In another setback for the father of James Younger, a Dallas judge last week gave full medical and psychological care rights to the 8-year-old boy’s mother, who wants to transition him into a girl named “Luna.”
The ruling was made last Tuesday, according to LifeSite News. Judge Mary Brown canceled a scheduled hearing and instead nullified a 50-50 arrangement put in place by another judge in October between his father, Jeffrey Younger, and Dr. Anne Georgulas, the boy’s mother and a pediatrician.
Under Brown’s ruling, not only will Younger’s ex-wife be allowed to enroll him in transgender-affirming counseling sessions, his father will have to pay for it, as well — and will have no say over the choice of doctors, LifeSite News reported.
Brown also awarded Georgulas full control over James’ schooling, LifeSite News reported. While he chose to attend school as a boy last year, according to LifeSite, his mother can now enroll him as a girl.
Although James’ twin brother, Jude, has not had any issues regarding gender dysphoria, his mother will be able to exercise similar powers over him, as well, LifeSite reported.
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“James and Jude did NOT have a victory in court today. Judge Mary Brown has condemned James and Jude to a life of therapy, confusion, and abuse without even having a hearing,” stated a post on the Save James Facebook page, run by friends of Jeffrey Younger. (Younger himself is is under a court-imposed gag order, LifeSite reported in October.)
“There are no other words for what has happened today.”
“She has forced James to live as ‘Luna’ in a school surrounded by teachers and therapists who do not acknowledge that he has said multiple times to multiple people (without Jeff around) that he wants to be a boy and hates being forced to be a girl. She has forced Jude into a stressful existence of constant lies and misery as he watches his brother get destroyed before him without any hope for an end to this madness. Anne won this battle without even a hearing.”
ATTENTION!!!
James and Jude did NOT have a victory in court today. Judge Mary Brown has condemned James and Jude to a…
Posted by Save James on Tuesday, August 11, 2020
In October, a Dallas jury decided, after a bitter custody battle, that Georgulas should have sole custody over James. However, a day after that decision, Judge Kimberly Cooks restored the original 50-50 power-sharing agreement between the two parents.
Furthermore, Cooks ruled that Georgulas had unduly influenced James by affirming a transgender identity on a number of occasions — including enrolling him in school as “Luna,” taking him to LGBT parades and buying him female clothes and wigs. Jeffrey Younger has consistently maintained when not with his mother, James doesn’t say he wants to be a girl or exhibit female characteristics.
If the two parents couldn’t agree on an issue, a parenting coordinator appointed by the court would make the decision. While the court wouldn’t intervene in any specific questions regarding gender identity, issues like psychiatric treatment and medical care had to be reached in concord or decided by the coordinator.
It’s worth pointing out that Cooks also criticized Jeffrey Younger in her decision, both for fundraising to pay for his case “at the cost of the protection and privacy of his children” and for “find[ing] comfort in public controversy and attention.”
James’ father had hardly found a judge who was uncritically on his side. Cooks seemed to believe this was a problematic situation in which life-altering decisions were being made by adults who didn’t necessarily have the best interest of the child in mind.
However, in the case of Georgulas, this involved what could, in uncharitable terms, be termed coercion. Whatever the case, if the parents still were at an impasse at issues relating to medical care and school, there was the parenting coordinator as a backstop.
Should medical transgender transitioning procedures even be allowed for minors?
Furthermore, in January, Brown affirmed the joint conservatorship agreement. What changed last week is unclear, since the hearing was canceled. What’s clear is that the longer this drags on and the more power is given Georgulas, the greater the chance that James comes to the age at which puberty blockers become a pharmaceutical option if James’ mother wants to pursue that avenue.
According to LifeSite, Jeffrey Younger said he was concerned because medical records indicated James had been referred to a transitioning clinic.
According to the Mayo Clinic’s website, puberty blockers are generally started about age 10 or 11 — when puberty does — cases of them being started at 8 or 9 have been reported.
What’s next?
According to the Save James page, there’s a “special evidentiary hearing set for September” with no announced date.
“There is the sneaking suspicion that this hearing will be used to solidify Anne’s dominance over Jeff,” the Facebook post stated.
“We are fighting for the well-being of two young boys and their lives are treated as secondary. We need people to watch.”
Whether this is fact-based is impossible to ascertain because — well, we know virtually none of the facts. Few media outlets are reporting on it, having apparently moved on from the story after October’s hearing.
The problem with that is the Younger case carries national implications. Transgender transitioning of young children is a very new thing — as are parental rights in that arena. It’s difficult to wrap one’s head around the idea that one parent simply doesn’t have any say if a child is transitioned by the other parent.
That’s complicated when both parents tell decidedly different stories about how that child feels regarding that transitioning process.
In her ruling last year, Judge Cooks essentially implied James Younger’s mother was conditioning him to be more amenable to identify as transgender, which was part of the reason why she instituted a 50-50 power-sharing agreement in regard to certain issues.
After affirming that situation in January, the new judge has apparently simply thrown it out, and all without a hearing. As TheBlaze noted, there may be more to this story than is being told publicly.
Regardless, there’s an almost Kafkaesque bent to this — and there’s an 8-year-old’s psyche and life at stake.
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