Florida Mom Warns About Transgender Activism in Schools: ‘A Pathway to Being a Patient for Life’

January Littlejohn speaks at the Florida Family Policy Council event in Orlando, Fla., on Nov. 11 2021. Courtesy of Patti Sullivan

Transgender activism, now prevalent in schools and medicine, is putting struggling children who could otherwise be helped with ethical, evidence-based treatment on a pathway of “being a patient for life,” warned January Littlejohn, a mental therapist turned parental rights advocate.

In 2021, Littlejohn made national headlines when she sued her daughter’s Florida school district after school officials met with the 13-year-old girl to discuss a plan to “socially transition” her to the opposite sex, without the mother’s knowledge.

A licensed mental health professional, Littlejohn said this so-called “transition” is a procedure that schools are “grossly unqualified” to be doing, especially when parents are excluded.

Speaking to EpochTV’s “American Thought Leaders,” Littlejohn said she is grateful that her professional background allows her to understand how to conduct mental counseling in an ethical way that doesn’t harm the parent-child relationship.

“I’m grateful that I have this background because I know how mental health counseling works,” she said. “I know what ethical treatment looks like. I know that when you provide counseling to a minor child, the parents are still in charge of that child. They are to direct that bringing. It is not my job to take that child and keep secrets from the parents.”

When it comes to children with gender dysphoria, however, schools that embrace transgender activism keep parents out of the conversation. In fact, according to the lawsuit, the school that held secret “transition” talks with Littlejohn’s daughter was relying on a now-rescinded guideline (pdf) that explicitly told school administrators not to inform parents about their children’s gender identity changes at school, claiming such an action could put the student at risk of being homeless.

“My daughter had a lot of positive reinforcement for this identity. She wasn’t celebrated in this manner when she was identifying as a girl,” the mother said, noting that school officials told the girl that she was “brave” and allowed her to decide whether to notify parents. “That’s an incredible amount of power and a burden to be putting on a child.”

“What it really is doing is creating a huge wedge between the parent-child relationship,” she continued. “Research has shown us that parental involvement is one of the most significant factors in students’ successful outcomes. So why would we, all of a sudden, forget this knowledge and assume all parents to be the enemy or a danger to their child, but only in this one area?”

A Patient for Life

According to Littlejohn, the so-called “social transition” is just the first step toward “medical transition,” which is sterilizing in nature.

“What’s very tragic for me as a mental health professional to see is many of these kids have a deep self loathing,” she explained. “When you are affirming this trans gender identity, what you’re really affirming and confirming in the child’s mind is a self hatred.”

Once this self-hating mindset takes hold, many children start to look at their bodies as merely “parts” that can be disposed of at will. As a result, Littlejohn said, teenagers who feel uncomfortable in their developing bodies—which sometimes happen naturally as a phase of puberty—are directed by adults into undergoing irreversible surgeries.

“They use euphemisms like ’top surgery,' which is really a double mastectomy,” she said. “They’re glossing over these severe, very serious surgical interventions, and treating them as if they are just very simple procedures that you can have if you don’t like a specific body part.”

There’s nothing new about adolescents having identity crises, trying on new personas, and experimenting with different looks or new interests, according to Littlejohn. What’s actually new, she said, is adults taking the feeling a child has as a mental health diagnosis, and adults telling children that they can consent to medical decisions that could permanently affect their life.

“How can you say that a child can consent to their sterilization at age 11? How can you say that a child can consent to loss of future sexual function?” she asked. “This is what keeps me up at night: How are these children going to feel when they reach the age of adulthood, when their brains finally mature, when they realize what’s been done to their bodies, and when they realize the people that were supposed to protect them and love them the most allowed this to happen?

“We’re going to see a huge population of people who have been ‘affirmed,’ medicalized, and then come to the realization when their brains fully develop, that this did not fix their pain, that this was not the root cause of their issue,” Littlejohn said. “We don’t have all the data to be ‘affirming’ all of these individuals and putting them on a pathway of being a patient for life.”

Red Flags Parents Should Watch For

Although the school district dropped its transgender guidelines in the wake of the lawsuit, Littlejohn said she remains suspicious that there are other children in her state experiencing what happened to her daughter.

“I am not confident that children are still not being socially transitioned in the state of Florida, even with these new protections in place, because there are activists, school counselors, and some teachers that firmly believe that not affirming a child is extremely harmful,” she said.

Parents should stay alert on this issue, regardless of whether or not their children go to a public school, she said. “Even if you have your child in what you think is a safe school, like a private Christian school, or you’re homeschooling, your child will be exposed to this ideology at some point,” she explained.

“If parents keep their children in public school, you’ve got to ask questions,” she continued. “You’ve got to know what protocols in place. Ask and get it in writing. Ask your school guidance counselor, ask the principal: ‘What is your policy? What does your guidance tell you as a school? If my child becomes confused about their sex, and they want to change their name and pronouns, and use the opposite-sex facilities, are you going to notify me as a parent and get it in writing?’”

As for parents with kids who are confused over their gender, Littlejohn said they need to “make it crystal clear” that this is not the school’s business.

“Make it crystal clear that you do not want the school affirming your child, that you will handle it as a family, that you think affirming a child and a false identity is harmful, and that you only consent to giving that school permission to using your child’s birth name and pronouns,” she said.

On top of that, parents need to guide their children with truths about sex and gender.

When asked what are some “red flags” in children’s behavior, Littlejohn said while there are warning signs such a drastic change in mood or wanting to change and alter their appearance overnight, parents should be particularly concerned when their children spend a great deal of time alone on cellphones or on the internet.

“There are a number of trans influencers on YouTube and TikTok,” she said in a warning to viewers. “They’re very convincing. And so it’s really important that parents monitor what their kids are seeing and consuming.”

“Parents need to be present in their children’s lives, their day to day lives,” she continued. “The bottom line is, these children were already vulnerable in some way. They were already feeling like they didn’t belong, they didn’t fit in, and this is the answer. So, if it hadn’t been this that they fell into, it may have been something else that they used as an escape.”