Constitutional Law, Free Speech, International, Society

Father Arrested After Continuing To Call His Child “She” After Court-Ordered Gender Transition Treatments

There is an extraordinary case out of British Columbia where a father referenced as CD was arrested after he continued to refer to his biological 14-year-old daughter (known as AB) as “she” and his “daughter” after he transitioned to a male gender.  The Supreme Court of British Columbia, Canada ordered that the child receive testosterone injections without obtaining parental consent. CD opposed the transition as the parent but he was overruled after physicians at BC Children’s Hospital who decided the girl should receive testosterone injections. The father continued to defy gag orders, including a bar on his trying to persuade with his own child to wait before making such a change.

We have previously discussed how such pronoun disputes (called “misgendering) lead to criminal investigation in other countries like Great Britain.

The Canadian courts withheld the father’s name but he has since gone public in interview and has a GoFundMe site under his real name.

Previously, in a 2019 decision, Justice Gregory Bowden rejected the parent’s view as largely immaterial:

In view of the established law regarding the right of a mature minor to consent to medical treatment and the assessments of a number of physicians that A.B.has capacity to consent as well as the evidence of his health care providers that the proposed treatment is in A.B.’s best interests, there is no serious question to be tried.

At the second stage of the RJR test, the inquiry is whether the litigant who seeks the interlocutory injunction would, unless the injunction is granted, suffer irreparable harm. A.B.’s father has not demonstrated that a refusal to grant the injunction would adversely affect or irreparably harm him.

After that decision, there was a gag order put into place that barred the father from even trying to convince his son to change his mind:

“[1] AB, a 14 year old transgender boy, applies for a protection order to restrain his father, CD, from publishing, speaking or giving interviews about this case or about AB’s personal and medical information.

“a) CD shall be restrained from: i. attempting to persuade AB to abandon treatment for gender dysphoria; ii. addressing AB by his birth name; and iii. referring to AB as a girl or with female pronouns whether to AB directly or to third parties;

“b) CD shall not directly, or indirectly through an agent or third party, publish or share information or documentation relating to AB’s sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, mental or physical health, medical status or therapies.”

The evening of the Bowden’s decision, CD spoke to the Federalist and said “because she is a girl. Her DNA will not change through all these experiments that they do.” He added:

“I had a perfectly healthy child a year ago, and that perfectly healthy child has been altered and destroyed for absolutely no good reason. She can never go back to being a girl in the healthy body that she should have had. She’s going to forever have a lower voice. She’ll forever have to shave because of facial hair. She won’t be able to have children… Sometimes I just want to scream so that other parents and people will… jump in, understand what’s going on. There’s a child—and not only mine, but in my case, my child out there having her life ruined.”

That led to a conviction of the father for “family violence” in April 2019. Furthermore, Judge Francesca Marzari even issued an order authorizing Clark’s arrest “without warrant” by any police officer who might catch him referring to his daughter “as a girl or with female pronouns.”

Later YouTube interviews with the father were removed.  In addressing one of those interviews, Justice Michael Tammen of the British Columbia Supreme Court even ordered that Laura-Lynn  Thompson to pull her interview and, when she did not, he sent police to her house.

The decisions reject any substantive weight given parental rights. I have long opposed an absolutist position against parental rights in areas like abortion with minors. The use of criminal penalties against this father only magnify those concerns.

I personally disagree with the father in the use of the pronoun if his son has made this choice. I would yield to the child’s preference on how the child is referenced (as opposed to decisions on medical treatments or procedures for young children). However, the question is whether the state should play such a coercive and intrusive role in a family.  Ordering a parent not to speak to his child about the issue or arresting him for referring to the child’s biological gender raises very serious parental and free speech rights in my view.   I realize that many experts believe that opposing such gender transition is abusive and harmful. I do not discount that view. However, that is a position best left to persuasive rather than coercive means. We can debate this question and many can oppose the use of such pronouns as abusive.  Yet, arresting a parent for continuing to oppose such a transition or referring to the wrong pronoun is chilling. There is an utter disregard of the countervailing interests and rights of parents in these decisions.

 

161 thoughts on “Father Arrested After Continuing To Call His Child “She” After Court-Ordered Gender Transition Treatments”

  1. Father Arrested After Continuing To Call His Child “She” After Court-Ordered Gender Transition Treatments

    The court jesters (ie judges) administering the three ring circus known as The Supreme Court of British Columbia, Canada have have clearly overstepped their authority.

    Where does the court derive it’s authority to supersede parental rights in a case where a child seeks to cause irreparable medical harm to themselves both physically/mentally?

    Since when are children capable of making such life altering decisions?

    As all persons not jaded by expediency and or ideology would attest children are apt to make impetuous/petulant choices – which is why they are not permitted to partake in the use of alcohol or tobacco – nor are they permitted to vote or operate a motor vehicle until they have attained a certain age (18 in Canada).

    In order for a person in British Columbia Canada to obtain a drivers learners permit at 16 years old the law requires a person under the age of 19 years old to obtain parental consent.

    What about a child who sought to imbibe alcohol in British Columbia (19 years of age) – what if a parent knowingly allowed their child to consume alcohol and was arrested for being a minor?

    Would an adequate defense be that the parent was only deferring to a mature minor desiring to tilt a few back?

    Court jesters Francesca Marzari and Justice Michael Tammen (and their ilk) are ideological monsters who have made a mockery of parental consent and disgraced the court. In a world based upon justice they would at the very least be tossed from the three ring circus they profess to administer before they do more harm to naive children.

    Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. ~ Anonymous

      1. Gary you forgot abortion for minors is mostly legal without parental consent too. I hear it varies. Reality is they can all get over the counter abortion pills now. At any age.

  2. When are you ever going to come to the realization that the state owns your children? You must understand that if your 14 year old daughter decides that she wants to live a life of prostitution you have no right to try to persuade her to take another direction. She will be a valuable member of society as a sex worker and as a parent you do not have a right to influence her because she is making our society a better place. Step in line comrade. Handcuffs await your missteps.

  3. Anyone who thinks or is led to believe that he or she can “change” gender is mentally ill ,,, and mistaken. Whether MDs, PhDs, judges or family members – anyone who assists or tolerates these people (young or of any age) in taking mental or physical steps in such an awful pursuit is participating in the cult-like actions.

    1. If people are allowed to choose their official sex then all relevant documents must include 3 fields:-
      1/ Voluntarily chosen sex M or F;
      2/ Genital configuration M, F or intersex;
      3/ Sex gene config XX, XY, XXY, XYY etc

      1. What a bizarre desire you have.

        Also, someone may have different sex genes in different cells in their body, whether due to a transplant or because of chimerism.

        1. Thanks Darren.

          I used to believe that the URL of a comment popped up in the URL bar immediately after submission but am not seeing it lately. Might be a problem with my computer/browser combination. My 4GiB laptop often often exceeds 80% memory use which can cause communications between WordPress and my browser to time out because browser is waiting on the swapping of memory.

          1. Carlyle,

            If you use Microsoft Windows you might benefit by running Task Manager ([control][alt][delete] then select Start Task Manager). You can then sort the list by Private Working Set Memory to see at a glance which process is hogging up resources. It might also be helpful to stop any unneeded services that Windows is running, though this is only marginally effective generally per each. If you would like to get a bit more granular as to where the memory use is going I’ve used https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer in the past to root out some problems. It’s a bit advanced but it might give you some ideas for further research.

            Older Windows versions were also more vulnerable to page file / disk fragmentation, especially if free disk space was low. While it might not help with the 80% physical memory use, defragging and optimizing the page file might take care of some of the latency and thrashing–buying some more time for the browser to not be serialized in its communication with the network.

  4. Fascinated by your branding of this current Fox talking point, JT.
    .
    Of course, it would be nice to hear you deep dive into Dominion’s law suits directed at the media conglomerates and individuals who lied about them. Or the fact that the IC put out a declassified report saying, no, the Chinese (after consideration on their end) did not interfere in the ’20 election, which of course makes your friend Barr a documented liar.

    Or that the same report did confirm that the Russians again worked to disrupt the ’20 election, and that they in fact were able to disperse misinformation directly through the trump administration.

    Or that the ‘affadavits’ story about election tampering on the part of ‘flipping’ votes for Biden is crashing and burning in a spectacular way….

    But no, gender pronouns is how we bide the time until a trump indictment I guess. I will say I do applaud you on topic choice, albeit a deflection — it’s a really clever deflection. You’re taking the deflection that Fox is leaning on, giving it a clever and humorous twist…, and basically walking a tightrope with it. Your job is not easy and yet you manage to pull it off everyday. Good on ya for that. On one level I have sympathy for you, but I’d also really love for you to shake off the chains. The financial rewards of right wing media are fruitful, no doubt…, but they have to leave you awake in the middle of the night contemplating if the duchats are really worth it. Or at least, on some level, I hope you are. It can’t be a good position to be in.

    EB

    1. It’s a long and winding road, but you did get Trump into to fourth paragraph. Nice work!

    2. EB cares more about his Trump fixation than the abuse of a 14 year old child and the demonization of her father in his heroic attempt to protect her. What a guy.

    3. “it would be nice to hear you deep dive into Dominion’s law suits directed at the media conglomerates and individuals who lied about them”

      It would be nice if you knew anything about civil lawsuits before embarrassing yourself (once again) by clearly displaying that you know nothing.

      You should go back to pretending that you coach basketball.

  5. In recent years Canada has changed for the worse. Then again so has America. The left is forcing totalitarianism down our throats.

  6. “I personally disagree with the father in the use of the pronoun if his son has made this choice. “

    “After that decision, there was a gag order put into place that barred the father from even trying to convince his son to change his mind:”
    —
    The father’s voice should never have been interfered with especially before things became irreversible. Afterwards, after things were irreversible, I would agree with Turley’s attitude, but not before.

  7. On top of all this gender confusion identity bunk , the leader of the drag queen book reading… a judge in Minnesota was arrested this week on kiddie porn possession of which two counts are related to that perv downloading at the courthouse he worked in. This is all a woke left nutter divide and conquer scheme utilizing dim witted confused people as pawns in their grand scheme of idiocracy.

  8. I too was served with a court order mandating that I refer to my daughter’s preferred pronoun and chosen name, and ordered not to discuss medical treatments or therapy being administered to “help” her “transition”. And I am barred from interacting with any of her medical/therapeutic providers, or to discuss any of it with my child.
    And this has taken place in Ulster county, NY. Hon. Anthony McGinty presiding, and issuing these orders.
    So don’t think this is happening only in Canada.

      1. Family court appeals take a year, during which the damage will likely be done.
        And yes, that notwithstanding, I did file a timely appeal that is still pending.
        These things are exigent circumstances, that do not wait for glacial court proceedings to resolve. So it becomes essentially a fait accompli.
        To my daughter’s credit, even she didn’t think a court order should be imposed in our family life, that we should only need to deal with it ourselves, differences of opinion notwithstanding.
        It is still in play, and I can only hope she revisits her position on this.

        1. Gary – I am so sorry. The left has entirely betrayed our youth with this false obsession with sexuality and worse a degradation of women as so many girls are thinking they are trans. I feel the medical community has committed the worst of malpractice. Would they put an anorexic on a diet? Cut off a girls legs bc she said she was a mermaid? Absurd

        2. I assume you have attempted to contact pro bono lawyer and psychiatric groups that may exist. I would also consider seeing if you couldn’t cold call or write some of the prominent lawyers that have knowledge. It likely wouldn’t pan out but one of them might provide a lead. I would consider contacting Alan Dershowitz since he is knowledgeable and he might know who to turn to especially since so many known lawyers were taught by him. I believe he would look at this situation in horror. I also would call up Hillsdale College to see if they had anything to add. One never knows some people have to offer.

          It seems that you have an intelligent daughter based on what you said and if you were able to get help you might have a chance.

    2. Wow! Thanks for letting us know. I am so sorry for you. I assume you have gotten an attorney along with a psychiatrist skilled in this area to help fight for your child. Unless there are some medical genetic findings that are very significant I think surgical and medical intervention will be found to be disastrous for a lot of young children.

      This is very sad indeed.

  9. Folks, this is the radical left. Doesn’t matter which country, and it’s a package deal. There’s no buffet in a madhouse. The radicals won’t let you pick which crackpot policies you can tolerate, and you can’t vote out the radicals once they corrupt immigration and election law.

    Think hard before you vote us over a cliff. Due to the last election, the front tires are already airborne.

    1. Given the money and collusion that appeared to steal the last election it is questionable whether voting here is any different from voting in the Soviet Union.

      Meanwhile the Capitol looks as if it has been subjected to a coup. Perhaps it has.

  10. This letter was published in The Federalist today. I thought it could have been written by this father, but to hide his identity, written as a mom. Here is just a part of it:

    Let me tell you about my daughter. She is smart, funny, creative, artistic, amazing. I would give my life for her. But now she won’t talk to me, and I’m powerless to change that.

    She has a new name, one I’ve never called her. I’m no longer allowed to call her by the name we gave her on the day she was born, the name I sang to her in the night and taught her to print in big childish letters. It’s a beautiful name. But now it’s considered an act of hatred and bullying to use it.

    She has a new voice, which I’ve only heard once. It was a stranger’s voice, deep yet familiar. When I heard it I knew she must be on testosterone. I realized then I will never hear my daughter’s voice again.

    Even if she stops taking testosterone, many of the effects will be permanent, including the deepening of her voice. I recall the sound of her voice every day, but I worry someday I will forget what it sounds like. I can’t find any recordings of it.

    Most painfully, we have a new type of relationship. I’ve been invested in this issue for quite some time, and even more so since this insidious mania took my daughter. I’ve been deeply concerned by the explosive cultural shift on gender, and made that concern known. My daughter knows this, so perhaps I should have expected her letter.

    At first I didn’t even realize it was from her. I thought it was a thank you note or a note from a friend. I opened it up and slowly digested its words:

    To mom,
    This is difficult to write, but I feel the time is right to do it. I don’t believe it is good or healthy for me to maintain our relationship. I will not be initiating further contact with you, and ask that you respect my wish for no further contact. Please avoid attempting to contact me through phone, email, social media, in-person contact, or friends and family. I wish you well and hope you find peace and happiness in your future.

    She signed with her new name, typed.
    https://thefederalist.com/2021/03/19/when-transgenderism-discards-my-daughter-i-will-still-be-here-for-her/

    1. It feels much like the letter relatives receive from family members that have been inducted into a cult.

      1. Exactly: like a cult. Do you realize what they are being taught in school now from kindergarten on? Parents have no rights. Further, many teen girls play tiktok videos of themselves changing faces, genders, cutting, farewell world, etc. Pandemic collateral damage, but it had a head start for sure. We knew our children were only lent to us, but we thought that meant by God or the Universe, not the State. Sci-fi becomes fact again.

  11. I have some experience in dealing with people who have transitioned. My father, Dr. Gregory H. Hemingway, youngest son of the Nobel Laureate for Literature, Ernest Hemingway, transitioned when he was 64 years old. However, he was an adult who had already fathered seven children and had been married three times. I wrote a biography of him, Strange Tribe, that was published in 2007. In it, I quote my father when he once told me that there were times when he thought that becoming a woman was the best thing that he had ever done and other times when he thought that he was nothing but a freak. My father was a grown man and an M.D. Someone, in short, who knew full well that there would be no turning back once he had transitioned and yet he had his doubts for the rest of his life regarding this choice. A fourteen year old, on the other hand, has nowhere near the maturity to make this kind of decision on his, or her, own. Frankly, I am appalled at how the government of British Colombia is treating CD, the father, but I am not surprised given the times we live in.

  12. In view of the established law regarding the right of a mature minor…

    Mature minor? Does that equal Immature adult? What the he!! is that? Sounds like an argument a pedophile would make. What does science say about when the brain is fully developed?

    Meanwhile, legislatures and courts are hearing a very different argument from a group of people that haven’t traditionally testified before them: neuroscientists. Using advanced brain-scanning technology, scientists are getting a better view of how the human brain develops than ever before. And what they’ve found is that in most people, the prefrontal cortex and its links to other regions of the brain are not fully formed until age 25–much later than anyone had realized. These areas are the seat of “executive decision making”–the parts of the brain that allow people to think through the likely consequences of an action, weigh the risks and benefits and stop themselves from acting on impulse. In other words, the stuff that makes you a mature person.
    https://www.governing.com/archive/What-is-the-Age.html

    I personally disagree with the father in the use of the pronoun if his son has made this choice. I would yield to the child’s preference.

    Oh stop. No you wouldn’t. If your child, regardless of age, suddenly came up to you and said they wanted to physically transform their body to appear opposite of their chromosomes, you would not yield. You would do everything possible to discourage that life-altering transition. If it were your “adult-minor” child, you’d exhaust all possible physical and mental evaluations before yielding. Damn Turley, remember that time you had to be airlifted out of the hills in Los Angeles because you made a possible life-altering mistake by not bringing enough water? That’s right, even an experienced outdoorsman like yourself will make unreasonable choices. Yielding to your child in this regard would be far worse than that.

    1. “what they’ve found is that in most people, the prefrontal cortex and its links to other regions of the brain are not fully formed until age 25–much later than anyone had realized”

      So should it be illegal for someone to buy a gun before age 25?
      Should it be illegal for someone to buy alcohol before age 25?
      Should the Armed Forces not allow someone to serve before age 25?
      Should a 20 y.o. felon be treated as a minor?
      …

      According to you, what should all of the legal implications be?

      1. Should you be able to buy a gun, buy alcohol, etc. at 14? Maybe if your a “mature” 14.

      2. According to you, what should all of the legal implications be?

        Begin with respecting the rights of the parents.

        Should it be illegal for a parent to prevent their 14 year old from purchasing a firearm? No
        Should it be illegal for a parent to prevent their 14 year old from purchasing alcohol? No
        Should the Armed Forces be able to enlist a 14 year old over the objections of the parents? No
        Should a y.o. felon be treated as a minor?         No

        1. “Begin with respecting the rights of the parents.”

          You are imagining parental rights that don’t exist. Parents don’t have any say about who is old enough to legally buy a gun, legally purchase alchohol, legally serve in the Armed Forces.

          1. Parents don’t have any say about who is old enough to legally buy a gun, legally purchase alchohol, legally serve in the Armed Forces.

            They have always had a say in the medical treatment of their minor children. They have always had a say in what they permitted their minor children to do.

            1. We might be learning a bit more about Anonymous the Stupid’s psyche. It sounds like he hasn’t ever done parenting. Maybe that is a good thing.

              1. It sounds like he hasn’t ever done parenting.

                I wouldn’t be surprised to discover he’s one of those mature minors, given his propensity to just argue without reason.

  13. The whole Transgenderism movement is the mainstreaming of mental illness. She needs psychological treatment not enablement through hormone administration and referring to her as he. This is state sanctioned child abuse.

  14. The state chose to abrogate the father’s rights and used violence (arrest) to enforce the injustice.

    Leaves the father with just two choices: submission or rebellion.

    Both will result in misery for him.

    Hell of a choices.

  15. You used the word “experiment”. This is all an experiment and to experiment on a growing, developing teenager with “drugs” that the child will have to take for the rest of his/her life and we have no idea what 2ndary effects over years there will be. Have they studies enough rats over time to see what may happent?

  16. Leaving transition aside, the father was thrown in jail for using his preferred pronoun for his child.

    Not many years ago this would have been seen clearly as a form of judicial insanity.

  17. “I personally disagree with the father in the use of the pronoun if his son has made this choice. I would yield to the child’s preference.”

    This sentence is almost as disturbing as the treatment of the father and the minor child by the Canadian courts and medical system.

    Would you “yield to the child’s preference” if your fourteen-year old girl decided to have a baby? Get married? Ask to have certain body parts amputated or surgically altered? Begin to binge drink alcohol? Pose for pornographic photos? Decide to go to school stoned? Run away to join a band or try her hand at something else? Join the local gang? Take up sky-diving? Join ISIL or al Qaeda? Leave the Catholic Church to join a cult? Drop out of high school? Refuse to go to college?
    Where do you draw the line, or would you always yield to your child’s wishes?

    Most parents want what they consider best for their child, drawing on the values which they learned from their parents, their religious beliefs (or their secular ethics), and their own experience — including their mistakes in judgment and the stupid things they did when they were younger.

    These treatments, as the father has observed, will permanently alter her body and will change her life forever. They are not reversable and they are not comparable to hanging with the wrong kids or taking up a dangerous sport or getting drunk at a party with friends or skipping classes or idolozing Cardi B or mimicking Wanda or dating the wrong guys (or gals).

    Fourteen-year olds are very impressionable, so they tend to follow trends and crowds, and at the moment trans is trendy, like the Marvel multiverse.
    At the very least the child should be older before being allowed to make such a decision, say 16, the age at which she would be allowed to drive a car, or 18, the age at which she would be able to vote, or 21, the age at which they could hang out at the local bar.

    I empathize with the father and have great sympathy for the child, but only contempt for the judges and doctors involved in this tragedy. This is not merely an attack on free speech, although it surely is that; it is a usurpation of parental authority by state actors who, rather than doing so to prevent abuse, are doing so to assure that the child is abused.

    1. With all due respect to the Professor, I’m totally with Old Guy on this one.

  18. This is a very tough one. The child is only 14 years old and should not be making decisions like that Unfortunately, this issue seems to favor only the one sided issue of becoming trans. Many parents have been forced into dealing with ROGD. ROGD is Rapid Onset Gendar Dysphoria. Many things have been written about this. Teens who have a chemical inbalance but think they are Trans, high schoolers who with the guidance and help of their schools get the shots leave home have no work no income and up homeless and then teens within 5 years realize they are not trans and are ruined. This is a problem and unfortunately its not talked about in a rashional all sides matter way. This is not a 1st eposode. Its happening.

  19. I do not think that any minor should be able to change his or her biologically born sex, period. He or she is too immature. These same immature people are not allowed to smoke or drink in many countries.

    1. It’s amazing though cause here in Canada they are not mature enough to be held accountable for any crimes they commit. Their records are “cleared” when they turn 18,because their poor choices could impact their adult life. But yet they can chose which parent they live with, healthy or unhealthy, they can quit school, they can move out on their own and now chose their gender. Does this make sense at all?

      1. Most of those are reversible and correctable, physical and chemical surgery is not.

  20. I have no opinion on Canadian law. I am not versed in it all. Yet, I am bothered that any child can start to transform gender without parental involvement. I am not saying the child is wrong or the parent’s reaction is wrong. What bothers me is that the parent has no say in the matter as it is presented in this thread. This father is not going without a fight. I see this as a matter for family and that family involvement is removed. Maybe there is more to the story than meets the eye. Locking up a father for refusing to acknowledge his child’s transition is wrong. If this father rejects his child now, will he be locked up again? I have zero doubt this is causing great amounts of pain to the family at large, let alone the child and father. I wonder if the father would have claimed religious protections, would that have made any difference.

Comments are closed.