Is Christian-run hospital forcing this 5-year-old transgender girl to be a boy?
Stevie is a 5-year-old trans girl - who has epilepsy and type 1 diabetes - that is being mistreated at a hospital. She’s being misgendered, her identity is not being respected, her hair may have been cut, and they took away her “girl” toys.
The hospital is Advocate Children’s Hospital, also known as Advocate Hope Children’s Hospital, part of the Advocate Health network, which identifies itself as a faith-based, not-for-profit health system, and the largest in Illinois.
The hospital called for a “therapeutic separation.” The parents didn’t sign anything, but the courts won’t do anything for 30 days since it was an oral agreement, I guess.
According to my Googling skills, the only sort of therapy “therapeutic separation” occurs in is related to couples therapy or marriage counseling. Nothing to do with children and parents. The hospital is faith-based and, as suggested in the article, they used an excuse to kidnap her and use conversion on her.
It took Stevie’s parents almost a month to see her. And their account was heart-breaking:
They saw her for the first time in nearly a month yesterday. That visit is why I am writing this. Stevie is being addressed as Stephen, and she affirmed several times “my name is STEVIE!”. As they walked in they were shocked. She had appeared to have lost weight (she had little extra to begin with), her hair was different and seemed possibly shorter, they taken all of her clothes dishes and toys, and her lips had an unusual cast. Her demeanor has changed dramatically . Her parents called me in tears after the visit, devastated for their child.
This is heartbreaking. I couldn’t find much more, but there’s groups helping or keeping an eye on this case.
The American Civil Liberties Union is working with Infelise on Steve’s case. Lambda Legal is said to have expressed interest in this, and the National Center for Lesbian Rights confirmed to LGBTQ Nation that it, too, is closely following her case.