Texas Scorecard will premier our first feature story, telling the story of James Younger, and the fight against child gender disfigurement in Texas. Video will premier at 5 pm.
While most kids his age are only concerned with 3rd grade, playing, and bedtime, one Dallas-area 9 year old boy is living under constant threat of being chemically castrated.
Saving James – Ending Child Mutilation in Texas describes the case of James Younger, a boy caught up in a nationally-known fight over his biological identity—whether to protect his true self, or potentially force him into permanently disfiguring medical operations.
The issue began when James was two years old, as his mother began to tell him that he was a girl, coercing him to present himself as a female in public.
James’ father disagreed, wanting his son to be his true biological self.
The James Younger case went viral in 2019, as both parents disputed over recognizing James as James or his mother’s concocted persona, who she called “Luna.”
His parents have since gotten divorced, and in those legal proceedings, his mother, Anne Georgulas, has attempted to seize sole authority over medical decisions for James—which includes the power to give him permanently sterilizing drugs.
According to James’ father, Jeff, medical records reveal that Anne discussed puberty blocker drugs with pediatrician Dr. Jennifer Pape, and also contacted the Dallas-area GENECIS clinic—a center which recommends similar sterilizing drugs for children. Jeff said those records reveal plans for “exploring the medical side of treatment” on James, which could eventually include cutting off his healthy body parts.
“What is the medical side of treatment? It’s chemical castration by puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones starting at age 8,” Jeff Younger said at a recent press conference. “It permanently sterilizes the child, and it causes a myriad of health problems. Of the children that go onto this protocol, almost all of them go onto surgical transition. So, they were looking to put my son on the path to surgical transition as early as age 8.”
Texas lawmakers have recently considered enacting state laws to protect children from these disfiguring operations, however, Republican state representatives have stalled the proposed laws.
House Bill 1399—which would’ve prohibited medical professionals from performing similar permanently scarring operations on healthy children—is legislatively dead after Texas House Republicans chose not to schedule it soon enough for consideration and a vote.
Senate Bill 1646—which would classify such procedures as child abuse—still has potential life, but House Republicans must prioritize it in the final two and a half weeks of their legislative session.
Until Texas laws are changed, James, who recently turned 9 years old, is vulnerable to being disfigured for perhaps the rest of his life.
