Daughter’s gender issues should not be told to mother, court rules

THE High Court has said a mother does not need to be told about her daughter’s gender dysmorphia because she holds strong religious views.

The young girl, who is in foster care, does not want her mother to know about her struggles with her sexuality and gender identity.

She has repeatedly told social workers that she was concerned about her mother’s reaction and feared she would disown her.

The girl, who cannot be identified and is referred to in court proceedings only as “G”, said that she had spoken with her mother about one of her friends being gay and “her mother’s response was to restate her religious views and her disapproval of such choices”.

Council social service bosses with responsibility for G’s care do not want to inform her mother, but have asked a High Court judge to consider what information they are obliged to give her.

After analysing the evidence and legal arguments at a private hearing in the Family Division of the High Court in London, Mrs Justice Theis said in a written ruling that G is able to make her own decisions and her wishes need not be overridden.

She said evidence also suggested that the girl, who had self-harmed and was experiencing difficulties at school, might be exposed to harm if information was given to her mother against her wishes.

Mrs Justice Theis said the girl had gone into foster care in the wake of allegations of “unlawful and unreasonable chastisement” by her mother.

The judge concluded that the local authority was “absolved” of its duty to inform the mother.

At the end of 2017, G was referred to a gender identity clinic having experienced gender dysphoria.

G still sees her mother every month, but her mother was not made aware of the hearing.