Families’ suit dismissed vs. judge in transgender name change requests

Suit says judge showed bias by rejecting new names for children.

A federal judge has CINCINNATI — dismissed the lawsuit filed by three families against a Warren County judge over his denial of transgender name change requests, but the dispute is not over.

“At this point, we’re reviewing (the opinion) and figuring out what our next steps will be,” Asaf Orr, a lawyer with the National Center for Lesbian Rights who assisted on the lawsuit, said Thursday.

Judge William Bertelsman ordered the lawsuit “dismissed and stricken from the docket of this court” on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati.

“The proper way to challenge an adverse judgment is to appeal, not to sue the judge. Plaintiffs here have appealed Judge Kirby’s decision not to grant their child’s name change to the Ohio Court of Appeals. This is the appropriate way to proceed,” Bertelsman said in his opinion and order.

In the federal lawsuit, three Warren County families claimed Judge Joe Kirby discriminated against them by rejecting name changes sought for their transgender children in juvenile court in Warren County.

Lawyers for Kirby urged Bertelsman to throw out the case in a motion filed in September and a hearing in early October.

Kirby’s lawyers’ motion gave Bertelsman five reasons to dismiss the case, including a law preventing federal judges from interfering in state court cases.

“Federal courts are not to act as courts of appeal over the decisions of state courts,” lawyer Aaron Glasgow wrote. That was in reference to the one case on which Kirby has already ruled and is on appeal in the Ohio 12th District Court of Appeals in Middletown.

Stephanie and Kylen Whitaker filed for a name change April 24 in Warren County Juvenile Court on behalf of their 15-year-old child.

Kirby ruled the change was not “reasonable and proper and in the child’s best interest at this time.”

Two other families joined the federal lawsuit, suing Kirby personally and seeking a declaratory judgment, although Kirby has not ruled on name changes sought by them.

“They argue that the probate judge denies more, if not all, minor transgender name-change applications and requires that all be referred to him rather than to a magistrate, as is the usual practice in such cases,” Bertelsman said in Tuesday’s decision.