VANCOUVER—Courts have ruled in favour of a teenager who wants medical treatment in his gender transition, despite the opposition of his father, in a ruling that grants trans kids more legal rights and protections.

Last month the B.C. Supreme Court ruled that a teenager, with the support of multiple doctors and health-care workers, can start hormone therapy even though his father thinks he’s not mature enough to make such a decision.

The father appealed the decision on March 4.

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Legal experts say the decision will have an impact on the responsibilities of parents by altering family law. It means parents need to respect their kids’ chosen gender, pronouns and name. It also sets a precedent for transitioning youth across the province, suggesting that seeking medical assistance is a health decision and not a political or moral one that a parent can stop.

The ruling, which doesn’t include the names of the family members, explains that the 14-year-old, who was assigned as female at birth, has identified as a boy since he was 11. With the support of his mom and doctors, he wanted to start testosterone hormone therapy in the summer of 2018. However, his father opposed the treatment and took the issue to court.

The mother, son, medical professionals, teachers, school district, and B.C.’s Ministry of Education fought back.

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The ruling has significant implications for how we define child abuse, according to trans rights lawyer Adrienne Smith.

Because of the ruling, “misgendering a person, using the incorrect name for them and trying to persuade them not to undertake gender-affirming care are forms of family violence, and that’s really important,” Smith said.

In other words, if parents misgender and reject their kid for being transgender, that could constitute emotional abuse, for which they could be reported to authorities.

Although Smith was not directly involved in the case, the ruling is relevant to their work in human rights law and as an individual. Smith is transgender and non-binary, and uses they/them/their gender pronouns. Now 42-years-old, Smith says they wish they’d had these kinds of legal protections growing up as a trans kid in Burnaby, B.C.

“I am encouraged by what a new world it is that is accepting trans youth for who they are. It of course isn’t lovely everywhere ... but it’s much more supportive.”

Research proves that supporting trans kids as they are has a protective effect against suicide, they added.

“The decision is very clear so authorities are going to be more clear about how damaging failing to recognize the chosen gender of trans kids can be,” they said.

“Young trans people can take comfort that the way that they are often misgendered and deadnamed is a human rights violation and could rise to the level of being family violence.”

Existing law already gives the right to minors to make their own informed decisions on health care, on a case-by-case basis, said Kasari Govender, a lawyer and executive director of West Coast LEAF, a non-profit dedicated to gender equality. But this ruling clarifies that decisions around gender transitions are a medical issue, and will empower young people whose parents are opposed to them transitioning, she said.

To parents, the court is saying “it’s not your values that matters here, it’s your child’s values around their own body and (their) decisions and how they show up in the world,” Govender explained.

In court, one of the doctors testified that if the teen boy is to delay hormone treatment he will experience “ongoing and unnecessary suffering and continued gender dysphoria.” And, another doctor said that if he doesn’t start the testosterone treatment which will allow him to start going through puberty as a male, the son may be so distraught as to attempt suicide — something the teen had already tried to do in spring 2018.

“There is significant risk of further (suicide) attempts — and possibly even completion — if treatment is delayed,” the doctor said.

Ultimately, the court ruled in favour of the teen accessing hormone therapy. And although his father has appealed the decision, the boy can proceed with treatment in the meantime.

“He just believes that his child needs some protection at this point, just too young to make such a decision,” Herb Dunton, the father’s lawyer told the Star.

But according to the ruling multiple doctors, including a psychiatrist, say the teenager understands the risks and benefits of the treatments.