A tale of generational discord from Australia. On one side the father, a Holocaust survivor who emigrated to Melbourne and became a wealthy industrialist and property developer. On the other side his son Jeffrey, now Jessica, who was supported by his father all his life, but who became enraged when that support didn't extend to paying for his son's - or rather daughter's - gender-affirming surgery.
Throughout his life, every scheme Jessica Joss attempted had ended in failure. At age 28, he re-traumatized his father, a Czechoslovakian Holocaust survivor, by moving to Germany. At age 30, he moved to the US, where his attempt to join the marines ended in back injury. He entered a marriage with a woman that soon ended in divorce. Despite lack of relevant skills, he went to Tajikistan at age 40 with the hopes of fighting with the Northern Alliance against the Taliban, and taking a job with the Iranian government’s foreign affairs department. Over the years, in each of these situations, he would run out of money, and his father would fund his trip home.
Peter Solly Joss, a prominent industrialist and property developer, provided his son a weekly allowance of $800, and paid off any credit card debt he amassed. He told his son he would be cut off from the allowance if he followed through on his plan to undergo gender-affirming surgery.
Angered by his father’s decision, the younger Mr Joss deliberately embarrassed his Orthodox Jewish parents by standing up in synagogue and announcing his transgender identity to the congregation.
Mr Joss additionally made plans to carry out a revenge murder-suicide. In 1999, he armed himself with a crossbow with the intention of killing his father at a bar mitzvah before killing himself. A neighbor heard him sharing his plans and warned the parents by phone. Police arrested Mr Joss, and he was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility at the request of his father, who refused to press charges.
The elder Mr Joss passed away in 2017. He left his estate of $12.4 million to his wife, Judith. He had made it clear to his son shortly before his death that he had given him enough.
But there's a happy ending! The son appealed against the will, and the Victoria Supreme Court awarded the son $3.225 million, and additionally provided for him to receive $100,000 for his gender-affirming surgery.
Justice Hollingworth found that Peter Joss had enabled his son to become financially dependent on him, rendering Jessica Joss perpetually unemployable. Thus, he owed the son a moral duty to sustain him for the rest of his life, the judge concluded.
The judge addressed the tension in the family. “The fact that, even now, her family do not really understand and accept that she identifies as a woman, has no doubt been (and continues to be) extremely hurtful to her,” the judge said. “Judith continues to refer to Jessica as Jeffrey, and to use male pronouns when speaking of her. That rejection of her identity has, understandably, been very painful for Jessica."
A commendably brave stance against transphobia by the judge there. How can the mere threat of a murder/suicide compare to the pain of being misgendered?
Comments