The following is a classic case in how anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council relies on distortions and omissions to denigrate our community, even in situations in which the health of our kids are involved.
From FRC president Tony Perkins recent edition of its Washington Update:
This week, a shocking story hit the national news about an Ohio teenager who was removed from her parents' home by authorities. Why? Because they didn't support their daughter's decision to identify as a boy and declined to authorize hormone therapy to facilitate her gender "transition." Today, the story broke that Juvenile Court Judge Sylvia Hendon has permanently removed the child from her parents' custody (despite the fact that the child is already 17 and would be able to make medical decisions for herself in less than a year).
What's especially alarming is that a lawyer representing the child -- as well as Donald Clancy of the Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office -- cited the parents' religious beliefs as an argument for robbing them of their rights! The mom and dad are being criticized for seeking out a Christian therapist for their daughter and for daring to send her to Catholic school. Even so, the parents were clear that their stance on the gender transition wasn't motivated on faith alone. After all, they pointed out, they'd had lengthy consultations with medical professions and did hours of research on their own. Only then did they come to the conclusion that "this is not in their child's best interest." (The American College of Pediatricians -- not to be confused with the more "politically correct" American Academy of Pediatrics -- agrees.)
For years, LGBT activists have scoffed at warnings from FRC and others that the radical LGBT movement poses a threat to personal and religious freedom. In the past, the Left directed most of its attacks on religious expression in the public square, doing everything it could to restrict faith to the four walls of your house or church. Now, even that tolerance is tumbling down.
Here are some very important pieces of information that FRC omitted from the story:
1. The grandparents of the child are suing his parents for custody because they support his gender identity. So implying that "gay activists" and "the Left" are attempting to steal this child is simply false.
2. The situation had been called one of "life or death"
Medical experts testified that the father's ongoing refusal to call the child by his chosen name and the parents' rejection of the teen's gender identity have triggered suicidal feelings. The teen was hospitalized in 2016. He has been diagnosed with depression, an anxiety disorder and gender dysphoria, according to court records. Gender dysphoria is a psychiatric diagnosis the American Psychiatric Association defines as "a conflict between a person's physical or assigned gender and the gender with which he/she/they identify."
. . .The teen's court-appointed guardian believes that the grandparents, not the parents, should have custody and says they are best suited to help the child. The medical team from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, where the child had been in treatment, testified that the teen is improving mentally and emotionally through therapy and because his grandparents have created a supportive environment. However, they believe the teen should start treatment as soon as possible to decrease his suicide risk.
Last but not least, the organization cited by FRC, The American College of Pediatricians, is an illegitimate medical group. It, like FRC, is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because it spreads homophobic propaganda under a scientific veneer.
The facts here are very clear. This is a case of transgender child's health and safety being jeopardized by his parents. And we know this because experts in the matter - health officials - say so.
In contrast, FRC is interjecting itself into the case with absolutely no expertise in the matter and touting statements from a phony medical group who doesn't have the credibility to prescribe cough medicine, to say nothing about commenting on this particular situation at hand.
FRC should butt out and leave the case to the people who know what they are doing and actually care about this child and his family.
