Black Maryland parents sue DC children's hospital over removal, sex change, trafficking of autistic son—they haven't been allowed to see him in 3 years

African-American parents from Maryland are suing Washington Children's National Hospital (WCNH) for requiring them to denounce their religious faith and affirm a transgender identity for their 16-year-old autistic son in order to regain access to him and not lose custody. The family lost their son to the foster care system in November 2021 and have not seen him since. They initially brought their son to hospital for a mental health emergency.

The family has remained anonymous, using the monikers Mr. and Mrs. John Doe II in court, to protect their son's identity, as well as the identity of their two younger children.

The parents, both in their 40s, allege that the Washington, DC hospital denied them access to their son unless they denounced their Baptist faith and also agreed to use female pronouns for him, which they refused. Their son was kept in hospital on emergency mental health holds for 41 days before he was placed in foster care. They allege that the WCNH hospital chaplain, Lavender Kelly, who identifies as “nonbinary” and was counseling their son during his hospital stay, has socialized with “high-level members of the Biden administration, including Assistant Secretary for Health and Human Services Dr. Rachel Levine.” Levine is publicly known for expressing support of childhood medical transition. According to their lawsuit, Kelley was brought in for "faith-conversion sessions" with the family to convert them into "new Christianity."

The lawsuit, filed in March 2024 in the District Court of Maryland, alleges violations of civil rights, parental rights, religious discrimination, as well as child trafficking and intentional infliction of emotional distress. It contained a 90-day notice of malpractice claim.

In addition to their legal representation from Amos Jones Law Firm, the family is supported by Partners for Ethical Care (PEC), a Chicago-based nonprofit that seeks to raise awareness of and put an end to the practice of childhood medical transition–which is increasingly and globally recognized as a medical scandal, and not evidence-based care, as trans activists insist. PEC stands behind the principle that “no child is born in the wrong body,” a pseudo-scientific and metaphysical claim used in attempts to legitimize the medical harms of gender ideology.

Martha Shoultz, one of the group's founders, said that this case is unfortunately not the first of its kind. "Their story is so typical," said Shoultz. "It's absolutely dystopian that strangers can just take away kids—it's absolute insanity."

The Doe family denies that their son ever expressed gender dysphoria or a wish to change genders prior to his 2021 hospital admission, which occurred after a single episode of self-harming. They allege that the hospital staff ordered the family to accept a diagnosis of gender dysphoria for their son, and to “reform” their Baptist views to align with those of Kelley, which entailed accepting transgender ideology and agreeing to remove certain passages from the Bible. 

According to the lawsuit, the hospital staff “stereotyped the parents based on the family’s status as traditional African-American Christians… ordered the parents to change the family’s religion and eliminate parts of the Protestant Bible while converting to the 'new' Christianity like that of a transgender hospital chaplain who was forced upon the family by the defendant… treated the parents as though they had harmed their son, even though the parents had never endangered their child and had home-schooled him to college entry at fourteen years old… denied the child’s and parents’ access to their chosen family therapist, a renowned African-American male Christian… [and] repeatedly threatened the parents that, unless they converted from their faith to that of the chaplain and/or the 'new' Christianity, their son would be withheld from them and never returned, in spite of their loving home and support given their son throughout his life…”

The family says they attempted to have their son transferred to another hospital because of their concerns and, rather than accepting their request, WCNH contacted Maryland Child Protective Services–leading to their son being released into foster care one month later. An investigation into child abuse claims lasted 20 months, until a judge cleared the family and ruled that the abuse claims were unsubstantiated. Despite clearing the family of allegations of abuse, Child Protective Services kept their son in foster care.

Their son is now 19 and remains in the foster care system; the family says he is living with the very WCNH hospital Chaplain, Lavender Kelley, who attempted to coerce the family into denouncing their religious faith. 

According to court documents, the minor’s first foster parent had an assault charge and was a friend of Kelly's; however, after she passed away under “unexplained circumstances,” Kelley stepped in and took custody of their son in her stead. In their lawsuit, they detailed how their son, while living with the first foster parent, "wound up being tested for sexually transmitted diseases, displayed on social media… in provocative poses, and eventually in the hospital for a suicide attempt" in 2022. The family says their son was dressed as a girl in public social media posts.

Speaking to media, the family claimed that they sold both their home and business to fund the lawsuit against WCNH.

They described how their son graduated from high school and was accepted into an associate's degree in an engineering program before the hospitalization. His parents said that they were also taking their son for assessments to obtain an autism diagnosis. In November 2021, after breaking up with his girlfriend, they rushed their son to hospital after a suicide attempt–which ultimately led to their custody loss. 

According to the lawsuit filed by the parents, their son was admitted to the hospital as a "female" patient after his suicide attempt while in foster care in July 2022.

The family’s litigation against WCNH is ongoing. Their lawsuit describes how their “urgent, internal, and privately restrained whistle-blowing reporting and interaction to resolve these transgressions has yielded to no remediation… compelling the Doe Parents to file this federal lawsuit…”

The parents are seeking to recover their legal fees, in addition to $100 million in damages for economic losses, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life. They have asked that the case be heard by a jury.

The family has also started a petition to "encourage religious diversity" at the WCNH, and to call on the hospital's leadership to critically evaluate their spiritual care program to ensure freedom of religion for all families and patients.

As per the petition: “This is a clarion call to Children’s National Hospital and its leadership to reevaluate its spiritual care services, ensure faith representation, and uphold religious freedom for all families that rely on its services.”