A California Orthodox Christian mother says the state seized her teenage daughter in 2024 after she and her husband refused to consent to their daughter’s gender transition — and that California is now moving to put the girl up for adoption.
Alexandra Lyashchenko, a legal Ukrainian immigrant, told NTD that her then-15-year-old daughter developed a sudden desire to transition, which her parents rejected on religious and medical grounds. The state responded by removing the girl from her home.
“They called us culturally unfit for raising our daughter in present-day America, meaning we refuse to mutilate and sterilize her,” Lyashchenko said. She and her husband have no custody dispute between themselves and are fighting the state jointly. The family has spent nearly $500,000 in legal fees and was forced to flee California, now living in Florida — where Lyashchenko says California also wants her younger son.
Lyashchenko believes her daughter was sexually assaulted while in foster care, where the girl was housed with boys due to her declared “gender identity.” She has accused a psychiatrist at Children’s Legacy Center in Redding of indoctrinating her daughter, and also suspects the girl’s school secretly pushed gender ideology on her before the family was aware.
California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB 107 in 2022, allowing California courts to claim emergency jurisdiction over children who come to the state for gender transitions. A separate law banned parental notification about children’s gender confusion in schools, though the Supreme Court struck it down in March.
The Lyashchenko case is not isolated. Another California mother, Abigail Martinez, lost custody of her gender-confused daughter, who later walked in front of a train and killed herself.
Discussion about this post