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The ''[[Divorce Act]]'' no longer requires spouses to be of opposite genders to qualify for a divorce order. Oh happy day.
==Issues affecting transgender transgendered and transsexual people==
To be brutally frank, the jury is still out on how family law impacts on the trans community. Right now, the laws have slipped into a comfortable understanding of ''"the same or opposite genders'' " and only accommodates people on the spectrum in between with difficulty. While bisexuality is as close to a non-issue in this context as there can be, transgender transgendered and transsexual people may well encounter difficulty in dealing with family law matters. This discussion offers only a gloss on some of the issues affecting this community.
If you have a family law problem and your orientation, gender or identity becomes an issue, <span class="noglossary">contact</span> a lawyer known to be sympathetic or activist on the issue, such as barbara findlay or another lawyer she can refer you to.
===Children===
Those who have discovered another self-identity during a relationship may find their new identities hotly at issue in the event that the living arrangements for any children must be decided in court. The problem here is that while shows like "Will and Grace", "The Birdcage" and "The L Word" have made homosexuality something commonly understood and empathized with, nothing similar has popularized and explained the experience of the transgender trans community.
It can be very difficult for people, including ex-partners, to understand transgender trans issues, and this problem is especially acute in courtroom discussions about the care and control of children. Often the most important task is to demystify the person's self-identity and explain why their his or her self-identity has no impact at all on their his or her ability to parent, nor on the expected outcomes for the children.
On the bright side, the single reported case I was able to find in researching transgender transgendered and transsexual family law issues dealt fairly positively with the subject. (This research is a few years old.) In ''[http://canlii.ca/t/fvzvc Forrester v. Saliba]'', 2000 CanLII 28722 ONCJ, a 2000 decision of the Ontario Court of Justice, the father of the child had begun the process of transitioning to female following the pronouncement of a consent order which provided that the parents would have joint custody of the child. The mother brought an application to vary the order to obtain sole custody of the child based on the stress and depression that affected the parents since the commencement of the transitioning process. Here are some interesting excerpts from the decision:
<blockquote>"I indicated at the beginning of the trial to both parties and their counsel that the [father's] transsexuality, in itself, without further evidence, would not constitute a material change in circumstances [necessary to consider varying a consent order], nor would it be considered a negative factor in a custody determination."</blockquote>
===Child support===
===Spousal support===
The simple fact of financial dependence, which would ordinarily have to be established to support a claim to spousal support, should be sufficient to prove an entitlement to support. If, however, the cause of the dependence or inability to be independent relates to or stems from the transgender trans issue, be prepared to face some resistance. The problem will lie in establishing the legitimacy of the financial dependency arising from the transgender trans issue; in other words, the problem will lie in convincing the judge dealing with the matter, if the matter has to go to court, that the issue you are dealing with isn't one of choice or a voluntary financial dependence.
===Divorce===