The Supreme Court has declined to hear a case from an Indiana couple who lost custody of their “transgender” teenage son for refusing to use female pronouns.
The court rejected the case without providing any commentary or a reason why.
As the Gateway Pundit previously reported, Mary and Jeremy Cox, who are Catholic, opted to bring their son to therapy when he decided he wanted to be a girl in 2019.
NEW: Catholic Indiana couple appeals to Supreme Court after their child was taken from them after they refused to refer to him as his preferred pronouns.
Utter insanity.
In 2021, the Indiana Department of Child Services investigated parents Mary and Jeremy Cox and later took… pic.twitter.com/XsFRBKoadn
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 21, 2024
Becket Legal, who is representing the Cox family, explained in a press release, “Because of their religious belief that God creates human beings with immutable sex—male or female—they could not refer to him using pronouns and a name inconsistent with his biology. The Coxes also believed that he needed help for underlying mental health concerns, including an eating disorder.”
“To address both issues, they provided therapeutic care for their child’s gender dysphoria and scheduled appointments with a specialist to help him with the eating disorder. In 2021, Indiana began investigating the Coxes after a report that they were not referring to their child by his preferred gender identity. Indiana then removed the teen from the parents’ custody and placed him in a home that would affirm his preferred identity.”
The state did not find evidence of abuse — but claimed the couple’s non-acceptance of their son’s gender identity was harmful to the child’s mental health.
“If this can happen in Indiana, it can happen anywhere. Tearing a child away from loving parents because of their religious beliefs, which are shared by millions of Americans, is an outrage to the law, parental rights, and basic human decency,” said Lori Windham, vice president and senior counsel at Becket. “If the Supreme Court doesn’t take this case, how many times will this happen to other families?”
In a statement responding to the Supreme Court’s rejection, the Cox family said, “We can’t change the past, but we will continue to fight for a future where parents of faith can raise their children without fear of state officials knocking on their doors.”
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said in a statement, “We always protect parental rights and religious liberty. Neither we nor the Indiana courts believe that the State can remove a child because of a parent’s religious beliefs, views about gender identity, or anything of the sort.”
Rokita claimed that the teenager’s eating disorder was the basis for removal.
