We’re constantly told that young men simply must be allowed and even encouraged to pretend they’re women, and young women must likewise be allowed and encouraged to pretend they’re men, because otherwise those who experience gender confusion will be driven to suicide. But as it always does eventually, reality is now reasserting itself.
In Los Angeles, one young man did actually commit suicide, but not because he wasn’t allowed to claim that he was actually female. His high school actually encouraged him to do so, referred to him by his chosen female name, and kept all this from his parents — and yet he committed suicide anyway. Now his parents are suing, and we can hope that their lawsuit will be a big push toward consigning transgender madness to the dustbin of history.
The New York Post reported Saturday that “Dylan Parke was already struggling to fit in as a sophomore at Palisades Charter High School in Los Angeles in 2019-2020 when he told school staffers he would use she/her pronouns and go by the name ‘Aria,’ as he transitioned into a woman.”
This was the fashionable remedy for Palisades Charter High School officials to implement, but when they did it to Dylan Parke, they were victimizing a particularly fragile young man: Parke “had been diagnosed with depression, was in mental health treatment and ‘appeared easily influenced and preoccupied with how others perceived him,’ parents Kathleen Mulligan and Andrew Parke said in a California federal court lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District, embattled superintendent Alberto Caravlho and others.”
Making matters even worse, school officials kept Dylan Parke’s “transition” a secret from his parents, a sinister practice that California tried to codify into law until it ran afoul of the Mirabelli v. Bonta Supreme Court ruling. That ruling, however, only temporarily blocks California schools from keeping their humoring of students’ gender fantasies from agonized parents.
The secrecy, Mulligan and Parke say in their suit, drove a wedge between them and Dylan. The school did its best to exacerbate the problem: school officials “even ignored Mulligan in August 2020 when she emailed to voice her concerns, acknowledging her son was ‘transitioning socially.’”
Mulligan and Parke did their best to deal with the totalitarian nature of the transgender fantasists. Mulligan felt it necessary to tell the school employee with whom she was in contact that she was “not transphobic.” She said that she was concerned that Dylan, whom she said was a “bright and sensitive teenager who was deeply loved,” was autistic, as well as “easily influenced,” and was “reeling from being left off the baseball team.” Dylan, Mulligan, according to the lawsuit, thought that Dylan was “particularly vulnerable to social contagion related to gender identity, as his ‘trans identity’ appeared to provide him with a sense of belonging and validation from peers who were being celebrated for similar disclosures.”
Mulligan herself said: “If I thought Dylan was really trans I would have a different mindset, but I know my son better than anyone and I know he is struggling and I want what is best for him. He has so much potential and I worry about his mental health.”
School officials didn’t even bother to answer this impassioned appeal. They also, says the lawsuit, denied to Mulligan and Parke “the opportunity to participate in the care of their minor son.” They treated Dylan’s claim to be a woman “as an absolute directive and affirmed and reinforced it enthusiastically and with praise and support.” They even gave the confused young man literature about “housing for LGBTQ youth.”
Dylan’s behavior amid all this secrecy forced Dylan’s parents to begin “walking on eggshells” around Dylan, who had become “withdrawn, oppositional, and distrustful.” The lawsuit says that the district’s “secrecy policy” actually “severed” the relationship between Dylan Parke and his parents, and “ultimately resulted in Dylan’s suicide.”
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“Aria Parke” was listed among the 2022 graduates of Palisades Charter High School. Dylan Parke committed suicide in March 2024.
“It is every parents’ nightmare,” Mulligan and Parke say. “There are no more birthdays to celebrate, there is an empty seat at the Thanksgiving table, [they] will never see Dylan graduate from college, have a family, or watch him reach his full potential.”
Palisades Charter High School ruined Dylan Parke’s life in pursuit of the left’s fantasies and delusions. This madness must end. The Dylan Parke lawsuit could go a long way toward ending this insanity before too many more young people’s lives are destroyed.
