Meg Brock

The Trump administration has assaulted the federal funding of transgender surgeries through an executive order.

However, that order is currently being challenged in court.

Thank you.

Good morning.

It's great to be here.

People might be surprised to learn that Ohio, a deep red state, has some of the most radical gender-affirming child welfare policies nationwide.

Families can lose custody or not be able to foster children simply for affirming a child's actual sex.

This is something that Ohio legislators are looking to change and they've introduced a bill that protects a parent's right to affirm their child's sex without being afraid of being labeled as abusive or neglectful.

The bill is called the Affirming Families First Act, and it seeks to modify parts of Ohio's legal code regulating child protective services, family court, and social services.

And it prohibits parents from being penalized or labeled as abusive for not affirming a child's gender identity, which is a term transgender activists use to describe how a child feels about their sex.

The bill specifies that parents have a right to use their child's given name and correct pronouns, even if the child is experiencing gender confusion and wants to be transitioned to another sex.

It is very surprising to hear that this is going on in a red state like Ohio.

Representative Gary Click in a press conference actually articulated some of the things that have been happening under the noses of state legislators.

Ohio has actually been an epicenter of radical gender-affirming child welfare policies nationwide.

The Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services was part of a federally funded multimillion-dollar research project that aimed to create interventions and programs that would radicalize child welfare agencies across the country to be quote-unquote gender-affirming.

Leadership in this county were so good at radicalizing child welfare agencies, the Biden administration actually called upon their expertise when they were forming their September 2023 rule that demanded foster care families be affirming of a child's quote-unquote gender identity.

This connection with the Biden administration was revealed through public records requests, and we should note that that rule was actually entirely vacated in June 2025.

Yes, legislators in Texas, Indiana, and North Carolina have taken action to clarify that it's not abusive or neglectful to affirm your child's sex.

I spoke with several parental rights advocates while reporting for this story, and they said while the state-by-state legislation is a good start, there really needs to be some federal action to make sure the rights of parents are protected all across the country.

Thank you so much for having me.