There has been a small win for the movement to “Save James.” A judge has ruled that the father and mother of seven-year-old James Younger have equal conservatorship and an equal say in the boy’s medical treatment. The judge’s ruling prevents James’s mother, Dr. Anne Georgulas, from moving forward with her desire to transition her son from a boy to a girl, something his father, Jeffrey Younger, strongly opposes.
“I’m looking out for the best interests of James, my son,” wrote Younger on the website, SaveJames.com. “When James is with me, he shows no signs of wanting to be a girl when given the choice. Even when in female company, away from me, James rejects a female gender expression…Help me Save James.”
The Fight to Save James
Jurors heard testimony in Texas last week regarding the dispute between Younger and his ex-wife, Dr. Georgulas, over custody of their twin sons, James and Jude. Younger was seeking sole custody of the boys, while Georgulas wanted to further restrict his access to their sons. Central to the case was the question of James’s gender identity.
On Monday, the jury rejected Younger’s request for sole conservatorship, paving the way for Georgulos to move forward with transitioning James if she wished. However, on Thursday, Judge Kim Cooks ruled the parents were to have equal rights when it came to medical decisions, preventing Georgulas from moving forward without Younger’s consent.
Some Background on the Battle to Save James
Younger and Georgulas married in 2010. They conceived James and Jude through in vitro fertilization, and the boys were born in 2012. According to The Texan, both parents were members of the Orthodox Church at the time. The marriage disintegrated and was annulled after four years, with Georgulas gaining more rights over the children than Younger, even though both were joint managing conservators. The marriage’s breakdown appears to have been bitter and complicated. You can read Younger’s account of it here.
In her testimony before the court, Georgulas said she started noticing James exhibiting female behavior (for example, wanting to wear dresses), so she took him to see Rebekka Ouer. Ouer is the founder of Dallas Rainbow Counseling, which offers therapy for LGBT youth. Ouer recommended that James start a “social transition” from being a boy to a girl, so his mother began dressing him as a girl, calling him “Luna,” and requiring him to be treated as a girl at school. This she did without consulting his father. Younger has posted a video online of the first time he found out Georgulas was encouraging James to act like a girl.
Instead of transitioning James, Younger wants to pursue “watchful waiting” and let the boy work through his gender confusion. The father is highly concerned about the impact transitioning could have on James, writing on his website, “James is unaware of long-term consequences of transitioning gender…If subjected to medical interventions, James will be permanently sterilized.” Younger disagrees with Georgulas’s belief that James has gender dysphoria, arguing the boy does not meet the criteria for it. During the trial, witnesses testified that James was happy to answer to his given name, wear a boy’s swimsuit, and otherwise identify as a boy.
Younger’s Reaction to the Jury’s Decision
In an interview with LifeSite News before Judge Cook’s ruling on Thursday, Younger reacted to the jury’s decision against him, saying, “I was just completely shocked. I mean, we put up an email from Ms. Georgulas to me in which she contemplates cutting the penis off my son.” He said the decision did not reflect the Texas he knew.
Yet at the same time, Younger said he had anticipated the case becoming national news and is not surprised at the support he has received for trying to protect his son from being chemically castrated. “I don’t believe Texans will allow this to happen to children,” he said, “I was not surprised at all that Americans stood up for my son because that’s what Americans do.”
He expects the case will go to the Texas Supreme Court and possibly even the U.S. Supreme Court. This is a battle Younger is prepared to fight. “I’m not backing down. This is my son’s life,” he said, adding, “I’m ready and willing to go there because I would like to protect every child in the United States from these abhorrent practices by the medical community.”
Younger also spent some time addressing his marriage annulment and accusations against his personal integrity. But even if people decide that he is totally untrustworthy, he said the fact remains that “I’m not trying to cut the penis off my son. And I’m not trying to cross-dress my son and mislead him into thinking he’s a girl. And I’m not pushing my son towards medical transition. And I haven’t done all that without the consent of the other parent.”
Younger strongly believes there needs to be laws passed in Texas, not just to save James, but to protect thousands of other children from the situation his son is facing. Right now there is nothing legally prohibiting parents from administering puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. The family court should not even be entertaining these cases, but rather, “CPS should simply be taking these children from parents who do this to children and giving them to parents who won’t.”
