Morning Wire - Massachusetts Took Their Daughter After They Refused To Affirm Her Gender

Episode Date: September 27, 2026

Joseph and Arlene Kutzko have spent nearly two years fighting to regain custody of their daughter, Sophie, after Massachusetts intervened when she began identifying as a boy. The Kutzkos say the state’s allegations of abuse were baseless and that officials are keeping their daughter from them because they refuse to affirm her gender identity on religious grounds. Morning Wire sits down with the couple and their attorney, Vernadette Broyles, to discuss the legal battle, the national attention surrounding the case, and whether other families face similar circumstances. Get the facts first with Morning Wire.- - -Ep. 3112- - -Wake up with new Morning Wire merch: https://bit.ly/4lIubt3- - -Today's Sponsors:Fabletics - Shop now at https://Fabletics.com/wire to get 70- 80% off everything when you sign up as a new VIP. Alliance Defending Freedom - Visit https://JoinADF.com/WIRE or text WIRE to 83848 to make TWICE the impact for freedom today.- - -Privacy Policy: https://www.dailywire.com/privacymorning wire,morning wire podcast,the morning wire podcast,Georgia Howe,John Bickley,daily wire podcast,podcast,news podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Switch with confidence. Download the Jerry app or visit jerry.a.i slash wire. They made accusations of criminal and sexual in nature, but that was a smokescreen. Behind the smoke screen was the gender transition. That was Joseph and Arlene Kutzko talking about their legal battle against the state of Massachusetts. The couple is trying to regain custody. of their daughter Sophie after she began identifying as a boy. For nearly two years, the Cutscoes have been attempting to get their daughter back from the state,

which initially investigated Joseph for alleged abuse, a claim the Cutscoes say was baseless. The real reason the state is keeping their daughter from them, they say, is that they have refused to call their daughter a boy due to their deeply held Catholic beliefs. In this episode, we sit down with the Cutscoes and their attorney to discuss the case, which has now gained national attention. I'm Daily Wire, Executive Editor John Bickley with Georgia Howl.

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Take a quick style quiz and be sure to select wire when prompted to unlock the offer. This is a limited time offer, so don't wait. Again, that's fabletics.com slash wire for 70 to 80% off of everything as a new VIP. So joining us now is lawyer, Vernadette Broils and Sophie's parents, Joseph and Arlene Kutzko. Thank you all for coming on. It's our pleasure to be here. So, Bernadette, I think I've got my first question for you. You know, just in terms of this case, we've reported on it.

We've seen some interviews with all of you on Fox. I wanted to talk to you in person. Where does the case stand now? So the case is pending in the Worcester Juvenile Court. What people need to understand, it's a care and protection case where the allegation, there's, apparently there's still an allegation of neglect. It's no longer, the original abuse allegations were unsupported, almost, immediately within weeks against these parents. So those allegations are no longer part of the

care and protection case against the parents. And so that's what still remains pending the juvenile court. And as I understand it, you guys are fighting in the short term for to make sure that the state does not start administering testosterone hormone blockers to Sophie. And then you also, of course, want custody back. Is that two separate issues and two separate legal filings? They're, well, no, they're all merged together. But we, you know,

the most important thing is for us, long term, to get our daughter home whole and safe without any chemical mutilation. And what is her age right now? So she was removed from her house when she was 15. She's currently 17 years old. So it's been two years. A little bit less.

Yeah. In terms of how the state has responded to you, obviously there's been accusations completely unfounded, wiped away. Have you had any contact with your daughter? How has the state handled that? So we have had no contact with our daughter whatsoever. They will not allow it. Legally speaking, this is allowed by a state, so a state can take a child and cut off any

communication at all with the parents? Well, it's remarkable. I mean, in every state that I have practiced and I practice in several states, the primary goal of the juvenile court is family preservation to begin with and then family reunification. If it turns out that these circumstances are so extraordinary that it's necessary to keep a child, neither one of these have been a parent in this court. Typically, there's visitation, there's contact that is facilitated. You know, by the Child Protective Services between the child or the parent because, again, it's family preservation or reunification. So this is absolutely extraordinary that for allegations of alleged abuse that were unsupported within two weeks by DCF, that still these parents have had allowed no contact with their doughties or loving, intelligent, fit parents. And even, you know, the governor says, well, there were criminal, there was a criminal case that was brought, and that's why the child was taken. Well, the truth of the matter is that it was the same abuse allegations of abuse that DCF had brought initially and that they had caused the criminal case to be started. And then they turned around and unsupported those allegations.

So that was 20 months ago. So they are the source. They're the source of that claim. They were the source of the claim. And they're using that claim as their rationale to keep Sophie from her parents. Correct. In fact, they use that same rationale to institute lawfare in three separate courts in the criminal misdemeanor misdemeanor criminal court. And then in another neighboring court where some unknown person, we still don't know who this was hired an attorney for a minor Sophie to go in there and ask for a restraining. order with the support of DCF. See, DCF showed up and was supportive of that restraining order. Even though this child was in the custody of DCF, and so the juvenile court had all the means necessary to protect her, and so did DCF. The question is, why would they do that? So there's an

unknown actor in this, involved in this. There is an unknown actor and undisclosed motives, which we believe we understand. I cannot believe this. I cannot believe this. I can't. I This is stunning to me. We should all be concerned by the rise in Marxist thought in our country. It attacks the very foundation on which our freedoms are built, and it's already having dangerous effects. Alliance defending freedom is pushing back, protecting your God-given rights in courtrooms across America.

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held beliefs to recognize your daughter's newly adopted identity. Can you unpack that for me? Just to say that a little bit more clearly, refusing to say our daughter is a boy, is not abused. We will not agree to cross-sex hormones or a new identity as the price of being her mother and father. that is not medical, that is not a medical or moral decision for the state. That is for the parents to make. And it's also important to recognize for everybody watching, without unequivocally, we love our daughter beyond all measure. We are her parents.

You're asking to stop the hormones and return a daughter to a home where we will take. We'll take care of her. We love her. We love her. Was there any indication? that she wanted to leave home before this all unfolded? None soever. It was like a tornado.

So as I understand it, too, there was a counseling from the school. Correct. Is there any sense that maybe the school drove her to these actions or a counselor drove her to these actions? It feels like this is a very abrupt shift. Is that what you feel like an outside force influenced her? Yeah. So there's two elements here.

is a long-term standing policy of the school to use, you know, pronouns and, you know, new identities without the parent's knowledge. And then it was also more recent, well, two years ago now, but recently before she was taken away, the school, you know, starting in late 2024, began receiving counseling sessions. with the Algonquin Regional High School counselor and to be socially transitioned from better knowledge. We weren't told that she was staying up to school for math help. So we didn't have any objections to that. Go for them.

I'm glad to see you taking the initiative to study your math. Great job. So that appeared to be a lie, a cover for what was actually happening. Absolutely. I'm losing my professional. Hold on a sad. So upset about this. Okay, let me get it together.

Sorry, guys. That's okay. So you're now, you know, you're taking this interview. You've interviewed with Fox trying to get the message out there. What do you hope happens in the coming days? Do you have hope that something's going to change in the system that your pleas will be heard or that maybe your daughter will hear you and come home? What are you hoping happens in the coming?

days? There's two, at least two different elements. Maybe I'll think of others when I'm speaking, but one element is obviously to save and protect our family to get us back together as a family. And then the second part of this is the systemic abuse that the schools do to our children needs to stop. And so we need, you know, Bernadette will, with her legal prowess, will, will hopefully be able to get some laws executed that will be not only nationwide, you know, not only statewide, but nationwide. Additionally, you know, I think something that we've missed, and I want to articulate it, I just want to take it, you know, so they don't come out and, you know, we're in legal

lawfare as Bernadette, and I'll let Bernadette extend on that if you want to, but we're in legal lawfare. So what happened? They made accusations of criminal and sexual in nature, but that was a spokescreen. Behind the screen was the gender transition. You know, John, if I can just add to that, there appears to be a school to CPS pipeline at work. So our school officials are secretly meeting with a child and endorsing their gender confusion and keeping secrets from parents.

And then at some point, for whatever reason, what we don't know exactly, what the child said, allegations of abuse, then they report the parents to DCS and you drop your child off and you don't see your child again. What's remarkable, John, is that DCF here, they're not straight out saying we are keeping this child in our custody because the parents refused to transition. They're smart enough not to say that because they recognize that really isn't legitimate reason. Instead, what's hanging over these parents' head is a nebubes. neglect allegation. They don't even know, they haven't even specified exactly how have they neglected their child. So it's using existing laws, neglect emotional abuse, to shoehorn

keeping able to keep a child. But all of their behavior, all of their actions say it's not adding up while you're still keeping this child and putting her in a boy's facility and affirming it as a boy and then want to medicalize her body. And so we understand when you look underneath it all, the only thing that makes sense is that these parents, they're very devout Catholic, very, very devout, minister in the community for a long time. And this child was devoutly Catholic. She was a lector at her church. She served at her church. She was confirmed early because she was so devout. And now she's saying, I'm no longer Catholic. So it adds up. If it cracks like a It's a duck, and it adds up that underneath it all, these parents are not cooperating with an agenda to transition.

This affirmed this confusion. That seems very clear. Well, there's a reason this story has gone national, and it has horrified a lot of parents. And good luck with the proceedings going forward, and I hope you get your daughter back. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you, John. Thank you, John. We appreciate you.

That was Joseph and Arlene Kutsko and their attorney, Vernadette Broyles, and this has been a weekend episode of Morningwire.