Jeff Younger–Anne Georgulas custody battle

Beginning in 2018, Texas parents Jeff Younger and Anne Georgulas fought over custody of their twin children. The case attracted national attention, as one of their children was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at age five and presents as a transgender girl, which Georgulas affirms but Younger denies.

In 2019, the Dallas County District Court awarded both parents shared custody, but in 2020, Georgulas was given sole custody, with the exception that Younger would still need to consent for their child to receive gender-affirming care. In 2021, Younger ran for the Texas House in District 63 as a Republican, seeking to ban transgender healthcare for minors, but lost to Ben Bumgarner.

Younger petitioned the Supreme Court of Texas in 2022 to block Georgulas from moving to California with the children, but his petition was dismissed.

Background

Jeffery Damon Younger, a resident of Flower Mound, Texas, and Anne Georgulas, a pediatrician from Coppell, Texas, had their marriage annulled in 2016. They had fraternal twins (born 2012), and shared joint custody of them. At age three, one of their children (assigned male at birth) expressed a desire to be a girl, and was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at age five. Their child requested to use a feminine name, and Georgulas allowed her to paint her nails and wear dresses. Younger claimed that she presented as a boy when spending time with him, and accused Georgulas of pressuring or manipulating her gender identity, and forcing her into transitioning.

By 2018, their child presented as a girl at school and in public. Georgulas filed a restraining order in August 2018 against Younger, which would prevent him from entering their children's school, or telling other parents that their child was not a girl. She also filed a lawsuit, to alter the terms of their joint custody agreement to require Younger to call their child by her preferred name, use female pronouns, and prevent her from spending time with those who did otherwise. In her lawsuit, Georgulas alleged that Younger had engaged in emotional abuse in response to the child's gender identity. Georgulas attempted to enroll the child in gender-affirming therapy at GENECIS—a pediatric gender clinic, defunct as of 2021—but the clinic did not accept her as a client following Younger's objections.

In response, Younger petitioned for full custody of the twins, calling Georgulas' actions "tampering with the sexual identity of a vulnerable boy", and claiming that Georgulas would "chemically castrate" her when she reached puberty. Court transcripts showed that Georgulas planned to take the child to a transgender children's health clinic in Dallas, and discuss a plan to potentially start her on puberty blockers if the gender dysphoria persisted. Prior to puberty, gender-affirming care for transgender children consists solely of counseling and guidance with social transition, with no medical intervention. When a child reaches puberty, puberty blockers may be prescribed, to delay or prevent a masculinizing or feminizing puberty. Gender-affirming surgeries are generally not performed on children under 18.

Younger launched an internet campaign in support of his case, which gained the support of state Republican politicians such as U.S. Senator Ted Cruz and U.S. Representative Dan Crenshaw, and netted approximately $139,000 in crowdfunding and merchandising. Per Georgulas' attorneys, the publicity resulted in threats, harassment and vandalism against her by strangers.

Initial rulings

On October 22, 2019, a jury decided 11–1 to give Georgulas sole custody over their children. Two days later, Dallas County District Judge Kim Cooks defied the jury's decision, and granted Younger and Georgulas joint custody. Cooks ordered that any medical decisions for the twins be made by both parents in agreement. She criticized both parents in her ruling; Georgulas for admitting that she may have "over-affirmed" her child's identity, and Younger for his efforts to raise donations and publicity from the case at the expense of her privacy.

Following the initial jury ruling, Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared that the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services and the Texas Attorney General’s Office were "looking into" the dispute. In a letter to the state's child welfare agency, Texas First Assistant Attorney General Jeff Mateer asserted the child was "in immediate and irrevocable danger" from the prospect of transitioning at such a young age. Cooks' decision was criticized by LGBT advocates, with Gillian Branstetter of the National Center for Transgender Equality stating it was a "serious disservice" to "give any incentive for a parent to reject their child for who they are".

Further developments

Following Cooks' ruling, Georgulas filed a motion asking the court to conform to the jury's original ruling. On January 29, 2020, Dallas District Court Judge Mary Brown reaffirmed that joint custody would remain in place. However, on August 3, 2021, Brown awarded full custody of the twins to Georgulas, as Younger had "failed to timely make the payments of child support, medical support and interest as ordered". Georgulas' legal team claimed that Younger, in addition to paying child support late, had refused to carry out court orders including required counseling and educational decisions, while Younger argued he had made payments on time and they had just been disbursed late. According to the ruling, both parents still had to consent to any future hormone therapy, puberty blockers or gender-affirming surgery for their child.

On November 23, 2021, Younger filed to run for the Texas House of Representatives in District 63 as a Republican, as the then-incumbent (Tan Parker) vacated the seat to (successfully) run for the Texas Senate. He sought to criminalize gender reassignment for children as part of his campaign. Younger advanced to the primary runoff, but lost to Ben Bumgarner.

In February 2022, Governor Greg Abbott issued an order to investigate parents in Texas for child abuse if they provided certain medical treatments to their transgender children, which The New York Times noted Younger's case had "paved the way for".

On December 16, 2022, after Georgulas had moved with the twins to California, Younger (representing himself) filed a petition with the Texas Supreme Court seeking to return the children to Texas. California had recently passed a law preventing the enforcement of orders from other states that would remove a child from their parent based on that parent providing gender-affirming care. The Supreme Court dismissed Younger's petition on December 30, with Justices Jimmy Blacklock and Evan Young writing that the court "cannot intervene based on tenuous speculation about what other courts might do in the future". The justices noted that Georgulas still required Younger's permission to approve medical transition therapy for their child, and that Younger would be entitled to an immediate appeal if Georgulas initiated such procedures. Georgulas had indicated to the court that she did not intend to medically transition the child. In response to the ruling, Younger proclaimed Texas to be "an empire of child abuse, led by Texas judges".