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The Westerville Case
This page is devoted to information about the case of a possible GID child in Westerville Ohio. This child was seized from the parents by Franklin County Children's Services apparently after the parent's attempted to implement recommendations for handling GID children including changing their name, and letting them enroll in school under their declared gender. AO has generously contributed to the Legal Fund supporting this family not because we are sure that the parents are right, but because without legal support they won't get a fair hearing in court. Since AO has contributed, I'm going to post information about this case as it comes in- Diane S. Frank
Part 1- Rumor- The Father is going to have a Sex Change and is dragging the son along with him-
Attorney's response September 10, 2000
Dear Diane, Many thanks to you and to Alpha Omega for your generous support. I know that the Lipscombs will be especially grateful because thay understand that such gifts from members of the overal gender community represent a greater than average personal sacrifice. Regarding your member's report from the rumor mill, it only goes to show the value of hearsay that is several times removed. Following are the facts. You are free to disseminate them to your reporting member, and to anyone else for that matter. Aurora's father, Paul, had an increasingly difficult time accepting his daughter's feminine behavior as she grew older. He did not initially accept her diagnosis of Gender Identity Disorder, either. However, as he gathered information and researched GID in order to better understand his daughter, he also gained crucial insight into his own strong negative reactions to her feminine behavior over the years. Paul realized that he had been reacting toward his daughter's behavior in the same way emotionally as his mother (and sole parent) had reacted to his own similar behavior when he was a child. When Paul was a child his mother beat him brutally and mercilessly anytime he exhibited anything resembling cross-gendered behavior. His father (who died when Paul was an infant) had been a professional football player, and his mother was determined to make Paul as manly a man as possible. Paul, however, was very much like his daughter, and he simply could not be the macho, masculine man his mother wanted him to be. She continued to belittle, berate, and humiliate him both privately and publicly until her death five years ago. This is not a case of a TS parent who intends to lead his child down the same path. It is rather the opposite. It is an example of a parent who, in trying to understand his child's diagnosed GID and his own parental reaction to it, finally recognizes his own conflicted gender identity. He is dealing with his own GID in the same manner as he has advocated for his daughter: in compliance and accordance with the procedures and parameters prescribed by the Standards of Care for Gender Identity Disorders.
Part 2-
Boy sent to school dressed as a girl to remain with Children Services
The Associated Press 9/13/00 8:09 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- Franklin County Children Services has been awarded temporary custody of a 6-year-old boy whose parents sent him to school dressed as a girl. Juvenile Court Magistrate Lorenzo Sanchez ruled Tuesday that Children Services could keep custody of the child until after a trial scheduled for November. The boy was removed from the home of Sherry and Paul Lipscomb of Westerville last month after they informed school officials that the child would wear girl's clothes and have a girl's name this school year. The child attended kindergarten as a boy last year. Rebecca Steele, a public defender appointed to represent the child, testified that the parents could be pushing him to act like a girl to gain attention and sympathy for themselves. "There is a suspicion of Munchausen syndrome by proxy," she said. But the Lipscombs said the boy has been diagnosed to have a gender-identity disorder. Children Services attorney Keith Cornwell said symptoms of a gender-identity disorder have not been apparent during the child's stay in a foster home. "The gender-identity issue, we feel, is a red herring," Steele said. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
This is Debbie Smith, Randi
Barnabee's partner. Right now Randi is up to her neck
trying to prepare for another hearing in the Lipscomb case
tomorrow. I know Sue Davis was at the TransFamily meeting
in Cleveland last week and is going to update you on the status
of the case. However, Franklin County Children's Services
announced today in court that it will be seeking a gag Yesterday morning Mark Narens filed a Motion for an Emergency Shelter Care Hearing with the Court. The hearing was set for 9 am this morning. When Mark and Randi appeared in Court, FCCS announced that it had withdrawn the original complaint and filed a new one specifying both dependency and neglect charges. The dependency charges basically assert that Aurora's parents are treating her as a girl, when in the opinion of school and Children's Services officials she does not persistently demonstrate the characteristics set forth in the DSM IV for GID in children. Children's Services has not yet acknowledged that they have documentation in their possession that indicates that Aurora was formally diagnosed with GID. The new charges allege neglect on two grounds: first, Aurora was without her lithium for 30 days and second, that the parents have shopped around for doctors that will give the diagnosis they want. The first charge is based on a call to the pharmacy to check refill records. It turns out that due to their financial situation, Paul and Sherry had spoken to the pharmacist about giving Aurora Paul's lithium. Paul was taking the same medication, but had stopped taking it. Paul and Sherry took the pills to the pharmacist and asked if it was okay to give Aurora those pills instead of refilling Aurora's prescription. The pharmacist gave them the okay and will corroberate this. As to the second charge, the family pediatrician will state that he has been working with the family and is aware of the various physicians that have seen Aurora and that she has been seen by so many physicians because each physician refers them to another one. As a result of the new complaint, the hearing on the Motion filed yesterday was cancelled. It hadn't occurred to Children's Services that by dismissing their original complaint their temporary custody order terminated, so Mark Narens demanded they return custody of Aurora. I should add that the film crew from 48 Hours and a Time Magazine reporter were present for all of this and demanded access to the court room. FCCS had already stated that they were preparing a Motion for a Gag Order but were not yet ready to proceed on that topic. At this juncture FCCS was faced with the decision of returning custody temporarily to the Lipscombs or holding a hearing on an Emergency Care Order while 48 Hours filmed the proceedings. FCCS opted to have the hearing rather than turn over custody. The most outrageous event of the day came during the taped hearing in which the Guardian Ad Litem stated that this was clearly a case of Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome. Although it appeared that the Magistrate was considering returning custody of Aurora to the Lipscombs, in the end he continued custody by FCCS. There is another hearing on the matter set for 1:30 tomorrow (Wednesday). Mark and Randi plan to file another Motion for an Emergency Shelter Care Hearing and possibly a motion for civil penalties against the FCCS attorney who denied FCCS had any knowledge of the GID diagnosis, when a case plan prepared by FCCS in June and given to the Lipscombs discusses the diagnosis and how the Lipscombs were to handle it. Thanks for your support, Debbie
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