Young Woman Removed from Catholic Parents. Supreme Court Approves

A child insisted she is a female. Because of their Catholic beliefs, her parents insisted on treating her as a boy. Social officials removed her from the parents' home. Lower courts refused to overturn the decision. Now the Supreme Court has refused to consider the case.  She will continue her life as a girl but not in her parents' home. 

I think we'd all agree removing children because of a determination they will be better off somewhere else is fraught with difficulty. Sometimes there is evidence of beating and starvation, rather easy cases to decide. When it involves mental cruelty or religious indoctrination it is not so clear. 

One thing about self-determined gender, however, is that it is not new. Probably humans have self-identified as a different gender than they were assigned by birth since the beginning of humans. The first time I read about is was almost 50 years ago when a well-known academic economist changed from male to female. There are thousands of such people in the U.S. today.

Neither legislators nor courts, then, can say such people do not exist nor that the legal system has not nor cannot accommodate those who change genders. It is rather routine. 

Religious conservatives don't like it, however. They are all about control of other people. Certainly, they want to control children. They start with a theory there is a "god" somewhere, they don't really know where. Yes, they can point their figure into thin air. When a performer plays an "air guitar" it doesn't mean there is a guitar there. 

Conservative Christians next theory is their "god" believes or dictates certain things. One is that gender is determined only by physical attributes. Our legal system has already decided individuals can assign themselves a different gender than their parents assigned them. The only possible reason for denying children the right to do this is religious. The Supreme Court has decided parents cannot force their children to follow their parents' religious beliefs. 

This court majority has come to be known for its desire to impose misery on those less powerful. A ruling giving children the right to determine their gender is a welcome one.