When Jeff won an order in divorce court preventing his ex-wife from “transitioning” one of their elementary-aged twin sons into a “girl,” his ex-wife, Anne, fled to California, which had just passed a so-called “transgender sanctuary” law. Anne then asked the California courts to intervene.

The California court threw out the original Texas custody order that allowed Jeff to have a say in his son’s medical decisions. California stripped Jeff of custody, forbade him from contacting his children, and is now forcing him to pay for the chemical and surgical castration of the youngest of the twins. If Jeff fails to pay, the State of California can throw Jeff in prison.

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This is not a Liberty Counsel case, but it illustrates the insanity we are confronting in multiple states and underscores the importance of a case I will soon argue at the Maine Supreme Court. 

When Jeff’s fraternal twins were about 2 years old, he noticed something strange. His pediatrician wife, Anne, had begun discouraging their son James from being a boy. 

Anne began reading James stories about “Jazz” Jennings, a boy whose parents began documenting his delusion that he is a girl through the television show I Am Jazz.

Anne began punishing James for being a boy. Anne would put James in time out and tell the child, “Don’t be a boy. The monsters only eat boys.” Jeff put his foot down and insisted his wife stop discouraging their child from being the boy God created him to be.

Anne promptly kicked Jeff out of the house and filed for divorce.

Jeff was given 50/50 custody of their children. A year later, James told his father, “I’m a girl!” When Jeff asked the child why he thought such a thing, James responded, “Because Mommy says I’m a girl.” James then revealed to his father that his mother had been painting his nails, putting makeup on him, and forcing him to wear dresses.

At church, preschool, or while with his Dad and friends, James never “presented” himself as a girl. He only did so when he was alone with his mom. When his father asked why he was acting like a girl around his mother, James responded, “Mommy doesn’t love me if I’m not a girl.”

Then, unbeknownst to Jeff, Anne enrolled James in kindergarten as a “girl” named Luna. James would drop his son off at school, and as soon as he left, the principal, following Anne’s directions, would change James into a dress in the girl’s bathroom. 

In the meantime, Anne took the child to a gender clinic and signed off on a plan to chemically castrate James by age 8 or 9 and put him on cross-sex hormones by 10, which would permanently sterilize him.

James ran to the court to intervene, and the custody order was amended to forbid Anne from transitioning James without Jeff’s permission. So, Anne waited one year, and upon learning that California was about to pass a “transgender sanctuary law,” she filed a motion with the court to move out of state.

The judge refused to believe Jeff about Anne’s intentions, so Anne was allowed to move. Almost as soon as she arrived in California, Anne took advantage of the leftist state’s trans sanctuary laws to begin fully “transitioning” their son without Jeff's consent —just as Jeff had predicted. 

Then Anne ran to the California courts and got an injunction against Jeff forbidding him from having ANY contact at all with his children because Jeff refused to “affirm” the fake identity his ex-wife had created for James.  

The California court also issued a support order, which requires Jeff to pay for the chemical and surgical castration of his son. Jeff refuses to pay this order because he will not pay for the destruction of his son’s mind and body. And because Jeff refuses to pay, the California child support courts may well be sending Jeff to prison very soon.

Our case Bickford v. Bradeen is similar, in the fact that a Maine judge outrageously declared that Christian churches are a cult, in part because they teach biblical truths about LGBTQ issues and God’s design for men and women. As a result, the court issued a child custody order FORBIDDING our client from taking her daughter to church.

We will present oral arguments in Bickford v. Bradeen to the Maine Supreme Court in just a few weeks. We need your prayers and direct financial support to win this case and ensure that no judge is ever so bold again as to try to rob a parent of their right to raise their child in their faith. Every donation made to our legal fund today will be DOUBLED in impact by a special Challenge Grant.

Meanwhile in Washington, House and Senate Democrats are refusing to reopen the government until taxpayers are forced to pay for "gender transition” surgeries!

American taxpayers should not be forced to pay for “gender transition” services and surgeries no matter what the patient’s age is. It’s time to tell Congress to VOTE YES on S 3011, S 977, & HR 2202, which ban taxpayer funding of so called “gender affirming” care. Tell Congress: I WILL NOT PAY for Trans Surgeries! Vote YES on S 3011, S 977, & HR 2202!

Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel