Nonprofit legal advocacy America First Legal (AFL) filed a lawsuit against a Washington state bill allowing shelters to hide transgender children from parents and prescribe them gender transition procedures.
SB 5599 creates a “dangerous incentive” for minors who disagree with their parents on the issue of “gender-affirming care” to run away from their homes to a shelter or host home. The legislation also does away with the requirement that shelters notify parents in such instances.
In addition, the law authorizes the state to refer minors for “behavioral health services” without actually defining the term.
“In practice, this means that young children who run away from home could be receiving chemical sterilization drugs or even genital mutilation without the consent or knowledge of the parents,” AFL stated.
The organization argued that SB 5599 deprives parents of their constitutional rights to direct the upbringing and care of their children.
“This sick, authoritarian law essentially allows the state to kidnap children from their parents and hide their whereabouts to surgically and chemically mutilate them—and to formally deprive their parents of any legal ability to stop the medical disfigurement of their sons and daughters by gender extremists targeting their children,” said Stephen Miller, president of AFL.
Parental Rights Violation
In Washington, the baseline rule governing parental rights when children run away to a shelter is that the shelter must contact parents within 72 hours of admitting the kids, according to the lawsuit.Parents should be notified about the whereabouts of the child; a description of their physical and emotional condition; and the circumstances surrounding the child’s contact with the shelter. Parents are free to visit the shelter, pick up their kids, and go back home.
The only exception is that if shelters determine there are “compelling reasons” not to notify the parents, the lawsuit pointed out. Such “compelling reasons” were defined as any circumstance indicating that notifying the parents would end up subjecting the minor to neglect or abuse.
However, SB 5599 expanded the definition of “compelling reasons” to include situations when a minor is “seeking or receiving protected health care services.” Such care means “gender-affirming treatment,” the lawsuit noted.
“Under SB 5599, a child merely showing up at a shelter or host home seeking or receiving ‘gender-affirming’ treatment is legally equivalent to ‘circumstances that indicate’ abuse or neglect.”
The lawsuit argues that SB 5599 “interferes” with the religious beliefs some parents have on “gender-affirming” care.
For instance, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that a human body is “purposefully created” by God as either male or female, it notes.
Two plaintiffs, referred to as Parents 3A and 3B, adhere to the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. Another group of plaintiffs, Parents 4A and 4B, also have their beliefs informed by the Bible, the lawsuit stated.
SB 5599 also interferes with the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of the plaintiffs, AFL argues in the lawsuit.
The law creates a risk that if one of the children of the plaintiffs wishes to transition to a gender different from their biological sex, the defendants or their agents would be able to facilitate such a transition, the lawsuit stated.
Governor’s Response, Mounting Opposition
In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, Mike Faulk, press secretary of Governor Inslee said, “Legal counsel will review this filing and respond in the appropriate venue. The lawsuit appears to be based on the same basic falsehoods that anti-trans groups have been pushing since the law was proposed.”“The bill authorizes shelters to determine whether a runaway youth meets a ‘compelling reason’ not to contact parents because it could result in abuse or neglect. This expands those compelling reasons to include youth seeking abortion or gender affirming care services.
“Shelters are to notify the Department of Children, Youth and Families about these young people and provide monthly updates to the agency if youth remain in their care. DCYF’s main role is to offer services designed to resolve family conflicts and accomplish a reunification of the family.” DCYF refers to Washington State Department of Children, Youth and Families.
Meanwhile, SB 5599 has faced intense criticism from Republicans.
In an interview with Breitbart last month, Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said that the left is pushing to indoctrinate gender ideology in children as an attack on the nuclear family.
The left has waged a “continuous war” against the nuclear family, he said, including targeting parents’ rights over the education of their children. These forces seek to get the parents “sidelined” from the life of children as this will allow them to “fill the kids’ heads with the nonsense they want.”
Mr. Hawley proposed boosting parental rights to counter the proliferation of gender ideology.
“Number one is, we have to give parents power in schools. We have to give them a federal right to see what their kids are being taught, who is teaching them, what their tax money is being spent on, and to make sure that their kids are not given any kind of medication or prescription without the parents’ authorization.”
