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Kimberly Stankovich is a transgendered father of two children. She was incarcerated for not paying child support, which is something of a challenge considering the 37-year-old auto mechanic, formerly William, has found it impossible to find work in Spokane, Washington, since her transition began. Whether Stankovich is a deadbeat dad or a transgendered victim of discrimination is the subject of Stankovich's upcoming divorce trial later this month. Queer Day's happy to save the court the time by noting the correct answer is option B. Anyway, as for the matter of child support, Superior Court Commissioner Royce Moe actually said he wasn't convinced that Stankovich did not make a choice to be transgendered. "How is what your client did any different from deciding that she wants to be a punk rocker," Moe asked during the hearing.

Moe gave Stankovich a month to pay child support or spend a week in jail. Once incarcerated, she was placed in a men's wing where she was verbally abused for two days until an expert in gender identity dysphoria came to her aid. Advocates for Stankovich say she has been denied her civil rights by numerous judges and court commissioners who have presided in the divorce case since it was filed July 15, 2004. One court commissioner, Valerie Jolicoeur, ordered Stankovich to dress as a man during visitations with her daughters, ages 15 and 12, "to spare them the embarrassment of having a transgendered father."

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[ 13 August 2005: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

I'm going to try to summarize the issues, and they are legion.

*Kimberly is experiencing transphobia, and, sexism, for her gender identity shift. That remark made by her ex's lawyer about being "surprised" that Kimberly can't find auto mechanic work as a woman is so stunned it's unbelievable.

*She has an obligation to pay child support and to help support her children. I assume the monthly amount was assessed when she had a job that paid more, rather than based on her ex-wife's financial needs. Kimberly's earning power was higher when she was a man, again, an indication of that loss when transitioning to being a woman.

*She is clearly not in a financial position now, or in the near future, to pay that level of support, so what can she do? Can the support agreement be adjusted to match her financial situation, and go up when she makes more money? Can she go into child support "debt" and pay it off as she can, when she can, bit by bit?

*Certainly putting her in the men's jail, and forcing her to be referred to as "William" was a violation of her rights. Jails have been hard pressed to deal with the issues of transwomen (I hear less about transmen and this issue), as jails are one of the more brutal places where gender and sexuality is strictly enforced and policed (pun intended).

The argument that in the majority of cases women are given custody and men pay child support, which I can't contribute to as I have not done any research in the area (how often it actually happens, when dads don't pay how often is it because they actually can't versus being deadbeat jackasses, etc). If this is, in fact, a trend, I would argue that some of it come from inherent sexism and gender role model ideas that the moms are better to raise the kids, and that the dads are more likely to be the higher earner. Kimberly is now trapped in this gender role model, it seems, with everything working against her.

From the original source-story:

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Since then, Stankovich said, she has pursued a bachelor's degree in psychology, first attending Spokane Community College and then Eastern Washington University with the goal of finding a career in which her gender identity would not be an impediment. The court, however, has ruled that Stankovich's first obligation is to find a job.

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