Here's something I discovered while surfing the web today...

Ann Rostow, Friday 3 December, 2004 10:12

The Filipino husband of an American transgender woman has been pulled off the citizenship track because of his wife's identity and may be deported if he is unable to convince a federal court to step in.

Jiffy Javenella, 27, has been a legal US resident since his marriage to Donita Ganzon, 58, in 2001. According to the Associated Press, Ganzon is also from the Philippines, but has lived in the United States for 25 years. She became a citizen in 1987, six years after her gender reassignment surgery.

Ganzon and Javenella met in 2000, when Ganzon, a nurse, was visiting the Philippines. They became engaged, and Javenella moved to southern California a few months before their marriage. Subsequently, Javenella applied for permanent residency status, a routine procedure for the foreign spouse of a US citizen.

During the interviews with immigration officials, however, Ganzon mentioned her 1981 transition from male to female. Within three weeks, the AP reports, Javenella was denied residency. He immediately lost his work permit, and along with it, his job.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, US policy "disallows recognition of change of sex in order for a marriage between two persons born of the same sex to be considered bona fide". The bureaucrats cite the 1996 Defence of Marriage Act to justify their denial of residency to Javenella, based on his illegal "same-sex marriage."

Javenella filed a federal suit against the Citizen and Immigration Services (CIS), charging among other things that he was never even given a chance to argue his case in an immigration hearing.

According to Shannon Minter of the National Centre for Lesbian Rights, Javenella is one of several men and women facing draconian Bush-era rules and regulations regarding transgender marriages.

Up until this administration, said Minter, the US Immigration Service has enjoyed a solid reputation for wise dealings in cases involving transgender people. Marriages involving a transgender wife and husband were respected for decades until recently. Now, however, transgender people are rigidly assigned to their birth sex, and if the results of that policy produce a "same-sex marriage," the foreign spouse is black-balled from citizenship.

"The consequences for these people are horrifying," said Minter. "It's humiliating. It's traumatising. And the stakes involved are as high as they can get -- whether or not you are going to be able to live with your spouse."

Minter added that many of these immigration cases have occurred on the West Coast, and he speculates that eventually the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will have a chance to weigh in on the policy.

What does the team think?

Hugs,

Katie x

People are just way too uptight about sex and gender issues. In my view, the fact that the man was able to hold a job is all the reason I need to let him stay. LOL We need more people like that!

More to the point, it's bad enough that gay marriages are illegal, but to deny a biologically, if not genetically, straight marriage to someone who's gone through the trouble of having SRS is adding insult to injury. I'm not necessarily saying the Citizen and Immigration Services did the wrong thing. Assuming they were following the laws & regulations, the CIS had no choice in the matter. I suspect the laws themselves need to be changed, and that won't happen until the social attitude across the nation changes.

Why do these people care so much about how we live our lives?

As long as we are good citizens pay our taxes and don't break the law, why should they care? Sure they wouldn't do it themselves but whos's asking them to?