Hi! I'm doing a sociology isu on transgender discrimination and I am also focusing on more genders such as people who identify as gender fluid, genderqueer, etc. I was wondering if I could get a little more information on Kane and Mackenzie's situation involving the discrimination aspect of it. If you feel that what was already mentioned in your snippet of their story I completely understand. I also wanted to get the link to their GoFundMe page. I am very interested in donating. Thanks!
Hi there! Thanks for the ask and thank you so much for your support. I think there are a number of aspects already mentioned in the story that are indicative of discrimination against transgender and specifically non-binary folks. The court making a decision about someone’s ability to be a good parent based on their gender identity or decision to transition is blatantly discriminatory. The fact that Mackenzie’s guardians try to disrupt Kane and Mackenzie’s relationship, and that they treat both Kane and Mackenzie in inappropriate, disrespectful ways because they don’t like transgender people is discrimination, also. And, as the child of a transgender person, Mackenzie also suffers discrimination: Transphobic relatives treat her like there’s something “wrong” with her parent and like that means there might be something “wrong” with her also, which means she is often put under much more pressure than other girls her age to perform her gender “appropriately.”Some additional aspects of discrimination that come to play in the story are the difficulties Kane has had in regaining custody. In addition to discrimination by the court, it has also been difficult for them to find a lawyer who will take the case, since many family lawyers are not trans-friendly. (Thankfully, they’ve got a great lawyer now!) Even getting access to court records has been extra difficult because of the court’s inability to cope with with Kane’s legal name change. Furthermore, as a working-class queer single parent and as a transgender graduate student, Kane has to struggle to succeed in spite of institutional discrimination against transgender folks in job hiring and academia. They constantly deal with administrators losing their paperwork, school doctors who are unwilling to accept them as a patient, campus police harassing them for being on campus, etc. In order to build a life in which they can financially and emotionally support Mackenzie, they’ve had to work harder than a cisgender person would have in the same circumstances. Finally, many people in a situation like this would have their own family to fall back on for emotional and financial support. However, Kane was raised in an extremely conservative religious family, who kicked them out of the house at 17. Their family continues to discriminate against them on the basis of their gender identity, and they have almost no relationship. Fortunately, over the years, Kane has gained many loving and supportive friends, community members, and “chosen family” — and we all love Mackenzie, also, and can’t wait to see them reunited!Hopefully that was helpful. If you’d like to talk to Kane directly, feel free to send me an ask with your e-mail address, and I’ll pass your contact info onto Kane. They are obviously pretty busy right now dealing with the custody battle and family stuff on top of classes, teaching, their advocacy work, and writing their dissertation. But they are also a Sociologist who loves to educate, and they are very deeply versed in these issues from a sociological as well as personal perspective (they actually wrote their Master’s thesis on aspects of the transgender movement), so they would probably be a great person to talk to. :)I’ll send you a private message with the GoFundMe link. Thank you, again, for your question and for your support. ♥ And if you have any more questions, feel free to drop me a line. Good luck with your research.
