School Helped Autistic Girl Become Transgender over Parents’ Wishes, Dad Says

A Chicago-area father says his daughter’s school undermined his parental rights by helping her become transgender, even though she is autistic and has “mental health challenges” that may have contributed to her desires. 

Jay Keck’s daughter attended a school in Hinsdale District #86 in suburban Chicago and only began having desires to be a boy after befriending another transgender classmate.

“Throughout my daughter’s childhood, there were no signs that she wanted to be a boy,” Keck wrote in a USA Today column. “She loved stuffed animals, Pocahontas and wearing colorful bathing suits. I can’t recall a single interest that seemed unusually masculine or any evidence that she was uncomfortable as a girl.”

But she had trouble making friends, and eventually was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. At the age of 14, she became friends with a transgender schoolmate.  

“Shortly after meeting her, my daughter declared that she, too, was a boy trapped in a girl’s body and picked out a new masculine name,” Keck wrote. “She first came out as transgender to her school, and when she announced that she was a boy, the faculty and staff — who had full knowledge of her mental health challenges – affirmed her. Without telling me or my wife, they referred to her by her new name. They treated my daughter as if she were a boy, using male…