A Chicago mother who disagreed with her daughter’s pursuit of transgender identity has been forced to give up full custody of the child.
Jeannette Cooper is only allowed to communicate with her daughter, Sofia, via mail after losing all visitation rights.
Sofia’s father told the court that their child was “no longer mentally or emotionally safe” with her mother.
In 2019, Sofia told her father during one of her weekly visits that she was transgender. At the time, Cooper had custody six days and seven nights a week.
“The thing that I am clearly not complying with is this concept that good parenting means that you affirm a child’s idea that there is something wrong with them – I’m not willing to do that,” Cooper recently told Independent Women’s Forum.
“Usually, Child Protective Services has a definition of what it means to be ‘unsafe,’ to either be abused or neglected. There was no evidence that I had done anything like that,” she explained.
After Sofia’s father told the court that Cooper created an unsafe environment for their child, a custody investigation was launched.
Both parents underwent psychological testing, home visits, and character evaluations and friends and family members who had observed Cooper’s relationship with her daughter were interviewed.
The only thing at issue is that Cooper, a self-described lifelong Democrat and radical feminist, does not believe her daughter should be told that she is a boy.
“My child is a girl. I won’t lie to her or anyone else. I think that’s good parenting,” she said. “I’m not going to convince my daughter that somehow she is so weak that she cannot hear her birth name.”
In the interest of not prolonging a distressing custody battle, Cooper ultimately agreed to sign over custody rights, with the exception that Sofia will not medically transition without her mother’s consent.
“My daughter did a normal adolescent thing. She tried something. But there were no guardrails. Nothing stopping her,” she explained. “I’m not mad at my daughter. I’m not disappointed in her. I’m disappointed in the adults that have failed to protect her.”
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