WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last month, on behalf of our clients, America First Legal (AFL), Schaerr Jaffe LLP, and Joel Ard, sued the Governor of Washington, Jay Inslee, the Attorney General of Washington, Robert Furguson, and the Secretary of the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families, Ross Hunter to stop the enforcement of Senate Bill 5599 – a new law that allows shelters to take in children struggling with gender dysphoria and potentially provide them with life-altering “care” (potentially including sterilization) without parental consent or knowledge.
The recently signed legislation creates a dangerous incentive for minors who disagree with their parents on “gender-affirming care” to run away to a shelter or host home. The new law takes away a requirement of notice to parents.
Furthermore, the law authorizes the state to refer a minor for “behavioral health services” without defining what this entails. In practice, this means that young children who run away from home could be receiving chemical sterilization drugs or even genital mutilation without the consent or knowledge of the parents.
This new statute deprives certain parents of their fundamental rights under the United States Constitution to direct the care and upbringing of their children. America First Legal is proud to defend parental rights and stand up against the insidious “gender-affirming care” agenda, which promotes using experimental medical procedures and drugs on minor children – potentially altering their lives forever.
Statement from America First Legal President Stephen Miller:
“America First Legal is leading the courtroom charge against radical transgenderism and the sexual exploitation of our children by militant gender activists. No state action more frighteningly illustrates the threat to our children than this law. This sick, authoritarian law essentially allows the state to kidnap children from their parents and hide their whereabouts to surgically and chemically mutilate them — and to formally deprive their parents of any legal ability to stop the medical disfigurement of their sons and daughters by gender extremists targeting their children. Today, we are filing an urgent lawsuit against the State of Washington to enjoin enforcement of this monstrous law and to obtain immediate restoration of parental rights for every family in Washington State. This law is illegal, unconstitutional, and evil. This litigation is about saving our children from those who abuse their innocence, torment their minds, and disfigure their bodies. America First Legal will be unrelenting in the struggle to save the rapidly vanishing civil, legal, and medical rights of kids, moms, and dads in America,“ said Stephen Miller.
Statement from America First Legal Vice-President, Gene Hamilton:
“The State of Washington has embarked on a radical new crusade to deprive parents of their fundamental rights under the Constitution, and it should shock all Americans to their cores. Parents who do not ‘affirm’ their children’s so-called ‘gender identity’ are treated the same as child abusers, such that they do not have to be contacted when their children show up at a shelter the way any other parent would be. And Washington also decided to permit children in such situations to obtain certain medical services without the consent of a parent–an equally shocking prospect. We will proudly stand with our clients and fight for their rights against these absurd and arbitrary laws advanced by radical activists in Washington,” said Gene Hamilton.
Read the lawsuit here.
