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Paula Grossman

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Paula Grossman
A smiling white woman with dark hair and octagonal eyeglasses
Paula Grossman, from a 1971 newspaper
BornOctober 30, 1919
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DiedSeptember 26, 2003 (2003-09-27) (aged 83)
New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation(s)Educator, activist

Paula Miriam Grossman (October 30, 1919 – September 26, 2003) was an American music educator. When she was dismissed from a teaching position after her sex reassignment surgery in 1971, she sued the school district on the basis of sex discrimination. Her lawsuit, Grossman v. Bernards Township Board of Education, was ultimately unsuccessful, but it garnered national media attention.

Early life

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Grossman was born in Brooklyn, and assigned male at birth,[1] the child of Henry Grossman and Bertha Grossman. Grossman graduated from the University of Newark in 1941, and served in the United States Army during World War II, before earning a master's degree in music education at Teachers College, Columbia University in 1947.[2]

Career

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Grossman was a schoolteacher for over thirty years.[3] She taught music at an elementary school in Bernards Township, New Jersey from 1957 until 1971.[4] After her spring 1971 sex reassignment surgery,[5] she returned to the classroom, and met with her principal and the school board of the Bernards Township School District to discuss her continued employment as a woman.[6] The district asked Grossman to relinquish her tenure and transfer to a high school position; she refused those conditions, and she was suspended from her employment before the 1971–1972 academic year.[7] In October 1971, the ACLU agreed to work with Grossman to fight her dismissal. Nonetheless, the state education commissioner ordered her dismissal,[2] and a judge found that the firing did not meet a strict definition of sex discrimination, in Grossman v. Bernards Township Board of Education. The decision was upheld on appeal in 1974.[8] The United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case in 1976.[9] In a later decision, her right to a disability pension was recognized.[10][11]

Grossman never taught school again; she performed as a pianist and singer. She lectured on the case and her experiences,[12][13] and appeared on national television programs covering the controversy of her dismissal, including The David Suskind Show. "I've done nothing wrong, nothing disgraceful," she told Rutgers students at a lecture in 1973. "I had a medical problem and I had it solved. Some people didn't like the solution."[3] By 1977 she was working for the City of Plainfield as an assistant planner.[14] She later wrote an advice book, A Handbook for Transsexuals (1979).[15][16] She retired in 1980.[17]

One of Grossman's students in New Jersey was Meryl Streep.[18] Another former student, Scott Keeler, wrote a newspaper essay on Grossman in 2007, for the Tampa Bay Times, recalling that "educators and adults in my community, including my own father, let pass the opportunity to teach tolerance and acceptance, and everyone was the worse for it."[19]

Personal life

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In 1949, Grossman married Ruth Keshen, a legal secretary;[5] they had three daughters,[20][21] and they stayed together until Grossman died in 2003, aged 83 years.[8][19] Ruth Keshen Grossman died in 2005.[22]

References

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  1. ^ Stitcher, Felicia (1971-09-26). "Paula Grossman, Sex Change Teacher, Fights Ouster". Beckley Post-Herald and Register. p. 34. Retrieved 2022-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b Stitcher, Felicia (1972-04-27). "Mrs. Grossman is Confident". Bernardsville News. p. 3. Retrieved 2022-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b Leap, Barbara (1973-11-15). "Paula Tells Rutgers Students of Suffering as Paul". Courier-Post. p. 10. Retrieved 2022-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. ^ Townley, Rod (1973-07-29). "The Difference with Paula Grossman". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 203. Retrieved 2022-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ a b Vejnoska, Jill (1991-05-12). "20 years after operation, only his sex has changed". The Courier-News. pp. 1, 4. Retrieved 2022-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ "In Re Tenure Hearing of Grossman". Justia Law. Retrieved 2022-05-29.
  7. ^ Blount, Jackie M. (2005-01-01). Fit to Teach: Same-Sex Desire, Gender, and School Work in the Twentieth Century. SUNY Press. pp. 119–120. ISBN 978-0-7914-6267-6.
  8. ^ a b Perry, W. Jacob (October 12, 2021). "Fifty years ago teacher sex change shocked Bernards Township". New Jersey Hills Media Group. Retrieved 2022-05-29.
  9. ^ "Supreme Court Turns Deaf Ear to New Jersey Transsexual's Case". The Baltimore Sun. 1976-10-19. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ "Transsexual Teacher to Get Pension". Mobile Register, via Digital Commonwealth. February 17, 1978. Retrieved 2022-05-29.
  11. ^ Hanley, Robert (1978-02-17). "Transsexual Upheld on Teacher Position". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-05-29.
  12. ^ Nutt, Charles W. (1974-07-16). "Legal Fights are Over". The Courier-News. p. 9. Retrieved 2022-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ Elkins, Jeanmarie (1972-09-15). "Here's What Mrs. Grossman's Not". The Central New Jersey Home News. p. 5. Retrieved 2022-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  14. ^ Heymann, Richard E. (1977-07-17). "Six Years Later, Paula Grossman Has No Regrets". Daily Record. p. 10. Retrieved 2022-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ Grossman, Paula (1979). A Handbook for Transsexuals. Broadview Enterprises.
  16. ^ Perry, Pat (1981-03-26). "10 Years after Sex Change, Paula Grossman Still Feels Anger over the Loss of Her Job". Echoes-Sentinel. p. 17. Retrieved 2022-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Heymann, Richard (1980-11-09). "Transsexual Copes with Retirement". Daily Record. p. 22. Retrieved 2022-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. ^ Chambers, Levi; Reynolds, Daniel (2016-08-05). "How Meryl Streep's Trans Music Teacher Opened Her Eyes to LGBT Acceptance". The Advocate. Retrieved 2022-05-29.
  19. ^ a b Keeler, Scott (March 4, 2007). "A generation ago, my music teacher had a sex change". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 2022-05-29.
  20. ^ Klemesrud, Judy (1973-10-23). "A Transsexual and Her Family: An Attempt at Life as Usual". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-05-29.
  21. ^ Morrison, Cherl (1972-05-01). "At Home with Paula Grossman". The Courier-News. p. 21. Retrieved 2022-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
  22. ^ "Obituary for Ruth Keshen Grossman". The Courier-News. 2005-04-27. p. 29. Retrieved 2022-05-29 – via Newspapers.com.
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