Penna Dexter

For three years, I have been following the story of James Younger. James is nine years old. He has a twin brother, Jude. The boys’ father, Jeff, has been fighting for custody of them because their mother, a pediatrician, is socially transitioning James to live as a girl. She treats James as a girl, dresses him as a girl, and calls him “Luna.”

Jeff Younger is desperate to prevent James from being subjected to the first step in a medical transition which involves the administration of puberty-blocking medication. Surgical castration and hormones for life are the next steps.

The custody battle isn’t going well for Jeff. Recently a court granted full temporary custody of James and Jude to their mother, Anne Georgulas. She gets exclusive rights to consent to various medical decisions and to determine the twins’ education. Jeff is granted only limited visitation. Thankfully, the judge stopped short of giving Anne the exclusive right she seeks to initiate a transgender-medical transition.

A key priority of Texas conservatives for this year’s legislative session was a ban on the medicalized gender modification of children. The ban never got a vote.

Instead, Texas governor Greg Abbott has issued a statement declaring that performing or forcing transgender surgery on children is child abuse. This statement is based upon a declaration by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services that “Genital mutilation of a child through reassignment surgery is child abuse, subject to all rules and procedures pertaining to child abuse.”

The child abuse definition does not extend to the administration of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. It should.

James Younger’s pediatrician mother knows that the social transition she, her chosen therapists, teachers, and certain Dallas judges are imposing on James is leading him toward a medical transition. Calling this abuse is a good first step. But James and other children across Texas and America need laws to protect them when the adults in their lives can’t or won’t.