New York father loses legal battle to stop his son, 8, from taking puberty blockers to change gender
New York family court officials have denied a father his legal right to prevent his eight-year-old son from taking life-changing hormones that would herald his medical transition to a girl.
Dennis Hannon, 32, a senior software engineer from Buffalo, has been embroiled in a seven-year “nightmare” legal battle with the Erie Supreme Court as he fights to preserve his basic parental rights.
He claims the boy’s mother “pushed” their child’s transition, and says the boy himself was not upset about life as a boy.
Furthermore, the young child, Matthew*, returned to his original male gender a year after the court ruling and is now “an ordinary little boy.”
However, the father no longer has any say in medical decisions about his son and only sees him a few hours a week.
He cannot afford to appeal to regain full custody.
Matthew was three years old, as a boy. His parents were separated, but his father, Dennis Hannon, saw him every week
Matthew in kindergarten, when he was called “Ruby Rose.” Matthew is now nine years old and identifies as a boy, matching his gender at birth
“It was a nightmare,” Mr Hannon told DailyMail.com. ‘It has completely destroyed my life.’
It comes days after DailyMail.com revealed a Montana family had lost custody of their 14-year-old daughter after refusing to allow her to become a boy.
Child Protective Services (CPS) attended the family’s home in Glasgow and later determined that their daughter, who had mental health problems, needed a transition to ‘get better’.
She was sent to a mental health facility where she was allowed to live as a boy named Leo, shave her head and wear a coffin band.
Mr Hannon claimed his ex-wife started dressing his son in girls’ clothes when he turned three, in 2017 – two years after he split from his child’s mother.
Mr Hannon saw his son twice a week and every other weekend, with his ex-partner having custody the rest of the time.
“When I picked him up he was a boy named Matthew*,” he said.
“And I didn’t realize that when he was in his mother’s care, he was actually a girl named Ruby.”
In 2019, mom sent him to a “transgender affirming” therapist and sought puberty blockers to stop the production of male hormones, according to court documents seen by DailyMail.com
But Mr Hannon only discovered this information in 2020, when he took his ex-wife to court to find out what was going on.
And a year earlier, Mr. Hannon had received a letter from his son’s preschool, addressed to “the parent or guardian of Ruby Rose Hannon,” that used she/her pronouns.
“I thought they sent it to the wrong address,” he said.
‘I was the last to know (about the transition). He was on his way to puberty blockers.”
Medical professionals have never made an official diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
This is the condition experts refer to when someone expresses a sense of discomfort due to a discrepancy between their biological sex and their gender identity. This distress or dissatisfaction can be so intense that it can lead to depression and anxiety and have a detrimental impact on daily life.
Dennis Hannon claims his son was ‘fast-tracked’ by puberty blockers for several years – despite eventually becoming comfortable with the gender assigned at birth
Now, after last year’s court ruling, Mr. Hannon has only visitation rights, no joint custody or medical authority, meaning he has no say in medical decisions.
He gets his son every other weekend and a few hours a week.
At the age of nine, Matthew no longer identified as a girl or dressed as one.
Unlike other states, gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors is available in New York.
Additionally, the city offers access to people traveling from other states where it is prohibited.
Social transitions, such as changing a child’s name and appearance, remain a gray area of the law.
In 2020, a court order was issued to have Matthew enrolled in counseling with a mental health counselor in Buffalo, New York.
“Even though he never had a diagnosis, I was ordered by the court to take him to a gender therapist who didn’t accept insurance. It cost $145 out of pocket every week,” Mr Hannon said.
‘He was there for a year and a half. And there was still no diagnosis of gender dysphoria… If I refused, they would say I was interfering with essential medical treatment and revoke my detention.”
Mr. Hannon decided he had had enough and ended the child’s counseling.
Matthew (center) at a holiday parade, four years old, dressed as a girl
When Mr. Hannon requested his son’s discharge, the therapist wrote a letter to the court, and he lost Matthew’s medical license.
His ex-partner then sought treatment for Matthew from Ms Andrea Binner, a self-described ‘transgender affirming’ therapist.
Mrs. Binner had also referred Matthew to a pediatrician named Dr. Tran Ngoc.
“During a 45-minute phone call with just the mother, Dr Ngoc said it sounded like my son was persisting with gender dysphoria and that they recommended the option of puberty blockers when he was nine,” Mr Hannon said.
In February 2020, Mr. Hannon’s ex-partner filed a motion to maintain custody, which is used when a co-parent fails to comply with a custody order.
The petition referred to Matthew with the pronouns “they/their.”
“Since about Matthew’s third birthday…they have been indicating they are a girl for no reason,” it said.
“For the past four years, Matthew has insisted, consistently and persistently said it’s a girl.”
In Mr Hannon’s response he said this was ‘a delusion that the defendant is trying to force on our son’.
Over the past seven years, the lawsuit has cost Mr. Hannon $150,000.
“I’ve spent every penny of my pension,” he said. He was also ordered to pay his ex-wife’s attorney fees.
Mr Hannon said that although he is desperate to regain custody of his son, he cannot afford the appeal process.
As for the effect on Matthew, “it was terrible,” Mr Hannon said.
“He uses a Chromebook for school and he has access to his past grades, and there are things that pop up with the name Ruby on it still… he’s going to have to live with that. It’s been hard for him.’
Mr Hannon said: ‘It’s very clear to me that it was all about pushing a narrative. No one wanted to question the agenda, or even wonder if anyone actually had gender dysphoria. Since she said he was confused about his gender, it just had to be true.”
When looking for therapists for Matthew, Mr. Hannon said his ex-wife “would get an answer she didn’t want to hear from one therapist, and she shopped around until she found the answer she wanted to hear – someone who would to work. with her to implement the social transition and ultimately the physical transition of my son.’
Now Mr. Hannon said, “My son is an ordinary little boy, his name is Matthew. His mother still tries to influence him by using their pronouns, and still calls him B, which is short for Ruby.”
‘It was very difficult for him at school because… one year he was a girl called Ruby, with dresses, make-up and hair.
“The next year he’s a boy called Matthew. Kids at school will ask him, “Weren’t you a girl?” That’s hard for a child.
“How can he identify as a girl at the age of three? He never showed me any indication.
‘I was seen as a conservative who did not want to accept my son’s gender.
‘I could very easily be portrayed as a fanatic because all I wanted to do was wonder why and understand how they came to this conclusion or how they could do that. It was a total weapon against me.”
*Names have been changed to protect privacy.