Over the past week or two, I have probably received more emails about the bitter divorce and custody case surrounding a 7-year-old child in Texas than any other topic.
The father, Jeffrey Younger, calls his son James. The child’s pediatrician mother, Anne Georgulas, has transitioned to the name “Luna,” since she believes her child has sent clues that, while identified as male at birth, “Luna” has shown evidence of gender dysphoria and should begin transitioning to life as a female.
The topic has roared through social media for some time now, as trans cases involving young children tend to do.
In the emails I have received, quite a bit of attention has been focused on the mother’s very Greek name — Georgulas. The question many are asking is quite simple: Is this a battle inside an Eastern Orthodox family?
I have delayed writing about this case, since I was waiting to see what would happen when it broke out of social-media and into elite media. Now the New York Times and the Washington Post have spoken.
The bottom line: The fact that the father, and his supporters, think that Christian faith is relevant in this case isn’t an viewpoint that is worthy of discussion. This case is rooted in politics, law and modern medicine. And that’s that. This is all about fake news.
Thus, here is the double-decker headline at the Times:
Texas Father Says 7-Year-Old Isn’t Transgender, Igniting a Politicized Outcry
A bitter custody battle grabbed the attention of Gov. Greg Abbott, Senator Ted Cruz and other conservative lawmakers.
That fits perfectly with the overture:
A bitter custody battle in Dallas that centers on the gender identity of a 7-year-old child provoked an outcry among conservatives this month.
The child’s mother, Anne Georgulas, had honored what she said was the child’s preference to live as a girl and sought to compel the father, Jeffrey Younger, to do the same, according to court documents. But Mr. Younger insisted that the child is a boy and said that Ms. Georgulas was manipulating the child’s identity.
The case attracted major interest after Mr. Younger created an extensive website, posting photos and videos of his children and sitting for interviews with conservative podcasts and news outlets. He raised tens of thousands of dollars in donations, saying that he was fighting forced and irreversible medical procedures, though experts who treat transgender youths disputed that characterization.
In a ruling on Thursday, Judge Kim Cooks in the 255th District Court in Dallas said that the parents should have joint custody and that the state could not require Mr. Younger to treat the child as a girl. She also forbade either parent from speaking to the news media and ordered Mr. Younger to shut down his site.
This prompted the following commentary from a long-time GetReligion reader, focusing on basic journalism issues as well as the religion “ghost” in this debate:
Zero words about the reasons why the father doesn’t believe his son is transgender. Zero words about any role of religion. I can’t say for sure, but I have read several times that the father is an Eastern Orthodox Christian. If he really is (practicing), that would have significant weight in the father’s resistance.
That curiosity about faith content clashes, needless to say, with the thesis of the Times report, which is summarized in this blunt statement:
Experts say that the best practices for treating prepubescent children who may be transgender are to affirm the child’s choices and afford them the space to explore their identity.
Readers will not be surprised to learn that the parents fiercely disagree on what the child is communicating to them about gender, clothing, fingernails, etc.
Is there any need to quote the father’s point of view on what is happening here, perhaps drawing on statements and videos before the court order silencing both parents?
Apparently not. Again, this story is all about conservative social-media, GOP politics and the views of gender specialists in various think tanks.
Is religion relevant here, even though it may be a crucial part of the clash between the parents? Are you kidding?
The Washington Post story is also faith-free, in terms of content, but does contain this long passage about some of the details of the conflict, as described by the parents.
Everything started on the child’s third birthday.
At that point, the father was paying maximum child support and had standard custody in Texas: He saw the twins once a week for two hours and had them sleep over at his apartment two weekends a month. They spent the rest of their time with Georgulas, who had noticed that the child, known by the name James at the time, wanted to wear dresses and look like the female characters from the Disney movie “Frozen.”
Georgulas took Luna to see a therapist, who diagnosed the child with gender dysphoria — a mismatch between the gender assigned at birth and the one they identified with. From there, the therapist laid out steps on how to make the child feel affirmed, like letting Luna paint their nails and putting them in a dress, as the mother did when the twins turned 5.
But Younger has repeatedly told a different story in interviews with conservative media outlets, including LifeSiteNews, a website run by a Canadian antiabortion organization that advocates for “traditional family values” and against same-sex marriage.
“James presents as a boy with me and he presents as a girl with his mom,” Younger said to the website last month. “He gets dressed as a boy at his mother’s home and he comes out to me as a boy. That means that he’s comfortable as a boy at his mother’s home.”
Younger charged that Georgulas had been pressuring Luna to want to use female pronouns. He cut the child’s hair, put the child in boys’ clothes and continued calling them James.
At some point, religious liberty issues may come into play, linked to the parental rights of the mother as well as the father.
In one LifeSite report, there was this exchange:
The amicus attorney — an attorney appointed by the court who is supposed to represent the best interests of the children — asked Mr. Younger about his religious beliefs on transgenderism. Mr. Younger, an Orthodox Chrisitian, told the court, “This is completely opposed to the teachings of the Orthodox Church. It is equivalent to suicide … .It also violates all of the sexual dogmas of the church.”
Mr. Younger is currently forbidden by the court from trying to “convince his son he’s a boy.” He interprets that to mean he cannot teach James some of his religious beliefs.
Stay tuned.
ybvdadminuser
