FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Her parents had prepared a happy “welcome home” scene for their daughter to return to. Balloons. A nice dinner. Family. Her little brother eagerly awaited her arrival.
But when they finally returned home that night from a public hospital in Geneva, Switzerland, their daughter was not with them.
“She’s not coming home,” they had to tell him.
The father, who The Daily Signal will identify only as John, reflected on the pain he felt in that moment as he looked at his son. He could read the unspoken question in the young boy’s eyes: “How could you not bring my sister home?”
“Because the little brother who loves and looks up to his sister, looks at his parents and thinks, ‘The problem must be you two,’” John said quietly. “‘How could you not bring my sister home?’ The feeling is, well, you really are the problem. And you start to ask yourself that as well.”
The parents were coming home from a meeting at the Hopitaux Universitaires de Geneve (HUG), where their daughter had been receiving treatment, John explained in an interview with The Daily Signal in Washington, D.C. (the hospital did not immediately respond to a request for comment). She believes that she isn’t a girl, but a boy, and wants to be treated medically to attempt a gender transition.
In Switzerland, gender transitions for minors are regulated by the Swiss Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes Society (SPED), The European Conservative reports, and under SPED’s regulations, the state can supersede a parent’s refusal to allow their 16- and 17-year-old children to transition if the parents are stripped of their legal authority.
The Swiss child protection agency, or the Service de Protection des Mineurs (SPMi), has full authority over where their daughter is treated, John said. And it has mandated that she receive the “gender-affirming” treatment that her parents believe will harm her.
In late July, the highest court in Geneva (the Court of Justice) ruled against the parents and ordered that they hand over documents necessary for their daughter’s legal “sex change.” If they do not turn over those documents, they face the threat of criminal charges, according to the Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom International.
ADF International is representing the parents in their fight to stop the state from pushing irreversible transgender surgeries or hormonal interventions on their daughter, who is now 16. She has been placed in a government-funded youth shelter since April 2023.
The emotionally fraught case has already drawn the attention of high-profile figures such as Elon Musk, who commented on the story in a July 12 “X” post, saying, “This suicidal mind virus is spreading throughout Western Civilization.”
In the United States, the story bears particular concern given the escalating, radical policies of politicians such as Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who signed a bill in July banning parental notification policies that would require schools to tell parents if they are socially transitioning children.
Growing up, John said, his daughter never gave any indications that she thought she was a boy. She was raised in very international settings, the father explained—“highly multicultural, highly educated, highly progressive.”
He described his daughter as incredibly smart, with an “extraordinarily high intellectual capacity.” She speaks several languages, is a “gifted” musician and has always been an achiever, both academically and musically.
It wasn’t until she was 13 that she told her parents she believed she was a boy, giving them a letter that they later discovered was “essentially cut and pasted from a trans advocacy website.”
Now, three years later, she is living in a government-funded residence and is in the custody of Swiss authorities.
“We want our daughter to come home with her family so that we can protect her, so that we can get her the medical attention that she needs,” John explained.
“I do want to see change in the treatment regimen for children who may be experiencing gender dysphoria or incongruence,” he added. “And so I am very driven to change the current policies and practices, legal, social, institutional, economic, all of the factors that are driving this perverse ideology, which is destructive for families and so harmful for children.”
Given the intense backlash over the topic, and the ramifications both professionally and personally, John and his daughter’s mother have chosen to remain anonymous as they battle for their daughter’s safety.
“In this case, the father has chosen to remain anonymous because of the incredibly sensitive nature of this for his family, and in particular, out of concern for his daughter. In today’s climate, this is an issue that is never handled lightly,” explained Elyssa Koren, ADF International’s legal communications director.
“The fact that this has happened to his family is not something he believes he can expose, out of concern for her and what will happen if her identity is revealed,” she added.
Asked if he misses his daughter, John responded simply: “More than anything.”
“I was always very close with my daughter,” he said. “When she’s herself, there’s nobody in the world I’d rather be with. She’s brilliant and funny and extraordinarily well-read. She read ‘War and Peace’ when she was 8 years old. Sitting with her, being with her, talking with her, listening to her make music. Nothing could bring me more pleasure.”
What would he tell his daughter if she were seated right in front of him? He spoke slowly as he responded, aware that his daughter might watch the interview herself.
“My daughter knows that I love her very deeply,” he said quietly. “She knows that her mom loves her very deeply. She knows that her brother loves her very deeply. She knows that we miss her, and we want her home.
“And I believe that the only path to fulfilling her dreams, making the most of her future, is with her family.”