Children Belong to Their Parents, Not the State

Washington, DC - January 22, 2026

On January 21, 2026, Dr. Simone Gold and the AFLDS legal team filed an amici curiae brief with the Supreme Court of the United States in support of the Applicants in Mirabelli v. Bonta (25A810), urging the Court to vacate the Ninth Circuit’s stay order and reinstate a permanent injunction protecting parents and children from unlawful state attempts to secretly “transition” the biological sex of school children without parental knowledge or consent.

This case exposes the real-world consequences of California’s parental exclusion policies. Under state mandate, public schools are required to hide a child’s asserted transgender status from parents, including religious parents, and to actively facilitate a child’s “social transition” over parental objections, even after the Supreme Court’s decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor.  

The harms have been severe. Applicants John and Jane Poe were not told that their junior-high daughter was being treated as a male at school for most of a year. Only after she attempted suicide did they learn the truth. Unable to afford private school, this devout Catholic family transferred her to another public school and expressly requested notice regarding her gender expression and the use of her legal name and biological pronouns. The school refused, citing state policy. To this day, the Poes remain excluded from critical information about their daughter.

Teachers have also been forced into impossible positions. Two Christian middle school teachers, Applicants Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, were presented with a list of seven students being transitioned, six of whose parents were unaware. The school required them to use one set of names and pronouns in class and another when communicating with parents. Believing this constituted systematic deception, they sought relief and obtained a preliminary injunction protecting truthful communication. As a result of the Ninth Circuit’s stay, those protections have been stripped away, and teachers across California are once again being forced to lie to parents.

This case centers on a foundational constitutional principle: children belong to their parents, not the state. California’s policies substitute government judgment for parental authority, compel deception, and sever parents from their role as primary protectors of their children’s welfare. After extensive discovery and a fully developed factual record, the district court issued a permanent injunction blocking these practices. The Ninth Circuit’s stay of the permanent injunction was issued in only two days, one of which was Christmas, precluding any meaningful review, and allowed the state’s regime of secrecy and coercion to resume.

America’s Frontline Doctors maintains the position that secret social “transitions” in schools are not neutral accommodations. As documented in our amici curiae brief, this is a critical step in a broader ideological process that conditions children to reject biological reality and normalizes a trajectory that leads to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, irreversible sterilization, permanent loss of sexual function, lifelong medical dependency, and surgical mutilation of healthy bodies. Parents have the fundamental right and duty to intervene before their children are placed on that path.

AFLDS attorney David Dalia said, “This case presents the same constitutional injury now before the Supreme Court in Foote v. Ludlow School Committee (25-77), which is currently pending review. In both cases, schools excluded parents, compelled deception, and asserted authority over children that the Constitution reserves to families. The state has no lawful power to usurp the parental role and override fit parents.”

AFLDS Founder and President Dr. Simone Gold added, “Children are not wards of the state. They belong to their parents. Gender ideology denies biological reality and overrides parental authority. Parents have an absolute right and obligation to protect their children from irreversible harm, and no school or bureaucrat has the authority to interfere.”

This case carries national significance. Alongside Foote v. Ludlow, Mirabelli v. Bonta will help determine whether parents retain the constitutional authority to raise and protect their children, or whether the state may claim that authority under the guise of education and privacy.

Stay tuned as AFLDS continues to fight nationwide to defend parental rights, protect children, and restrain unlawful government usurpation.

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Media Contact Lisa Alexander, Communications Director | Media@AFLDS.org