LOGAN, Utah — The Trump administration sent a government plane to Cuba this week to return a 10-year-old from Utah who was at the center of a contentious custody dispute involving the child’s gender identity.
The child’s parent, Rose Inessa-Ethington, a transgender woman, is accused of taking the child to Cuba without the biological mother’s permission. Federal and state authorities pursued the child after a family member raised concerns that Inessa-Ethington had gone to Havana to obtain gender-transition surgery for the child.
Rose Inessa-Ethington and her partner, Blue Inessa-Ethington, who previously ran a popular Utah political blog, were arrested and charged in the U.S. with international parental kidnapping. According to a federal criminal complaint filed in Utah, the couple traveled with the child to Canada in late March, ostensibly for a camping trip that also included Blue’s 3-year-old child. After telling the older child’s mother they had arrived in Canada, the two adults turned off their phones and later flew from Vancouver to Mexico and then to Cuba on April 1.
The criminal filings do not say whether the couple actually intended to obtain gender-affirming surgery in Cuba or how they would have done so, noting that surgery for minors is not legal in Cuba. The FBI reported that Blue withdrew $10,000 from her checking account before leaving, and agents found a note at the couple’s home with instructions from a Washington, D.C., mental health therapist “to send the therapist the $10,000.00 and instructions on gender affirming medical care for children.” That note did not reference Cuba.
Use of a Department of Justice plane in a parental-kidnapping case comes amid the Trump administration’s efforts to limit access to gender-affirming care for minors and its pressure on health care providers over the issue. The Associated Press left messages with the court-appointed attorneys for Rose and Blue Inessa-Ethington in Virginia. Court filings say the defendants will be returned to Utah to face one count each of international parental kidnapping.
Search began after child wasn’t returned as scheduled
The search began April 3 when the child did not return to the mother in Utah as planned, court documents show. The mother, who was divorced from Rose Inessa-Ethington and shared custody, filed a missing-person report with Logan police. Logan City Police Chief Jeff Simmons said investigators initially focused on custodial interference and did not learn until later about concerns over surgical treatment. A police spokesperson said concerns about surgery were raised by a family member but that there was “no actual physical evidence.”
A Utah state judge ordered the child returned to the mother on April 13. Three days later, a federal magistrate judge issued arrest warrants for the Inessa-Ethingtons. Cuban authorities located the group the same day; they were deported to the U.S. aboard the government plane and arraigned in federal court in Richmond, Virginia. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Holyoak in Utah said the 10-year-old was returned to the biological mother. Representatives of the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office in Utah declined to say what happened to the 3-year-old who had been with the group.
Parents engaged in custody dispute
The custody dispute appears to have been ongoing. An online fundraiser created five years ago by Blue Inessa-Ethington titled “Help a Trans Mother Keep Custody of Her Child” raised $9,766 and described efforts to seek a court order to keep the child “safe and stable” after an ex relocated, affecting Rose’s parenting time. The fundraiser praised Rose’s care for her “gender open” child.
Family members told investigators the child was assigned male at birth but identifies as a girl, and they alleged that Rose influenced that identity, according to an April 16 affidavit from FBI Special Agent Jennifer Waterfield.
Gender-affirming care for minors has been limited
The Trump administration moved in December to curtail gender-affirming care for minors, prompting about a third of U.S. states to sue. The policy shift continued a series of clashes between an administration that argues transgender health care can be harmful to children and advocates who call it medically necessary.
Research shows gender-affirming surgery is rare among U.S. children. Major medical organizations urge caution and recommend case-by-case decisions; fewer than 1 in 1,000 U.S. adolescents receive gender-affirming medications such as hormones or puberty blockers.
In Cuba, gender-affirming surgeries are banned for minors. Surgeries for adults are performed through the public health system in designated hospitals and require authorization by a medical commission after comprehensive medical and psychological review — a process that can take years.
