Should a mother be allowed to force her 6-year-old son to identify as a transgender girl—even if he doesn’t want to? And should a dad who refuses to go along with it be charged with “abuse” and lose custody of his son?
That’s the question at the heart of a huge, heart-wrenching tug of war between two parents… and the little boy who is caught in the middle.
A judge holds the fate of James, a 6-year-old Texas boy, in its hands.
The boy’s mother, Anne Georgulas, says in a court filing that her son is “a gender expansive or transgender child” who identifies as a girl named “Luna.” All his classmates use this name and know him as a girl… but only when he’s with his mom.
His dad, Jeffrey Younger, says first grader identifies as a boy named James when he’s allowed to be — and that his mother is forcing him into a dangerous chemical treatment the child doesn’t even want.
“James prefers to be a boy, but since the age of 3, his mother has chosen to dress him as a girl, and call him by the name ‘Luna,’” according to SaveJames.com, a website Younger set up to ask for help in the case.
“She has enrolled him in Coppell Schools as a girl,” the father claims.
Now she is setting James up for controversial “‘social transitioning’ therapy to prepare him for chemical castration at age 8.”
Anne has had enough of Jeff’s interference — and has asked the court to cut him out of his son’s life.
She wants to deny Jeff custody of his own son because he cut James’ hair and calls the male child “he” and “him.”
…and because he wants to stop her from administering high-powered drugs that will stop him from developing naturally during puberty.
The mother says treating this child according to his birth sex is a form of abuse, and it needs to end, pronto.
Georgulas has asked a Dallas court for an order “requiring (Jeff) to affirm Luna and honor her choices, both inside and outside the home.”
The court would force the father to stop cutting his son’s hair and “calling (the boy) James or using male pronouns.”
But that’s not enough — the dad can’t even allow the child to “remain in the presence of anyone who is not calling Luna by her chosen name, ‘Luna,’ not using female pronouns to refer to her and otherwise not affirming” a 6-year-old’s choice of gender.
If he does, he could lose custody and be branded an unfit parent.
But it’s not clear the boy identifies as a girl… unless his mother tells him to!
Officials have tried to test his preference by writing two names on a piece of paper: “Luna” and “James.” When he’s with his mother, he reportedly points to the paper marked “Luna.” But when he’s with his father, he calls himself James.
Medical experts say real gender dysphoria is “insistent” and persistent” —in other words, people don’t change back-and-forth from one day to the next.
Instead, doctors say that Georgulas could be encouraging her son to act transgender because the mother has a rare mental illness called Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MSP).
MSP is triggered by “severe maternal depression triggered in a mother longing for a daughter,” according to Dr. Michelle Cretella of the American College of Pediatricians. “The mother’s depression lifts when the boy dresses and acts as a girl.”
In other words, it could be that the mother is the one who can’t accept James’ gender and needs therapy, not the child.
There’s another hitch: The mixture of drugs, puberty blockers, and artificial hormones weren’t intended for children this young and could have lifelong health effects… nobody’s completely sure.
The drugs “arrest bone growth” and “prevent full organization and maturation of the brain,” according to three experts on the issue.
“The bottom line is we don’t really know how sex hormones impact any adolescent’s brain development,” another expert, pediatrician Dr. Lisa Simons, recently told PBS.
Plenty of people say this isn’t something that a court should be imposing a child who may not even want it, at an age when he’s too young to know the consequences.
Studies have repeatedly shown that most young people with gender dysphoria eventually accept their birth sex… and it would cause the first grader a lot less trouble if he’s allowed to wait a few years to decide.
A petition to “save 6-year-old James from chemical castration” has earned more than 140,000 signatures as of the time this article is written — but Jeff, and James, need more.
The dad is hoping to convince Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Senator Ted Cruz, and eight other state political leaders to step in and stop the medical treatments — and save his rights to have custody of his son.
In just a few years, transgender status for first graders has gone from unthinkable to a rallying cry for liberal politics — one a politically correct kangaroo court can force on a parent and a child.
And if the dad doesn’t shut up, go along, and let the State tell him what name and pronouns to use for his child, he’s guilty of “hatred” and the courts will erase him from his child’s life forever.
1984 has arrived, folks… it just took 34 years longer than expected.
Frank Holmes is a reporter for The Horn News. He is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”