Mother January Littlejohn is hit by nasty abuse online after appearing at landmark Trump speech to denounce school that ‘secretly convinced her daughter she was trans’
A Florida mother who was singled out by President Donald Trump during his Address to the Joint Congress for speaking out against children transitioning their gender has been hit with nasty abuse online.
January Littlejohn was invited to attend the joint address by First Lady Melania Trump to represent what the administration calls the ‘disaster’ created under its predecessor, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
Then during the president’s speech, Trump told how Littlejohn and her husband ‘discovered that their daughter’s school had secretly transitioned their 13-year-old little girl, teachers and administration conspired to deceive January and her husband while encouraging her daughter to use a new name and pronouns… All without telling January.’
He went on to call her a ‘courageous advocate against this form of child abuse.’
But after Trump’s remarks, Littlejohn received some backlash online with some calling into question her story.
‘So if January Littlejohn is such a her for “protecting” her child, why isn’t her child there with her?’ podcaster Stephen Ruderman questioned.
Brandon Wolf, the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, also called her story ‘a lie.’
‘January Littlejohn’s “my kid was transed” story is a lie,’ he wrote. ‘And the entire Republican Party has run with it.’
January Littlejohn was invited to attend the joint address by First Lady Melania Trump to represent what the administration calls the ‘disaster’ created under its predecessor
President Trump called Littlejohn a ‘courageous advocate against this form of child abuse’
Another X user called Littlejohn an ‘evil person and a terrible mother,’ while a fourth wrote: ‘There’s no way January Littlejohn is a real name… or if this story is true haha.’
Littlejohn sued her daughter’s school in 2021, claiming teachers launched a ‘transgender support plan’ for her daughter without asking for parental consent.
She said her daughter had a group of friends who were ‘obsessed’ with anything to do with the LGBTQ community, and said that when three of them began to identify as transgender or non-binary her daughter told her she was confused about her gender as well.
The girl had begun discussing medical interventions such as puberty blockers and top surgery(having her breasts removed) with a casualness that shocked her parents.
Littlejohn claimed she and her husband brought their daughter to a counselor to help her work though her confusion and began doing research to better understand the subject.
In the meantime, they told their daughter’s teacher at Deerlake Middle School in Tallahassee, Florida about the situation and informed her that she and her husband were not affirming their daughter’s new preferred name and pronouns at home while they were working through her feelings.
Littlejohn also told the teacher at the time that that they did not feel that transitioning their daughter was in her best interest, but said she was OK with her daughter adopting her preferred name as a nickname at school.
But weeks later Littlejohn said she learned officials at the Leon County School Board had spoken to her daughter about changing her name and which bathroom she wanted to use.
Littlejohn, left, sued her daughter’s school in 2021, claiming teachers launched a ‘transgender support plan’ for her daughter without asking for parental consent
After she was singled out during Trump’s Address to the Joint Congress, Littlejohn received some hate online as some called into question her story
Aghast by the discussion the school had had with her daughter without parental consent, Littlejohn called them immediately and asked them about it.
She was told by the school guidance counselor and vice-principal that they could not disclose what had been talked about in the meeting, and that Littlejohn’s daughter needed to give consent by-law for her parents to be informed about or be present for future discussions.
After several weeks of back-and-forths with the school district, the principal finally showed her a ‘transgender non conforming student support plan’ that the school had filled out with her daughter.
‘This was a six page document that she completed with the vice principal the guidance council, and a social worker I had never met,’ she claimed in an interview on Fox & Friends First.
‘They asked her questions that would have absolutely impacted her safety, such as which bathroom she preferred to use, and which sex she preferred to room with on overnight field trips.’
The document also asked for the student’s preference on preferred names, pronouns, sports teams and locker rooms, and whether or not they wanted their parents to be informed about their transition, she claimed.
‘The plan also stated to use her birth name when speaking to us in effect to deceive us of the social transition that had occurred,’ Littlejohn said.
Littlejohn and her husband sued the school for violating their parental rights at the end of 2021.
Littlejon said her daughter had a group of friends who were ‘obsessed’ with anything to do with the LGBTQ community, and said that when three of them began to identify as transgender or non-binary her daughter told her she was confused about her gender as well
The case gained national attention when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis passed his so-called ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill prohibiting the discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in primary school classrooms.
On the day he signed the document – intended to curb Florida schools’ involvement in the gender-education of students – he said it was to protect parents like Littlejohn.
The worried mother and her husband eventually decided to remove their daughter from the school by the end of the eighth grade, limiting her internet use as they focused on rebuilding their relationship.
Over time, the couple said they helped their daughter reconnect with her daughter and regain her confidence.
‘It took us a great deal of time to repair that relationship and to rebuild that trust,’ Littlejohn said last year.
The girl is now thriving as a high school senior but mourns the years lost to what her mother calls ‘an ideology that stole two-and-a-half years of her life when she should have been carefree and experiencing normal teenage activities.
‘Instead she was miserable, she was depressed, she was anxious, she was hyper-focused on becoming something she could never become.’
Littlejohn and her husband told their daughter’s teacher at Deerlake Middle School in Tallahassee, Florida about the situation and informed her that she and her husband were not affirming their daughter’s new preferred name and pronouns at home while they were working through her feelings
But the Littlejohns’ case was ultimately dismissed by a federal judge in 2023, who ruled that the suit’s claims did not meet the high standard that federal case law requires.
‘I personally met with the parents before this lawsuit was filed and before the passage of the Parental Bill of Rights and felt as though we had reached an amicable resolution,’ Leon County Schools Superintendent Rocky Hanna said at the time.
‘Unfortunately, this unnecessary lawsuit has now cost our school district – and ultimately taxpayers – thousands of dollars that otherwise would have gone to support the education of our children.’
Littlejohn now works with the organization Do No Harm, which advocates against identity politics in healthcare, and is often affiliated with Moms for Liberty.
