Washington state recently passed a law designed to give the government more power to violate parental rights. The measure empowers shelters to provide “gender-affirming care” to minors without the knowledge and consent of their parents. Fortunately, those who support the law are about to have a legal fight on their hands.
America First Legal (AFL), a conservative law firm dedicated to defending against attacks on people’s civil rights, has filed a lawsuit against Washington Gov. Jay Inslee to stop the enforcement of the legislation:
Today, on behalf of our clients, America First Legal (AFL), Schaerr Jaffe LLP, and Joel Ard, sued the Governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, the Attorney General of Washington, Robert Furguson, and the Secretary of the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families, Ross Hunter to stop the enforcement of Senate Bill 5599 – a new law that allows shelters to take in children struggling with gender dysphoria and potentially provide them with life-altering “care” (potentially including sterilization) without parental consent or knowledge.
The recently signed legislation creates a dangerous incentive for minors who disagree with their parents on “gender-affirming care” to run away to a shelter or host home. The new law takes away a requirement of notice to parents.
Furthermore, the law authorizes the state to refer a minor for “behavioral health services” without defining what this entails. In practice, this means that young children who run away from home could be receiving chemical sterilization drugs or even genital mutilation without the consent or knowledge of the parents.
This new statute deprives certain parents of their fundamental rights under the United States Constitution to direct the care and upbringing of their children. America First Legal is proud to defend parental rights and stand up against the insidious “gender-affirming care” agenda, which promotes using experimental medical procedures and drugs on minor children – potentially altering their lives forever.
Stephen Miller, president of the organization, issued a statement arguing that the “sick, authoritarian law essentially allows the state to kidnap children from their parents and hide their whereabouts to surgically and chemically mutilate them” while also depriving “their parents of any legal ability to stop the medical disfigurement of their sons and daughters by gender extremists targeting their children.”
Washington joined other states that had implemented similar legislation. Unfortunately, in some circumstances, the state’s overreach has reaped some tragic outcomes. In California, a mother named Abigail Martinez lost her daughter to this system. The state kidnapped her child because the mother would not affirm her chosen gender identity as a transgender male. She recently gave testimony before the state legislature telling her heartbreaking story:
My daughter was murdered by a gender ideology. CPS took my daughter when she was 16 years old. It was helped by her public school counselor and LGBTQ group [inaudible] and another trans-identified girl.
My daughter was taken from her loving home because the state of California claim I was abusive for not affirming her trans identity. I lost my daughter over a name and pronouns. Even after I promised to call her a male name, it wasn’t enough.
My daughter was not a boy trapped in a girl’s body. She had mental health issues. Against my consent, my daughter was given testosterone instead of therapy. The LGBTQ group used her to raise money for them. “Look at the poor reject trans boy,” they said.
Martinez continued, explaining how so many children suffering from gender dysphoria wind up in foster care. “Because this state take them from their families, tell them to run, then steal them. Parents are given one option to treat their distressed child, affirm drug and remove their healthy body part, or else lose your child,” the mother said.
Martinez explained that the abuse claim against her was eventually dropped. Tragically, it came too late. “The damage was done. By then my daughter was in horrible mental and physical pain. My daughter knelt down in front of a train. She was murdered by gender ideology,” she said.
Progressives have implemented a variety of tactics to coerce, cajole, and convince the rest of the country to accept their venomous ideas about gender identity – especially when it comes to children. But lately, they have decided to use the power of the government to compel people to allow their kids to be subjected to questionable medical and surgical treatments ostensibly to support their mental health.
Lawmakers who impose these laws have enabled the state to kidnap children under the threat of physical violence against the parents just to enforce their ideology on them. To put it in simple terms, in states like California, men carrying guns and badges can forcibly seize a child from their parents and the child can be brainwashed by the state into “transitioning” to the opposite sex.
In Washington, thanks to authoritarian government officials, parents will be subject to the same treatment. It will soon happen in other states unless organizations like AFL are able to successfully use the court system to stop them. At this point, it is clear we are in a battle for the fates of countless numbers of children vulnerable to this movement.
