Filipino Man Denied Residency, Marriage to Transgender Challenged
Philippine News , News Report, Yong B. Chavez, Posted: Dec 09, 2004
LOS ANGELES — What makes a woman a woman?
If it’s looking like one, dressing like one, and loving a man like one, then Donita Ganzon qualifies as a woman.
For Jiffy Javellana, Ganzon’s husband of four years, she certainly is. “She’s my wife,” he said. “She’s a woman.”
Unfortunately for them, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, or USCIS, disagreed. The agency denied Javellana’s application for permanent residency based on its policy of prohibiting recognition of transgender marriages.
Ganzon is a transsexual. Born a male, she has undergone a sex change operation and is now a woman. In denying her husband’s permanent residency application, immigration officials cited the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which defined marriage as between a man and a woman.
“But what is the definition of a woman?” their lawyer, Philip Abramowitz, asks. Spurred on by the absence of any legal definition of a woman, the Filipino couple filed a lawsuit November 29 to dispute the agency’s decision not to recognize their marriage.
According to Abramowitz, the couple’s lawsuit is the first of its kind to challenge the government in court over the immigration status of transsexuals.
As Ganzon’s fiance, Javellana entered the country in 2001, and applied for permanent residency after they married in Clark County, Nevada later that year.
In June of this year, Ganzon and Javellana were interviewed separately by immigration officers as part of his green card application process. Ganzon suspected that the separate interviews were done to ascertain if theirs was an arranged marriage because of their age gap (she’s 58; he’s 27).
While making small talk with the interviewer, Ganzon revealed that she had had a male-to-female sex change operation 24 years ago. Loquacious by nature, she didn’t know that the revelation would lead to Javellana’s green card application being denied.
“They have my file. I assumed that they know,” Ganzon said. “Besides, it’s not something that I was hiding.”
She recalled that she was later asked to sign a form, which she thought attested only to the fact that she was formerly a man. According to her, the document turned out to be a withdrawal of petition of her sponsorship of Javellana.
Marie Sebrechts, USCIS public affairs officer, declined to comment on the case while it is in litigation, but emphasized that she believed there was no intent to mislead Ganzon into signing a petition withdrawal.
“That’s not how our officers operate,” Sebrechts said.
But according to Abramowitz, the signed petition withdrawal is “meaningless because there’s no petition to withdraw. That was for the fiance visa, but Jiffy already had that,” he said.
The Los Angeles-based couple met in December 2000 while Ganzon was vacationing in the Philippines when her nephew introduced them at a party. Ganzon remembers the flush of their first meeting with the unabashed giddiness of a girl in love for the first time.
They sat together, he sang a song for her, and after a couple of days of being inseparable, they decided to be together for good.
Ganzon immediately confided to Javellana the truth about her transsexuality the first night that they were intimate. Unlike her previous boyfriend, Javellana didn’t run away upon discovering her past. According to her, he didn’t even flinch.
“He said, ‘you’re more beautiful than any other woman,’” Ganzon said.
With that pronouncement, she was emboldened to share with Javellana everything about her past.
Born as Celedonio Ganzon on Jul. 24, 1946, the svelte Bataan, Philippines native grew up under the watchful eyes of typically conservative Filipino parents.
After entering the nursing profession, Ganzon did a tour in Vietnam in 1968 and worked for the U.S. government as a public health nurse. Six years later, America beckoned. It was then that Ganzon made a life-changing decision to have a sex reassignment surgery, after a particularly wrenching break-up with a Caucasian live-in boyfriend who left her with a debilitating bout of depression.
“Back then, I thought I was gay. I thought I was a homosexual,” she said. “But I wasn’t. I was meant to be a woman.”
After doing extensive research, Ganzon decided to have a sex change operation in 1981 under Dr. Stanley Biber at a Colorado hospital.
Since then, she has lived her life as a woman. When she applied for and was granted U.S. citizenship in 1987, her newly-issued passport indicated her name as Donita Ganzon, and her gender as female.
Like most woman her age, she has had her share of heartaches.
But none can compare to what she’s facing now.
“I can’t even think of what will happen to me if I lose my husband,” she said. Although both know there is a possibility that Javellana may be deported to the Philippines, neither has made plans about what to do if it happens.
For Javellana, being able to go back to his simple life in Negros Occidental might be an appealing alternative to the unrelenting media attention that he has been subjected to recently.
He used to work as a copier machine technician back home. When he came to America, the soft-spoken Negrense first worked as a repairman before getting a regular job as a kitchen helper in Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles, where Ganzon also works as a registered nurse. He dreamed of becoming a U.S. marine, but gave up after failing the qualifying test four times.
“I told him it just wasn’t meant to be,” Ganzon said.
Since losing his job last October when his work permit expired, Javellana spends most of his time reading and educating himself about their case. At home, he takes care of the household chores.
He also spends a lot of time praying. The many religious images in their apartment are a testament to their Catholic faith.
“Donita and I pray that everything will be okay,” he said.
In October, Javellana officially became an “out-of-status” immigrant. According to Abramowitz, the government has not instituted deportation procedures.
“It’s pretty early in the game for that procedure,” said Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
“He will definitely have the opportunity to be heard during the hearing process,” she said. “And since he’s not a threat, he won’t be detained,” Kice said.
Abramowitz said that Javellana is amenable to removal proceedings, but that he would do his best to ensure a positive outcome for the couple. An immigration lawyer for more than 26 years, Abramowitz has handled about 20,000 Filipino immigrants’ cases. He admitted, though, that none compares to the magnitude of the Javellana-Ganzon case.
Abramowitz, who also represented Filipino veterans in the ‘80s, said that he took the case because he believed that his clients have the right to live together in harmony. He says he doesn’t care if he has to forgo the possible history-making circumstances of the case if it means that Javellana will get his green card in an out-of-court settlement.
“I don’t need to set precedents. If the government chooses to settle this case quietly, I’d be equally happy, because then my clients will be happy,” he said.
Abramowitz claimed that the publicity generated from the case has emboldened people to call him to pledge their support.
But a few members of transsexual organizations have expressed their concern about the impact of the case on the future of transgender rights. Some have even Abramowitz’ law offices to say so.
“The problem is that transgenders want to be able to live their lives, too, and they want to be able to have jobs and be able to fall in love like any other person and unfortunately, the government doesn’t always make that easy,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
With the publicity garnered by same-sex marriage issues this year, Abramowitz said that he understands why some groups are reluctant to voice their support for their case.
“Some are hesitant because they are fearful of the possible negative public opinion. They don’t want the attention,” he said, adding that despite some groups’ concerns, he has received supportive calls from gay, lesbian and transgender groups, some even offering to help in the case.
Still, he insists that this case should not be put in the same category as same-sex marriages.
“I’m arguing that we’re looking at apples and oranges here. The Defense of Marriage Act deals with same-sex marriages. This is not a same-sex marriage,” Abramowitz said.
The government has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit. As of press time, Sebrechts said that she has yet to see the filed lawsuit.
The lawsuit names as defendants the USCIS, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, among others.
Related Stories:
Is It Better to be Gay in the Philippines?
Filipino LGBTs: A Question of Identity
Transgenders in Transition
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