The Court Cases That Changed Our World

[SandraJane]

ADVOCATE.COM



The Court Cases That Changed Our World


Many of the greatest strides in the fight for LGBT social justice and sexual liberation were the result of court cases, often involving accidental activists simply fighting for the right to live their lives like everybody else.


BY Diane Anderson-Minshall | August 22 2012 4:00 AM ET


http://www.advocate.com/print-issue/current-issue/2012/08/22/court-cases-changed-our-world?page=0,4


http://www.advocate.com/print-issue/current-issue/2012/08/22/court-cases-changed-our-world?page=0,0





Michael Kantaras
Kantaras v. Kantaras

When Michael Kantaras, a transgender man, and his wife, Linda Forsythe, split up in 1998, a long custody battle ensued over their marriage and their children: Matthew (Forsythe's child from a previous marriage, whom Kantaras had adopted) and Irina (whom the couple had together using alternative insemination). The ex-wife argued that their marriage was invalid because Kantaras had been born female, but the initial trial judge ruled in favor of Kantaras, who had already come out as trans, had top surgery, and begun hormone therapy two years before he even met his wife.