Christine “Christy” Davidson has faced the unique challenge of raising three sons who were all diagnosed with autism as toddlers. But when her middle son, Thomas*, declared at just 14 years old that he was born in the wrong body, she was blindsided. What followed was a “kind of hell” for Davidson and her husband as they fought malicious medical providers to protect their sons from gender ideology.
“I think it was in April that the first kid came to me and told me he was supposed to be a girl,” Davidson told IW Features. “I didn’t know what to do, so I took him to the doctor, and the doctor sent us to Phoenix Children’s Hospital Gender Clinic.”
Davidson believes her sons were first exposed to transgender ideology through online video games. She explained that Thomas used his Minecraft character’s pink and blue bandana as proof of his transgender identity.
“A lot of autistic kids get stuck on one thing, and it’s really hard to get them off of that one thing,” Davidson said, pointing to the neurodivergent fixation with trains as just one example.
She’s seen the pattern with her own sons.
When Thomas began fixating on a transgender identity, Davidson said she took him to Phoenix Children’s Hospital because he’d gone there since he was young. The hospital sent him to their gender clinic with an “intake specialist,” Davidson said, but it was only later that she discovered this “specialist” was a social worker, not a doctor.
In the appointment with his mother and father, Thomas didn’t articulate extreme discomfort in his body or express a desire to remove his male sex characteristics, according to Davidson.
“He said, ‘I want my face to be rounder, and I think my shoulders are too wide,’” Davidson said.
Thomas was asked what he wanted his female name to be, Davidson said, and he chose “Violet.”
The social worker immediately began referring to Thomas with female pronouns and discussing medicalization options, recommending that he start cross-sex hormones immediately, Davidson said.
When Davidson expressed skepticism, she said she was asked, “Do you want a dead son or a live daughter?”
But, despite the loaded question, she still wasn’t persuaded.
“[Thomas has] never had a boyfriend, never had a girlfriend,” she told IW Features. “So how can you sign up to chop off these parts that have never been used?”
Then, the social worker asked if she could speak to Thomas alone, but Davidson said she declined and told the social worker that her son already had a therapist.
“I don’t want him to ruin his whole future because his parents let him have body parts chopped off,” Davidson explained.
But beyond her concerns about the legitimacy of her son’s new professed identity, she said she was also worried about the side effects of cross-sex hormones.
“[Thomas] has a rare chromosome issue,” she explained. “They don’t know anything about kids like him because it’s so rare. There’s only 50 of them in history.”
But when she asked about how hormonal interventions would affect her son’s other medical issues, she said the social worker told her that it was “all fine,” despite the worker’s lack of medical expertise.
Ultimately, Thomas emerged from that appointment physically unscathed, but Davidson said he latched onto the discussion of “a dead son.”
“He instantly became suicidal,” Davidson said.
Her family’s life turned completely upside down as protecting Thomas became their number one priority. Davidson knew her son needed professional mental health support, but she said she was unable to find a U.S.-based therapist who was non-transgender affirming.
After the appointment at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, she discovered that Thomas’s medical records had already been altered to include a “transfemale” gender identity and the nickname “Violet.” Since then, she said she’s faced an uphill battle to correct these documents across different medical providers.
The response from her sons’ primary care doctor and therapist has been pro–gender ideology. Davidson said she was again told that if Thomas committed suicide, it would be her fault. They also allegedly disparaged her as a “gatekeeper.”
“I thought that was my job,” she said of the descriptor. “I’m the mom.”
Davidson added that she now has to be extremely discerning with Thomas’s once-trusted medical professionals. She started leaving her sons in the car before entering the doctor’s office to ask if the provider would avoid bringing up “gender identity.” Only if the provider is willing to respect her parental rights could she and her sons complete their appointment. Even for a recent podiatrist appointment Thomas had, Davidson said she had to circumnavigate the gender issue through the intake process.
“Every time they bring up this topic, my son gets worse,” she said.
Davidson explained that she raised her sons to trust their doctors and other authority figures, so it’s been challenging and confusing for Thomas now that his medical providers are contradicting his parents.
The Phoenix Children’s Hospital’s Gender Support Clinic has since shut down after President Donald Trump’s “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” executive order. However, the hospital’s website still advertises “gender support” services.
The betrayal from the medical system is why Davidson said she didn’t return to Phoenix Children’s Hospital when her youngest son, Calvin*, began copying his older brother and identifying as nonbinary. At the time, Davidson said that Calvin still believed in Santa and changed his “gender identity” several times.
“First, he said he was non-binary, and he needed purple and yellow clothes so the whole world could know,” she explained. “And I asked him why, and he said, ‘Well, I’m asexual.’ And I said, ‘Honey, all kids are asexual until they’re not, and that’s normal. You’re exactly where you’re supposed to be at your age.’”
Ultimately, with the medical industry failing her family, Davidson joined a parent group to find support and resources. Through the support network, she said she found a therapist in Sweden who has been able to help Thomas.
“[This therapist] works on problem solving, self-esteem issues, the regular teenage stuff, regular old-fashioned therapy,” she said.
Slowly, Davidson said that Thomas is regaining his mental health, and he is no longer suicidal. However, he still is trans-identifying, and the weight of his struggle weighs heavily on Davidson as a mother, especially with the financial burden adding to the mental burden.
“It’s stressful. It’s expensive,” Davidson said. “What we’re paying for therapy is equal to our mortgage, and we didn’t plan for this. And we’re just kind of in this limbo kind of hell.”
While Calvin is also still confused over his identity, Davidson added that Calvin has assured her and her husband that he wouldn’t do anything regarding his claimed “gender identity” until he was older.
“I think it’s because he saw how stressed we were about his older brother,” Davidson added.
This social contagion aspect of gender ideology is one Davidson has also heard about from other parents. Many of the mothers in the parent support meetings she attends are shocked when their daughters return home from college for Thanksgiving with lowered voices and altered sex characteristics, Davidson said.
“Do not go to a gender clinic,” she advised parents. “Seek alternative therapy, find the support groups for parents. They are out there.”
For Davidson and her family, the road ahead is still long, and she’s not sure what the future holds for her sons.
“We won’t give up because it’s our kids,” she said.
* A pseudonym is used to protect the privacy of minors in this story.
