CINCINNATI — A judge in Hamilton County, Ohio has ruled that a transgender teen can start hormone therapy over the objections of their parents.
Cincinnati.com reported that visiting Juvenile Court Judge Sylvia Hendon issued a ruling Friday granting legal custody to the teen’s grandparents, who according to a prosecutor “accept their grandson for who he is.” Hendon is requiring an evaluation by a psychiatrist not affiliated with Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center before the therapy can begin.
From Cincinnati.com:
Hendon noted that the teen’s parents took him to Children’s Hospital in November 2016 for psychiatric treatment for anxiety and depression.
“That diagnosis rather quickly became one of gender dysphoria,” Hendon said, adding she was concerned that the director of the hospital’s Transgender Health Clinic said 100 percent of patients seen by the clinic “who present for care are considered to be appropriate candidates for continued gender treatment.”
The teen’s parents opposed hormone therapy and, according to the teen’s attorney, sought to maintain control over him and focused their case on denying his gender dysphoria. The diagnosis refers to someone who identifies their gender as being different from their biological sex.
Hendon said it was understandable that the teen’s parents “were legitimately surprised and confused when the child’s anxiety and depression symptoms became the basis for the diagnosis of gender dysphoria.”
She also said it was unfortunate the case had to be resolved in the courts.
