Gender

Defining Abuse Child Protection Act

SHORT VERSION

[In state’s child protection statute and/or where “abuse and neglect” and/or “best interests of the child” are defined, add]

A parent has the fundamental right to direct the care and upbringing of the parent’s child, including referring to, raising, treating, and caring for his or her child in a manner consistent with the child’s sex.

In no event shall referring to and raising a child in a manner consistent with the child’s biological sex, including related mental health or medical decisions:

be considered or determined by the State to be abuse, neglect, maltreatment, or risk thereof; to create an unsafe environment; or to be contrary to the best interests of the child’s safety, health, and welfare;
serve as a basis for initiating or continuing an investigation by child protective services;
serve as a basis at any stage, whether emergent, temporary, or permanent, for removal of the child by the State from the custody of his or her parent, legal guardian, or kinship care provider;
serve as a basis for the State to deny placement of a child with or remove his or her placement from a foster or adoptive parent or kinship care provider.

A parent or legal guardian may bring suit against the State for any violation of this section.

[Add the following provision to the statute on placement of children for foster care and adoption:]

Placement in foster care, kinship care, or adoption: In making decisions regarding placement or ongoing care of a child in state custody for purposes of foster care, kinship care, or adoption, neither the State nor any provider contracted by the State shall deny such placement on the grounds that the prospective placement resource refers to or raises a child in a manner consistent with the child’s biological sex, including related mental health or medical decisions.

DETAILED VERSION

WHEREAS the Legislature of this State finds that:

Parents possess by law the fundamental right to raise their children and by nature and nurture the greatest love and knowledge of that child;

The 14^thAmendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the right of parents to direct the care, upbringing, education, and welfare of their children;

The U.S. Supreme Court has held that “the Due Process Clause does not permit a State to infringe on the fundamental right of parents to make child rearing decisions simply because a state judge believes a ‘better’ decision could be made.” Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, at 72-73 (plurality op.);

The Supreme Court has recognized that a state’s notion of what may be “thought to be in the children’s best interest,” without some “showing of unfitness” on the part of parents, offends the Due Process Clause of the Constitution.Quilloin v. Walcott, 442 U.S. 246, 255 (1978);

The Supreme Court has also held that "[t]he statist notion that governmental power should supersede parental authority in all cases because some parents abuse and neglect children is repugnant to American tradition.Simply because the decision of a parent is not agreeable to a child or because it involves risks does not automatically transfer the power to make that decision from the parents to some agency or officer of the state." Parham v. J.R., 442 U.S. 584, 603 (1979);

A parent’s fundamental right to direct the care and upbringing of his or her child includes raising, treating, and caring for the child in a manner consistent with the child’s sex;

It is contrary to the best interests of children for the State to remove a child from fit and loving parents simply for raising the child in a manner consistent with his or her biological sex;

State child protection systems have wrongfully removed children from the custody of fit and loving parents for refraining from social measures or from medical or surgical procedures that “affirm” a child’s feelings of incongruence with his or her biological sex;

Child “gender transition” is an experimental, high-risk process which can turn a physically healthy child into a lifelong medical patient. As established in multiple systematic evidence reviews, most notably the United Kingdom’s officially commissioned “Cass Report,” child “gender transition” is not supported by evidence-based medicine or science;

The concept of a “gender identity” (often defined circularly as “an internal sense of gender”) or an “authentic self” dissociated from biological reality is neither scientific nor evidence-based, but a dubious metaphysical premise grounded in tendentious gender ideology;

No sound scientific evidence justifies pediatric “gender transition,” much less removal of a child by the State from his or her parents for the purpose of enforcing such a transition;

Removing a child from his or her home and family creates trauma for the child and damages familial bonds;

Excepting cases of actual abuse, neglect, or endangerment, removing a child from his or her home exposes the child to greater risks in State care, including well-documented, vastly higher rates of lifelong harm from sexual assault, human trafficking, and drug use;

A growing number of educational and professional institutions wrongly train personnel of legal and child protection systems to treat as “abuse” a parent’s choice to refrain from social, medical or surgical procedures that “affirm” a child’s feelings of incongruence with his or her sex;

A growing number of certification, licensing, and accreditation bodies for healthcare, legal, and social work professionals wrongly require adherence to the unquestioning and precipitous “gender transition” of children;

A growing number of individuals and organizations working with children in legal, educational, and healthcare settings act in ways that alienate children from their parents and families, and from their parents’ and families’ sincerely held convictions and religious beliefs;

Parental alienation is a well-documented cause of emotional distress and trauma in children, and is contrary to the best interests of children;

It is contrary to sound policy and to the best interests of children in State care to bar individuals from fostering or adopting children solely on the grounds of moral convictions and religious beliefs concerning sexuality and biological sex. Thousands of such families have been barred by states from fostering or adopting children, thus depriving children in desperate need of safe and loving homes;

Histories of trauma and abuse correlate strongly with dissociative beliefs. It is contrary to the best interests of a child victim in state care to limit foster or adoptive placement to families who will reinforce a child’s dissociation from his or her body;

No child should be reduced to his or her feelings about his or her body, but should be supported in addressing confusion and distress in a manner that does not harm the child;

Protecting a child’s development, health, bodily integrity, and open future is of paramount importance and constitutes a legitimate state interest;

Raising a girl as a girl or a boy as a boy is never “abuse”;

THEREFORE it is the intent of the Legislature to maintain the long established Constitutional rights of parents to raise, protect, and nurture their children, and to protect children, families, and those who work with them from the harms of wrongful determinations of abuse, by enacting the “Defining Abuse Child Protection Act,” as set forth below.

DEFINITIONS:

(A) “Affirming sex” means referring to and raising a child in a manner consistent with the child's biological sex, including related mental health or medical decisions, including but not limited to the following:

Using the child’s legal name; referring to the child with pronouns consistent with his or her sex; refraining from using a name or pronouns inconsistent with the child’s sex; or otherwise affirming the reality of a child’s sex;
Making healthcare decisions for the purpose of protecting the child’s bodily integrity, development, and emotional and mental health, including but not limited to declining consent for:
1. medical or surgical services for the purpose of bodily modification of secondary sex characteristics, or of interrupting the natural, healthy development thereof;
2. counseling or other mental health services intended to affirm a child’s feeling or statement that he or she possesses a “gender identity” inconsistent with his or her sex.
Providing or facilitating mental health services, including counseling and therapy, that seek to resolve gender distress and confusion and:
1. refrain from suggesting that a child may be born in the wrong body;
2. refrain from using a name or pronouns inconsistent with the child’s sex;
3. refrain from claiming that bodily medical or surgical modifications are beneficial or necessary to treat a child’s feelings of gender confusion or distress.

(B) Alienating Behaviors mean actions taken by an individual or group of individuals, organization, or state agency that are intended to or have the effect of alienating a child from his or her parent, guardian, kinship care provider, or family, despite the absence of abuse, maltreatment or neglect, or threats thereof. These behaviors include but are not limited to:

1. Making disparaging comments about the parent, guardian, or other family members;
2. Discouraging a child from or interfering with a child’s maintaining a relationship with family members;
3. Promoting to a child the belief that an unrelated “chosen family” will better love or care for the child;
4. Encouraging a child to run away from the familial home;
5. Encouraging a child to reject or to harbor negative feelings toward a family member;
6. Engaging in speech or behaviors that create the impression that the parent or guardian is unsafe or dangerous, or that a child is unwelcome or unsafe in his or her family environment;
7. Encouraging a child to keep secrets from the parent or guardian;
8. Confiding in or eliciting confidences from a child about adult topics, including sexual matters, in the absence of medical necessity to discuss such matters;
9. Changing a child’s name or pronouns to disassociate from his or her parent or guardian;
10. Undermining the legal authority of a parent or guardian;
11. Disparaging the religious beliefs or moral convictions of the parent or guardian.

Alienating a child from his or her parent or legal guardian through any of the above behaviors is presumed to cause harm.

(D) Parental Alienation means a mental and emotional state in which, without good reason, a child:

1. rejects a fit parent or legal guardian (who has not engaged in or threatened abuse or neglect), and
2. allies strongly with another parent, or non-custodial individual or group of individuals, sometimes referred to as a “chosen family.”

Parental alienation is presumed to cause harm.

(E) Sex means a child’s biological sex, either:

1. male, which, when referring to a natural person, is anyone who naturally has, had, will have, or would have—but for a congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption—the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes sperm for fertilization; or
2. female, which, when referring to a natural person, is anyone who naturally has, had, will have, or would have—but for congenital anomaly or intentional or unintentional disruption—the reproductive system that at some point produces, transports, and utilizes eggs for fertilization.

I. Abuse defined to exclude affirming a child’s sex

In no event shall recognizing and/or affirming a child’s sex be considered abuse, maltreatment, neglect, or risk thereof; as contrary to the best interests of the child’s safety, health, and welfare; or as creating an unsafe environment.

II. Wrongful allegations of abuse and removal from custody prohibited

In no event shall affirming a child’s sex by a parent, legal guardian, or kinship care provider:

(A) be considered or determined to be abuse, maltreatment, neglect, or risk thereof, or to create an unsafe environment, by any employee, contractor or volunteer of the State, including any social worker, child protection officer, or any officer of any agency or court;

(B) serve as a basis for initiating or continuing any investigation by child protection services or any other agency or court;

(C) serve as a basis at any stage, whether emergent, temporary, or permanent, for removal of the child by the State from the custody of his or her parent, legal guardian, or kinship care provider.

(D) Private right of action: A parent, legal guardian, or child shall have a private cause of action against any individual or entity violating this provision for damages and such equitable relief as the court may determine is justified. The court may also award reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs to a prevailing party.

III. Protection of vulnerable minor patients.

(A) In no event shall a parent, legal guardian, or kinship care provider’s affirming a child’s sex serve as a basis at any stage to:

prevent the return of a child to the custody of his or her parent, legal guardian, or kinship care provider, including but not limited to circumstances where:

1. the child’s parent, legal guardian, or kinship care provider has sought or consented to inpatient or outpatient treatment for the child’s self-harm, or the risk or threat by the child thereof;
2. the child, while in inpatient or outpatient treatment, has been referred to or treated in a manner inconsistent with her or her sex.
limit the parent or legal guardian’s authority to make healthcare decisions for, or have physical access to, a child receiving inpatient or outpatient treatment, whether or not such treatment is related to a child’s inner or stated feelings of inconsistency with his or her sex.
limit or waive a parent or legal guardian’s right to be informed of and to consent to or refuse a child’s participation in any research or study.

(B) No court or agency shall require a parent, legal guardian or kinship care provider to consent to or facilitate social, medical, or surgical interventions counter to affirming a child’s sex, as defined in this Act, or deny a parent or legal guardian’s right to affirm a child’s sex.

(C) Private right of action: A parent, legal guardian, or child shall have a private cause of action against any individual or entity violating this provision for damages and such equitable relief as the court may determine is justified. The court may also award reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs to a prevailing party.

IV. Alienating behaviors prohibited

(A) No employee, contractor, caregiver utilized by, or volunteer of the State shall encourage any child, including any child in state care, to believe that a parent, legal guardian, or kinship care provider’s affirming a child’s sex is abusive, neglectful, unsafe, or dangerous.

(B) No employee, contractor, caregiver utilized by, or volunteer of the State may engage in alienating behaviors designed to create distrust toward, encourage secrecy from, and harm familial bonds with, a fit parent, guardian, or kinship care provider, either:

1) for the purpose of facilitating social or medical interventions counter to affirming the child’s sex, as defined in this Act, or

2) for the purpose of encouraging a child to seek a “chosen family” in place of his or her real family because of a parent or legal guardian’s affirming the child’s sex.

(C) Right of Action: A parent or legal guardian shall have a cause of private action for parental alienation against any individual, entity, or agency found to have engaged in alienating behaviors for the purpose of facilitating social or medical interventions counter to affirming a child’s sex, as defined in this Act, or for the purpose of detaching a child from his or her real family because of a parent or legal guardian’s affirming the child’s sex.

V. Determinations of the best interests of a child

[Add this section (V) to the statute governing family law]

(A) When determining the best interests of a child, or determining physical and legal custody, parental rights and responsibilities, or parenting time, no court shall consider a parent, legal guardian, or kinship care provider’s affirming a child’s sex as contrary to the best interests of the child’s safety, health and welfare.

(B) No court or agency shall require a parent, legal guardian, or kinship care provider to consent to or facilitate social or medical interventions counter to affirming a child’s sex, as defined in this Act.

VI. Training, supervision, and conduct of individuals and agencies acting on behalf of the State

(A) The State shall not contract with any entity or conduct any educational or training program for any employees, contractors, or volunteers of the State, including any court, entity, or agency thereof, that characterizes affirming a child’s sex as abuse, maltreatment, neglect, or risk thereof, or as creating an unsafe environment.

(B) No State employee, contractor, or volunteer acting in a supervisory capacity shall train any employee serving under his or her supervision to characterize affirming a child’s sex as abuse, maltreatment, neglect, or risk thereof, or as creating an unsafe environment.

(C) No training of any State employee, contractor, volunteer, or beneficiary, including Court Appointed Special Advocates and foster and adoptive families, shall characterize affirming a child’s sex as abuse, maltreatment, neglect, or risk thereof, or as creating an unsafe environment.

(D) Reporting: The State shall certify by the end of every fiscal year that no such training has occurred.

VII. Certification, accreditation, and contracts

(A) No certification or accreditation recognized by the State for employment or professional licensure shall require, for purposes of accreditation, licensure, or certification, that any individual, organization, or agency working with children refer to or treat a child in a manner inconsistent with his or her sex, or deny care that affirms a child’s sex.

(B) The State shall not enter into any contract for any services to children with an individual or entity that characterizes affirming a child’s sex as abuse, neglect, maltreatment, or risk thereof, or as creating an unsafe environment.

(C) Breach of this provision by any entity with whom the State has contracted shall result in loss of the contract and/or of certification, licensure, and eligibility for State funding or contracts.

(D) Reporting: The State shall certify by the end of every fiscal year that all certifications, accreditations and licensures have complied with this provision, and shall report any loss of contract, licensure and/or eligibility for State funding or contracts.

VIII. Secrecy on the grounds of affirming sex prohibited

(A) A parent, legal guardian, or kinship care provider’s affirming a child’s sex is not abuse, neglect, or unsafe, as clarified in Section I of this Act, and therefore may not serve as a basis to justify secrecy or require concealing information about a child from his or her parent or legal guardian, in any policy or action implemented by the State or by any employee, contractor, volunteer, or beneficiary thereof.

(B) Reporting: The State shall certify by the end of every fiscal year that no such policy or actions have been implemented.

IX. Conscience protections for State employees, contractors, and volunteers

(A) No employee, contractor, caregiver, caregiver used by or a volunteer of the State shall, in the course of actions or work involving children, be required to perform or undergo any of the following actions, if doing so is contrary to his or her religious beliefs or moral convictions:

1. being required to deny, or not affirm, the sex of a child;
1. suffering retaliation of any kind by his or her employer in relation to affirming a child’s sex.

(B)The State shall certify at the end of every fiscal year that no employee, contractor, caregiver used by or volunteer of the State has, in the course of actions or work involving children, been required to act in a manner contrary to his or her religious beliefs or moral convictions as provided in Section (A).

(C) Right of action: Any individual whose rights under this provision have been violated shall have a private cause of action against the individual, entity or agency engaged in violating this provision, for damages and such equitable relief as the court may determine is justified. The court may also award reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs to a prevailing party.

X. Conscience protections for parents

A parent has the fundamental right to direct the care and upbringing of his or her child, including raising, treating, and caring for the child in a manner consistent with the child’s sex.

(A) No parent or legal guardian shall be required to deny, or refrain from affirming, the sex of his or her child if doing so is contrary to his or her religious beliefs or moral convictions, including:

being required by any court or agency to consent to social, medical, or surgical interventions counter to affirming a child’s sex, as defined in this Act;
being prohibited from speaking to their child about their religious beliefs, moral convictions, or understanding of scientific facts related to affirming sex.
losing the right and authority to make healthcare decisions for, or have physical access to their child;
losing the right to be informed of and consent to or refuse participation by their child in any research or study;
losing the right to be informed of and consent to or refuse actions by any State agency, employee, contractor, or volunteer that are counter to affirming their child’s sex, as defined in this Act;
suffering the removal of a child on the grounds of affirming a child’s sex, per section II of this Act.

(B) Reporting: The State shall certify at the end of every fiscal year that no parent or legal guardian has been required to act in a manner contrary to his or her religious beliefs or moral convictions as provided in Section (A).

XI. Protections for children in need of foster and adoptive families

(A) No prospective or current foster or adoptive parent, or kinship care provider, shall be required to perform or undergo any of the following actions, if doing so is contrary to his or her religious beliefs or moral convictions:

Be required to deny, or not affirm, the sex of a child;
Be refused the placement of a child, or suffer the removal of a child, on the grounds of affirming a child’s sex.

(B) Reporting: The State shall certify at the end of every fiscal year that no prospective or current foster or adoptive parent, or kinship care provider, has been required to act in a manner contrary to his or her religious beliefs or moral convictions as provided in Section (A).

(C) Right of action: Any individual whose rights under this provision have been violated shall have a private cause of action against the individual, entity, or agency engaged in violating this provision, for damages and such equitable relief as the court may determine is justified. The court may also award reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs to a prevailing party.

XII. Right of Action

Any aggrieved individual shall have a private cause of action against any individual, entity, agency, or institution engaged in violating the provisions of this Act, and the right to damages and such equitable relief as the Court may determine is justified. The Court may also award reasonable attorney’s fees and court costs to a prevailing party.

XIII. Severability

The provisions of this act are hereby declared to be severable, and if any provision of this act, or the application of such provision to any person or circumstance, is declared invalid for any reason, such declaration shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this act.

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Defining Abuse Child Protection Act

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