A Canadian father who was thrown in jail after “misgendering” his gender-confused teenage daughter has scored a legal win in the British Columbia Court of Appeal.
A judgment issued earlier this month said Robert Hoogland did not have to spend any more time behind bars, and the court dropped an order for him to pay a $30,000 fine.
“I expected that I would finish — if not all of that six months, a big chunk of it [in prison],” Hoogland told The Daily Wire in a phone interview. “This is a huge win, because what it does is it was setting a precedent – and what they wanted was a real deterrent for parents, especially when they are standing up against the trans agenda, with what’s being pushed through the schools, by the school counselors and all of these different things.”
Hoogland — who was featured anonymously in the Daily Wire documentary “What is a Woman?” — took legal action after a Canadian children’s hospital in 2018 told him that his daughter, who was then just 13 years old, was going to be injected with testosterone, despite Hoogland refusing to give his consent. In British Columbia, the Infants Act permits minors to consent to their own trans treatments if doctors think it’s in their best interests; parents’ consent is irrelevant.
Disagreeing with the hospital, Hoogland said his daughter needed time and mental health support, not transgender medical interventions that can be irreversible. Testosterone and other trans interventions have been linked to fertility issues, lower bone density, and a host of other problems.
The court said that the girl could move forward with the testosterone and said Hoogland was barred from publicly “misgendering” his daughter, meaning he couldn’t refer to his own daughter as his daughter. Moreover, Canadian media was banned from publishing Hoogland’s name in any coverage via a publication ban. Hoogland told The Daily Wire such bans allow people to hide what they’re doing to children, despite these same people claiming trans treatments are helpful, good, and even lifesaving.
Despite the court conditions, Hoogland continued to speak out and was thrown in jail after he talked about the case and referred to his daughter as his daughter during an interview with The Federalist. For this, Hoogland was found in contempt of court, effectively committing what the Canadian court deemed “family violence.”
“The hardest part is knowing that one day you have a healthy child, and no matter how much you’re fighting to protect that child of yours – who you love, and as a parent, it’s your responsibility to protect your child from these things – that all you can simply do is watch the tragedy unfold, and your hands are tied,” Hoogland said.
Read More: Canadian Father Jailed After ‘Misgendering’ Daughter
