A New York man says his ex-wife forced their young son to transition from a boy to a girl during their divorce — despite his protests that his son never wanted to be a girl in the first place.
Dennis Hannon, a 32-year-old former banking vice president from Buffalo who now works as a software engineer, told The Post on Sunday he was engaged in a lengthy, seven-year legal battle that ended with him losing authority over his son’s medical care.
He says the fight began when his ex-wife, Amy Hannon, began pushing his son to transition at the age of 3 by dressing him in girls’ clothes.
But she hid it from him, and whenever he’d pick his son up during visitation periods, he remained a little boy.
“I didn’t realize that when he was in his mom’s care, he was actually a girl named Ruby,” Hannon told the Daily Mail.
Then he saw a notice from the school that referred to his son as “Ruby Rose Hannon,” and it broke his heart.
“It was a unilateral, gender transition of my child,” he said. “I had no say.”
He says his ex brought his son to a gender therapist, who recommended puberty blockers to start at age 9. He eventually took her to court in 2020 as he tried to intervene in what he believes was unnecessary treatment.
“My son was never diagnosed with gender dysphoria,” he told The Post.
Amy Hannon said she didn’t want to go into specifics about the case when The Post reached her on Sunday. But she said it was not as clean-cut as her ex made it seem.
“There are two sides to every story,” she said. “And after having read the [Daily Mail] story … the amount of lies in that story are quite appalling. It’s the child that’s important here.”
Dennis Hannon said the long court battle cost him about $150,000 in legal fees. And although he still has visitation rights, he has no say over the medical decisions.
“I lost sole medical authority. I lost custody. I lost $150,000 in legal costs,” he said. “But I saved my son.”
A year after the court battle ended, he says the now 9-year-old is living happily as a boy.
“Suddenly he has no desire to be a girl,” Hannon said, adding that he’s trying to get custody but teetering on bankruptcy. “He never had a desire to be a girl. It was a delusion his mom pushed on him.”
“No one ever considered the psychological impact of socially transitioning a 5-year-old,” he said.” They had a treatment before a diagnosis.
“I will always love my son, whoever he wants to be,” Hannon said of his gender identity. “But this wasn’t his choice. It was forced upon him.”