Parents Battle for Custody to Stop Trans Son from Receiving Hormone Therapy

The ordeal stems from the teen’s parents’ refusal to accept his gender identity; according to a transcript of court proceedings obtained by CNN, the teen was hospitalized in 2016 after he told a crisis chat service that his father told him to kill himself because he was "going to hell anyway.” The teen was diagnosed with depression, an anxiety disorder, and gender dysphoria.

Currently, he’s living with his grandparents while in the temporary legal custody of Hamilton County Job and Family Services. Not only have the grandparents embraced his gender identity, but court records also show they’ve expressed their readiness to make medical decisions, which may include hormone therapy, on the teen’s behalf. His court-appointed guardian has recommended he stay with them. Medical experts from the Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, where he was treated, also testified that the teen’s mental health has improved since he’s been in counseling, and suggested he start hormone therapy as soon as possible to maintain his trajectory.

The teen’s parents, however, don’t want him to undergo “such a life-altering decision at this time,” citing his mental state. “If the maternal grandparents were to be given custody, it would simply be a way for the child to circumvent the necessity of parents' consent," their attorney, Karen Brinkman, argued. "[The] Parents believe custody of the child should be restored to them, so they can make the medical decisions they believe are in their child's best interest until [the child] turns 18 years of age."

Although the teen’s father testified that he "fully accepts" his child, the prosecutor pointed out that he also “testified that any kind of [gender] transition at all would go against his core beliefs and allowing the child to transition would be akin to him taking his heart out of his chest and placing it on the table.” The parents also enrolled him in Catholic school, where he had to wear dresses and answer to his birth name, and allegedly took the teen to “Christian” therapy, where he was forced to listen to Biblical scripture for more than six hours at a time.

The teen’s lawyer, Thomas Mellot, argued that these actions “caused additional trauma and anxiety. When you lack all hope, and when he thought this would all continue to happen to him, the suicidal ideation became more pronounced, and that is how he ended up where he was."

Historically, transgender people in the US have experienced a much greater risk of depression and suicide than the general population. The 2016 US Trans Survey, for example, found that seven percent of respondents admitted to attempting to end their own lives within the past year—nearly 12 times the rate of the US population.

Many advocates and researchers say access to medical care and social and familial support can help offset these outcomes. A study published in Pediatrics found that the 73 transgender children (who had socially transitioned, having already changed their hair and clothing and using their preferred pronouns) who participated in their survey had similar feelings of self-worth compared to a control group of nontransgender children. In a statement, study co-author Katie McLaughlin, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Washington, said their findings “suggest that mental health problems are not inevitable” among transgender youth. “Family support,” she continued, “might buffer these children from the onset of mental health problems so commonly observed in transgender people.”

For their part, the Ohio teen’s parents maintained that they still love their child and want to have a relationship with him, according to court documents. They also said that if awarded custody, the teen could continue to live with his grandparents, though “not in an effort to avoid parenting their child,” their attorney said, “but because they believe that the current living arrangement is in [the teen's] best interest." However, the father also admitted in court that bringing the teen home to live with them would “warp” the way his other children see the world.

Corinne Green is the policy coordinator at the Transgender Law Center. She tells Broadly they’re aware of a handful of other cases in which a transgender teen has had to rely on the court system to decide their fate as it related to hormone therapy and parental custody. In 2016, for example, a Minnesota mother sued her teenager, who was emancipated a year earlier, for beginning the process of transitioning from male to female; the lawsuit challenged a state law that allows minors to access medical care and procedures without the consent of their parents.

“All young people, transgender or not, need to know that they’re loved, supported, and safe to be themselves,” Green says. “Denying this young person the medical care he needs is denying him the freedom to be himself. To tell a young person that who they are is wrong and to force them to live as someone they are not is dangerous and potentially devastating for their health.”

“The health and well-being of a child should always come first,” Green continues. “We are talking here about parents opposing life-saving medical care for their child, care that their child’s doctors say he needs. With any other form of care this wouldn’t even be a discussion.”