barbara findlay Q.C.
  • Home
  • About barbara
    • Awards and Honours
  • Services
    • Family Law >
      • Cohabitation Agreements
      • Poly families
      • Separation Agreements
      • Divorce
      • Adoptions
    • Donor Insemination Agreements
    • Immigration for Lesbians and Gay Men
    • Estates
    • Employment Law and Wrongful Dismissal
    • Equality and Human Rights >
      • Transgender Issues: a Work in Progress
    • What We Don't Do
  • Out/Law Legal Guides
  • Case Chronology
  • Unlearning Oppression
  • Blog
  • Resources
    • Articles
  • Contact

Rights if your partner needs medical decisions: NOT like Nevada!

8/20/2012

2 Comments

 
Picture
Terri-Ann Simonelli of Spring Valley, Nevada took her partner Brittney Leon to the hospital because Brittney was having complications with her pregnancy.  Though they had a domestic partnership agreement, and though Nevada law says that anyone with a domestic partnership agreement has all the rights of a spouse, the hospital told Brittney that Terri-Ann could not make decisions for her unless she had a medical power of attorney.  Brittney ended up losing her baby, according to a report in the Las Vegas Review Journal this week.

What happens in BC?  Once you are married or are a 'common law partner' - that is, once you have lived together for at least two years - the law says you can make medical decisions for your partner.  But if you have not lived together that long, or if you want your spouse or partner to be able to make the crucial end of life decisions, you have to have a Representation Agreement (which is what a BC medical power of attorney is called). 

I have myself encountered this issue in a Vancouver hospital which did not want to list my partner as my (decision-making) 'next of kin'.  If that ever happens to you, and you are married or common law, then stand your ground, ask to speak to a supervisor, and tell them they have to recognize you as the decision-maker or they are committing a violation of the Human Rights Code.

2 Comments

Pastor convicted of helping 'ex-lesbian' leave US to escape custody battle with her ex partner

8/16/2012

1 Comment

 
A Virginia Mennonite pastor  was convicted August 13 2012 of helping a former lesbian flee the country with her young daughter. Lisa Miller had been in a lesbian relationship and had a child with her partner.  Miller was the birth mother.

Miller  later joined the Mennonite church and renounced her lesbianism.  There was a custody battle between Miller and her ex.  Her pastor, Timothy Miller (no relation) helped her get out of the United States. 

It is reassuring to see a Virginia court recognize the status and rights of the non-bio-mom.
1 Comment

Lesbian - No, Pansexual - Congresswoman from Texas

8/15/2012

1 Comment

 
Congresswoman Mary Gonzalez was elected in May as the state's first lesbian member of the House of Representatives.  At the time she was dubbed the 'Latina lesbian lawmaker'. 

In a thought-provoking interview with the Dallas Voice, she now explains that her identity is pansexual.  Not bisexual, as in attracted to both men and women, but pansexual - attracted to people whatever their gender identity.

It is an odd feature of the English language that our sexual orientation is defined by the gender of the person we are attracted to.  And it moves from odd to unworkable as soon as you take into account trans people.  What is the correct term for a person attracted to trans people, or to both trans and cisgendered people? 

There are in the world people attracted only to trans people.  How would you describe their sexual orientation? 
If your partner is transsexual and transitions from one gender to the other, does that mean your sexual orientation has changed?

For me, 'queer' solves a multitude of problems of that kind.  I think that it is conceptually weird to say that if my partner changes gender, my sexual orientation has changed if I stay with my partner.  First of all, if s/he is transsexual, maybe it was  her/his transsexuality (rather than her ascribed gender) that I was, even unknowingly, attracted to in the first place.  Second, even if her/his genitals have changed, her/his gender identity has not: s/he had the 'wrong' genitals in the first place.  So if my sexual attraction was to someone who transitioned from male to female, she was always female.  Though the world would have 'seen' me as being involved with a man, and after her transition, with a woman, and the world would have described my sexual orientation as "changing" if we stayed together after her transition, I think that way of describing what is going on is simply inadequate. 

What do you think? 
1 Comment

Engineering gender

8/6/2012

0 Comments

 
A frightening report in the Journal of Bioethical Inquiry reports that synthetic steroids are being prescribed, off-label, to pregnant women who are at risk of having a child with congenital adrenal hyperplasia, a condition which can result in female fetus being born with intersex or transsexual characteristics.  The goal is to 'normalize' the gender of the baby.
0 Comments

VietNam: First pride parade; gay marriage proposed

8/6/2012

0 Comments

 
VietNam's justice minister recently proposed legalizing same sex marriage, which would make it the first Asian country to extend marriage rights to queers.  Vietnam's first Pride Parade, with about 100 people, happened without incident, though the parade organizers did not try to get official permission for the event.
0 Comments

Great news for Ugandan lesbian facing deportation

8/6/2012

1 Comment

 
Ugandan Leatitia Nanziri, slated for deportation because neither the Refugee Division nor Immigration Canada believed she was a lesbian, has been granted a reprieve by the Federal Court which reviewed her case.  The court sent her case back for redetermination; that will happen in about six months.  Her stay in Canada, with her two Canadian-born children, is not yet assured, but this is a very positive development.

1 Comment

    RSS Feed

    Subscribe to our blog

    Archives

    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012

    Categories

    All
    Aboriginal
    Access
    Accountability
    Adoption
    Aids
    Alberta
    Amnesty International
    Apology
    Appeal
    Assisted Human Reproduction Technology
    Bathrooms
    Birth Certificate
    Bisexual
    Board Of Education
    Breast Cancer
    British Columbia
    Broadcast
    Bullying
    Canadian Human Rights Tribunal
    Catholic
    Charter Of Rights
    Charter Of Values
    Child Protection
    Children
    Child Support
    Child Welfare
    Christian
    Citizenship
    Civil Rights
    Civil Union
    Coca Cola
    Colonialism
    Comedy
    Common Law
    Confidentiality
    Courts
    Criminal Law
    Custody
    Depilation
    Disability
    Discrimination
    Divorce
    Donor Insemination
    Education
    Egg Donor
    Egypt
    Employment
    Equality Rights
    Ethnic Origin
    Family Law
    Family Law Act
    Family Relations Act
    Federal Court
    Feminist
    First Nations
    Freedom Of Conscience
    Freedom Of Expression
    Freedom Of Religion
    Freedom Of Speech
    Gay
    Gay Straight Alliance
    Gender Expression
    Gender Identity
    Gender Marker
    Genderqueer
    Genetic
    Genetic Testing
    Greyson
    Harassment
    Harper
    Hate Speech
    Health
    Hiv
    Holocaust
    Homophobia
    Homosexual
    Homosexuality
    House Of Commons
    Human Rights
    Idaho
    Immigration
    International
    Intersex
    Jail
    Jewish
    John Baird
    Judge
    Kansas
    Kenya
    Kris Wells
    Kuwait
    Law
    Law Society Of Bc
    Law Society Of Ontario
    Leaflet
    Lesbian
    Loubani
    Malaysia
    Marriage
    Mary Bryson
    Medical Plan
    Minority
    Music
    Muslim
    Nepal
    Obama
    Ontario
    Pansexual
    Parenting
    Passport
    Power Of Attorney
    Prejudice
    Pride
    Prison
    Property
    Publication
    Public Opinion
    Quebec
    Queer
    Race
    Racism
    Rae Spoon
    Refugee
    Registered Domestic Partnership
    Religion
    Representation Agreement
    Reproductive Technology
    Research
    Retirement Home
    Russia
    Same Sex
    Same Sex Marriage
    Saskatchewan
    School
    Schools
    Seniors
    Sexism
    Sex Reassignment Surgery
    Sexual Assault
    Sexual Orientation
    Sharia Law
    Sikhism
    Slander
    Social Assistance
    South Carolina
    South Dakota
    Speaking Out
    Special General Meeting
    Sperm Donor
    Spousal Sponsorship
    Spousal Support
    Sun Dance
    Supreme Court Of Canada
    Surrogacy
    Surrogate Mother
    Tarek Loubani
    Tenancy
    Tennessee
    Three Parents
    Trans Alliance Society
    Transgender
    Transition
    Transsexual
    Trinity Western University
    Tweet
    TWU
    Uganda
    United States
    Viet Nam
    Visa
    Voice Therapy
    Washroom
    Wills

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos used under Creative Commons from phalinn, quinn.anya, tedeytan, ToGa Wanderings, Jason Spaceman, Tim Reckmann | a59.de, Enokson, Abulic Monkey, Nina Matthews Photography, _DarkGuru_, Gribiche, whiteafrican, Sweet One, jk+too, Stephane Gaudry, DonkeyHotey, Moon Wolfe