Jeff Younger, 59, a Texas father, is appealing a recent California court decision that grants his ex-wife Dr. Anne Georgulas the authority to provide their 12-year-old son, James, with gender reassignment treatment. This latest development marks another chapter in a years-long legal battle that has spanned two states and garnered national attention.
Following a seven-day trial, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mark Juhas gave Georgulas the power to chemically “castrate” James. Younger, a father of two, declared on X that he “lost all parental rights” over his twin sons.
“I am very determined to make California justify what they are doing to my son at every level,” Younger told the DrTV Channel. “They illegally ceiled the court records. I can’t even get them. They repeatedly violated the law and didn’t want people to observe it.”
Puberty Blockers Lead to Chemical Castration
Younger fought to keep his son James from undergoing what he saw as destructive, permanent “gender transition” procedures.
The use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones in gender transitioning can have significant effects on reproductive development and fertility, particularly in male individuals. Puberty blockers, such as Lupron, suppress the production of sex hormones, including testosterone. The treatment can also cause testicular atrophy (shrinkage) if used long-term and may lead to underdeveloped testes, potentially affecting sperm production later in life.
“Cross-sex hormones and puberty-blocking leads to chemical castration,” Younger said. “I knew where this was headed when the Texas court allowed my ex-wife to move to California.”
According to Younger, the proposed methods for treating James—puberty blockers, estrogen treatments, and possible surgeries—are not backed by solid medical evidence as effective treatments for gender dysphoria in children. In fact, he says, credible authorities (like psychiatrist Miriam Grossman, whom Younger cites often) testify to the contrary. They say that conditions like the one that afflicts James have no known effective treatment and that what’s being done right now could end up being analogous to lobotomies conducted in the past when doctors didn’t fully understand the brain.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, this practice is reversible. Studies find, however, significant long-term sexual side effects and symptoms like bone density loss.
Who Is Anne Georgulas?
Georgulas led a pediatric private practice for nearly thirty years in Coppell, Texas before moving to California. She is a graduate of the University of Texas Health Science Center. Georgulas insists that James wants to live as a girl, and be called “Luna.”
Younger and Georgulas were Orthodox Church members when they got married in 2010. Before they were born in 2012, they requested that their twins be male after undergoing IVF. Georgulas took James to the Children’s Hospital Center to see a gender therapist, which sparked arguments about their child’s gender. She says she had observed James asking for toys with a girl theme, that the child was mimicking female Disney characters, and that the child had been requesting to wear dresses.
“James has been brainwashed by his mother,” Younger said. “He actually believes he can become a girl.”
Younger says Georgulas is represented by the international law firm Morrison & Foerster.
Case Receives National Attention
Since 2018, the case has drawn the interest of people all over the country. Georgulas sought a restraining order that would keep Younger from entering James’s school and consistently referred to their son as male. Yet Georgulas asserted that James was not only identifying as female but living as one, calling the child “Luna” and dressing “her” in a way that, according to Georgulas’s perception and understanding of gender, was more appropriate than what one might consider “gender-neutral” or “boyish” attire. Younger, in contrast, says James was more like a boy when they were together, which is to say that the two engaged in activities that one might more reasonably consider “boyish.”
“All this happened to my son under a conservative administration in Texas,” Younger said. “Every step of the way Republicans failed to protect my son. The lawmakers pass bills that make it look like they will protect, but then they build in loopholes.”
Younger says James’s mother is adamant about medically sterilizing his son and “transitioning” him using puberty blockers. Until recently, the vast majority of mental health specialists would have described the actions of Georgulas toward her son as emotionally, sexually, spiritually, and psychologically abusive. On one social media site, U.S. Senator and physician Rand Paul wrote, “We don’t let kids drink alcohol until 21, but we will allow a 7-year-old to have his life and body altered like this? This is child abuse and the state should side with the father who is trying to protect the child.”
Supervised Visitation
Younger stated that he can only see his two sons, James and Jude, in visits that are supposed to be supervised. He says he disagrees with this arrangement and argues it isn’t fair to him or to his children.
“The court order is very simple – all visits are to be supervised,” Younger said. “I did one visit, but I’m not following the orders anymore. They are harmful to children and communicate that the father is dangerous. They are also about $2,000 per visit.”
Younger told DrTV Channel that the court has also used information from the visitations against him and created false claims. “No parent should do supervised visits,” said Younger.
This ongoing legal conflict is set amid a larger cultural and legal dispute between states over the provision of transgender healthcare to minors. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) issued an opinion in February 2022, making clear that he and the state of Texas believe that certain medical procedures related to gender transitions could be classified as child abuse under Texas law. Conversely, California’s Democratic leadership has positioned the state as a healthcare access haven for families seeking “gender-affirming” treatments for their children, seemingly at odds with some Texas policies enacted under Governor Greg Abbott (R).
Younger wants the court to stay Juhas’s decision and to temporarily keep his son from undergoing gender-transition procedures. But more than that, Younger is looking for ways to make his case resonate at the federal level, and he is hoping to get the president-elect to pay attention.
According to Younger, “these hospitals can be stopped, and their barbaric practices on children can be made to cease,” but only if Trump orders them to cease. He claims that this is an act that could have a significant impact on his son’s health and well-being. “It could,” he says, “save my son’s life.”
Elon Musk Weights In
Elon Musk has called the decision “psychotic.” After Younger claimed on the social media site last week that he had “lost all parental rights to my sons” due to a decision, the billionaire owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, remarked.
Musk previously claimed that his move to the right was motivated by his daughter’s transition. “Gender identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape, or form” are the reasons given by his daughter Vivian Wilson in her 2022 name change application.
President-elect Donald Trump has appointed Musk to co-lead a Department of Government Efficiency. Musk previously stated last year that he would advocate for the criminalization of “making severe, irreversible changes to children below the age of consent.”
At an August event for Moms for Liberty, President-Elect Trump promised that on his first day in office, he would issue a broad executive order that would direct every federal agency to stop promoting “sex or gender transition at any age.”
“They’re not going to do it anymore.”
State legislators in Kentucky, Georgia, and Texas are moving to ban puberty blockers from being given to minors in the wake of the James Younger case.
