A Minnesota woman filed a lawsuit against her teenage transgender daughter on Wednesday, claiming her 14th amendment rights were violated by government entities and nonprofits that are supporting the minor during her transition.
Anmarie Calgaro says her 17-year-old daughter (whom she calls her son in the suit) began hormone therapy without her knowledge. Minnesota law allows a minor to become effectively emancipated from her parents without going through any legal or judicial undertaking if she is living apart from her parents and handling her own finances. In such a case, the minor can consent to medical procedures and access health care without permission from her parents.
An emancipation document Calgaro’s daughter drew up with Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid in June 2015 claims that her mother had cut off contact with her, didn’t report her as a runaway for six months after she left home, and didn’t try to bring her home even though Calgaro knew where she was staying in a different part of the state. Calgaro says this document abridged her parental rights to her daughter’s school and medical records, contesting the Minnesota law that allows minors to make their own medical decisions without parental consent if they’re effectively emancipated.
Calgaro names her daughter, St. Louis County, the daughter’s school district and principal, two health care nonprofits, and the county health and human services department in her suit for giving her daughter gender-affirming health care, helping her get housing and a driver’s license, and supporting her transition without input from a mother who doesn’t recognize her gender.
At NBC, Mary Emily O’Hara points out that this case could have a detrimental impact on reproductive freedom in the state. Minnesota currently allows self-emancipated minors like Calgaro’s daughter to access abortion care without parental notification, while non-emancipated minors must tell their parents they’re getting an abortion two days before the procedure. Calgaro is filing her suit in conjunction with both the anti-trans Minnesota Child Protection League and the anti-abortion Thomas More Society of Chicago, a law firm that also counts identity thief David Daleiden, who tried to make “baby parts” a thing, as a client. If Calgaro succeeds in weakening Minnesota minors’ right to health care without an uninvolved parent’s consent, the parental notification exception for self-emancipated minors might be next on the chopping block.
