Parents have a right to know when anyone urges a child to transition

After a Fort Worth mother raised an alleged letter sent to her 11-year-old daughter without her parents’ knowledge, Vance urged a Justice Department investigation.

No adult has any business coaching an 11-year-old girl toward transition behind her parents' backs, and Vance called the letter’s sender a “pervert” on national television. Rebekah Smith of Fort Worth, Texas, raised it in a question to Vance during a town hall that aired Thursday night on Fox News¹. She told him about an alleged letter sent to her 11-year-old daughter about transitioning genders without her parents’ knowledge.

Andrew Kolvet posted the exchange on X. He described Smith as a mother of six and said the letter was addressed to the child and explained how to transition "from female to male without her parents knowing²." Vance did not hedge. Fox News Media announced Oct. 26 that Jesse Watters would moderate a pre-taped, one-hour town hall with Vice President JD Vance in Fort Worth, scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 29, during “Jesse Watters Primetime.”³ The Washington Examiner reports that Vance urged Smith to speak with his staff about seeking an investigation; Watters’s X post quotes him: “Talk to our staff because I’d like the Department of Justice to investigate that.”

Was the sender a pervert, or a well-meaning adult offering a child support?

“Talk to our staff because I’d like the Department of Justice to investigate that.”

JD Vance

Parents must not be cut out

Parents have a natural right, and a responsibility, to direct the care, education and upbringing of their children. An adult who cuts the parents out removes the one check that protects a child: a mother who asks who is talking to her daughter, and why.

The method is familiar. American Principles Project's 2025 report on Planned Parenthood found that "some affiliates offer other 'gender-affirming' interventions for minors without parental consent⁴." The American Principles Project Foundation’s 2024 report, titled The Gender Industrial Complex, cites Reuters reporting that 28 of 39 parents of minors said they felt “pressured or rushed to proceed with treatment” for their children. The same report reproduces the ultimatum Chloe Cole's parents recall being given: "would you rather have a dead daughter or a live son⁵."

If the system pressures parents it can see, what does an adult intend when he writes to a child whose parents he is careful not to see?

The alleged letter deserves investigation

Vance did more than condemn the letter. That is the right instinct: the government should help parents protect their authority over their children’s upbringing.

The questions are concrete. Who wrote the letter? Investigators should identify the sender and determine how the letter reached the child. Did other children in Fort Worth, or anywhere else, receive the same instructions? Were those children also told to keep their parents from knowing?

Kolvet’s post quotes a speaker saying the sender “ought to go to prison.”² The department he named should find out whether the law agrees.

Candidates should defend parental authority

Texas families heading to the polls should hold every candidate to Vance's standard. Voters notice where candidates stand on this. American Principles Project's 2024 report Defeating They/Them found that 77 percent of Trump swing voters knew Harris supported "allowing children under 18 to transition genders without informing their parents," compared with 29 percent of Harris swing voters⁶. Candidates who would rather change the subject know what that number costs them.

So ask them plainly. Should any adult be allowed to coach a child toward transition without her parents knowing, yes or no? Should every school, clinic and agency be required to tell parents before it treats their child as the opposite sex, yes or no? Will you back a Justice Department investigation into the letter Rebekah Smith's daughter received, yes or no?

29 percent

Harris swing voters who knew the same

77 percent

Trump swing voters who knew Harris backed transitions without parental knowledge

Parents have a right to know when anyone urges a child to transition

Parents must not be cut out

The alleged letter deserves investigation

Candidates should defend parental authority

Sources