The Texas Supreme Court has denied a Texas father’s request for an order that would have required his ex-wife to return their 10-year-old son from Los Angeles, where a new law provides sanctuary for gender reassignment surgery among minors.
Jeff Younger had hoped to take a stand with the help of the Texas Supreme Court against the relocation of his son James, who is a twin, to California where the law designated as Senate Bill 107 became effective on Jan. 1.
SB 107 prevents the criminalization of parents who allow their children to use puberty blockers and undergo gender reassignment surgery.
Younger filed a petition for a writ of mandamus, but Justice Jimmy Blacklock waxed in his Dec. 30, 2022, ruling that concern with Younger’s ex-wife gender transitioning their son in California is speculative. Justice Evan Young concurred in denying the pleading.
Younger said there is no real doubt about his ex-wife's intentions concerning their child and that the justices cited speculation "to get a result that pleases the transgender lobby."
"That's all that happened here," he said.
As previously reported in the Southern California Record, Younger’s efforts to save his son from gender transition captured the attention of national media after Younger lost custody of James. According to reports, the child is allegedly being socialized as a girl with dresses, transgender lotions that add estrogen to his body, high-estrogen foods, and using the girl’s restroom in elementary school.
"His mother enrolled my child in a gender clinic in Dallas and it’s in the medical records that she and the pediatrician were planning to chemically castrate James at age nine," Younger told the Southern California Record. "She may have changed her mind, but she definitely has thought about doing it, and it's not clear that we can believe that she's not willing to do it.”
Blacklock further stated in his opinion that Younger is already in possession of a court order prohibiting his ex-wife from doing what he fears she will do with their son.
“The effect of the order is that neither parent has the legal authority to consent unilaterally to gender-transition therapy for their son, whether that therapy takes place in California, Texas, or elsewhere,” wrote Texas Supreme Court Justice Blacklock.
But SB 107 trumps the Aug. 3, 2021, court order that was issued by a Dallas County district court, according to Younger.
“The Dallas court order does have jurisdiction in California under the uniformed child custody statutes, but Senate Bill 107 prohibits enforcement of any restriction on a child receiving gender affirmative healthcare so California will not enforce it,” he said. “They will not enforce subpoenas. They will not return the children to Texas. They won't do any of that.”
Blacklock also wrote that Younger is misreading SB 107’s prohibitions on the enforcement of another state’s law against gender transition therapy as a prohibition on enforcement in California of court orders limiting access to the therapy.
"It is not," Blacklock stated. "A court order allocating the parental rights of divorced parents based on case-specific judicial findings about the best interests of their children is in no way a law of another state. And in the very unlikely event California’s courts interpreted their statute in such an odd way, they would of course run headlong into the Full Faith and Credit Clause."
Under the Full Faith and Credit Clause of the U.S. Constitution, states are required to enforce the laws, official documents, and court rulings of other states.
"The ruling is absurd," Younger added. "I don't know exactly where they (his ex-wife and children) live. I know they live in Los Angeles County. That's all I know. I'm not allowed to send letters to my sons. I'm not allowed phone communication. I can't FaceTime them. I can have supervised visits in LA County that cost about $3,200 per visit."
Younger plans to return to the lower district court in Dallas to seek a change of venue to another county in Texas that he hopes would render a new judge.
“Then I will ask the new judge to bring the boys back," he said