The Daily Signal - VICTORY: How California Dad Wins Custody of Son Over Mother Who Sought to Raise Him Nonbinary

Episode Date: July 30, 2024

Harrison Tinsley, now has full custody of his 4-year-old son, Sawyer, after a long legal battle prompted by his ex-girlfriend’s efforts to raise the boy nonbinary. “I know he's a boy,” says Tinsley. “He wants to be a boy. He adamantly expresses that. If you say anything to the contrary, he gets very upset, and it's just insane that people, any person, would push this ideology onto a child, as opposed to just [allowing them to] be happy with who they are.” After reaching a settlement granting Tinsley full physical custody of his son, the father said he felt like he was “watching a miracle.” In a state like California, which recently passed a bill allowing schools to keep knowledge from parents related to the gender transition of minors, it's easy to see why Tinsley views his victory as a “miracle.”  “It definitely is a pretty wonderful feeling to fight for something so hard and to actually achieve it,” Tinsley says, adding, “I just want to help more people protect children. I want to protect more kids. I think it's the battle of our lifetime.”  Due to an “incident,” which Tinsley did not describe in any detail, Child Protective Services in San Francisco got involved and “put politics aside and did what they felt was best for the child,” the father explains.  Tinsley joins “The Daily Signal Podcast” to explain how his son is doing today and what message he would share with other parents facing similar situations.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, July 30th. I'm Virginia Allen. California father Harrison Tinsley joined us here on the show last fall in the middle of his legal battle to win custody of his son, Sawyer. Sawyer's mother was raising him as non-binary, even though the four-year-old insisted that he was a boy. While Harrison has just won custody of his son, something that the father describes as a miracle. Harrison joins us on the show today to share. the full story and how his little boy is doing today. Stay tuned for my conversation with Harris intensely after this. How can we take America back? It starts with ideas, ideas we take on offense to reclaim America. That's why you should check out the Kevin Roberts Show. It's a deep dive on

critical issues that plague our nation, plus conversations with high-profile guests from across the movement. It's a roadmap on how we can protect our nation from bad ideas and get it back on track. You can find the Kevin Roberts Show wherever you get your podcast or go to heritage.org slash podcasts. Well, I am so pleased to welcome back to the Daily Signal podcast, California Father Harrison Tensely. Harrison, thanks so much for being with us today. You're welcome. Thank you so much for having me. Stoke to be back. Well, this is pretty awesome to have you joining us once again to share an update on your story. It was last fall that you joined us and you explained that you were in a custody battle for your son's Sawyer at the time.

Sawyer was three years old. He's four now. You have won that custody battle. Explain why exactly you were trying and seeking to win full custody of your son, Sawyer. Well, it's been a four and a half year battle now, and I've always thought that I have a duty as a dad to do everything I can for my son to be there for him, to love him, to help raise him. and there's some crazy non-binary stuff trying to be projected onto him by his mother,

as well as some pretty serious safety concerns. So I thought with those two things combined that it was absolutely best for him to be with me. I know a lot of times it's probably best that kids see both parents or have both parents together, of course, but there is situations, I believe, where one parent is, you know, not stable enough, and it's best that the child be with one parent. And I think in my case, that that is what's best for Sawyer. And I guess even the government agrees. What were those, quote unquote, non-binary issues that you mentioned that you say

Sawyer's mom was trying to push on him or project onto him? So Sawyer's mom started identifying that way herself, to the best of my knowledge, and she started trying to call him they all the time. And weird neutral pronouns like that, as well as some incidents where, you know, she tries to put dresses on him or forces him to wear some sort of girly clothing or attire or like glitter to win her approval or to get him to do something. You know, there's the Disneyland story where he couldn't go on the rides unless he wore the princess shoes that he didn't want to do. There's time where he was telling me she was threatening him if he didn't go to bed. She was going to tell

me that he was wearing makeup, but that he wasn't even wearing makeup. There was a time at a supervised visit through CPS that she put glitter on him, like a lot of glitter on his face. And just weird stuff like that. It's been a constant thing. And I don't think it's appropriate. So he knows he's a bore. He wants to be a bore. He adamantly expresses that. If you say anything to the contrary, he gets very upset. And it's just, it's insane that people, any person would push this ideology onto a child as opposed to just let them be happy with who they are. Yeah. Ultimately, the judge ruled in your favor and you have just recently won full custody of your son. Soyer, what did the judge say in his ruling? So actually what happened is we came to a settlement before the

trial. So the judge wasn't really involved. The judge just said, good job. I'm so glad you guys came to a settlement. But essentially it came down to CPS and then me and my attorney, mom and her attorney, and then Sawyer as appointed attorney because this was no longer family court. There was another incident. So CPS got involved and this is called dependency court. It's one court higher. And essentially CPS is to a thorough investigation and after that their recommendation was to give me full physical and legal custody as well as the mom to have drug testing and alcohol testing, etc. And me and my attorney were in agreement with this or as appointed attorney was an agreement with this. So it was sort of like a three on one. And so we ended up just coming to terms before going to court. And I'm super thankful

for that. So it ended up being that I have full physical custody. We have split legal custody, but I have the final say if there's no agreement, which is very important to me. Incredible that I got that. And, you know, she has some drug and alcohol testing. I won't go too deep into some of those things. But yeah, it's extremely favorable for Sawyer and me. And I, you know, I'm I'm just so thankful that CPS in San Francisco, California, put politics aside and did what they felt was the best for the child. And I'm just, it's really miraculous. I feel that it was divine that I got the CPS worker I did. And just that they really did their job.

They did not care about politics. You know, mom tried to paint me as some, like, right-wing hellbilly from Mississippi or something, even though I had nothing to do with the investigation. And that shouldn't matter anyways. course. But it's like in reality, I'm just some California dude with long hair and skinny jeans. And that's ridiculous to make that up about me. And yeah, I mean, it's just incredible that they did their job in spite of anything like that. And probably having different politics from me, they put that aside. They really did a really great job. I'm really thankful. We were speaking just briefly, Harrison, before we started recording and you said, you know, this, I think is the first case out of California

like this. And I think you're right, we haven't heard stories like yours out of California. Instead, we've heard a lot of stories of even children being taken away from parents because those parents wouldn't affirm a child's gender identity. What do you think was different about your case? There's some horror stories now to California. Jeff Younger and his son, where the mom moved the son from Texas to California, I believe, against a court order even. Adam Vina, they both need our help. I'd encourage anyone to look into their stories and try to help them. I'm sure there's countless others that we don't know about. But yeah, I've never heard of a parent being anti-crazy gender madness and winning custody other than mine.

I hope there's more and I hope there continues to be more. And it's just, I think in my case, unfortunately, the mom has some pretty severe mental health issues and they've caused some scary situations and police and CPS involvement. it and so that they essentially had no choice to, but to give me custody at or risk opening themselves for lawsuits and just probably, hopefully, also feeling that it was best for the child. It's sad, though, that it should have to get that severe. You know, this newest incident was very severe and unfortunate and tragic for Sawyer to have to witness something like that.

Yeah. And, you know, it just kind of shows that anyone, in my opinion, that would push the idea to a child that they aren't who they actually are in some way, especially at such a young age, such as two or three or four, they have to have some underlying serious mental health issues, in my opinion, to push something like that onto a child. It's madness.

Kids don't care about sex or identity or all these fake, weird concepts. They just care about having fun and getting to spend time with their parents. And, you know, it's insane that we're even considering this as a possibility to talk about children with. How is Sawyer doing? Soyer is doing incredible. He's been with me full time for four, four and a half months or so now, as opposed to halftime. And he's just thriving. Like he's doing so

good in every way socially and just like he has less tantrums now. And it just seems like his, like his overall well-being is just dramatically improved, having that constant stability. And I'm just so thankful to, you know, be a part of it. I spend lots of time with him. still and it's it's just absolutely wonderful yeah do you remember the thoughts that were running through your mind at the moment when you got the news you are going to receive full custody of soyer it felt pretty surreal you know as i remember sitting there feeling like i was watching like miracle like that hockey movie where USA wins the gold or like Friday night lights high school football like some sort of like emotional like sports moment it kind of felt like something

like that, like where I got chills up my spine and I just like felt all in, all there in that moment. Yeah, you know, it definitely is a pretty wonderful feeling to fight for something so hard and to actually achieve it. And I just want to help more people protect children. I want to protect more kids. I think it's the battle of our lifetime. Yeah, it's critical. Well, and it's certainly a major battle in California where they have just passed a law under Governor Gavin News. them that would essentially enable schools to always keep information from parents if that school district so chose to in regards to a child's gender identity. So in other words, a child could be going by a different name, different pronouns at school, and that school district would be obligated

to keep that information from parents. What is your response both to that? And also, as you talk to other Californians. I mean, what are their thoughts on what is happening right now in your state? The bill's insane. It's anti-family. It's Marxist. It's anti-child. It's anti-parent. I don't know who they're pandering to because everybody I talk to in the Bay Area is completely against it. Liberal or not, nobody supports this bill or these crazy ideas being pushed on children or secrets being kept from parents. I mean, they really took away parents one way they have of affecting government at schools, which is school boards. It essentially made it that school boards can't make rules regarding that or forcing

rather, you know, schools to have to tell parents things. Like, what world are we living in that it's okay to keep secrets from parents? Like, these teachers wouldn't keep it a secret from parents if their kid was fighting at school or using bad language at school, you know, or doing pretty much anything else. They would be obligated to tell the parents. But for this one thing, which is worse than all of those, in my opinion, that, they're going to keep secrets from us? Like, absolutely not.

We need to put a stop to it. No one supports it. You can look at Elon Musk. He's moving his businesses out of California over this, SpaceX and Twitter, or X rather. And I'm so thankful for that, someone like him making such a huge statement and taking action. It's tragic. I just heard recently an interview of him in Jordan Peterson, where he says what happened to his oldest son, I believe.

And he was affected by this gender madness. And, you know, even someone as brilliant as Elon Musk, was. wasn't able to, at least as of yet, save him from it. And that's just so horrifying. And I just don't wish out upon anyone. I think children are innocent and amazing. And we need to protect them at all cost. And parents absolutely have a right to know everything regarding their child, including, you know, any sort of gender confusion, especially something that's a serious medical condition. And yeah, no one supports this bill. You know, the Gavin Newsom's and the Scott Wieners, you're evil. And we're not going to put up with it anymore.

Do you think that because the pendulum has swung so far in California, so far to the radical left, that we'll see a swing back, especially with not only individuals and civilians like yourself speaking out on the issue, but then also when you do have entrepreneurs and billionaires like Elon Musk saying, I'm going to pull my businesses out of the state over this. That sounds a pretty loud message. I'm Mr. Brightside, and I totally think we're going to see a pendulum swing back the other way, back to sanity, back to reality. back to goodness, back to truth. People seem to be craving that. Everywhere I look, everyone I talk to,

it really feels that we have the momentum. And yeah, I think California, people always say, like, it's doomed or it's like the worst or all this stuff. I actually don't see that. I live here. I've lived here most of my life. And I really think most people here are completely sane and normal and aren't about any of this radical left-wing ideology.

And I really think we're going to say huge pushback and come back from California. What is your message to other moms, to other dads, who might find themselves in a situation, maybe not exactly identical to yours, but in a situation where they're fighting for their child, whether it's against ideology that's being pushed in schools or from another family member that is promoting gender identity on a child that's quite young? What will be your encouragement to parents? The time is now, the moment in history is now, This is your chance to do something that matters.

Be a part of something that matters. You have an obligation to stand up for what's right. You have an obligation to stand up for your kids. You have a duty to speak the truth. If you feel uncertain or scared, that's okay. You just have to do it anyways. Trembling or not, heart beating fast. You have to find the courage to speak the truth

and do the right thing and stand up for what matters. This is the time. This is the moment. where we make a comeback, where good beats evil, where the light shines out the darkness, and you can be a part of that right now if you have courage, or you can be looked back upon as a coward and, you know, question yourself. And even if you don't succeed, you'll at least know that you tried and, you know, did your best. And that's so much so important, as opposed to just being too scared to do anything and looking back and regretting that. So I'd highly encourage everyone to start

start speaking their mind right now. Harrison, that's a really strong language to call it evil. To call this gender identity push evil. Why do you use that word? I use the word evil because children are literally being sterilized. They're having irreversible damage. You know, there's so many detransitioners that I'm so thankful for, like Chloe Cole, who are just incredible.

And I don't know how anyone can see their stories and go along with it. You know, we have the new reports out of England and all these new studies coming out and all these states and countries starting to ban this stuff. It's for a reason. It's because it does no good. And when you're doing something intentionally to children, no less, that does more harm than good, I would consider that evil. And quite frankly, I think this is one of the greatest evils we've ever done. Like no one looks back and is like pushing for lobotomies now. We recognize that that was crazy.

And yet here we are in America, at least in some states, still pushing forward with this agenda, even though we know it's wrong and all the data proves it's wrong. And I just think when you're doing something that the data proves is bad for children, that that's evil. And we have a duty to stand up to evil. Amen. A little bit lighter as we close here. What are you looking forward to in the months, days, years ahead, as you think about raising your son, Sawyer. What are you excited about? I'm just so excited to make a brighter future for him to watch him grow, to watch him, you know, excel at sports and different things and see what he ends up liking and loving and doing. It's just so crazy, like, you have this child and you see them develop different things. You see, you see. see little parts of you and them and their own little quirks and things they're good at and they make

you laugh and it's just making lots and lots of really fun memories with them. I spend a lot of time with them. I'm going to continue to for all this life. And it's just going to be an amazing journey. I hope to have lots more kids as well to give them some brothers and sisters. I was fortunate enough through this journey of speaking truth and being brave and, you know, coming out with my story, which was harder than it sounds, you know, to like come out to the world and say something so horrific has happened, you know, and that you're fighting it. But I was able to overcome that and do it anyways. And, you know, through all of this, I've met so many wonderful people, incredible supportive people. I'm just so thankful for everyone, including you.

I was able to even meet my wife in this journey randomly. You know, I'm just in Arizona, Turning Point USA. And I met the love of my life after doing an interview with, Charlie Kirk. And it just goes to show you that like, congratulations. Yeah, thank you. And you just you speak the truth and you have courage and you do something that matters and something that's interesting and your life just opens up in so many ways. And I just really recommend a people to start to try that, you know, to be brave, to try speaking the truth, just say what's on your mind for once, to, you know, be courageous for once. And so is going to have a great life and so are many

children in America because we're going to make sure they do. Do you plan to keep sharing your story? I do plan to keep sharing my story. I'd like to keep people updated. I'm just, it's, I'm so wonderstruck by the amount of people that have supported me and reached out to me. And I just really don't want to let them down. And I feel like I feel like I should absolutely keep everyone updated on what's going on. Yeah. Well, Harrison, thank you. We certainly appreciate your time. We appreciate you keeping our audience up to date and allowing us to share your story through this journey. And again, congratulations on meeting your wife and all the best to you and Sawyer and to your family. Thank you so incredibly much.

Well, with that, that's going to do it for today's episode. Thanks so much for joining us here on the Daily Signal podcast. Be sure to hit that subscribe buttons. We never miss out on our morning interview shows or our afternoon top news edition. Every weekday or on 5 p.m. We bring you the top news of the day. These are the headlines that you don't want to miss to stay informed on what is happening in our world.

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Executive producers are Rob Louis and Katrina Trinco. Hosts are Virginia Allen, Brian Gottstein, Tyler O'Neill, Mary Margaret O'Lehand, and Elizabeth Mitchell. Sound designed by Lauren Evans, Mark Geine, John Pop, and Joseph von Spakovsky. To learn more or support our work, please visit DailySignal.com.