Erin Friday on Family Courts, ‘Transgender’ Sanctuary States and Fighting to Protect Parental Rights
Erin Friday champions parental rights at the highest levels of government.
The attorney and mother spent last week on Capitol Hill, rallying to keep boys out of girls sports and urging members of congress to protect parents who do not affirm their children’s sexual identity confusion.
Earlier this month, Friday met with the White House Domestic Policy Council to propose an executive order she’d written to prevent family courts and child placement organizations from discriminating against parents who affirm their children’s sex.
Friday’s passionate defense of parents began in 2020, when her 13-year-old daughter declared herself “transgender.”
“Her school secretly socially transitioned her when she was starting ninth grade,” Friday told the Daily Citizen.
It was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Friday’s daughter had never set foot in her high school, yet her instructors saw fit to call her a boy.
“When I called the school to tell them to stop calling [my daughter] a boy and using male pronouns, they told me that they needed to be a ‘safe space’ for her,” Friday recalled, ruefully.
“I asked them to define ‘safe,’ which they couldn’t. Then I asked if I was unsafe because I treat her as a girl.”
A few days later, Child Protective Services (CPS) knocked on Friday’s door.
CPS did not take her daughter that day — in part, she thinks, because she emphasized she was an attorney. But Friday soon realized such happy outcomes are far from guaranteed.
“I learned about a women named Abigail Martinez, who lost custody of her 16-year-old daughter because she refused to socially transition her and treat her as a boy,” Friday remembered.
Martinez’ daughter committed suicide while in California state’s custody.
“I realized I had really dodged a bullet,” Friday told the Daily Citizen frankly. “I was really lucky.”
Friday successfully helped her daughter overcome sexual identity confusion — without wrong-sex hormones or mutilating surgeries. Now, she dedicates her time to helping other parents through the same desperate situations.
As co-leader of the American branch of Our Duty, an international parental advocacy non-profit, Friday fields calls from parents across the country who could lose custody of their child for affirming his or her biological sex.
This isn’t a natural phenomenon, Friday emphasizes. It’s the result of training courses which teach family court judges, child advocates and social workers to consider parents who do not affirm their child’s sexual identity confusion as abusive.
Whistleblower Jamie Reed taught some of these courses between 2018 and 2022. She writes for the Free Press:
Courses like these don’t just taint custody rulings in cases where the government takes a transgender-identified child from their home. They also affect custody agreements between parents.
“It’s the same set of judges adjudicating both the child protective services cases and … run-of-the-mill divorces or breakup cases.” Friday explains.
“When there’s a dispute among parents over custody, and one parent [affirms] the delusion and the other one [loves their child as their sex], the parent who loves their child as their sex never gets custody.”
The executive order Friday drafted and proposed earlier this month would prevent federal money from paying to create or teach these biased courses. Instead, federal dollars could be used to fund counter courses reminding family court staff that affirming a child’s sex is in the child’s best interest.
The proposed order would also invalidate “transgender” sanctuary state laws, which allow states that support sex-rejecting procedures to take custody of transgender-identified children who run away from their parents.
Once in state custody, children can choose to begin sex-rejecting interventions without parental consent.
Friday used an example to illustrate how dire these cases can be for parents.
“Normally, when a child runs away into another state, that state says, ‘No, no, no. We’re going to send you back home where your parents are,’” she explains.
“The trans-sanctuary state laws change it so if a kid from Oklahoma runs to my state [California] because they are seeking sex-rejecting interventions, my state says, ‘You can stay here and we’re … going to figure out where you’re going to live, who gets custody and if your parents are bad or not.’”
At this point, Friday says it’s “game over” for parents:
California, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Illinois, New York, Vermont, Maryland, Massachusetts, Maine, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia are all “transgender” sanctuary states.
Friday understands executive orders rarely create lasting change. She hopes Congress will make her proposed protections law. After her meetings last week, Friday says she’s “very hopeful.”
The Daily Citizen is grateful for the strength and effort of mothers and activists like Friday, whose courage and clarity will save countless children from the devastation of irreversible, sex-rejecting medical interventions.
Check back soon to read Friday’s recommendations for parents looking to join the fight to protect parents’ rights.
You can read more about Friday’s proposed executive order here.
Additional Articles and Resources
Proposed Executive Order Would Protect Parental Rights
Athletes Rally at Supreme Court to Keep Boys Out of Girls Sports
Indiana Family Loses Custody of Son Over Religious Beliefs; Supreme Court Won’t Hear Case
HHS Finalizes Report Finding Sex-Rejecting Procedures Harm Minors
HHS Releases Report on Harms of ‘Transgender’ Medical Interventions for Minors
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