You might have heard the name James Younger before. For years, the now-9-year-old child has been at the center of a heated custody battle between his parents — a battle that strikes at the heart of the culture war brewing here in the U.S.
The child’s mother, a pediatrician named Dr. Anne Georgulas, claims her son is actually a transgender girl named Luna. She has enrolled the child in school as a girl, uses female pronouns, and puts the boy in dresses, claiming it’s what the child wants and needs to prosper.
The boy’s father, Jeff Younger, says his son doesn’t present as a girl while with him. He doesn’t want James to undergo any transition; not socially and definitely not medically. Younger is fighting to #SaveJames, he says, from trans child abuse and potentially irreversible damage.
Younger in 2019 released a head-turning video he took of James at age three. “You’re a boy, right?” Younger asks James, the footage shows. “No, I’m a girl,” the child responds.
“Who told you you’re a girl?” Younger asks the then-three-year-old. “Mommy,” the child answers.
“So, mommy told you you’re a girl?” Younger again asks, to which the child responds, “Uh-huh.”
Georgulas, in her own words, said during a Zoom-call custody hearing that James started to self-identify as female at age three.
“When she was about three, she started wanting to do things — and dress in certain ways that were female,” the mother said of the child. “And then when she was about five, she told me that she didn’t want this to be pretend anymore, and she had been telling us to use female pronouns for a year and a half, maybe a year at that point. Then she said that this is the name (Luna) that she wants.”
The latest is the custody battle is bad news for Younger. The Texas Supreme Court recently ruled against an appeal from the father, denying Younger’s request that his ex-wife move their son James back to Texas from California.
Younger fears Georgulas will be allowed to medically “transition” James in the liberal state under SB 107, which took effect on January 1. The law obstructs the enforcement of out-of-state laws that prevent services like hormone therapy and “trans” surgeries for kids, which opponents say are tantamount to sterilization and child mutilation.
Back in 2021, Georgulas was awarded full custody of James and was permitted to live where she pleases in the country and to treat the boy as a girl without the consent of Younger. The only caveat was an order from the court outlining that she can’t move forward with puberty blockers or transgender reassignment surgery without her ex-husband’s consent.
That order is now in jeopardy, Younger says.
“My ex-wife transferred her medical license to California, it looks like in September,” Younger said during an appearance on “Tipping Point” last month. “So this was a well-planned legal strategy, probably in collusion with the judge in any opinion, to get my son to California so he can be transitioned.”
Following the legal loss, Younger posted to Twitter, “My children are now subject to being chemically castrated in California. Texas is an empire of child abuse, led by Texas judges.”
The Supreme Court of Texas denied my Mandamus, effectively terminating my parental rights. My children are now subject to being chemically castrated in California. Texas is an empire of child abuse, led by Texas judges.
— Jeff Younger (@JeffYoungerTX) December 31, 2022
A concurring opinion from one of the judges on the Texas Supreme Court, though, says Younger is misreading the California law, claiming SB 107 won’t negate the Texas court order prohibiting unilateral reassignment medication or surgery for James. The judge wrote, “I see no provision in the bill that would alter the enforceability, in California, of a Texas court order requiring divorced parents to agree before subjecting their child to gender-transition therapy.”
What’s to come for James remains unclear, but Younger has vowed to continue the fight to protect his son.