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The Luna Younger Case Is Really About the Power of the Patriarchy
The custody battle over a trans girl in Texas is what happens when men blame moms for children who don’t adhere to gender norms
Luna Younger, a seven-year-old trans girl who was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at age five, has become a national news story thanks to a custody battle between her parents.
Late last month, a jury awarded Luna’s custody to her mother, who affirms Luna’s gender identity. However, Luna’s father Jeffrey Younger — who claims a religious objection to Luna’s gender — was able to drum up substantial right-wing media coverage by claiming that his ex-wife was “forcing” the little girl to transition. Donald Trump Jr. accused Luna’s mother of “child abuse,” and the Texas attorney general demanded an investigation from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. In the midst of the furor, a judge overruled the jury’s verdict and awarded Jeffrey custody.
This story, dramatic and wrenching though it has been, is not unique. Custody battles over transgender children are happening all over the country and, as in the Younger case, they often center on a male partner who blames the mother for his child’s gender identity. This is a new field of study, and data is still emerging; collecting it can be complicated, in part because parents fear losing their children if they disclose too much information. Still, the academic and research journal Family Court Review has published a study — widely cited in the wake of the Younger case — which covers 10 divorced mothers of trans children; all 10 were accused by their ex-partners of forcing their children to be trans, and four lost custody. Ten may seem like a small sample size, but it lines up with a growing body of anecdotal evidence: In 2016, Susie Green of the U.K. charity Mermaids spoke to the Guardian about similar families that her organization had assisted through custody battles, noting that “all the ones that have come through so far have been the mum who has custody and the father is unsupportive.”
Which is to say, even as the right lasers in on trans children, it’s also engaging in another time-honored conservative pastime: blaming mothers.
