I am sure you have seen the stories about the recent legal rulings about same-sex marriage in New Mexico, Utah and Ohio.

But there has been one case that has so far snuck beneath the radar.  I was planning on covering it last Tuesday, but came down sick with the flu.  I’m still sick, but a bit better.

This case comes out of southern Indiana.  David Paul Summers and Angela Summers married in Brown County, IN on October 30, 1999.  During the marriage Mr. Summers was diagnosed with gender dysphoria.  Mr. Summers then decided to transition and legally changed his name to Melanie Davis in 2005.  A Marion County judge ordered the gender on Davis’ birth certificate changed from “male” to “female” in 2008 to conform with her gender identity, legal name and appearance.

This time of year is often a sad one for transgender people.  Family time hits people hard if they have been rejected by their families.  And the reminders that it should be family time are unceasing.

But it can be hard even for those who have supportive families and friends.  It was apparently too hard for a Wisconsin 14 year-old.

Alexis “Lexi” Lopez-Brandies recently asked to be called Landon.  That makes this a tough article to write because all of the reports refer to the Horlick High School freshman as a girl and use female pronouns…so much so that when I heard that Lopez was transgender, I was unsure what direction of change Landon was pursuing.

William Horlick High School is in the city of Racine, Wisconsin, has about 2100 students and 200 faculty.  And apparently none of them knew how the bullying Lopez was enduring was affecting him.  

Landon took his own life last Sunday morning.  Landon’s parents don’t lay all the blame at the feet of the bullying, saying that Landon also suffered from severe depression.

The LATimes recently ran an article by Robin Abcarian in its L.A. Now section entitled Right wing frenzied over transgender students choosing bathroom.

Of course the target of all the hate is specifically the School Success and Opportunity Act, better known as AB 1266…and incidentally the state’s transgender students.

The School Success and Opportunity Act, the first of its kind in the nation, did not sit well with California’s waning conservative Christian base, which has lately been in danger of becoming the political equivalent of the polar bear stranded on the ice floe.

–Abcarian

Now there’s an interesting image.