OPINION:
Until about 10 years ago, virtually everyone knew that boys could not become girls and girls could not become boys.
Then, as bad ideas often do, the concept of malleable gender untethered from biological sex possessed the minds of many Americans on the political left.
Activists pressured weak-willed companies to change their bathroom policies and implement training designed to teach Americans not only that they are all racist but that they are transphobes too.
Pronouns began to appear in email signatures and social media bio sections. Classrooms became the venue for struggle sessions and indoctrination. School boards, long a tool for leftist activism, became another tool for implementing policies designed to cut off parents from their children and cut off children from reality.
Such insanity could last only so long. Americans were bound to resist. Many did from the beginning, and more and more did over time as they realized that this mass delusion could and would affect their lives or the lives of those they love.
Already overextended and facing stiff conservative resistance across the country, the gender ideology movement suffered a crash landing with the reelection of President Trump, whose 2024 “Kamala is for they/them, President Trump is for you” advertisement resonated deeply with voters.
Yet the activists have not surrendered. Schools continue to enforce policies designed to deprive parents of critical information about and decision-making authority for their children. States captured by the gender agenda have enacted laws to allow boys to play in girls’ sports.
Some doctors continue to advocate for “gender-affirming care” for teenagers that can include mutilating surgeries or cross-sex hormone therapies.
In some cases, states have taken custody of children and then sought to impose these gender interventions without parental consent. In one case out of Massachusetts, the state removed a 15-year-old girl from her parents’ custody in 2024 and brought charges against her father, alleging he had physically abused her.
Though the charges against the father will be dropped if he meets certain requirements, the state attempted to provide the now 17-year-old girl with “gender-affirming care” without her parents’ consent. Only an order from a juvenile court prevented the state from doing so.
For years, conservatives have sought to have parents’ rights to protect their children vindicated in courts. Now, the Supreme Court finally appears poised to issue rulings that would provide parents robust protection against gender ideologues in schools.
In a case called Mirabelli v. Bonta in California, the Supreme Court ruled in 2024 that parents would likely prevail in their challenge to the state’s policy prohibiting teachers from informing parents when their child is “socially transitioning” at school, and granted preliminary relief while the case proceeds. Because this interim decision was made at a preliminary stage of the case, it does not provide the protection parents deserve.
Nonetheless, it was a step in the right direction, indicating that the court recognizes the problem and is likely to rule in favor of parents in the future.
This term, the court has the opportunity to take the next step. A law in the state of Washington directs shelters that take in runaway children who are seeking “gender-affirming treatment” to notify the Department of Children, Youth and Families. The department is then supposed to make an effort to contact the child’s parents.
Yet, without any requirement that the attempt to contact the parents be successful, the department is also required to offer to make referrals for the child for “gender-affirming treatment.”
The case challenging that law, International Partners for Ethical Care v. Ferguson, gives the court another opportunity to consider the issue of parental rights and gender ideology. Currently, the court is considering only whether the parents have standing, a legal requirement that plaintiffs were actually harmed and meet certain other requirements before a court will hear their case.
Depending on how the court explains its decision, a win for the parents could represent another significant step toward full protection of parental rights in this area, building on the foundation established in Mirabelli.
Whatever the outcome of this case and the numerous others across the country that challenge policies destructive to parental rights, the fight to protect children and families will go on. Activists dedicated to gender ideology will continue to seek out opportunities to indoctrinate children, so parents must remain vigilant. Further litigation will be necessary to build on and enforce any favorable Supreme Court decision.
Still, even if the court recognizes parents’ right to protect their children, activist school officials and state policymakers may not comply. Conservatives cannot afford to become complacent as the gender craze peaks and begins to recede. The stakes for children and families are too high.
• J. Marc Wheat is general counsel at Advancing American Freedom.
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