(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Judges in California that specialize in child abuse and neglect cases must take mandatory classes on LGBT issues that teach them to consider parent’s objections to a child’s preferred pronouns as child abuse, according to the Daily Caller.
The Judicial Council of California offers “LGBTQ+ Considerations” training semi-annually, covering everything from how to “conduct hearings in a trauma-informed manner,” an “ever-evolving list” of definitions and warnings that LGBT children are at a high risk for mental illness.
The course also includes three hypothetical situations where the judge must decide to either to liberate the endangered gay teen from abusive parents, or condemn them to a fate of misgendering.
In one of the hypotheticals, the JCC asked judges to consider what they would do in a hearing where daughter “Michelle,’ who identifies as male under the new name “Marco,” must return home after being in foster care for several years.
The mother, a reformed alcoholic who is working and testing negative for substance abuse, refuses to address her child in this new fashion for religious reasons.
“According to her religion and culture, she cannot call her child ‘Marco,’ or use male pronouns, and believes her child has been negatively influenced by other youth in the foster home,” says a PowerPoint slide outlining the scenario.
“Mother’s attorney indicates she will argue for return of the child to the mother, and object to the use of child’s pronoun and name choice,” it continues. “The child is present at the hearing. How do you conduct the hearing? What orders do you make?”
Another scenario addresses a young boy who identifies as a girl wanting to live in a female foster home.
The course is reportedly part of a larger program, particularly geared toward judges working on juvenile dependency cases or returning to juvenile cases after a foray into a different area of law.
The Superior Court of Santa Cruz County previously hosted activist training in order to teach judges how to properly use pronouns and other gender identification while presiding over a case.
“Parental rights, free speech, and religious freedom are bedrock constitutional rights that every judge should protect when considering the specific facts of a sensitive dependency case or any other case that comes before them,” said Kate Anderson, senior counsel and director of the Center for Parental Rights at the Alliance Defending Freedom.
“It is deeply concerning that groups that actively advocate against these important rights elsewhere are providing training to judges behind closed doors,” she added.
