How medical care for transgender youth became ‘child abuse’
HOUSTON — Jeffery Younger fought for years with his ex-wife, a pediatrician, over the gender identity of one of their twins. While she followed the advice of their children’s doctor to affirm the child’s desire to dress as a girl, grow long hair and be known as Luna, Mr. Younger steadfastly objected.
He resisted the new name, insisting instead on boys’ clothes, short haircuts and the name the couple had chosen at birth.
What began in a single household in a small community outside Dallas became a very public custody battle between Mr. Younger and Dr. Anne Georgulas, transforming him into a folk hero among conservatives and amplifying a growing effort to roll back transgender protections in statehouses across America.
It paved the way, too, for an order late last month by Gov. Greg Abbott, of Texas, to investigate parents for child abuse if they provide certain medical treatments to their transgender children.
The abuse investigations ordered by Mr. Abbott, the first of their kind, represent the peak of a new round of action in state capitals aimed at transgender Americans, the most significant push by groups opposed to transgender rights since the national campaign to limit bathroom access foundered in 2017 and 2018. On Tuesday, a bill passed the Idaho House that would make medical treatments for transgender youth a felony, punishable by life in prison. But few predicted that it would go as far as it has in Texas. The directive by Mr.
Abbott very quickly resulted in investigations by the Department of Family and Protective Services, prompted a major Houston hospital to restrict its care for transgender children and raised fears among civil rights advocates of copycat efforts in other states. President Joe Biden has condemned the action and asked federal authorities to step in if cases of discrimination arise.
“This is actually the first time that they’ve succeeded in getting something that looks like a success,” said Kasey Suffredini, the CEO of Freedom for All Americans, a national gay and transgender rights group. “It’s incredibly painful. It is devastating.”
The fight over transgender issues, waged on several fronts in recent years, has increasingly focused on medical treatments for children.
Major medical groups — along with transgender advocates — back what is known as gender-affirming care, which involves supporting a child’s gender identity and social transition, often through clothes or a name. Such care can also eventually include puberty blockers or hormone treatments, though surgery is not recommended for children. While acknowledging some uncertainty and risk, they cite evidence that the approach can improve children’s mental health and reduce suicide. Opponents — including some large conservative organizations — argue that children are too young to decide for themselves and must be shielded from potentially life-altering treatments that have only recently gained broader acceptance among the medical community. Those at the center of the conservative push for new state laws include a coalition of familiar groups — the Heritage Foundation, Family Policy Alliance and Alliance Defending Freedom — that came together in the last two years. Then last month, a newer player on the right, American Principles Project, took up the cause in Texas, spending more than $600,000 to run a series of highly produced ads on cable television featuring the case of Mr. Younger, who has become an outspoken supporter of restrictive legislation on transgender issues. The ads directly targeted Mr. Abbott during a hard-fought Republican primary, accusing the governor of not taking steps to “protect our children.”
By that point, Mr. Younger, 57, had testified repeatedly at the capitol in Austin on measures to restrict transgender medical treatments. After the bills failed, he entered the Republican primary for an open seat in the Texas House of Representatives.
Mr. Younger came in second place, qualifying for the May runoff.
For conservative activists, the legislative push has been part of a broader national struggle over social issues, including legislation in Florida to ban teaching about gender identity in schools. Some of the same activists who defend the rights of parents in battles over school curriculum argue that, on the question of transgender treatment, children need protection from their own parents.
“Parents make all sorts of decisions with their kids,” said Craig DeRoche, the CEO of the Family Policy Alliance, part of the coalition helping legislators draft new transgender laws. “And as a community, we chime in as to which decisions should or shouldn’t be available to parents.”
But for many families in Texas, the threat of an investigation by the state has introduced new fears into an already challenging set of medical decisions. Children now worry that classmates or teachers could report their parents for possible abuse. Some families have taken steps to leave the state.
“We’re kind of looking over our shoulder a little bit,” said Autumn Tupper, 43, of Frisco, Texas, a Dallas suburb. Because of the governor’s directive, her son, Orion, 17, who came out as transgender over the past year, decided to delay gender-affirming hormone treatment until he turns 18 this summer.
The deeper roots of the current fight over transgender rights in Texas can be traced to a 2015 battle in Houston over a local antidiscrimination ordinance, which would have applied to a range of protected classes, including race, age and gender identity.
Opponents rallied around the notion that the bill would put women in danger by allowing men to enter women’s bathrooms, dubbing it the “bathroom ordinance.” Its defeat helped clear the way for a national conservative push to enact so-called bathroom bills aimed at transgender people.
But the bathroom effort stumbled. The one measure that passed, in North Carolina, was later repealed. In Texas, many social conservatives were angered at the state’s failure to pass such a law.
“This issue is not going to go away,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a firebrand former talk radio host, said at the time, in 2017.
By the next year, the custody case between Mr. Younger and Dr. Georgulas, in the Dallas suburb of Coppell, began to attract notice in conservative circles.
There have been other such cases of parents fighting over the gender identity of their children. But Mr. Younger sought attention with a website and a campaign that featured the birth name of his child. Among the first articles on the case appeared in The Federalist in 2018. Mr. Younger sat for many interviews, including with Infowars.
“You cannot understand the political situation in Texas without understanding my political advocacy,” Mr. Younger said in a 16minute call with The New York Times in which he refused to answer questions. “You work for an evil and wicked organization,” he said. “I think you’ll use accuracy against my own values.”
A lawyer for Dr. Georgulas declined a request for comment, citing a gag order put in place by the judge in the case.
The couple fought bitterly in court for years. Their marriage was annulled by a court on the grounds of fraud by Mr. Younger, who had misrepresented his employment andmarital history.
In court transcripts, Dr. Georgulas said she had followed the lead of her transgender child, who is now 9, and the determinations of doctors. She has denied forcing her child to identify as a girl as Mr. Younger has claimed. She has not provided any puberty blockers or hormones, though she supports their use, if recommended. She filled out intake papers for Genecis, a Dallas clinic specializing in transgender care, but had not yet begun treatment when it shut down last year amid pressure from Mr. Abbott.
“Everything that she did was on the basis of professional guidance,” said Karen Hirsch, a friend of Dr. Georgulas.
The case’s growing public profile coincided with broadening medical acceptance of gender-affirming care — and a backlash.