Father of transgender teen testifies that North Dakota law stems from ignorance

North Dakota Monitor By: Mary Steurer - January 29, 2025 6:17 pm

A North Dakota father told a judge on Wednesday that he feels state lawmakers were acting out of ignorance when they passed the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

North Dakota in 2023 made it a crime for health care professionals to provide the treatments, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, to anyone below age 18.

The father, who testified under the pseudonym Peter Roe, took the witness stand as part of a trial in a lawsuit brought by North Dakota pediatric endocrinologist Luis Casas, who is challenging the ban on behalf of himself and his patients. Casas claims the law violates personal autonomy and equal protection rights under the state constitution.

Roe, his family and two other North Dakota families with transgender children were previously plaintiffs in the case as well, but South Central Judicial District Judge Jackson Lofgren ruled earlier this month that they don’t have standing to bring the challenge.

Attorneys for the state counter that gender-affirming care is an unsettled area of medicine, and that North Dakota lawmakers were within their rights to pass the law.

During Roe’s testimony, attorneys played a short video of Rep. Dawson Holle, R-Mandan, discussing the ban during the 2023 legislative session. Holle said adolescents should be at least 16 before they can undergo gender-affirming care.

“Personally I think 14 is way too young,” said Holle. “Some 14-year-olds still think they’re cats or dogs, and I think they’re still in a fantasy world.”

Roe said he understands where Holle is coming from because he once said very similar things in arguments with his daughter.

“That was me five years ago,” he said.

Roe said the lawmakers created the ban from a place of bigotry, not fact. He said he finds their actions “disturbing.”

“It’s someone in a position of power focused on passing a law that, in my opinion, doesn’t help anybody,” he said.

Roe said he spent years in denial about his daughter’s gender identity, but the signs were always there. He said when he looks back on photos and videos from when she was little, it’s now obvious to him that she’s transgender.

“I’m like, ‘How did I not see that she was a girl?’” Roe said.

Roe’s 16-year-old shared her story with the courtroom on Tuesday. Testifying anonymously as Pamela, she recounted the intense fear and anxiety that dominated her life as a preteen.

Roe said his daughter oscillated between states of panic and a “sitting-in-her-room, staring-at-the-wall kind of depression.” Pamela was afraid of leaving the house and expressed suicidal thoughts, he said.

Roe said he came to accept Pamela as a girl after a long period of research and discussion with his family, and allowed her to start gender-affirming treatment a few years ago. He said he regrets not accepting her from the outset.

Gender-affirming care has made a “night-and-day” difference for Pamela, Roe said. Today, she is happy, social and a strong student, he said.

Roe said he hates to think about the rejection and ridicule his daughter would have had to face if she wasn’t able to access the treatment until adulthood.

Even during middle school, Pamela was bullied by some of her peers, he said. Roe said Pamela also had trouble with her school’s administration, who would not let her use the girls locker room.

“If she had been born a little bit later, my wife and I would probably have had to leave the state,” he said.

The ban contains an exemption for children who were receiving care before it went into effect.

Despite this, Pamela and two other children who were formerly plaintiffs in the case must travel to Minnesota to receive care from Casas.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs have said previously that medical providers are unwilling to provide gender-affirming care to any minor in North Dakota, even those who fall under the exemption, for fear of prosecution under the ban.

The law also bars doctors from providing gender-affirming surgeries to anyone under 18 years old, but those procedures aren’t performed on minors in North Dakota.

The trial, which began Monday, is expected to wrap up next week.

It comes as President Donald Trump’s administration has issued a series of directives aimed at restricting the rights of transgender people at the federal level. Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order to limit medical treatment options for transgender children and adults under the age of 19.