In Minnesota, USA, a mother is suing her own 17 years old transgender daughter after learning she started to seek gender reassignment care.
The improbable case unfolded last Thursday at the U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Anmarie Calgaro, a mom from a small town in Minnesota, explained why she was suing her own transgender daughter, to which she still refers to as her “son”.
The teenager, which the court memos only refer to as E.J.K., has been living on her own for two years, and worked with a legal aid group on an emancipation statement before she started to seek gender reassignment medical care at a local clinic.
When Calgaro learnt about it, she tried to get involved. But, she said, she was surprised to know her parental rights were effectively removed. In November, she filed a case against her own daughter, health clinics and county agencies. “The news that county agencies and health service providers, the school and other county and state offices were completely bypassing me came as a total shock,” she said.
In a press conference, she portrayed herself as a loving and concerned mother. However, the story E.J.K. is giving is quite different. In a brief filed by E.J.K.’s attorney and shared with NBC News, she says she grew up with unstable parents struggling with substance abuse, that from a young age she had to make her own meals, and dress herself to go to school. She recalls she had to rely on other adults to provide for “some of the care and nurturing that her biological parents were unable to offer.”.
When she came out as gay at age 13, her parents got verbally and physically abusive. At age 15 she moved in with her biological father short before he got imprisoned, then moved in with her grand mother just to jump over to various friends’ places before getting her own place.
The teen is very self sufficient, she now has her own apartment, a full time job and is set to graduate high school this year. E.J.K. says she felt she was a girl at a very young age and began treatment in summer 2015, as soon as she was living on her own. “I was not pressured in any way by my providers to consent to this treatment,” her court papers read.
Calgaro is seeking compensation from St. Louis County, St. Louis School Board and the principal of E.J.K.’s high school, the county’s Health and Human Services agency and two health clinics. She also wants to regain parental control of her daughter.
Since E.J.K. is turning 18 in a July, regaining parental control will likely not be an option, but if Calgaro wins the case, which E.J.K’s lawyer believes would be “a long shot”, she may nonetheless still pretend to compensations.
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