Mother who questioned 12-year-old daughter's gender transition loses custody battle

CHICAGO (TND) — A Chicago mother lost custody of her child because, according to her ex-husband, she failed to create a mentally and emotionally safe environment for their 12-year-old daughter who allegedly wanted to begin a gender transition.

Jeannette Cooper told the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) that, at one time, she had custody of her daughter Sophia for six days and seven nights a week, but now she can only communicate with her child via U.S. Mail because she has insisted that Sophia is a girl.

According to IWF, Cooper’s story is an example of how gender ideology has become the latest weapon in parental custody battles.

People who are imprisoned have more communication with their child than I do," Cooper said in a videoproduced by IWF. "Usually, Child Protective Services has a definition of what it means to be unsafe, to be either abused or neglected. There was no evidence that I had done anything like that."

Cooper told IWF she raised Sophia within her belief system that it was not necessary to abide by traditional gender stereotypes. But Cooper also insisted to IWF that she believes an individual’s actions are separate from one’s sex.

I don’t think there are any bounds on what it means to be female other than to exist in a female body," Cooper, who shaves her head and reportedly purchases clothes regardless of whether they are located in the men’s or women’s section, told IWF. "There is nothing that I have to do to become female. I simply am. I can dress whatever way I want. I can cut my hair off, grow it long, I can change my clothes. I am still female. Any behavior that I have is female because it is mine."

However, in 2019, Sophia never returned to her mother’s houseafter a custody visit to her father’s residence because Cooper was supposedly not supportive enough of her desire to transition.

Following that 2019 visit, a custody battle ensued between Cooper and her ex-husband. The new wife of Cooper's ex-husband, a licensed psychotherapist who Cooper blames with orchestrating a custody change under the auspices of “saving” Sophia, has also been involved.

During that time, Cooper was the subject of an investigation that found no abuse or neglect – only that Cooper needed to “further [her] understanding of an[d] support of the minor child as relates to the minor child’s gender dysphoria,” publicly available court documents said, according to IWF.

I have an understanding of the concept of a transgender identity," Cooper told IWF. "I don’t think it’s the concept that they want me to have."

Under the terms of the latest custody agreement following the court’s investigations, Cooper can only see her daughter - who three years later still presents as feminine and goes by the name “Ash” but uses xe/xyr/xyrs pronouns – when okayed by her ex-husband.

Cooper’s ex-husband has not responded to her repeated requests to see Sophia, IWF indicated.

However, as part of the limited custodial guidelines that Cooper agreed to, “Ash” cannot medically transition without a court order or her mother’s permission.