Hutzell: Stephen Miller’s trans persecution is here. Parents face hard questions.

I hope Jane and John Doe love their child.

But you have to question any parent’s thinking if they align themselves with Stephen Miller, White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser, and thrust their family into a culture war.

Miller has made it his cause to push the tiny minority of Americans who are transgender further into the shadows, taking every opportunity to hammer them with insult and persecution.

“It is child abuse to change a child’s gender,” he said, “particularly if you do not inform the parents.”

As my colleague Jessica Calefati reported, Miller’s America First Legal Foundation sued Anne Arundel County Public Schools on behalf of the Does, unnamed parents who claim the school system violated their parental rights by allowing their child — the lawsuit used a feminine pseudonym — to use a masculine name and pronouns.

Miller and his allies in the U.S. Department of Education cast this as a noble battle over who decides a child’s best interests — nameless school bureaucrats or parents.

Protective of their own kids and distrustful of institutions, most parents will empathize with that argument. The Does should raise their child as they see fit, free from government interference with their religious beliefs.

Of course.

What if that is not what this is about?

What if Miller and his ilk are using a tiny number of conflicts over pronouns and trans kids in bathrooms or on sports teams in pursuit of a much bigger prize?

Parents should be asking about this kid’s safety, and the safety of all transgender kids.

And they should be asking whether culture zealots’ real goal isn’t parents’ rights or religious freedom, but rather wresting control of schools from local communities and states.

Now that Miller’s trans ​inquisition has landed in Maryland, parents need to ask what, exactly, is at stake.

Five years ago, the Anne Arundel school board adopted LGBTQIA+ guidelines, building on federal law and state policy. Public testimony supported the policy, including the portion on talking with parents about a student’s gender identity.

It mirrored state policy in effect since 2015, which has been updated several times.

“In some cases, notifying parents carries risks for the student, such as being rejected by the family,” current Maryland State Department of Education guidelines say.

“In these situations, case-by-case decisions made in consultation with the student should reflect an understanding of all the factors that may affect the student’s safety and well-being.”

Student Doe asked in December to be referred to by a masculine name and pronouns in class and, in the parents’ legal telling, the school didn’t tell them. When they found out, they asked the staff to stop because they believe the Bible identifies only two genders, determined by a person’s sex at birth.

When the student continued to use masculine pronouns, the Does sought outside help. The foundation — created by Miller as an anti-ACLU — sued on behalf of the couple.

The school system will likely make safety central to its response. To do so, it must convince a judge that there was a reason to put the student’s fears over the Does’ rights.

Anne Arundel trains teachers to work with parents on a plan that supports a student’s gender identity, unless there’s a concern that it could threaten the student’s safety. The system trains them to involve school social workers.

If you take the Does at their word — and if the school system followed its rules — their exclusion means this child expressed concrete reasons to fear their reaction.

No matter how real the threat, parents have a huge impact on these kids’ mental health.

The danger might have been feeling rejected or being thrown onto the street.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in 2021 that trans students are 10 times as likely to experience homelessness as their peers. In Anne Arundel last year, 1,400 students were homeless.

The CDC could probably say more about this, but the Trump administration purged the subject from federal websites last year.

Some teachers told me they use their judgment about when to protect a student’s confidences about gender identity — and when to break them.

If the school got this wrong — if a teacher or counselor decided on their own to exclude the Does from the conversation — Miller’s legal foundation could argue that there was never a valid risk assessment.

Maryland was the logical next step for Miller following the U.S. Supreme Court decision against trans policy in ​California schools.

Two teachers sued in 2023 to overturn state law barring them from telling parents when students asked to be identified by a different gender. They claimed it violated their religious freedoms.

The court’s conservative majority used its shadow docket — deciding without a hearing in March that the ban likely violated parents’ 14th Amendment rights.

Justices could extend that ​decision and strike down Maryland’s guidelines, handing Miller a victory after an initial ruling but before the inevitable appeal.

It could have a far wider impact than the California case. Maryland is one of 35 states that neither bar schools from telling parents nor require them to do so.

If the Does win, it could ​force schools to out trans or even gay students to their parents, regardless of the consequences. That’s clearly U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon’s goal in threatening to pull funding over this issue.

Parents should remember that zealots always want more than what they believe is right for themselves. They want it for you, too.

And zealots are never satisfied.

What this means for the Does is unclear.

Kids most often question their gender identity from ages 3 to 5 or around puberty. Those feelings can resolve on their own, or require support.

Jane and John don’t say how they dealt with their child. So, the central subject of this dispute — the one known only by a false name — is silent.

I hope you’re safe, kid, whatever pronouns you use.