Legal News

Georgia Court: Transgender Politician Did Not Mislead Voters

By Dan Slater

When Michelle Bruce (pictured), a Georgia politician, ran for re-election last year did she mislead voters by allegedly failing to disclose that she used to be a Michael?

Yesterday, in a huge victory for Bruce and the transgender community, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that she did not mislead voters by running for office as a woman. The court dismissed a suit filed by two of Bruce’s opponents — Georgia Fuller and Stan Harris, who also lost — alleging that Bruce disguised her sex while seeking re-election last year to the Riverdale Council. The court ruled unanimously that Bruce’s use of the name Michelle on ballots did not “cast doubt on the results of the election.” Here are reports from the AJC and NYT. Click here for the opinion.

“This is a great victory for me and anyone who believes in equality,” Bruce said in a statement. “It gives me hope that the Georgia Supreme Court did what was right and did not buy into hate-based politics.”

Cole Thaler, a lawyer with Lambda Legal, a gay rights organization, told the NYT, “Accusations of fraud only show the accusers’ ignorance of transgender lives,”

But Michael B. King, the plaintiffs’ lawyer, said Bruce had received an unfair advantage by running as a woman in a heavily female district. “We maintain that Mr. Bruce misled the voters into believing that he was a female,” he said. “He got more female votes than he would have if he hadn’t used a fictitious name.”

Photo: AP

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on October 07, 2008 (boomark / email).