A mother has filed a lawsuit in the US after her 17-year-old son was given sex change drugs without her consent.
Annmarie Calgaro is suing St. Louis County, Minnesota, after it paid for two public health agencies to provide the drugs to her son.
She says that her parental rights over her son have been breached by those involved.
‘Abuse of power’
President and Chief Counsel of the Thomas More Society, which is representing Calgaro, Tom Brejcha said: “This is an outrageous abuse of power by multiple agencies.”
He added that providing drugs to a child without parental consent is “a violation of the trust placed upon the human service sector and its governmental oversight agencies”.
The mother was also denied access to her son’s educational records by his school district.
Parental rights
Michele Lentz, president of the Minnesota Child Protection League, said Calgaro’s “rights and the welfare of her son have been outrageously trampled upon.”
She said that a “struggling child” cannot “be considered capable of making fully informed and life-changing decisions like this. For his safety and for his welfare, Annmarie wants and needs to be involved”.
Under Minnesota state law, a minor cannot be considered legally independent from their parents’ care until they are given written approval from a court.
Calgaro’s son has on two previous occasions had his requests to be given a female name turned down because he does not have the necessary court approval.
‘Emotional harm’
Last month in the UK, a judge ordered that a seven-year-old boy be removed from his mother’s care, after she forced him to live “entirely as a girl”.
High Court judge Mr Justice Hayden said the child had sustained a “great deal of emotional harm” when his mother forced him to wear dresses and nail varnish, and even registered him as a girl at a doctor’s surgery.
The boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is now living with his father.
The judge revealed that he has since become interested in more traditional boys’ things, and stressed that his “interests and energy are entirely self-motivated” – not due to pressure to “pursue masculine interests”.