Parental Rights Ignored in Teen Gender Case

A mother has been denied her parental rights for her 17-year-old son in a shocking case that should make all parents sit up and take notice.

Anmarie Calgaro of northeastern Minnesota has filed a lawsuit against St. Louis County in Minnesota, claiming the county has usurped her parental rights over her teenage son, who at age 17 is not yet a legal adult (the legal adult age in Minnesota is 18).

“Why wasn’t I even notified? My constitutional rights have been stripped from me.”

Her son wishes to change his gender from male to female — and began that process with the help of the county.

“Most people don’t realize how pervasive the LGBT agenda has become,” Brian Camenker, founder of Mass Resistance, a Massachusetts pro-family organization, told LifeZette. “City and state health agencies used to be staffed with normal, responsible people. Now, across the country, those agencies — like schools — are full of radical activists. It’s all about ideology, and they don’t care at all about the damage they do to vulnerable children.”

Calgaro maintains her son has been treated as if he were an emancipated minor, receiving transgender medical services without her consent.

The teen in question, according to NBC OUT, has been living on his own for at least some of the recent past.

Two medical service providers, Park Nicollet Minneapolis Gender Services and Fairview, provided the 17-year-old with medical treatment for a sex change and also prescribed narcotics, according to Fox News.

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LifeZette reached out to Park Nicollet Minneapolis Gender Services for comment, but received no response.

The medical services were paid for through St. Louis County Public Health and Human Services.

According to a press release from Calgaro’s lawyers, Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid Clinic told the 17-year-old boy last year that he was emancipated.

Minnesota does not have a legal process for the emancipation of minors. But current laws make clear minors who aren’t living at home are considered adults when it comes to their own medical care.

In a video posted to Facebook of Calgaro’s press conference last Wednesday, Calgaro said she had asked her son to hold off on any changes to his name or his body until he was at least 18 and had completed puberty.

“Just hang on, and let time play out here,” she said she told her son. But, she said, “He was eager to have that [gender change] done.”

This case highlights the danger of the government’s interference in parental authority — and makes clear that parental rights are becoming tenuous when it comes to progressive LGBT issues and children.

Related: One More Sign Our Schools Have Caved to the LGBT Agenda

“Medical service providers determine whether a teenage child is emancipated,” attorney Erick Kaardal, one of the attorneys representing Calgaro, said at Wednesday’s press conference. He noted this allows minors to receive “elective, non-emergency medical procedure(s).”

“Why wasn’t I even notified? I feel my constitutional rights have been stripped from me,” Anmarie Calgaro said at the press conference. “If this had been a child custody case, I would’ve had my day in court. I’m firmly committed to what is best for my son. I’m his mother, and he has always been and always will be welcome in our home.”

The school district is “classifying the boy as an adult with exclusive rights to information and decision-making and denying Calgaro access to his educational records or any legal authority to affect his educational decision-making,” according to a statement from Calgaro’s attorneys.

No one can understand the complexities of a family’s unique dynamic but the people inside that family.

The lawsuit also attempts to address a fuzzy part of Minnesota law: There is no legal way for Calgaro to challenge her son’s emancipation status, which is a violation of her rights under the Constitution. Additionally, an application submitted by her son for a name change was denied by the St. Louis County District Court because of the “lack of any adjudication relative to emancipation,” according to fox9.com.

The defendants in Calgaro’s lawsuit are St. Louis County, St. Louis County Public Health and Human Services Director, Fairview Health Services, Park Nicollet Health Services, St. Louis County School District, and the principal of the Cherry School. Calgaro’s son is also named in the suit.

She is being represented by attorneys from the nonprofit public interest law firm the Thomas More Society, along with Mohrman, Kaardal & Erickson, said fox9.com.

Kaardal told The Washington Times Calgaro and her child still have a good relationship.

“They have a good rapport,” Kaardal said. “So in that way it’s really not a typical emancipation case. But the idea of the government funding him, funding medical services, just goes too far with respect to parental rights.”

Related: Your Child Is Not an ‘It’

No one can understand the complexities of a family’s unique dynamic but the people inside that family — certainly not a government dismissive of the heads of that family. That this mother has had to file a lawsuit to challenge the government doesn’t erase the damage to her son’s psyche.

One Facebook user admires this mother’s fight not only for her son but for other parents, posting simply, “Anmarie is an amazing and courageous mother who loves her son.”