Evil seldom reveals itself with more horrifying banality than when powerful people forcibly separate children from parents.
To preserve, for instance, the monstrous fiction that one human being could own another, slaveholders maintained the legal right to sell, bequeath or otherwise dispose of their young slaves as they, the owners, saw fit. A slave child’s parents had no say in the matter.
Today, of course, powerful people have a new monstrous fiction to uphold. And if they must do so by legally stealing a child from his or her parents, then so be it.
Since August, Krista and Todd Kolstad of tiny Glasgow, Montana, have experienced firsthand the modern state’s demonic new obsession.
According to the Kolstads, Montana Child and Family Services used the state’s legal system to take away their 14-year-old daughter so as to enable her to make a supposed “transition” from female to male.
“This is a medical kidnapping, and this needs to stop,” Krista said in a video posted to X on Jan. 25.
The Ordeal
In an interview with Reduxx, the Kolstads asked that their daughter’s name be changed. The outlet referred to the teenage girl as “Jennifer,” and we will do the same here.
From a previous marriage, Todd had five children, including Jennifer, the youngest. He had custody of Jennifer and two of his other children.
On Aug. 18, the Kolstads received a call from the police indicating that Jennifer had confessed suicidal thoughts to a friend via text message. That evening, according to Reduxx, a CFS caseworker appeared unannounced at the Kolstads’ home.
Though startled, the Kolstads allowed the caseworker to tour their home and interview Jennifer, who then claimed to have attempted suicide earlier in the day by drinking toilet bowl cleaner and taking painkillers.
Blood tests conducted at a hospital later that evening confirmed that Jennifer had lied about the suicide attempt. Still, as one would expect, hospital staff kept a close watch on the obviously disturbed young girl.
At the hospital, Jennifer said she identified as male and began insisting on being called “Leo.”
When the Kolstads objected, citing their Christian values and even a Montana state law that prohibited the medical “transitioning” of minors (a state judge has since blocked the law), hospital staff ignored them and referred to a supposed “gray area” in the law regarding “social transitioning.” Krista said an aide even spoke to Jennifer about “gender-affirming” care such as “top surgery.”
The Kolstads and CFS agreed that Jennifer needed treatment and counseling at a residential facility. But CFS mentioned moving her to a facility in Wyoming, which set off alarm bells for the Kolstads. It turned out that Wyoming did not require parental consent for “transitioning” minors.
Still, the parents were led to believe that Jennifer would be placed in a facility in Montana. In fact, on Aug. 22, they learned that she would go to a facility in the city of Billings as soon as a bed became available.
Later the same day, however, the Kolstads were told that their daughter would have to go to Wyoming. Accompanied by police, CFS arrived at their home 10 minutes later. The authorities removed Jennifer from the home, accusing the Kolstads of refusing to provide medical care.
Krista addressed this accusation in the video.
“I met with [CFS] on Friday, Aug. 25, in their office and provided six years’ worth of medical records and insurance information proving their reason is an untrue statement,” Krista said.
Nonetheless, CFS transferred Jennifer to the facility in Wyoming. According to Reduxx, the Kolstads were not allowed to have contact with their daughter and knew nothing about her treatment as it occurred.
On Sept. 25, Jennifer returned to Montana, where she has remained in a group home. Her father said in the video that she has shaved her head, wears men’s clothing as well as a chest binder, and is referred to in the group home as a male.
Meanwhile, the Kolstads have endured more grief from the legal system, including monthly court dates and a public defender advising them to “play nice.”
Finally, on Jan. 19, a court handed custody of their daughter to CFS.
“We were told that letting Jennifer transition and live as a boy was in her ‘therapeutic best interest’ and because we aren’t willing to follow that recommendation, the court gave CFS custody of Jennifer for six months,” Krista said, according to Reduxx.
“CFS is now going to place Jennifer in the care of her birth mother in Canada, who has never really been [a part] of her life.”
Author and psychologist Karlyn Borysenko shared the Kolstads’ video on X. Readers may view that video below.
🚨🚨🚨SCOOP
The state of Montana has kidnapped a teenage girl from her parents to transition her gender in another state, subverting Montana’s laws against gender transition for minors.
A friend of the family reached out to @GabsClark5 and @AffirmReal for help because a… pic.twitter.com/imUbcFqHat
— Karlyn Borysenko, the modern day Yuri Bezmenov (@DrKarlynB) January 25, 2024
“This doesn’t even seem real! The vast majority of Americans are against this. How are these people able to get away with this?” one user asked in response.
“Because they own the institutions,” Borysenko replied.
Because they own the institutions.
— Karlyn Borysenko, the modern day Yuri Bezmenov (@DrKarlynB) January 26, 2024
What It Means
To determine the full meaning of this apparent travesty, we must know the answer to one crucial question: Did Montana state officials remove Jennifer from the Kolstads’ home and deprive them of custody for reasons such as neglect or abuse, or did they remove the teenage girl because they determined — against her parents’ wishes — that she needed to start living as a boy?
Based on available evidence, we have little choice but to conclude the latter.
For one thing, Krista addressed this question in the video.
“We have endured false accusations from [CFS] that my husband is an alcoholic who drinks daily [and] that I am verbally abusive to our daughter,” she said.
“It should be noted that none of these incidents have been proven. We have no criminal records, nor were there any witnesses who have seen us fighting, being drunks, or being abusive in any way to the three children that we have had in our parental care,” she added, noting also that character witnesses have testified to the same.
When contacted by the Daily Mail, CFS said it had no comment.
Finally, to the dismay of many, Republican Gov. Greg Gianforte gave a shockingly milquetoast statement about the case. Worse yet, he endorsed state officials’ behavior without explaining why.
“Upon hearing recent allegations related to a child welfare case, I asked Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras — an experienced attorney, constitutional conservative, mother, and grandmother — to review it,” Gianforte posted on Jan. 29.
“Consulting with the director of [the state Department of Public Health & Human Services] and personally examining case documents, Lieutenant Governor Juras has concluded that DPHHS and the court have followed state policy and law in their handling of this tragic case,” the governor said.
Then came the politician’s obligatory act of self-congratulation.
“Our administration will continue to advance policies that strengthen our families and protect Montana kids, like what we have done to promote adoption and to ban permanent, invasive, life-altering medical procedures on children, like puberty blockers, hormonal treatments, and sex-reassignment surgeries.”
Note, of course, that Gianforte said nothing to refute the suspicion that Montana state officials had kidnapped Jennifer in order to “transition” her.
Thus, pending the appearance of credible evidence to the contrary, one must conclude that officials had no legitimate cause to seize custody of Jennifer. They apparently did so solely to impose their idea of “gender-affirming” care on the girl over her parents’ objections.
And if it can happen in Republican-controlled Montana, it can happen anywhere.
The Daily Mail, for instance, cited the case of Jeremy and Mary Cox, evangelical Christians from Indiana. In 2021, the Coxes lost custody of their son when they refused to allow him to identify as a girl. They have since appealed their case to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Meanwhile, according to the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the Montana Supreme Court has upheld a gag order on the Kolstads. That means that they have spoken out about their family tragedy at their own peril.
Thus, they need a great deal of legal help. With that in mind, a relative set up a GiveSendGo campaign for them. Readers may click here to donate.
Perhaps the best way to conclude is to consider a question Todd raised in the couple’s video.
“We have asked that treatment explore why someone would dislike themselves so much that they would want to change their entire being,” he said.
Why, indeed? Do any professionals have an interest in that mental health question? Or must an adolescent whim, backed by an insidious ideology, foreclose all such questions?
Remember, the night Jennifer entered the hospital, staffers dutifully addressed her as “Leo.” Did anyone bother to ask why she wanted to go by that name?
The evidence, of course, suggests that officials at every level never gave it a thought.
Thus, we have arrived at a place Americans thought they left behind in 1865 — a place where children belong to parents unless someone more powerful wants to use legal mechanisms to uphold a monstrous fiction.
