An Oklahoma County judge has denied a
transgender name change based on the Bible.
James Dean Ingram's request to legally
change her name to Angela Renee Ingram was denied by Judge Bill
Graves.
The American Civil Liberties Union of
Oklahoma is presenting Ingram in her appeal.
“She was devastated,” Brady
Henderson, legal director for the ACLU, told Tulsa's NewsOn6.com.
“She reported even feeling like she wanted to take her own life
because of the way she was treated.”
Ingram, who takes hormone treatments
but has yet to undergo gender reassignment surgery, was told her
request was being denied because this was God's will, according to
the
ACLU.
“What we do see here is evidence of
an imposition of a personal idea of what gender is supposed to be,”
Henderson said.
Judge Graves provided as an example a
similar case in which he ruled that “The DNA code shows God meant
for them to stay male and female. … To grant a name change in this
case would be to assist that which is fraudulent.” (A video report
is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)