Trans teen battles for freedom for parents who don’t accept his gender identity
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A trans teenager is embroiled in a battle to be released from his parents’ care as they won’t accept his gender identity.
The 17-year-old from Hamilton County, Ohio, has asked to be allowd to live under his grandparents’ care.
He currently lives with his grandparents and they support his transition.
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But his parents want to subject him to the widely condemned practice of Christian ‘conversion’ therapy.
The unnamed teen’s parents also don’t want to allow him to undergo hormone treatment or any surgery linked to his transition.
Donald Clancy of the Department of Jobs and Family Services said: “The parents in this case do not desire to parent their child… They merely have a desire to parent a child who, in reality, no longer exists.”
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The attorney for the parents, Karen Brinkman, says their stance is that they think the boy’s gender identity is a phase.
She said she thinks it is “a place to park [the teen’s] identity”.
They believe they are withholding treatment for his gender dysphoria as a method of protecting against long-term damage.
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“The belief that hormone therapy or sex reassignment therapy would help patients who have gender dysphoria is based on hope, not science,” Brinkman adds.
The attorney for the grandparents, Jeffrey Cutcher, says: “The child has stated,’I don’t want to go back home… When I was home, dad chased me around the house.’
“‘When I was home, I lived in terror in that home.'”
Cutcher added that the longer the boy is subjected to the custody battle, the harder it is for him to accept and embrace his gender identity and to live the life he needs to live.
“What we want to in the coming months around May is plan for a high school graduation, throughout the summer and fall plan for an entrance into college,” he said.
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“We don’t want to be planning a funeral,” he adds, pointing out the danger of ‘conversion’ therapy.
PinkNews recently compiled a list of all of the organisations which have come out against the practice of gay ‘cure’ therapies.
Campaigners recently joined forces in order to push for gay ‘conversion’ therapy to be banned worldwide.
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The GOP’s 2016 national party platform included support for conversion therapy, to much outrage from LGBT groups.
It said: “We support the right of parents to determine the proper treatment or therapy, for their minor children.”
Washington State recently advanced a bill past committee stage in the Senate, which would ban gay ‘cure’ therapy for minors.
