After a years-long legal battle, a California man has finally been granted custody of his young son, whose mentally ill mother identified him as “non-binary” and forced him to wear girls' clothing.
Last month, Harrison Tinsley reached a settlement that gave him full custody of his 4-year-old son, Sawyer.
Non-binary decisions
Sawyer's mother is Tinsley's ex-girlfriend, and when she found out she was pregnant, both she and Tinsley were “overjoyed,” Tinsley wrote on a GiveSendGo page she was using to raise money for her legal costs.
“Unfortunately, that excitement turned to pain when Sawyer's mother, who has a serious mental illness, abruptly ended our relationship and prevented me from seeing Sawyer,” he continued.
The estranged couple battled in court for a year, and Tinsley was finally able to see her son when Sawyer was 15 months old. Soon after, Tinsley returned to the Bay Area and was “awarded 50/50 custody,” he wrote.
That was only the beginning of Sawyer's ordeal. His mother decided she was a “non-binary” lesbian and began raising her son as “non-binary,” as well. According to the New York Post, “This included a brutal gaslighting campaign, his father claimed, including calling him by “they/them” pronouns despite Sawyer's protests and forcing him to wear girl's diapers, dresses and makeup.”
“She threw a girls-themed party for Sawyer's second birthday and dressed him in a dress with a sheriff's badge on it,” Tinsley claimed on her GiveSendGo page.
He also claimed that his mother “took her to Disneyland but wouldn't let her go on any rides unless she wore princess shoes she bought her,” The Washington Post reported.
“Sawyer says his mother has told him he is both a boy and a girl, but that he is fully aware that he is a boy,” Tinsley wrote. “However, this is certainly confusing and traumatizing for Sawyer, as he is not yet old enough to consider these ideas and his mother is forcing them on him.”
Tinsley elaborated on this on the July 30th episode of the Daily Signal Podcast.
“I know he's a boy,” Tinsley said, “and he wants to be a boy. He's made that very clear. He gets very upset if you say anything to the contrary. It's crazy that anyone would force this philosophy on a child instead of allowing them to be happy in who they are.”
Arrested Development
According to the Daily Wire:
In 2021, Sawyer's mother was arrested and jailed on child endangerment charges after then-1-year-old Sawyer fell off his bed during an argument between his mother and a roommate, according to police body camera footage viewed by The Daily Wire.
San Francisco police handed Sawyer over to her mother's two fathers overnight and held her in a psychiatric hospital. (Emphasis added) She was ultimately not convicted of a crime.
During Sawyer's psychiatric stay at the hospital, her mother told a psychiatrist that Sawyer had borderline personality disorder, which can involve impulsive and dangerous behavior, the psychiatrist later testified in San Francisco Family Court.
Child Protective Services investigated the police incident and concluded that Sawyer's mother was not a threat to her son's safety, and a Child Protective Services report provided by Tinsley noted that her mental health condition was “a complicating factor, but not a safety issue.”
According to a Child Protective Services (CPS) report, Sawyer's mother was taking five different medications for PTSD, mood stabilizers, ADHD and anxiety at the time of the CPS investigation.
Tinsley first learned of the case last year, at which point he filed for full custody of Sawyer. His request was denied, despite presenting a mountain of evidence that “Sawyer's health, safety, and well-being were at risk due to his mother's mental health issues and political beliefs,” he wrote on GiveSendGo. Additionally, the court allowed a pediatrician from a radical gender clinic to continue seeing Sawyer and scheduled a hearing to determine whether Sawyer's mother can force him to get the COVID-19 vaccine over Tinsley's objections.
Fascinating results
According to the Post:
Tinsley appealed the ruling in December, alleging that San Francisco Child Protective Services became involved following an alleged “incident,” but declined to elaborate further on the incident.
He claimed Child Protective Services investigated and recommended that Tinsley be given full custody of the boy and that the mother be required to submit to regular drug and alcohol testing.
Tinsley acknowledged that the investigators likely had different political views than he did, but said he was “grateful” that they “put politics aside and did what they thought was best for the child.”
“Kids don't care about gender or identity or all these fake, weird concepts. All they care about is having fun and spending time with their parents,” he said on the podcast.
In an interview with LifeSiteNews last week, Tinsley said several factors have given her the strength to continue through the costly and painful custody battle: “my faith, my Christianity,” “my family, my friends” and “a deep feeling in my heart that I have to see this through, no matter what pain I go through.”
Tinsley believes her victory should serve as encouragement to all who oppose radical gender ideology.
“We need to find the strength within ourselves now to speak the truth so we can actually stop this and make a change,” he said. “The time is now. We have the momentum and we have the advantage.”
