A Washington mom claims her school tried to ‘transition’ her ten-year-old daughter behind her back
The mother, Jennifer, said her daughter met with a ‘therapist’ who was acting like the ‘savior’ of her child
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A mother — who "asked to be identified by her first name only" — said her daughter was in "fifth grade" when a school therapist began convincing her 10-year-old to "transition" into a new life as a boy.
"My daughter was in fifth grade. And she was being socially transitioned by her school, behind my back," the mother, named Jennifer, told Tablet magazine columnist Wesley Yang in an interview for his Substack.
The pressure on parents is immense, Jennifer said, because doctors, teachers and therapists all claim that their children "might commit suicide" if they aren’t "affirmed" and allowed to switch genders.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A protester voices support for the promotion of transgender ideology in schools during a pro-transgender march. (Mark Kerrison/In Pictures via Getty Images)
"That’s scary. That’s terrifying. It’s like blackmailing parents," she said.
Jennifer works for Partners for Ethical Care, a "secular, non-partisan" group that battles "gender identity affirmation" and the "unethical treatment of children," according to its website. "We believe that no child is born in the wrong body," the site continues.
Jennifer said her daughter was "ten to eleven years old" when she was approached by a therapist who used "male pronouns" and a "made up name" for her daughter.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}DETRANSITIONING BECOMES GROWING CHOICE AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE AFTER GENDER-AFFIRMING SURGERY
People hold signs during a joint board meeting of the Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine gather to establish new guidelines limiting gender-affirming care in Florida, on Nov. 4, 2022. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
"I felt like this therapist was not working in partnership with me," she said. "I felt like she was working against me. I felt like she was setting me and her father up as the enemy of our child. She was the savior who was going to come in and save our daughter from us, or help us, you know, come over to her side or whatever."
After roughly 10 private meetings with her daughter, the therapist gave Jennifer and her husband an ultimatum. They had three days before a final meeting during which Jennifer’s daughter could "come out" as a boy to her parents.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"She gave us three days, because she thought we needed some time to process this," Jennifer said.
It was an experience that broke her "trust" in "public schools" as an institution.
"The public schools, to me, are not safe," she said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Chloe Cole, who formerly identified as transgender, says she made the choice to become transgender to gain support from the LGBTQ community. She pleads that young people wait to become fully developed adults before transitioning. (Florida Department of Health)
Jennifer said the experience encouraged her to start homeschooling her child.
"We pulled her out of school, I homeschool her now," she said. "We took all of her devices."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}And with time, despite what "all the professionals" told her and her husband, Jennifer’s daughter once again identifies as a girl.
"It took a little over a year," Jennifer said. "So just about the same amount of time that it took her to get into it."
Jennifer said that her daughter is living proof that the narrative of "affirmation" for gender confusion is wrong.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"My story goes against that narrative. My daughter's story goes against that narrative. All the professionals are saying, we have to affirm. The president says that's the thing to do. And if we had affirmed, and if we had left her in that situation, where would she be now? She might be taking drugs and having surgeries."
GOP BILL WOULD PROTECT PARENTS WHO REFUSE TO TRANSITION THEIR CHILD'S GENDER
Parents are outraged after President Biden appeared to support transgender health care for children in an exchange with a left-wing media outlet. (REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz)
And if Jennifer’s daughter was only a few years older when she was approached by her school therapist, she might never have known, the mother said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"If she would have been older, in my state at 13, she could have gone in opposite sex spaces without me ever even knowing."
Parents and parental advocacy groups have taken center stage in the national debate over children switching genders, with one parent telling Fox News Digital in November that there is a "woke agenda" in schools today.
"I'm tired of people hiding behind [state learning standards] as an excuse to teach this far-left agenda, this woke agenda, this agenda that includes gender theory and all this other stuff that confuses our kids," parent Robert Pluta said in comments to Fox News Digital.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}All things considered, Jennifer said she was thankful that she and her husband could intervene in the life of their young daughter.
"I'm lucky because I can homeschool her," she said. "We have the means to do that. There's a lot of parents that can't do that. They're stuck with the public schools. And what they're doing is wrong."
Fox News' Landon Mion contributed to this report.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}