A transgender teenager has been taken out of his parent’s custody because they banned him from transitioning.
An Ohio court ruled that the 17-year-old could live with his grandparent’s, with a longer-term custody ruling set to be decided on today.
The 17-year-old was diagnosed with depression, anxiety and gender dysphoria but the parent’s denied him access to crucial medication which would have helped with the conditions.
Doctors say that by banning him from taking hormone blockers, they augmented his depression and triggered suicidal thoughts.
The teen contacted a crisis chat service and told them that his father had told him to kill himself because “he was going to hell anyway”.
The teen’s grandparents accept his trans identity and have agreed to allow him to start his transition.
Paul Hunt, the attorney working on the case, said that the grandparents had “an open mind and will make the best decision for the child”.
“The parents have clearly indicated that they’re not open to it,” he added.
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The ruling comes after the teen was reportedly forced by his parents to undergo “Christian” therapy which included listening to Bible readings for over six hours at a time.
The parents argued that this was not true and that the grandparents do not have their child’s “best interest” at heart.
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Karen Brinkman, the parents’ attorney, said: “It does not appear that this child is even close to being able to make such a life-altering decision at this time.
“If the maternal grandparents were to be given custody, it would simply be a way for the child to circumvent the necessity of parents’ consent,”
“[The] Parents believe custody of the child should be restored to them, so they can make the medical decisions they believe are in their child’s best interest until [the child] turns 18 years of age.”
The grandparents and other medical professionals fear that if the parent’s continue to ignore the teen’s gender then it will cause him to commit suicide.
Thomas Mellott, his lawyer, explained: “The [dead] name has become a very big trigger. It has gotten to the point where my client mentioned that he doesn’t want to think about college at this point because the marketing materials he’s getting keep using the birth name.”
Hamilton County prosecutor Donald Clancy ruled that the teen should stay with his grandparent’s because “the father testified that any kind of transition at all would go against his core beliefs and allowing the child to transition would be akin to him taking his heart out of his chest and placing it on the table.”