A California mom whose 19-year-old daughter had “transitioned” to the identity of a male in high school and then later committed suicide blasted California Child Protective Services to the California Judiciary Senate, saying her daughter was “murdered by gender ideology.”
Abigail Martinez, whose daughter Yaeli had suffered from depression as a young teenager and later identified as “Andrew,” told The Daily Mail in 2022 that Yaeli’s school encouraged her to take hormones, undergo gender reassignment surgery, secretly join an LGBT group, and not to speak to her mother.
Martinez had stated that Yaeli showed signs of depression by 8th grade after being bullied and started questioning her sexuality at around 15 years old, adding:
Once she moved to high school, by the beginning of sophomore year things changed drastically. … She talked to her sister about how she liked girls. She was questioning her sexuality. It was a shock, but she was trying to find out her identity. It’s normal, what children don’t go through that at that age? … But I never imagined what the school would do. … The school was telling her to go to these LGBT groups behind my back. She went from questioning her sexuality to her gender. …
She had these peers at school two years older than her. They were the ones who brought these ideas – “Maybe you’re depressed because don’t you feel like you’re a boy?” – and the school was supportive of that. … The school told her these groups were the place to go, and I didn’t need to know about it. … I asked her what was going on, and she tried to deny it, because she was told that if she talked about it at home, I would not support it.
Martinez claimed Yaeli was urged by the school and her LGBT support group to ingest hormones and look into gender reassignment surgery, leaving her mother out of her decision-making. The girl was allegedly informed by her peers that the only way California would pay for the surgery would be to move into foster care. Martinez said a friend of her daughter’s and her parents “coached” Yaeli, convincing her to leave home and tell Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) that Martinez had slapped her face.
“My daughter was murdered by a gender ideology,” Martinez told the California Judiciary Senate. “CPS took my daughter when she was 16 years old. It was helped by her public school counselor and LGBTQ group and another trans-identified girl. My daughter was taken from her loving home because the state of California claims I was abusive for not affirming her trans identity. I lost my daughter over a name and pronouns.”
CPS helped Yaeli move to a group home, only permitting Martinez to visit her once a week for an hour.
“Why are there so many transgender in foster care?” Martinez rhetorically asked the Senate. “Because this state take them from their families, tell them to run, then steals them. Parents are given one option to treat their distressed child: Affirm drugs and remove their healthy body part or else lose your child.”
“The abuse claim against me was finally dropped, but it was too late,” she recalled. “The damage was done. By then, my daughter was in horrible mental and physical pain. My daughter knelt down in front of a train. She was murdered by gender ideology.”