Family isn’t strictly defined by those who share DNA with you or raised you. Your family can also be made up of the ones you choose, the people who are there for you in times of trouble, the people who support you, who love you unconditionally, blood related or not.
Ireland looking to extend Gender Recognition Act to children
In 2015 Ireland passed the Gender Recognition Act which allows transgender adults to self-declare their own gender identity. This legal gender recognition process is currently only extended to those over the age of 18. Ireland’s government is currently in talks to extend this self-declaration process to those under the age of 18 as well.
The process would operate a bit differently than it does for adults, requiring parental consent for the minor to declare their gender and ensuring a third party support for families. The report, put together by the Review Group of the Gender Recognition Act, also recommends that legal gender recognition be extended to intersex and nonbinary individuals.
“I will be consulting with the Attorney General and other Cabinet colleagues in order to tease out any legal and operational issues in advancing the recommendations,” shared Government minister Regina Doherty.
The report also recommended that “legal gender recognition should be made available to people who are nonbinary” and that the process should also “provide access for intersex individuals.”
Family celebrates bisexual child’s life with superhero funeral
Anthony Avalos, a ten year old child who recently came out saying he liked “boys and girls” was murdered shortly after coming out. Avalos had been regularly abused, with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Families (DCFS) receiving 13 referrals to check on the child over the last five years.
Avalos’ mother Heather Maxine Barron along with her boyfriend Kareem Leiva have been charged on accounts of murder, torture and child abuse after their claim that Avalos had died of injuries resulting from a fall did not line up with the severity of the child’s injuries. Since the murder eight children have been removed from Barron’s home where Leiva lived off-and-on.
At this time, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Capt. Chris Bergner has said that homophobia has not come up as a cause of the murder.
Family and community members have been protesting outside of DCFS on the grounds that Avalos’ death could have been avoided had more investigations been done.
“Anthony’s extended family, including his maternal aunt Maria Barron, have said that his coming out was a mark of bravery, in such a viciously abusive environment,” according to PinkNews.
To celebrate Avalos’ life, those attending his funeral were asked by Maria to wear superhero shirts to honor the boy who could never decide between Batman and Spiderman as his favorite hero.
Parents march at London Pride with their gay son
It was a day Anthony Francis never imagined would happen. But there he was, taking part in London’s Pride march with his parents, Roger and Angela Francis. Anthony, his parents and his boyfriend Kris marched with the Rainbow Network which Anthony helps to run at his employer, Lloyds Bank.
Angela and Roger were proud to stand with their child at their very first Pride as they got into the spirit of the day.
“He’s my son at the end of the day,” said Roger, with glitter across his forehead and a rainbow flag tied around his shoulders. “Nothing is going to change that. So, side by side we go.”
Transgender man’s friends pay for funeral after family refuses to claim his body
It’s true what they say about friends being the family you choose. When friends of 22 year old transgender student Daine Grey discovered that no one had claimed their body two weeks after they had committed suicide, Grey’s friends sprung into action to crowdfund the funeral costs.
The fundraising goal of $17,000 to cover funeral clothes, casket, funeral service, and burial plot has been far exceeded.
“All money after funeral casket, burial costs, transportation for Students to funeral, QRC Memorial etc, will go to the Queer Resource Center and non profit entity of City College to help provide education and outreach for our students and faculty around Queer and Trans needs,” reads the GoFundMe account titled “Final Dignity for Daine” which was created by Grey’s friend Lady Katerina.
Grey was active with the City College of San Francisco’s Queer Resource Center, which is not a service available to students during the summer.
“The school refusing, year after year after year, [to] open up the Queer Resource Center during the summer” said Lady Katerina. “We take away a very much viable life source for our students, who rely on the Queer Resource Center nine months of the year, and then being told: ‘Oh sorry we’re taking away that life source for the summer.’”
Since the campaign was created Grey’s mother and grandmother have contacted Lady Katerina and begun helping with the arrangements for the funeral that will be held on July 26 at Oakland Chapel of the Chimes.
