Swiss Parents Try to Regain Custody of Daughter Taken Because They Denied Her “Gender-affirming Care”

A Swiss couple is desperately trying to regain custody of their daughter and prevent her from “transitioning” to male after state agencies and a transgender-activist organization conspired against them, accusing them of abuse for refusing to accede to the teenager’s wishes.

Beginning of the Ordeal

According to a press release from Vienna-based Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, which is representing the parents, the problem began in 2021, when their then-13-year-old daughter announced that her “gender identity” was male. The girl had already experienced “other mental health concerns,” and then, during the Covid-19 pandemic, “spent a significant amount of time alone in her room and online” — where, of course, the trans cult runs rampant, especially on social media.

The parents, who are not named in the press release to protect themselves and their children, made the mistake of taking their daughter to a hospital that, like so many other healthcare facilities these days, is staffed with trans ideologues. It took doctors just 30 minutes, during which they showed the girl the controversial “Gender Unicorn” diagram, which claims that gender identity is fluid rather than fixed, to diagnose her with gender dysphoria. They recommended putting the girl on puberty blockers. The parents declined to do so and instead obtained private mental-health treatment for her.

Unfortunately, the girl’s school got wind of her gender confusion and, “against the explicit wishes of the parents, began to ‘socially transition’ the daughter,” says ADF International. “The parents shared with the school peer-reviewed medical and scientific literature raising serious concerns about ‘social transitioning.’ They also shared revised government policies from the increasing number of European countries that are moving away from ‘gender affirmative treatment’ due to growing evidence of its harms.”

School Involves the Court

None of this, naturally, penetrated the skulls of the ideologues in charge. Instead, school officials got together with the Swiss child-welfare agency and a government-funded trans activist organization, hauled the parents before them, and accused them of abusing their daughter. Later, the child-welfare agency allegedly told the parents to “just accept that you have a son.”

The court ordered the girl to be taken from her parents and placed in a government-funded youth shelter; this took place in April 2023. According to the press release, “The trans activist organization and child welfare agency worked to convince her that the mental health professional provided by her parents was a ‘transphobe.’”

Since the court gave the state control over which doctors the girl sees — the courts denied her parents’ appeal of this decision — she stopped going to the one her parents had selected and now has the option of pursuing certain gender-altering treatments.

In order to obtain the full gamut of such “transitioning” treatments, including cross-sex hormones and surgery, the now-16-year-old must legally change her sex designation. In February, a court ordered her parents to produce documents that would enable her to apply for this change. They are now appealing this order.

“Every Parent’s Worst Nightmare”

The girl’s father said their “story is truly a nightmare”:

Swiss authorities have taken our child…. Our access to her is regulated by the government….

As parents, we would do anything to protect our children from harm. We want the best for our kids. We love them and want to raise them to be honest, kind, and self-confident adults — both our daughter and our son, each in their own way.

But right now, our daughter is still a minor, and she rightfully belongs in our home where we can help her navigate through life’s struggles in a way that is best for her long-term health and happiness.

Said Dr. Felix Boellmann, ADF International’s lead attorney on the case:

Children who experience discomfort with their biological sex deserve to be treated with dignity and need compassionate mental health care, which these parents have gone to great lengths to provide.

These parents are living every parent’s worst nightmare. Their child has been taken away from them simply for trying to protect her from harm.

The implications of this are devastating not only for them as a family, but also for all of society. No society can claim to be free if parents can lose their daughter solely for affirming biological reality.

Violation of International Law

Boellmann charged the Swiss government with violating “international and national law,” which says a child should only be taken from his parents if he is being abused. Preventing a child from making an unwise decision with permanent, life-altering consequences does not constitute abuse.

“Not only have these parents committed no wrong, they absolutely must have their child returned home and are under no obligation to consent to the authority’s demands to allow dangerous medical interventions,” Boellmann argued. “Further, they have the right and the duty to protect their daughter from the harms of this ideology.”

“This chilling case,” said parents’ rights activist Chris Elston (aka “Billboard Chris”), “exposes the troubling grip of Western authorities: trampling over the health and wellbeing of a child for the sake of an ideology, and remaining severely out of touch with the leading science — including the evidence brought forward by the recent Cass Report about the harmful impact of puberty blockers on young females. The world should pay attention: the right outcome here is significant in the fight to protect kids everywhere.”

All the legal and scientific arguments, however, pale in comparison to this simple plea from the troubled teenager’s mother: “We want our daughter back home. We love her and we miss her.”