A military family who lost custody of their autistic son after they refused to transition his gender are suing a major DC hospital.
The family said their boy had never shown any desire to become a girl until, at 16, he was hospitalized for self-harming after a bitter breakup with his girlfriend in 2021.
Staff at Children’s National Hospital informed the family that he wanted to be female and should be referred to using she/her pronouns going forward, the suit claims.
His army veteran parents, from Prince George County in Maryland, rejected the suggestion, saying their son was ‘impressionable’ due to being autistic.
They have accused the hospital of starting a ‘full-on campaign to transgender this child’ and accused staff of ‘mental re-programming’, saying their son had been forced to write letters to friends disavowing his previous male identity.
According to the lawsuit, the hospital used its emergency policies to keep the boy in its units and reported the parents to child protection services.
The boy was then moved into foster care and hasn’t been back to the family home since. What followed has been a two-year legal battle for custody over the teen, who is now 19 and remains in foster care.
The parents, who are in their 40s and African-American, say their son was at risk because his condition means he is vulnerable to social manipulation.
Hellbound and Down 