Last Updated on October 22, 2019
A jury has ruled against Jeffrey Younger, a Texas father who has tried to stop his ex-wife from transitioning their 7 year old son.
Younger has now lost the custody battle of his son James, and will be forced to refer to him as “Luna,” and sit by in silence as his ex-wife, Dr Anne Georgulas, starts the transition of the 7 year old.
Georgulas now has the legal right to start James on blockers that would prevent the on-set of puberty, and then eventually on a treatment of female hormones.
11 out of the 12 jurors decided that Younger would not get custody of James or his twin, Jude, and did not believe that Georgulas was transitioning James against his will.
The ruling requires Younger to not only stop referring to James as James, but that anyone who does not “affirm” James’s apparent gender identity is not allowed to visit them.
READ MORE: UK Child Becomes First 3-Year-Old Transgendered Child
The decision concludes a year long struggle to save James from his fate, which included Georgulas accusing Younger of domestic violence, a charge of which he was eventually acquitted.
Younger told Luke Macias of his struggle to stop the transition of the 7 year old in a podcast in January of this year:
I want you to imagine having electronic communication with your son on FaceTime, and imagine that your ex-wife has dressed him as a drag queen to talk to you. He has false eyelashes and makeup. His hair has got glitter in it. He’s wearing a dress… Now imagine how you would feel seeing what I believe is actual sexual abuse – I believe this is not just emotional abuse but is the very, most fundamental form of sexual abuse, tampering with the sexual identity of a vulnerable boy…. Every. Single. Day. You have to see your son sexually abused, and you have to maintain your calm, because the courts are not going to be fair to you. And the only way you can survive this and get your son through this alive is to calmly allow your son to be tortured right before your eyes and outlast the opposition. That’s what it’s like… They’re asking me to affirm a delusion.
Writing in The Federalist last year, Walt Heyer, an ex-transgender individual, noted that James does not fit the criteria for being diagnosed with gender dysphoria:
The criteria for a diagnosis of childhood gender dysphoria are that a child be persistent, consistent, and insistent about being the opposite sex… In the father’s home, James appears to be a normal boy and doesn’t identify as a girl. He has a choice of boy’s or girl’s clothes there, and he chooses to dress as a boy. The fact that James changes gender identity depending on which parent is present makes the diagnosis of gender dysphoria both dubious and harmful.
The transition therapist has observed that James is not consistent, insistent, or persistent in the desire to become “Luna”… The glaring disparity between a child’s preferred identity when in the presence of one parent versus the other should cause a therapist to reassess, perhaps nullify the diagnosis of gender dysphoria, and terminate any steps toward transition. But in the case of James, this hasn’t happened.
READ MORE: BBC Education Film Says There Are “More Than 100 Gender Identities”
Heyer said that what “[Georgulas] is doing to James” bears a striking resemblance to the insistence of his grandmother when she affirmed his choice to wear a purple dress, which “destroyed [his] childhood and my family and consumed nearly 50 years of my life”:
James has no idea what he is in for or how his gender journey will play out, but with an incorrect diagnosis it will be ugly. I became very concerned about James because he is not exhibiting the diagnostic attributes of gender dysphoria… If James truly had gender dysphoria, he would demand the proper pronouns, always dress as a girl and insistently, persistently, and consistently claim to be a girl in all situations, not just with mom… It is time to consider that the boy is not transgender.
In a cruel twist, Georgulas is not even the biological mother of James and Jude, as they were conceived via IVF with an egg donation and Younger’s sperm.
READ MORE: Media Accelerates The Political Mainstreaming of Trans Kids
Judge Kim Cooks will rule on possession, child support, and the other requests of Georgulas on Wednesday. Cooks has the right to practically overturn the decision today by defining the duties and the rights of the parents, saving James from being forced to transition.
