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 tied to the child’s gender identity.
Rose Inessa-Ethington, a transgender woman and the child’s parent, is accused of taking the child to Cuba without the biological mother’s permission. Federal and state authorities sought the child’s return after a family member raised concerns that Inessa-Ethington had taken the child to Havana to obtain gender-transition surgery.
Inessa-Ethington and her partner, Blue Inessa-Ethington, 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 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 complaint does not state whether the couple actually planned to obtain gender-affirming surgery in Cuba or how they would have done so, since such surgeries are not permitted for minors in Cuba.
Investigators say Blue withdrew $10,000 from her checking account before leaving. Agents also found at the couple’s home a note from a mental health therapist in Washington, D.C., instructing to send the therapist $10,000 and “instructions on gender affirming medical care for children.” That note did not reference Cuba.
The use of a Department of Justice aircraft in the parental kidnapping investigation comes amid an administration push to limit access to gender-affirming care for minors and pressure on health care providers over the issue.
The Associated Press left messages with court-appointed attorneys who represented Blue and Rose 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
Authorities began searching April 3 after the child was not returned to the mother in Utah as scheduled, court records show. The child’s mother, who is divorced from Rose Inessa-Ethington and shared custody, filed a missing-person report with Logan police. Logan, about 70 miles north of Salt Lake City, is a college and dairy farming community.
Logan Police Chief Jeff Simmons said investigators initially focused on custodial interference and learned about concerns over gender-affirming surgery later. Police spokesperson Sgt. Brandon Bevan said those concerns were raised by a family member but declined to identify them, adding, “They just had the concern about it, no actual physical evidence.”
A Utah state judge ordered the child’s return on April 13. Three days later, a federal magistrate judge issued an arrest warrant for the Inessa-Ethingtons. Cuban authorities located the group the same day; the family was deported to the U.S. aboard a 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 fight appears to have continued for years. Five years ago, an online fundraiser created by Blue Inessa-Ethington, titled “Help a Trans Mother Keep Custody of Her Child,” raised $9,766. The fundraiser said Rose’s ex had relocated, reducing Rose’s parent time, and sought money to pursue a court order to keep the child “safe and stable throughout this process.” It added that anyone who knew Rose would understand “how much care and thought she puts into parenting her gender open child.”
Family members told investigators the child was assigned male at birth but identifies as a girl, and that Rose had manipulated the child, according to an April 16 affidavit by FBI Special Agent Jennifer Waterfield.
Gender-affirming care for minors has been limited
The administration moved in December to curtail gender-affirming care for minors, prompting lawsuits from about a third of U.S. states. That effort is part of a broader clash between officials who say transgender health care can be harmful to children and advocates who describe it as medically necessary.
Research shows gender-affirming surgery is rare among U.S. children. Major medical organizations urge caution for surgery in minors 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 prohibited for minors and are available only to adults through the public health system in designated hospitals after authorization by a medical commission. The process requires extensive medical and psychological evaluations and can take years.
