A Texas court has barred a father from teaching his 6-year-old son that he is a boy or from dressing him like a boy – even though the child chooses to be a boy around the dad.
The boy, named James, is stuck in a custody case between the father and the mother, who insists the boy is a transgender girl, The Federalist reported. A gender transition therapist diagnosed James with gender dysphoria, and the boy’s teachers at school treat him like a girl, calling him “Luna.” He uses the girl’s restroom.
But when the child is around his father, he refuses to be acknowledged as a girl, The Federalist reported. The mother wants to terminate the father’s parental rights.
“James violently refuses to wear girl’s clothes at my home,” the father told Walt Heyer, an expert on gender change who believes the boy has been misdiagnosed.
It’s possible James is a confused child who is caught in society’s debate over gender, Heyer wrote. It’s also possible the mother and the therapist are pressing him to be something he is not, Heyer added. The child, at a young age, said he wanted to be a girl. But those feelings apparently are not consistent.
“The criteria for a diagnosis of childhood gender dysphoria are that a child is persistent, consistent, and insistent about being the opposite sex,” Heyer wrote. “...Under the skilled eyes of the therapist, the child has presented two pieces of paper, one with the word ‘James’ and one with the word ‘Luna,’ and asked to pick the name he preferred.
When the appointment only included his mother, James selected Luna, the name and gender he uses at his mother’s home and in his first-grade classroom. When the appointment was only with his father, however, James pointed to the boy named James, not the girl name.”
Supporters of James who believe he wants to live as a boy launched a website: SaveJames.com. The boy can begin receiving hormone treatment at age eight. Heyer calls it “chemical castration.”
Many that know the boy in Carrollton, Texas, believes James wants to be a boy.
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