LOGAN, Utah (AP) 鈥� President Donald Trump鈥檚 administration took the unusual step this week of sending a government plane to to return a 10-year-old from Utah who is at the center of a complicated and contentious custody fight involving the child鈥檚 gender identity.
The child’s parent, Rose Inessa-Ethington, a transgender woman, is accused of taking the child to Cuba without the permission of the biological mother. Federal and state authorities sought the return of the child after a family member expressed concern that Inessa-Ethington went to Havana to get the child gender transition surgery.
Inessa-Ethington, who had run a popular Utah political blog in the 2010s, was arrested along with her partner, Blue Inessa-Ethington, and charged in the U.S. with international parental kidnapping.
The couple traveled with the child to Canada ostensibly for a camping trip in late March with Blue鈥檚 3-year-old child. However, the two adults turned off their phones after telling the older child鈥檚 mother they had arrived in Canada. They flew from Vancouver to Mexico and then to Cuba on April 1, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in federal court in Utah.
The charges don’t say if the couple actually planned on getting the child gender-affirming surgery in Cuba or how they would get it because that surgery isn’t legal for children in Cuba.
The FBI said that Blue Inessa-Ethington withdrew $10,000 from her checking account before leaving. Agents also found at their home a note with instructions from a mental health therapist in Washington, D.C., 鈥渢o send the therapist the $10,000.00 and instructions on gender affirming medical care for children.鈥� That note didn’t mention Cuba.
The use of the Department of Justice plane in a parental kidnapping investigation comes after the Trump administration sought to and over the issue.
The Associated Press left telephone and email messages with the court-appointed attorneys who represented Blue and Rose Inessa-Ethington in Virginia. The defendants will be returned to Utah to face one count each of international parental kidnapping, according to court filings.
Search began after child wasn’t returned as scheduled
The search for the child began on April 3 when they were not returned to the mother in Utah as scheduled, court documents show.
The 10-year-old鈥檚 mother, who was divorced from Rose Inessa-Ethington and had shared custody of the child, filed a missing-person report with police in Logan, Utah, a college and dairy farming town about 70 miles (115 kilometers) north of Salt Lake City.
Logan City Police Chief Jeff Simmons said his department鈥檚 initial focus was on the custodial interference allegations in the case, and he said investigators did not learn until later about concerns over gender-affirming surgery.
Logan police spokesperson Sgt. Brandon Bevan said those concerns were raised by one family member. He declined to say who.
鈥淭hey just had the concern about it, no actual physical evidence鈥� Bevan said.
A Utah state judge ordered the return of the 10-year-old to the child鈥檚 mother on April 13. Three days later, a federal magistrate judge issued an arrest warrant for the Inessa-Ethingtons. On the same day, Cuban law enforcement located the group. They were deported to the U.S. aboard the government plane Monday and arraigned in federal court in Richmond, Virginia.
The 10-year-old was returned to the child鈥檚 biological mother, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak in Utah indicated in a statement. Representatives of the FBI and U.S. attorneys office in Utah declined to say what happened to the 3-year-old child who had been with the group.
Parents engaged in custody dispute
The custody dispute between the parents does not appear to be a new development. An online fundraiser created five years go by Blue Inessa-Ethington titled 鈥淗elp a Trans Mother Keep Custody of Her Child鈥� raised $9,766.
鈥淟ast week, Rose鈥檚 ex relocated several counties away, negatively impacting Rose鈥檚 parent-time with the child,鈥� she wrote on the fundraising page. She said the money would be used to seek a court order that would keep the child 鈥渟afe and stable throughout this process.鈥�
Anyone who has spent time with Rose knows 鈥渉ow much care and thought she puts into parenting her gender open child,鈥� she wrote.
Family members said the child was assigned male at birth but identifies as a girl because of what they believed to be 鈥渕anipulation鈥� by Rose Inessa-Ethington, according to an April 16 affidavit from FBI Special Agent Jennifer Waterfield.
Gender-affirming care for minors has been limited
The Trump administration moved in December to cut off , .
It was the latest in a between an administration that says transgender health care can be harmful to children and advocates who say it鈥檚 medically necessary.
Gender-affirming surgery , research shows. Guidance from several major medical organizations calls for caution around surgery for minors and says decisions about treatments are case-by-case. receive gender-affirming medications, such as hormones or puberty blockers.
In Cuba, gender-affirming surgeries are banned for minors and only performed for adults through the public health system under strict supervision in designated public hospitals for Cuban citizens. They must be authorized by a medical commission after a comprehensive review of the patient鈥檚 file. That process often takes years because it requires a wide range of medical and psychological evaluations.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana, and Boone from Boise, Idaho. Associated Press journalists Eric Tucker in Washington, Cristiana Mesquita in Havana and Devi Shastri in Milwaukee contributed to this report.
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