A Father’s Plea for His Son’s Health

Abigail Shrier is an independent journalist who has been doing yeoman’s labor in exposing the dangers and extremism of transgender ideology. In 2020 she published the book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, which is one of the most important works discussing the transgender phenomenon.

In recent months, she has been warning about the rapid incursions of transgender ideology on parental rights, presenting evidence that activist teachers, doctors, judges, lawyers, and politicians are increasingly seeking ways to gain greater access to vulnerable children, while sidelining their parents.

Some of the stories that Shrier has reported on are truly horrifying. Take her recent investigative article about a father’s efforts to protect his teenage son, “Drew,” from irreversible medical interventions, which are supported by his ex-wife.

A Painful Journey

As Shrier tells it, the father, Ted Hudacko, is hardly some hardline opponent of transgenderism. Quite the contrary. He says he is perfectly willing to consider the possibility that his 16-year-old son might be “transgender.” When asked early on in the proceedings by the judge overseeing the case whether he thought being transgender was a “sin,” he said no. Instead, he said, he simply doesn’t want to rush things, for the sake of his son.

As Shrier writes:

In the 312 days since he had last seen his boy, Ted had done a lot of research on medical transition and gender dysphoria. He begged the court to consider research that suggested puberty blockers could impair cognition and diminish bone density. He knew that Drew, if administered puberty blockers along with estrogen, would be at high risk of permanent infertility. He wasn’t even sure that his son had gender dysphoria. He wanted to see his son—and he wanted this bullet train to slow down.

That, however, has not happened. Instead, Ted has lost custody of his son, spent tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, and gone through a psychological hell, while his son has gone further and further down the transgender rabbit hole.

It all began in August 2019, when Ted’s wife, who had been dealing with the horrific attempted murder of her sister a year earlier, unexpectedly walked into his office and declared that she wanted a divorce. She also announced that their son Drew was transgender.

Thus began the court proceedings that eventually led to Ted being stripped of his parental rights, and the court appointment of a minor’s counsel to represent his son. That minor’s counsel turned out to be a lawyer – Daniel Harkins – who is a strong advocate of the “affirmation” response to an adolescent’s claims of being transgender: that is, he believes that the only proper response to a child’s declaration of being transgender is unquestioning support.

Ted, for his part, had come to believe in the “watchful waiting” approach advocated by famed psychologist Ken Zucker, one of the world’s top experts on gender dysphoria. Zucker, who was responsible for overseeing the entry on gender dysphoria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the official diagnostic manual of the American Psychiatric Association, emphasizes research showing that the overwhelming majority of children and adolescents who experience gender confusion will eventually grow out of it. As such, he argues that psychologists should first try to help those with gender dysphoria to learn to be comfortable in their bodies. Only when that fails should they consider administering drugs and surgeries.

transgender symbol 3D

Harkins, however, opposed Ted’s more careful approach every step of the way. After one meeting in which the distraught father expressed his fears that his son would regret having “mutilated” himself in a few years, Harkins wrote disparagingly: “Father has not been accepting of [Drew’s] status as transgender. He has been quite clear that he does not accept that [Drew] is in fact transgender.” He added that Drew’s mother, Christine, “has given him unconditional love” – by which Harkins clearly meant that Christine affirmed him in his transgender identity.

Troublingly, Shrier uncovered information that the judge in the case – Joni Hiramoto – herself has a transgender child. Her social media feeds include numerous posts celebrating her son’s transgender identity as well as general support for the transgender cause, including posts marking the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Unsurprisingly, Hiramoto granted custody to Drew’s pro-transgender mother. At which point things went from bad to worse for Ted. In October 2021, writes Shrier,

Ted was stunned by a $209,820.34 charge on his insurance statement. When he wrote to Christine, she confirmed that a puberty-blocking implant had been inserted in Drew’s arm months earlier and that Drew had begun a course of cross-sex hormones. The combination—if not soon stopped—would likely sterilize Drew. No one had asked Ted’s permission for the procedure or even informed Ted of what had been done.

And that is where things currently stand: with Ted removed from his son’s life, while hoping against hope that he can keep the brakes on somewhat, so that his son will not seek irreversible surgical interventions before all other avenues have been exhausted.

Radical Activists Must Be Stopped

“In the three years I’ve spent writing about families with transgender-identifying minors, the story of Ted Hudacko stood out as a case study of how gender ideology has infiltrated family law,” wrote Shrier in her article about the case. She notes as that as she looked further into Ted’s case, she uncovered evidence that transgender activists were deliberately targeting family law courts, providing “education sessions” to teach judges about gender ideology. During court proceedings, Judge Hiramoto several times referenced what she had learned from such classes.

Unfortunately, this is just further confirmation that wily transgender activists are conscientiously seeking to normalize transgenderism by infiltrating the institutions that oversee children, including (perhaps especially) schools. As part of this effort, they are conditioning those in authority to view support for powerful, little-researched, and life-altering drug regimens and surgical interventions as the only acceptable or “loving” response to gender dysphoria.

The same children who cannot consent to receiving a Tylenol in school without their parents’ consent, are being coached by these same activists to go to bizarre and dangerous lengths to begin gender “transitioning,” and often to keep their parents in the dark. Any opposition, no matter how careful and scientifically based, is dismissed as hateful and “transphobic.” No debate is possible. And as Ted’s case shows, if the activists can find even one parent who is supportive, they will put a wedge between the parents, giving all the decision-making power to the “affirming” parent while sidelining the one who is opposed.

In a document on transgenderism published in 2019, the Vatican’s Congregation for Catholic Education warned that it “is becoming increasingly clear that we are now facing with what might accurately be called an educational crisis, especially in the field of affectivity and sexuality.” The document warned that the theory that gender is fluid is “nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants, or momentary desires provoked by emotional impulses and the will of the individual, as opposed to anything based on the truths of existence.”

In the face of the determination of gender ideologues, it’s simply not enough to hope that they will not influence or affect your child. It is important for all parents and concerned citizens to educate themselves about this growing crisis, and to do what is in their power to keep extremists out of our schools and other institutions. It is clear that they have no respect for parental rights, and do not have the health or well-being of our children in mind. They are committed first and foremost to their “cause”: i.e., to completely transform our understanding of gender and sexuality in an effort to undermine the family and traditional sexual ethics.

Although Shrier is not a Catholic, and thus does not necessarily agree with Catholic teaching on everything, her recent articles and her book are good places to start to learn more. Ryan Anderson’s book When Harry Became Sally is another excellent exploration of the transgender phenomenon.

 

As president of Human Life International, Fr. Boquet is a leading expert on the international pro-life and family movement, having journeyed to nearly 90 countries on pro-life missions over the last decade. Father Boquet works with pro-life and family leaders in 116 counties that partner with HLI to proclaim and advance the Gospel of Life. Read his full bio here.

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5 Comments

  1. Kathleen on April 20, 2022 at 8:03 PM

    My nephew had a female friend whose parents asked my sister if their daughter could stay over when visiting my nephew, my sister agreed. This happened 3 or 4 times over the space of 2 years. When the girl reached 13 she announced to her school and friends that she was now transgender. The school asked the other children to use the new pronoun. My nephew and the other children were upset and stopped hanging out with the girl. My sister noted that she had found out that the girl’s parents had asked other parents to let their daughter sleep over when she was visiting her friends, and that this girl was an only child whose parents (both university academics) put their social life and other interests ahead of their daughter. My sister doubted that they had much of a relationship with their child and as a result the child played the transgender card to even get noticed by her parents. I asked my nephew why he was upset, he was only 13 and his reply blew my mind – he said that his friend (the transgender girl) had betrayed him and her other friends.
    The use of the word betrayal is revealing, some years ago when I was a mental health worker a psychotherapist had said to me that, at the route of every childhood trauma is a betrayal. So it is – The trans activist, the educators, teachers, media etc are playing Judas to the innocence of childhood.
    That was 2 years ago, my nephew is now 15 and he has a cynicism that should not be in a person as young as him. What with the pandemic, gender ideology, climate change etc I am very concerned for our youth here in the UK. The story I just shared about the young girl only tells one thing LOVE YOUR CHILDREN.

  2. Martha Racketa on February 16, 2022 at 3:48 AM

    All of this junk comes from the devil. The movie The Greatest Miracle shows the devil changing his gender from male to female to entice sin. You’ve heard the term “sex sells”, everything sexual such as transgender, homosexuality, intercourse before marriage, contraceptives, abortion, adultery, etc… sells your soul to hell because people are making themselves god by listening to the serpent, devil, like Adam and Eve, instead of believing God the Creator and what He says. This is caused by God being removed from schools, the home, work, recreation, etc. You remove God, you remove love. God is not in hell, their is no love found there as told in the book the Divine Love by Sister Josefa. Parents and liberal adults are obeying the devil and children who do not know truth instead of obeying God. The devil knows our weaknesses and attacks them. The devil is also destroying the family with his sex sells agenda. If people and children would not act on these “sex sells” impulses from the devil then the devil will flee, it is written in the Bible and it is truth.

  3. Kathryn Wothe on February 14, 2022 at 7:54 PM

    I am mortified by what has transpired in our world today… This should never happen.. I pray each day that God will crush satan and this will be allowed to happen!!!

  4. Joseph Caristo on February 14, 2022 at 3:30 PM

    Satan knows that his time is short to seduce the human race with his lies about not adhering to one’s gender when born, living peacefully with family members and our neighbors, and putting all earthly things secondary to our need to praise, worship and thank our God our creator. Murder of humans in out of the womb, and suicide are manifestations of his ultimate goal in bringing the hated human race to an evil end.

  5. Maria Chaves on February 14, 2022 at 3:24 PM

    It’s very frightening to see the direction this world is going into!

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