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County Gives Teen Transgender Services Without Mom's Consent

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A Minnesota mother is suing St. Louis County and several agencies for allowing her 17-year-old son to receive transgender services and narcotic drugs without her knowledge or consent. 

"This is an outrageous abuse of power by multiple agencies," stated Tom Brejcha, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Society, the firm representing the mother, Anmarie Calgaro.  

"To treat a minor child without either parental consent or a court order of emancipation is a violation of the trust placed upon the human service sector and its governmental oversight agencies," he said. "To give a parent no recourse to intervene in this situation is an egregious violation of Constitutional rights."

In June of 2015, the Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid Clinic advised Calgaro's son that he was emancipated. However, no legal action was taken to that effect and his mother's parental rights were never terminated. 

St. Louis County Independent School District 2142 then began treating her son as an emancipated minor and classified him as an adult with exclusive rights to information and decision-making.

Two medical service providers -- Park Nicollet Minneapolis Gender Services and Fairview -- also acted without parental consent, providing Calgaro's son medical treatment for a male-to-female sex change and prescribing him narcotics. Those medical services were paid for through St. Louis County Public Health and Human Services, again without the permission of his mother.

Meanwhile, the boy's application for a name change was denied by the St. Louis County District Court because there had been no court ruling on his emancipation.

According to her lawsuit, Minnesota law gives Calgaro no ability to challenge the emancipation status. The Thomas More Society says this is a violation of her rights guaranteed under the Constitution.

"Minnesota statutes constitutionally err by allowing a medical service provider to treat a teenager as emancipated without a court order and without providing parents a post-deprivation process to challenge the medical service provider's determination of emancipation," explained Erick Kaardal, special counsel for the Thomas More Society. 

"Similarly, the county's and school district's determinations of the teenager's emancipation without a court order violate the parent's right to notice and a hearing," he continued. "But, unlike the medical service providers, the county and the school district do not have a statute to pin their unconstitutional conduct on." 
 

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About The Author

Caitlin Burke Headshot
Caitlin
Burke

Caitlin Burke serves as National Security Correspondent and a general assignment reporter for CBN News. She has also hosted the CBN News original podcast, The Daily Rundown. Some of Caitlin’s recent stories have focused on the national security threat posed by China, America’s military strength, and vulnerabilities in the U.S. power grid. She joined CBN News in July 2010, and over the course of her career, she has had the opportunity to cover stories both domestically and abroad. Caitlin began her news career working as a production assistant in Richmond, Virginia, for the NBC affiliate WWBT