By Lizzy McLellan, From The Legal Intelligencer

A Bucks County judge has denied two parents’ emergency petition for limited guardianship of a transgender woman, allowing her to proceed with a scheduled gender reassignment surgery.
In their petition, Klaus and Ingrid Kitzler alleged Christine Kitzler, a 48-year-old transgender woman, was incapacitated. They requested limited guardianship of Christine Kitzler and an evaluation of her capacity, as well as an emergency stay and injunction against the gender reassignment procedure.
Judge C. Theodore Fritsch Jr. heard the case Wednesday, and denied the parents’ petition.
Christine Kitzler was originally scheduled to undergo surgery Tuesday, according to court documents, but the surgeon was enjoined from performing the procedure once the judge agreed to hear the matter. According to her attorney, the surgery likely took place Thursday.
Throughout their petition, Klaus and Ingrid Kitzler referred to Christine Kitzler as a male named Christopher, and as their son. Christine Kitzler had her name legally changed, her attorney, Angela Giampolo, said. She addressed each instance where the name Christopher was used during the hearing Wednesday, and filed a motion to amend the case caption.
The petition said Kitzler was diagnosed with mild retardation as a child and took six years to get her college degree. It said she suffered from depression, struggled with drug use and suffered the loss of a “domestic partner” in 2008.
“Yet, while laboring under the aforementioned incapacity, he has decided to have his genitalia surgically removed,” the petition said. “The physical and mental consequences that could result, about which he lacks capacity to appreciate and understand, could be catastrophic.”
The parents requested the court appoint one of two psychologists to evaluate Kitzler.
The petition said Kitzler used money from the summer rental of her parents’ condominium in South Carolina to pay for the surgery, when it was supposed to be used for living expenses. Kitzler was a joint owner of the condominium, Giampolo said.
The parents also said Kitzler had only dressed as a woman for a year. Giampolo said Kitzler actually lived as a woman throughout college, and resumed doing so exclusively more than a year ago, getting hormone replacement therapy and laser hair removal as well as a name change.
“It wasn’t a capacity case or competency case, it was a ‘we don’t agree with her decision’ case,” Giampolo said. “At least there’s the precedent on our side for it to have been denied.”
Julia Morrow, the attorney for Klaus and Ingrid Kitzler, said the goal was not to stop the surgery, but to assess Christine Kitzler’s competency.
“Our clients are loving parents who traveled a far distance to ensure that their son had the capacity to gauge the permanency and gravity of gender reassignment surgery,” Morrow said.
Giampolo said the case brings a “scary” precedent, in that two parents would bring such an argument.
“The minute something happens for the first time then people who think like her parents do will now think this is a potential avenue … to block people’s free will moving forward,” she said.
But Tiffany Palmer, shareholder at Jerner & Palmer, said the guardianship argument is not very likely to come up in cases involving adults.
“I’m surprised that they would have been filing something like that in the first place,” Palmer said. “The legal standard for incapacity in a guardianship case is an incredibly high bar.”
Guardianship issues are more likely to come up in custody cases involving transgender children, she said, when two parents do not agree on the medical treatment the child should receive.
“With respect to custody, the standard is what’s in the best interest of the child,” Palmer said. The child’s age plays a role in the decision as well.
Michael Silverman, executive director of the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund, called the Kitzlers’ petition “extreme and desperate.”
“I do think the judge’s decision is important in stamping this out before it begins,” Silverman said. “My hope is that we will not see a lot of copycat maneuvers.”
Lizzy McLellancan be contacted at 215-557-2493 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @LMCLELLAN.
Photo by LongLiveRock, via Wikimedia Commons
For more on this story go to: http://www.thelegalintelligencer.com/id=1202736385283/Gender-Reassignment-Surgery-OKd-Over-Parents-Objection#ixzz3kmFho3tf