Sex and the Citizen: The Case of Donita Ganzon

Sex and the Citizen

Donita Ganzon

News: The US immigration agency doesn't recognize marriages involving
transgender people--so Donita Ganzon is taking it to court.

By Lisa Katayama

May 25, 2005

http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2005/05/donita_ganzon.html

Last June, Donita Ganzon and Jiffy Javellana showed up at the Los
Angeles district office of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services
for what they thought would be a routine interview. Though she was
born in the Philippines, Ganzon, a 58-year-old nurse, is a US citizen.
Javellana, her husband of three years, is a 28-year-old Filipino
immigrant. Having lived happily with his wife in the US for several
years, Javellana expected to come away from the interview with a green
card in place of his temporary work visa.

Instead, his application for permanent residency was denied, and he
now faces deportation.

What happened? As Ganzon tells it, during the interview she casually
mentioned to an immigration officer that she'd had a sex change
operation years before. To look at her today, that's hard to believe:
Ganzon is an elegant and very feminine woman with a slender figure,
large brown eyes and a smooth complexion. You look at me now, my soul,
my heart-I am a woman, she says. Her husband agrees. It didn't matter
to me [that Donita had a sex change,] he says. What's more, her
driver's license, marriage certificate, and passport all have her down
as a woman. And yet, it's true: Donita Ganzon was born male, and and
it wasn't until 1981, at age 34, seven years after first coming to the
United States, that she decided to undergo surgery to become a woman.

And that, at least by the Bush administration's lights, is a problem.
Citing the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, which defines marriage as
being strictly between a man and a woman, the CIS--formerly the INS,
and now operating under the aegis of the Department of Homeland
Security-argues that Ganzon's and Javellana's is a gay marriage-and
hence, under federal law, no marriage at all. Therefore, CIS argues,
he's ineligible for a green card. (The noncitizen spouse of a US
citizen can receive a green card-which allows him or her to work
indefinitely in the United States-after a few years of living together
in the US, if the immigration authorities accept that the marriage is
in good faith.)

Ganzon's lawyers are filing a discrimination suit in district court
arguing that, because the couple's union is on all defined legal terms
a heterosexual marriage--Ganzon being a woman, Javellana a man--
Javellana is fully entitled to a green card under US law.

Until the Bush administration came to power and gay marriage became a
new front in the country's culture war, the marriage rights of
transgender people weren't much of an issue on the federal level.
Twenty-three states recognize as heterosexual marriages unions in
which one or more partner is transgender, and of course marriage
policy has traditionally been a matter for states to decide for
themselves. But recent CIS memos show that the federal government has
lately taken an interest in defining the marriage rights of
transgender people--or rather defining them away. Since March 2003,
three CIS interoffice memos (obtained by Ganzon's lawyers) have been
circulated, noting, among other things, the "differing state practices
related to the issuance of new birth certificates and marriage
licenses and inconsistent adjudications for applicants who have
undergone sex reassignment surgery. One memo, addressed to Tom Ridge,
then head of the DHS, observes that recognizing sex change for
immigrant marriages is likely to be politically controversial. (A
spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security declined to
comment on the issue, citing the lawsuit.)

Ganzon and Javellana were married in Nevada and now live in
California, both states that recognize sex-reassignment surgery and
heterosexual marriages in which one or both partners have had a sex
change. The CIS is trying to override a state law by creating federal
guidelines that would, for immigration purposes, withhold federal
recognition of these marriages.

Ganzon's case is one of at least ten currently relating to marriages
involving a transgender partner, half a dozen of which touch on
immigration rights--signs of a new assertiveness on the part of
transgender people. There are just a lot more of us out now, says
Maura Keisling, Executive Director of the National Center for
Transgender Equality, there are more and more trans[gender] people
willing to step out and demand their rights.

Transgender is an umbrella term used to cover a wide range of
individuals. At one end of the spectrum you have cross-dressers; at
the other, men and women who feel impelled to have a sex change
operation-or, in medical parlance, to undergo sex reassignment
surgery"-to align their physical sex with their psychological gender.
An estimated one in 30,000 people undergo sex reassignment surgery,
but the incidence of individuals with unmatched gender and sex is
presumably much higher if you factor in those who are unable or
unwilling-for social, cultural, physical, or financial reasons-to have
surgery.

Being transgender is more common than cystic fibrosis, Debra
Davies-Soshoux, one of Ganzon's and Javellana's attorneys, says, but
it has to do with sex, and people in this country are uncomfortable
with anything that has to do with sex. The National Center for
Transgender Equality logs at least one call a week from transgender
people who have been fired from their jobs. Transgenders are often the
victims of hate crimes, and are murdered at 16 times the rate of
average Americans.

The DHS' latest response, in February, to Ganzon's lawsuit was to
reinstate Javellana's temporary work permit, which had expired in
October. On March 28th, Ganzon and her lawyers pushed for a motion to
grant Javellana his green card in Los Angeles Superior Court. But the
government's response has been slow, and the couple and their lawyers
are frustrated. We were able to go to federal court, but they're
taking their sweet time, and still haven't changed their policy,
Davies-Soshoux says.

Ganzon never expected to become a spokesperson for immigrant rights or
LGBT marriages. In fact, prior to this lawsuit, she had never had a
relationship with the transgender community. I'm not really in contact
with them, Ganzon says, It is much more of an inner satisfaction for
me that I can blend in with all kinds of people.

Javellana, for one, can't wait until this whole thing blows over. A
quiet, laid-back man who loves basketball, he is embarrassed by all
the attention and worried about his future in the United States. I'm
ashamed because I stand out, he says.

The outcome of the lawsuit remains uncertain, but Ganzon and her
lawyers intend to keep up the fight, whatever it takes. I am part of a
milestone decision right now, Ganzon says, and I will always be there
for my husband, no matter what.

Lisa Katayama is an editorial intern at Mother Jones.


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© 2005 The Foundation for National Progress