A California father has been granted full custody of his now four-year-old son after the boy’s mother attempted to raise him as non-binary and forced him to wear dresses and makeup.
Harrison Tinsley announced his victory in the years-long legal battle with his ex-girlfriend to gain full custody of their son, Sawyer, in a Update on your online fundraiser for legal expenses the July 18.
The father of one boy described how he felt like he was “watching a miracle” when he found out he would be the child’s full-time carer.
“It’s definitely a wonderful feeling to strive for something so hard and actually achieve it,” Tinsley said. he told The Daily Signal.
Harrison Tinsley announced that he has gained full custody of his son in an update to his online fundraiser for legal fees on July 18.
Tinsley explained that he had always wanted to be a father and was “ecstatic” when his girlfriend told him in 2019 that she was pregnant.
“Unfortunately, that excitement turned to grief when his mother, who suffers from severe underlying mental health issues, abruptly ended our relationship and prevented me from seeing Sawyer,” she wrote in the fundraiser.
Tinsley only got to meet her son when Sawyer was 15 months old, and the two quickly bonded.
“Sawyer is not only my best friend, he is the most incredible and greatest blessing in my life,” she said.
But the boy’s mother had begun a same-sex relationship and began identifying as nonbinary, treating Sawyer as nonbinary as well.
“She calls him ‘they’ and puts dresses, baby diapers and makeup on him,” Tinsley wrote.
‘She threw Sawyer a girly-themed party for his second birthday, where he had her wear a dress with a sheriff badge on it.’
On another occasion, she told The Daily Signal, Sawyer’s mother took him to Disneyland but wouldn’t let him ride the rides unless he wore the princess shoes she had bought him.
Tinsley said the boy’s mother forced him to wear dresses and makeup.
But Sawyer fired back at her mother, Tinsley wrote.
“Sawyer says his mother tells him he is both a boy and a girl, but Sawyer is fully aware that he is a boy,” she said.
‘Luckily, he has my rebellious spirit and fights back every time his mother cheats on him.
“However, I’m sure this is confusing and emotionally traumatizing him. He’s not old enough to be thinking about this ideology, but his mother is forcing him to do so.”
Tinsley then filed a motion for custody of the child last year after learning that Sawyer’s mother was arrested on a felony charge of child endangerment and subsequently found to have slandered and defamed him.
He said he “presented eight hours of police body camera footage, 800 pages of documentary evidence and psychological studies showing that Sawyer’s health, safety and well-being were endangered by his mother, her mental health issues and her political ideology.”
But the judge at the time ruled against him.
Tinsley said she presented “evidence and psychological studies showing Sawyer’s health, safety and well-being were endangered by his mother, his mental health issues and his political ideology,” but a judge initially ruled against her.
By December 2023, Tinsley’s appeal had begun, and he recently told The Daily Signal that a deal had been reached granting him full custody and the final say if there was any disagreement between him and the child’s mother.
That agreement came after Child Protective Services conducted an investigation and recommended that Tinsley be granted full custody of the child and that the child’s mother undergo full drug and alcohol testing.
During the course of the investigation, Tinsley said the boy’s mother tried to paint him as “a right-wing redneck from Mississippi or something, even though I had nothing to do with the investigation, and that shouldn’t matter anyway.”
“I’m actually just a guy from California with long hair and skinny jeans, and it’s ridiculous to make that up about me.”
It’s unclear what prompted Child Protective Services to investigate the mother, but Tinsley said he is grateful to the investigator.
“It was extremely favorable for Sawyer and for me,” he said in the recent podcast with The Daily Signal. “And I’m very grateful that CPS and San Francisco, California, put politics aside and did what they felt was best for the child.
“It was divine that I got the CPS worker that I got and they really did their job, they didn’t care about politics,” she added, noting that she believes the mother’s mental health issues and the “scary situations” they caused contributed to the CPS referral.
“It’s sad, though, that it’s had to get so severe,” Tinsley said, arguing that she believes anyone pushing gender ideology on young children “has to have some serious underlying mental health issues.”
“It’s crazy,” Tinsley said. “Kids don’t care about gender or identity or all these weird, false concepts. They just care about having fun and spending time with their parents, and it’s crazy that we’re even considering this as a way to talk to kids.”
Tinsley said Sawyer has been in her custody for about four and a half months.
Tinsley said she wants to help other parents who may be dealing with a similar situation, calling gender ideology “one of the greatest evils we’ve committed” and comparing it to lobotomies.
“I just want to help more people protect children,” Tinsley said.
“I want to protect more children. I think it’s the battle of our lives.”
As for Sawyer, Tinsley said the boy has been in her custody for about four and a half months and “is thriving.”
“He’s doing great all around – socially, he’s having fewer tantrums now, and it seems like his overall well-being has improved dramatically by having that constant stability, and I’m so grateful to be a part of that,” the proud dad said.
Tinsley went on to say that she is “so excited to be able to create a brighter future for him and watch him grow.”
The proud father said: “It’s going to be amazing. Sawyer is going to have a wonderful life.”