Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (Photo by Matt Volz | Kaiser Health News).
The parents of a teenager who was taken from their home and placed into state care by the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services because her father said the family’s religion prohibited recognizing being transgender as legitimate have sent a letter to the state agency demanding the same information that the state’s Supreme Court has ordered turned over to a Billings lawmaker.
Attorney Matthew Monforton, based in Bozeman, has represented the teenager’s father and stepmother, Todd and Krista Cummins-Kolstad. They said they want the full contents of the file that the state maintained on the case from Valley County where their child was taken by the DPHHS, apparently because of a concern for suicidal ideation and threats, but stemming from a dispute over gender identity.
However, the family also charged that the state was interfering with their parental and religious rights, including the right to recognize their child as a female, despite the child wanting to be recognized as a male. The couple said their religious beliefs considered that a sin. They also said the state department acted against their concerns by sending the child to an out-of-state facility where they claimed the teenager began transgender medical intervention.
The case drew national and international attention, and the concern of state lawmakers who had made several attempts to change or ban transgender medical therapy in Montana. The Gianforte administration had supported Child and Family Services workers who intervened in the case, and the family was threatened with court sanctioning if they spoke out about the case. Montana Lt. Gov. Kristen Juras intervened, herself an attorney and former law school professor, to review the case, and supported the conclusion of the DPHHS and removing the teen.
Lawmakers vowed to review the case and even change state law, and that prompted lawmaker Bill Mercer, R-Billings, to ask the DPHHS for the records of the case. Montana law allows a lawmaker to review case files of children or individuals in state care with a parent or guardian’s permission. According to court records, Mercer obtained permission from the Kolstads, but was denied documents in the file, as the DPHHS said they involved attorney-client privilege.
Mercer challenged the decision in district court and then at the Montana Supreme Court and was recently victorious, with the Supreme Court saying the department must hand over the files.
On Wednesday, Monforton filed a request with the DPHHS to turn over the same files that pertain to the Kolstad’s child.
Because the same materials that were denied to Mercer appear to have been denied to the Kolstads, Monforton said the family was renewing their request, including materials that had been denied such as, “communication that occurred through electronic media such as email and text.”
“If legislators are allowed to review the entire DPHHS file on the Kolstad family, then certainly the Kolstads should have that same right,” Monforton told the Daily Montanan.
As of Friday morning, the DPHHS had not responded to the Kolstads’ request.
Rep. Mercer did not respond to the Daily Montanan’s inquiries about whether he’d received the materials ordered by the Montana Supreme Court. All information turned over to lawmakers must be kept confidential, and according to Supreme Court records, Mercer has agreed to that.
And, a spokesperson for the Montana DPHHS did not respond to questions about how the department was planning to go forward with the requests.