Originally from Ukraine, Ellie* and her husband moved to the USA believing in the promise of the American Dream. In this devastating episode, Ellie explains how that dream collapsed when their vulnerable daughter Maya adopted a trans identity and Child Protective Services intervened to tear the family apart.
Ellie describes how her once bubbly, vivacious daughter became anxious and depressed after she was brutally bullied at school. Seeking an explanation for why she was targeted by bullies, Maya sought refuge in a series of mental health identities she discovered online. Her self-diagnoses of ADHD, OCD and borderline personality disorder were swiftly affirmed and medicalised by mental health professionals, but Ellie describes how her daughter continued to withdraw from her loving family, retreating into an online world.
Like many parents of struggling teens, Ellie and her husband were relieved that Maya seemed to find some relief from her troubles in a community of friends on Discord. When Maya adopted a non-binary identity, cutting her hair and asking to be called by a gender neutral name and pronouns, her parents tried to accommodate her wishes, despite the challenges of de-gendering the Ukrainian language the family spoke at home.
Little did they know that Maya was being groomed online, coached to view her loving parents as transphobic. When Ellie and her husband refused her request for testosterone, Maya reported them to CPS for ‘emotional abuse’. They were deemed ‘culturally unfit’ parents and Maya was dramatically removed from their custody by a CPS agent accompanied by no less than eight police cars. Ellie has since discovered that the advice of the online groomers had been facilitated by Maya’s school, with adults and professionals triangulating with their child to cast the family as abusive.
Ellie is still fighting to regain custody of her daughter, who has been placed in a ‘glitter family’ foster home where she shares a bedroom with a biological boy.
*Names have been changed
Detransition Awareness Day 2026: Life Beyond Transition
Thursday, March 12, 2026 | Washington, DC
The largest gathering of detransitioners ever held. Tickets and livestream available at: genspect.org/detrans-awareness-day-2026.
Ellie
Follow Ellie on Substack:
Ukranian Heart Torn Apart. PITT Parents. 2026.
