By Stephanie Curry, an attorney and policy manager for Family Policy Alliance

The parenting discussion my husband and I have never had—you may remember Family Policy Alliance’s Vice President of Strategy, Autumn Leva, sharing this story with us in June.

Of course, Autumn and her husband had discussed all the usual things when it comes to planning for children, yet they also realized that with the way culture is moving they needed to discuss something most of us would never dream of talking about with our spouses—what would we do if the state took away our children because of our faith?

Autumn and her husband wondered aloud about having a daughter. What if their daughter wanted to become a boy? They would teach and show their daughter how to love herself as a girl, because that’s who she was created to be.

Yet, what if the state could remove their daughter from their home because they wouldn’t allow her to take hormone-altering drugs that stop the natural onset of puberty or testosterone that would leave her sterile for the rest of her life and cause her to develop a deeper voice and facial hair?

What if Autumn and her husband believed the numbers, that over 90% of children outgrow their gender confusion by the time they reach adulthood without medical intervention? Yet, nearly all children whose hormones and natural development are (often irreversibly) altered by puberty-blockers or cross-sex hormones (like testosterone for girls or estrogen for boys) continue in gender confusion into adulthood.

What if the courts could give their daughter away to another family (in spite of the evidence) who would allow their daughter to transition to a “boy” through hormones and irreversible sex-reassignment surgery?

Regrettably, Autumn’s and her husband’s personal musings became a reality for Americans on February 16, 2018.

On Friday, February 16, Ohio parents lost custody of their beloved daughter (who says she’s a boy) because they refused to allow her to take cross-sex hormones and have sex-reassignment surgery. Cross-sex hormones would have caused several changes in their daughter including:  facial hair growth, a lowered voice, a reduction in breast size, and giving her body a more masculine shape. Yet, her parents, after consulting with medical professionals and psychologists, believed it was not in the best interest of their daughter to allow her to make drastic, irreversible changes to her body before she even reached adulthood.

The teen had not only been diagnosed with gender dysphoria, but anxiety and depression as well. Her parents believed their daughter was not mentally healthy enough to consent to irreversible changes to her body and they believed the numbers above—that given more wide-ranging mental health interventions (that didn’t include drugs), their daughter would be able to work through not only her anxiety and depression but also her feelings of deep alienation from her body.

So, her parents refused to consent to pumping their daughter full of hormones (that have not even been tested for the purpose of “gender transition”), and the state of Ohio took away their daughter . . . and gave her to a family that would consent.

This is worth repeating. When Autumn originally wrote about this issue, it was Canada removing children from their own parents who refused to permit their children to irreversibly alter their bodies. Now, for the sake of an agenda advanced by LGBT activists, a court in the United States just removed a teen girl from her parents’ care for the same reason.

So what can we do when our own country’s Judicial Branch of government is permitting children to be taken from their homes for the sake of an activist agenda?

First, we can appeal to the People’s branch of government—the Legislative Branch—to fix the problem. This is why we have three branches of government in our country, so that when one tries to take too much power, another can restore it to its proper place.

Now is the time for state legislatures, especially in Ohio, to pass strong laws ensuring that our parental rights can never be stripped away so easily. This issue is a top priority for Family Policy Alliance. We promise to notify you when bad policies are being considered that would take away your parental rights and to help you fight against them. We also promise to work toward strong parental rights protections in every state.

Second, we can engage our church communities. Family Policy Alliance believes that the Church speaking Truth and Life back into our states and country is the only way to protect the values we hold dear—especially parental rights. Raising up a child according to God’s word is not a “political issue.” It is a biblical issue for which the Church can’t afford to sit on sidelines—because parents who raise their children according to God’s word and their churches’ guidance will be the first targets.

We pray you and your church will partner with us to protect the right of parents to raise up their children according to God’s word in your state.

 

A report in The New Atlantis says there is no scientific evidence that people are born gay.

Lawrence Mayer and Paul McHugh worked to summarize research on the subject. They are concerned that more and more drastic measures are being taken to “help” those who are confused about their identity – with disastrous results.

For instance, research shows that adults who have undergone sex reassignment surgery are 5 times more likely to attempt suicide and 19 times more likely to succeed.

“Realignment surgery destroys healthy body parts, but genetically you will still be the same male or female,” said Regina Griggs with Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX). “Minors need to be taught to love and appreciate who they are as male or female, not some fictional concept that surgery can make everything happy and exciting.”

The report points to one study that showed up to 80 percent of adolescent boys who claimed to struggle with same-sex attractions no longer did as they reached adulthood.

The research team is concerned with the number of children being referred for hormonal treatment to delay the onset of puberty.

“This approach involves helping the children to self-identify even more with the gender label they prefer at the time,” they wrote. “One component of the gender-affirming approach has been the use of hormone treatments for adolescents in order to delay the onset of sex-typical characteristics during puberty and alleviate the feelings of dysphoria the adolescents will experience as their bodies develop sex-typical characteristics that are at odds with the gender with which they identify. There is relatively little evidence for the therapeutic value of these kinds of puberty-delaying treatments.”

In an interview with LifeSiteNews, Griggs cautioned parents.

“Parents need to read this study,” she said, “and work to help their children love and respect who they were created to be.”