Unlike Toni Ann Diaz’s 1983 libel lawsuit victory, Dain’s appeal to resume his teaching position failed to succeed, convincing him to resign from teaching. A combination of bigotry from Superintendent Lewis Stommel and the California Commission on Professional Competence restricted Dain from praciticing his profession. Due to the 1978 outcome of J.D. v Lackner, transgenderism was recognized as a medical condition covered by Medi-Cal, yet the state Commission decided Dain should not have used paid sick leave during his transition. Clearly, Dain’s case coincides with the unrelenting battle between trans people, medical insurance, and the state that continues today as well as the Anita Bryant “Save Our Children” initiative to get LGBTQIA teachers out of schools. During 1978, Proposition 6 was a item on the California November ballot as it would ban gay teachers from schools; it ultimately failed to pass.
While Dain’s case failed, the massive amount of attention his lawsuit garnered highlighted civil rights injustices toward trans people, and created him as an icon of the trans community. Lou Sullivan, a trans man who went on to found FTM International, looked up to Dain and received mentoring from him during his transition. According to Jamison Green, former president of FTM International, Dain “was very forthright and brave, and he was my mentor through my transition in the ’80s.” Dain remained in the Bay Area as a chiropractor and community college professor until he died in 2007 from breast cancer.
It should be noted that this article, while likely first published in a separate publication, appeared in the 1978 Gemini Yearbook, a publication by and for transgender people to find one another. Dain was an important person both in the outside, non-trans world and within the community.
