In a decision that has to be one of the worst miscarriages of justice in recent history, the Erie County (New York) Supreme Court has ruled that the father of an 8-year-old boy cannot prevent the boy's mother, from whom the father is divorced, from giving the boy life-changing puberty blockers and "transitioning" him to a girl.
Dennis Hannon, 32, a senior software engineer from Buffalo, has been locked in a 'nightmare' legal battle with Erie Supreme Court spanning seven years, fighting to retain his fundamental parental rights.
He claims that the boy's mother 'pushed' their child's transition, and says the boy himself was not distressed about living as a boy.
What's more, a year after the court's ruling, the young child, Matthew*, reverted back to his original male gender and is now 'a regular little boy.'
However, the father has lost any say in medical decisions about his son and sees him for just a few hours every week.
He cannot afford to appeal to regain full custody.
The good news is that Dennis Hannon's son seems to have rejected the idea out of hand and now, at age nine, is back to normal. But while he was spared the life-altering puberty blockers, his father now has extremely limited visitation with his son, and has been financially ruined by the fight.
Now, following last year's court ruling, Mr Hannon has only visitation rights, no joint custody or medical authority, meaning he has no say in any medical decisions.
He gets his son every other weekend and for a few hours in the week.
By age nine, Matthew was no longer identifying or dressing as a girl.
Gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors is available in New York, unlike other states.
As noted in the article, in New York, it is legal to carry out these treatments on minors, who are legally proscribed from:
- Buying alcohol or tobacco
- Buying or possessing a firearm
- Getting a tattoo
- Signing a contract
- Joining the military
- Getting married
- Applying for a credit card
But asking for and receiving life-altering, irreversible "gender affirmation" treatments? At eight years of age? That is A-OK!
This is an agenda that is tearing families apart, driving wedges between spouses, between parents and children, and is arguably compromising medical ethics at a very fundamental level; it seems to me that surgical removal of healthy tissue surely violates the principle of "first, do no harm."
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Fortunately, Matthew Hannon himself seems to have come out of this all right, assuming his mother doesn't start pushing the "trans" agenda again; it's near-certain that the three-year-old Matthew didn't come up with this idea on his own. Some youths, however, aren't so fortunate.
A woman who claims she was rushed into transgender surgery is suing the doctors who gave her a double mastectomy as a child.
Luka Hein was given the irreversible operation at 16 and says the surgery has left her with daily pain, while the hormone drugs may have robbed her of the chance of becoming a mother.
The Minnesotan, now 21, suffered a traumatizing few years as a teenager when her parents went through a bitter divorce and she was groomed by a man she met on the internet.
After one hour - one hour - of advocacy masquerading as counseling, Luka was rushed into treatment and now has suffered not only a disfiguring surgery but also was administered hormone treatments that likely rendered her unable to have children of her own. That is criminal behavior on the part of the advocates who prompted her to do this, as well as the medical personnel who administered these treatments and carried out the surgery--and if there is any justice in the world, her lawsuit will be successful.
Luka Hein is a victim. Matthew Hannon is a victim. Dennis Hannon is a victim. They are victims of an illogical agenda, supported by an outpouring of the worst sort of pseudoscientific woo, pushed by "health care providers" who profit enormously from these treatments and procedures as well as their inevitable aftermath. Proponents of this are targeting children, and in so doing, are destroying parents and families; if Dennis and Matthew Hannon's experiences show us anything, they show us that.
While, as a minarchist, I'm generally loathe to favor government intervention in medical decisions, in this case, my reservations go out the window. This is not the delivery of health care. This is a social contagion, spread by activists, performed by charlatans, and held as a sacrament by the "woke." While, as far as I'm concerned, adults may do as they please and face the consequences for it, as long as they don't ask the taxpayers for a brass obol to help pay for it. But children are not capable of making these kinds of life-changing decisions. Several states have already outlawed "gender-affirming" care for minors. The rest should follow suit.
