have the maturity nor knowledge to make the choice. The judge told Whitaker to come back to court when the adolescent has become an adult. Attorney Joshua Langdon represents the Whitaker family in their formal appeal and calls Judge Kirby’s decision “absurd.” Langdon questions why the government would have more authority than the child’s parents and the child in terms of the name-change request.
Additional Reading:
Ohio Judge Refuses to Allow Transgender Teens to Change Their Names: Lawsuit, The Daily Beast (August 06, 2018)
