AUSTIN — The mother of a Dallas 7-year-old whose child custody case spurred a national debate on children’s gender transition wants the judge overseeing the case to step down because of the judge’s comments on social media.

The mother, Anne Georgulas, filed a motion Tuesday seeking the recusal of Dallas Judge Kim Cooks and a motion to conform to the jury’s verdict recommending the mother have sole custody of the 7-year-old and the child’s twin.

The mother, a Coppell pediatrician who says the 7-year-old is a transgender girl, had sought to modify the joint custody of the 7-year-old if her ex-husband did not affirm the child’s social transition by allowing the child to dress and be referred to as a girl. The father, Jeffrey Younger, disagrees and has blogged that the child would be “chemically castrated’ by his ex-wife. The mother had said she was only seeking a social transition for the child and had no plans to place their child on medication or hormones at such a young age.

The jury had granted the mother sole custody of the children, but Cooks instead upheld the joint custody, placed a gag order on both parents and ordered therapy for the family because of publicity about the case.

Cooks reshared a story from The Dallas Morning News on her Facebook that was originally posted by someone else with the caption “Here’s the truth! READ IT and THEN GO RUN TELL THAT!,” according to a statement from Georgulas’ friend, Karen Hirsch.

In her resharing post, Cooks said: "The Governor nor any legislature had any influence on the Court’s Decision.”

The case became a GOP rallying point after Gov. Greg Abbott and some lawmakers promised that they would intervene.

Abbott tweeted that the state attorney general’s office and Department of Family and Protective Services were looking into the case. Several conservative lawmakers have pledged to outlaw allowing Texas minors to transition by medical means.

Georgulas’ attorneys are now arguing that Cooks must recuse herself because the post calls into question her impartiality on the case.

“The judge even commented on the case—a pending matter in her court—on her Facebook page, and in doing so invited (and permitted) ex parte communication about it,” Georgulas’ attorneys said in the motion for recusal.

The mother’s attorneys are also arguing that Cooks’ ruling, which ignored the jury’s decision to essentially grant Georgulas sole custody of the 7-year-old and twin, violates a Texas family code statute that states a jury can decide case questions "if an issue is properly pleaded and is supported by some evidence.”

In her October ruling for joint custody, Cooks noted Georgulas had not sought sole custody of the children and said both parents will need to consent to make decisions about the 7-year-old’s gender transition. But Georgulas’ motion contends that the jury’s verdict came in response to Younger’s request for sole conservatorship in a counter-petition.

Cooks and Younger could not immediately be reached for comment. Cooks’ gag order on both parents is still in place.

CORRECTIONS on Nov. 7, 2019, 11:20 a.m. An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified Karen Hirsch as Anne Georgulas’ attorney and the 7-year-old’s twin as a girl.