Parents denied custody over refusal to transition teen

Post Reply New Topic

The family of a Maryland military man has filed a lawsuit against the Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC, accusing it of interfering in the custody of their autistic son after the parents refused to accept a gender transition. The lawsuit, which was filed in the District Court of Maryland and later transferred to the Fourth Circuit US Court of Appeals, is at the centre of a debate on issues such as autism, gender identity and parental rights.

Pressing the Children’s National Hospital
According to legal documents, the couple’s son, who was 16 years old at the time of the events, was admitted to Children’s National Hospital in November 2021 following a suicide attempt due to the end of a romantic relationship. Until then, the young man, who had been diagnosed as autistic, had never expressed a desire to change his gender. However, during admission, hospital staff informed the parents that the boy wished to be identified as female and that he should be called by female pronouns. The parents, an army veteran and his wife, rejected the proposal, claiming that their son, due to his autistic condition, was vulnerable to social manipulation and that the hospital’s decision to initiate a gender transition was premature and not properly evaluated. The family accused the hospital of initiating a ‘campaign’ to force their son’s gender transition, including allegedly forcing him to write letters to acquaintances in which he disowned his previous male identity.

Infernal bureaucratic machine
Following the parents’ refusal to support the transition, the hospital allegedly used its emergency policies to keep the boy in its facilities and report the parents to child protection services. The boy was subsequently transferred to a group home and has not returned home since. The family had to sell their home and business to cover the legal costs of the two-year court battle to regain custody of their son, who is currently 19 years old and continues to live under the care of a hospital chaplain, Lavender Kelley.

The family is now asking for 100 million dollars
The family filed a lawsuit seeking up to $100 million in damages and legal fees, accusing the Children’s National Hospital of negligence, intentional emotional distress and religious discrimination. Among the allegations are that their son was encouraged to pose in provocative attitudes on social media, and that his situation was not adequately safeguarded by authorities and hospital staff.

Hospital reactions
The Children’s National Hospital, one of the country’s leading children’s hospitals, said the lawsuit had been withdrawn by the family’s lawyers, a statement denied by the parents’ legal representatives. The dispute remains unresolved, with the parents demanding a jury trial to establish the truth of the facts and regain parental rights