Taylor backs parent rights in sex-change cases
Republican gubernatorial candidate Mary Taylor will lead the fight for a new law that would prevent courts from removing Ohio children from their parents so they can get hormonal therapy for a gender transition, as was ordered earlier this month for a 17-year-old by a judge in Cincinnati.
“Mary Taylor and Nathan Estuth are absolutely committed to creating a firewall in the state of Ohio … for parents to raise their kids with the values and education that they choose,” said Estruth, Taylor’s running mate, during a Monday news conference sponsored by Citizens for Community Values and Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati on the courthouse steps in Cincinnati.
“We will create a firewall that prevents government intervention into the rights of families and parents, wherever that fight will be.”
As governor, Taylor would not only sign the legislation, “she would use the bully pulpit to advance it and will do so on this campaign,” Estruth said.
The emotional legal dispute caught fire Feb. 16 when Sylvia Hendon, a visiting judge in Juvenile Court, granted legal custody to the 17-year-old’s grandparents, who support the gender change and will initiate hormone therapy at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.
The judge noted the hospital already has diagnosed the teen with “gender dysphoria,” which automatically triggers gender treatments at the hospital, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.
Estruth, after expressing his gratitude for the exceptional treatment of his special needs child at Cincinnati Children’s, appealed directly to the hospital’s president: “What you are doing is drawing a bright line because parents will now think twice before they are willing to bring their children to Children’s Hospital, which provides so many other wonderful services. ... Standing with parents is the right thing to do; standing against parents will hurt your business as a hospital and actually hurt more people.”
State Rep. Tom Brinkman, R-Cincinnati, said he will soon introduce legislation to assert parental rights. He also spoke at the press event, which featured signs reading “Hands off our kids,” “Protect parental rights,” “Parents have rights too.”
Hendon also called on state lawmakers to prepare legislation, but of a very different sort: A law spelling out how courts should evaluate a juvenile’s right to consent to gender therapy, the Enquirer reported.
“That type of legislation would give a voice and a pathway to youth similarly situated, without attributing fault to the parents and involving them in protracted litigation which can and does destroy the family unit.”