by Katelynn Richardson and Megan Brock
Parents increasingly find family court judges, who make life-changing decisions involving children, have fully bought into the agenda pushed by Biden-Harris administration-backed transgender activists.
State courts have for years independently hosted transgender activist groups to lecture judges on appropriate pronoun usage and the importance of “affirming” a child’s perceived identity. But now the federal government is on board: In 2023, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a $1 million grant to integrate gender ideology into juvenile justice and child welfare systems nationwide.
The grant, awarded to the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), established a resource center to train judges, child welfare workers and other professionals involved with the juvenile justice system on sexuality and gender identity. The materials encourage judges to adopt an ideological framework that pits children against parents who do not support their self-selected identities.
“Gender identity is now being used as a cudgel to essentially break up family relationships,” Sarah Parshall Perry, senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, told the DCNF. “This is especially so in cases where parents are not affirming the gender identity of their minor children, and among other things, this particular grant is fueling the fire because we’re seeing sort of a partnership between the federal government, which is all in on the gender identity madness, and these state judges.”
Elected state judges are able to initiate child protective services investigations or even send children to foster care, Perry told the DCNF. Multiple parents across the country who declined to affirm their child’s gender confusion have already reported losing custody.
In California, a judge stripped a father of custody of one of his sons in 2020 amid a divorce proceeding when he would not consent to allowing his son to undergo transgender medical procedures. In other states, including Maryland, Montana and Ohio, parents have likewise reported in recent years losing their children to the foster care system after judges denied custody over their refusal to treat the child as the opposite sex.
To create the grant-funded Pride Justice Resource Center, the NCJFCJ partnered with the National Center for Youth with Diverse Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Expression (SOGIE Center).
The National SOGIE Center is run by several researchers who previously received a federal grant in 2016 aimed at transforming the foster care system, which funded the development of programs in Ohio designed to convince parents and caregivers to “affirm” whatever beliefs their children hold about gender identity, the DCNF previously reported.
Biden administration officials looked to the “Affirm Me” program developed in Ohio as a model when crafting their new foster care rule, which requires state agencies to place children in homes that do not oppose their desires to live as the opposite sex. The program is also listed as a resource on the PJRC website.
“We have been developing innovative programs for LGBTQ+ youth in child welfare that serve to create positive outcomes for young people and their families,” SOGIE Center deputy director Marlene Matarese said in a May 2023 press release. “We are now turning our attention to youth justice systems, using our experience and our understanding of LGBTQ+ populations to ensure best practices, policies, and protocols are utilized, and to support the workforce interacting with young people.”
‘Beyond Disturbing’
The DOJ’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) announced it was expanding efforts to “protect youth who identify as LGBTQI+” in response to a June 2022 executive order from President Joe Biden. To highlight the need, the OJJDP cites a 2014 study that found LGBT identifying youth are twice as likely to be arrested or detained.
“We honor every young person’s right to live their truth—openly and in safety,” OJJDP Administrator Liz Ryan said in a statement.
The grant-funded Pride Justice Resource Center hosts a number of resources for juvenile justice system professionals, including webinars. The materials are designed to support “system change, family engagement, and acceptance, identifying gaps in knowledge related to LGBTQ2S+ and the intersections of multiple identities,” according to the website.
Judges who know a child’s identity can ensure services like “gender-affirming care” are offered, which may be required for “effective rehabilitation,” according to a guide produced by the PJRC. The guide states placements should be “made based on the person’s gender identity and where the young person feels most safe.”
“An understanding of a youth’s LGBTQ2S+ identity can help judges address the root causes of delinquent behavior and provide appropriate interventions,” the document states. “This holistic approach can contribute to reducing recidivism rates among LGBTQ2S+ youth and supporting their long-term success.”
“It’s certainly true that minors suffering distress over their sexed bodies are likely to have other serious comorbidities,” Jay Richards, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Richard and Helen DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family, told the DCNF. While some of these minors will end up in the juvenile justice system, Richards said there’s “no evidence that the justice system needs to adopt the conceptual framework of gender ideology” to properly administer justice.
“Common sense suggests the opposite: since biological sex is real—and every minor is either a male or a female—the juvenile justice system should recognize the difference and reject the categories of gender ideology,” Richards said.
Minors who receive hormone blockers or sex change surgeries “often fail to receive the psychological help they need,” he noted.
A four-year systematic review of transgender medical studies conducted in England, the Cass Report, determined there is weak evidence for giving children puberty blockers. Standards from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) often used to justify such procedures for minors have also come under fire after unsealed court documents revealed the Biden administration influenced WPATH to remove age limits.
Yet judges are told — and encouraged to convince parents of youth who enter their courtrooms — it is crucial to accept all of a child’s claims about his identity.
The center highlights a bench card for Oregon judges, telling them to ensure “every effort is made to find LGBTQ youth supportive and affirming placements” and that transgender youth “are able to access medical and mental health services.” Bench cards offer guidance for judges to consider when making decisions.
“If negative responses to the child’s sexual orientation or gender identity led to or were related to placement, require parents and family members to participate in counseling and parent support groups to help them accept and support the child and work toward an emotionally safe reunion,” the card states.
One PJRC webinar featured Vida Khavar, project director for the Youth Acceptance Project, a program that pushes hesitant parents to embrace their child’s gender confusion. The program was developed in California by a nonprofit called Family Builders and is operating in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Missouri and New York.
During the webinar, Michigan Judge Karen Braxton, who handles juvenile delinquency, child abuse and adoption cases, explained why it is important to “educate” parents about gender.
“We are saving the lives of our children,” she claimed, stating that teens who perceive parental support for their gender identity are 93% less likely to attempt suicide.
Braxton suggested sharing this statistic with parents would lead to better results. “No parent wants to hear that their child is at risk for suicide,” she said.
A glossary of terms created by the PJRC includes the phrase “chosen family,” defined as people “who support an LGBTQ2S+ person.”
“Though they may not be biologically related, these supporters will often fill the role of the biological family if an LGBTQ+ person’s family is not supportive of them,” the page states.
Parental rights advocates expressed concern the center’s resources on gender were unsupported by science and could bias judges against the rights of religious families.
“This is our federal government promoting with the force of its authority, with its vast resources, an ideology and an ideological agenda that disrupts and disintegrates the family,” Vernadette Broyles, president and general counsel of the Child and Parental Rights Campaign, told the DCNF. “That opposes parents who believe in biological reality, who believe that man was created male and female, whether from scientific processes or by a Creator. It’s beyond disturbing.”
Richards added this grant is one of “dozens of tax-payer-funded studies that push the agenda of gender ideologues, rather than seeking to discover what has caused this massive explosion in gender distress and confusion among our kids.”
“Much of this research has been conducted by the National Institutes of Health,” he said. “But—following one of Biden’s first orders after taking office—other agencies have begun doing so as well. With this study, we see that it has reached the Department of Justice.”
NCJFCJ Juvenile Justice Program Director Cheri Ely told the DCNF the organization’s work “spans across issues that include keeping families together, foster care and adoption, juvenile justice, behavioral health, military-connected families, domestic violence, and domestic child sex trafficking.”
“The Pride Justice Resource Center supports reforms in the juvenile justice system to address the needs of LGBTQ+ and Two-Spirit youth,” Ely said, adding that the program aims to promote “equitable outcomes for court-involved youth, positive youth development, open communication and understanding, and safe inclusive communities.”
Apart from the grant, numerous judicial education organizations and state court systems already offer training to judges on gender ideology.
In California, judges working on juvenile dependency cases are required to complete a training on “LGBTQ+ Considerations.” The training advises them to “be aware that LGBTQ youth may be at risk of harm at home, school and in other settings due to biased or uninformed attitudes or conduct by peers/adults,” according to a presentation previously obtained by the DCNF.
Likewise, the Ohio Supreme Court coordinated with an activist group to put on an LGBT training at a Fall 2023 conference for judges, according to documents obtained by the DCNF.
The Nevada Supreme Court put on a training instructing judges on how to incorporate an awareness of gender identity and pronouns into their courtrooms in July 2023.
“What makes it particularly insidious is that it is tainting the very justice system that is the last line of defense for parents,” Broyles told the DCNF. “If they can’t get justice in the courts because judges have been tainted, have been biased against their belief system, where else are they to go?”
The DOJ did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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Katelynn Richardson and Megan Brock are reporters at Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Trans Pride Parade” by Steve Eason CCNC2.0.
