Transgender Custody Battle: Former Texas House Candidate Fights Ex-Wife Over Puberty Blockers for Their Child
In a yearslong custody battle that has gained national attention, mother Anne Georgulas has asked a California court to allow her 12-year-old child to get puberty blockers without the father’s consent.
The father, Jeff Younger, has launched a public campaign against his child’s transition, including running for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives. Younger lost to Rep. Ben Bumgarner in the 2022 Republican primary for District 63.
The case first gained attention in 2019, when a Texas jury granted Georgulas sole custody over their twin children. Both twins were assigned male at birth, but Georgulas says one of them has identified as female since age 3.
The judge on the case later overruled the jury's verdict, giving both parents joint custody of the children.
The dispute drew commentary from top Republican officials, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who tweeted that the state attorney general’s office and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services were looking into the matter.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz also commented on the case. “A 7-year-old child doesn’t have the maturity to make profound decisions like this,” Cruz tweeted in 2019. “The state of Texas should protect this child's right to choose — as an informed, mature person — and not be used as a pawn in a left-wing political agenda.”
The case would go on to inspire a wave of bills in conservative states targeting gender-affirming care for minors. Younger was the first in a growing number of parents to publicly oppose their children’s transitions, turning what would otherwise be private custody disputes into political rallying cries.
In August 2021, a Texas judge gave Georgulas sole decision-making authority over the children’s education, counseling, extracurricular activities and health care, excluding gender-affirming treatments. The judge also ruled Younger could only see his children during supervised visits. Georgulas says that since then, Younger has only visited the children twice.
“While Father has spent much of the past 6 years, running online campaigns (from) which he has personally fundraised over $250,000, claiming he is trying to ‘save’ our child, in reality, Father has refused to even visit his children regularly,” Georgulas asserts in a court filing.
Both parents have since moved to California, and Georgulas is now asking a Los Angeles County court to grant her sole decision-making authority over gender-affirming medical care.
Child and adolescent psychologist Bridgid Conn wrote in a letter to the court that she had evaluated the child, whom she said “presented as an 11-year-old female-identifying youth, using she/her pronouns and feminine clothing and hair style.”
“(The child) has fully integrated her transgender self and is living successfully in her authentic female gender in all social contexts of her life, including home, school, and socially with her friends,” Conn wrote. “When asked about her future goals for herself and her transition, (the child) stated, ‘I don’t want to go through male puberty’ and that if she did: ‘I could be unhappy... I want normal girl development.’”
“Without puberty blockers,” Conn added, “it is not a matter of if, but when, (the child) will experience Gender Dysphoria, which will have significant impact on her physical and mental health, and myriad areas of psychosocial functioning.”
However, Younger asserts in a declaration to the court that the child is “confused in his identity due to the unrelenting interventions of his Mother.” He opposes puberty blockers, which he and his attorney, conservative lawyer and activist Tracy Henderson, describe in court filings as “medical experimentation” and “chemical castration.”
“Even if he naturally has some degree of gender dysphoria, I believe that what is best for (the child) is to accept him and support him for how he is, and how he naturally develops,” Younger writes in his declaration. “I believe that interfering with puberty and interfering with natural development is the worst thing to do to this child.”
Psychiatrist Miriam Grossman, a vocal critic of transgender medicine, wrote a declaration in support of Younger’s position.
“Dr. Conn refers to (the child) today facing the prospect of undergoing ‘incorrect puberty’… and makes numerous statements touting the benefits of a ‘gender transition,’” Grossman writes. “The term ‘incorrect puberty’ is ludicrous. There is no such thing and I am troubled by its use by a mental health provider. Puberty is a normal phase of human development. (The child) may want ‘normal girl development,’… but (the child) is, and will always be, male. (The child’s) mother, Dr. Conn, and others do him no favor by leading him to believe his body and its natural development are ‘incorrect.’”
The case is scheduled to be heard on May 30 by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michelle Kazadi.