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Love That Refused to Affirm the Lie - January Littlejohn
November 3, 2026 · 1 hr 15 min
Series Pray TV November 3, 2026 · 1 hr 15 min · Pray TV
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Surrendering to Christ in Crisis 0:00 Our story started in twenty twenty when our daughter was just thirteen years old. When she went to middle school, a public middle school, initially, we were thrilled that she seemed to find this group of0:12 quirky friends that were into the same things that she was, the same books, they like to play games. When my daughter started to tell me that there were multiple kids in her friend group claiming to be0:24 non binary or the opposite sex, there were a lot of red flags.0:28 The way that we're handling this now is it's almost like you're making, the process of going through puberty and the challenges that come along with that and becoming an adult that we're somehow pathologizing that or0:39 something.0:40 She came to us in March of twenty twenty and told us she no longer felt like a girl. I immediately reached out to the guidance counselor and was called back with the assistant principal and0:52 the guidance counselor and told, missus Littlejohn, we cannot give you any information about the meeting we had with your child. She's now protected by a nondiscrimination law.1:00 When you're telling parents... Asking them, would you wanna have a live son or a dead daughter or vice versa, and you're telling them that this is going to be the outcome, you're not actually getting informed consent.1:12 You're terrifying the the parent into thinking that unless I go along with this, my child's gonna take their life.1:17 This isn't normal. This is... This isn't happening naturally. This is a social contagion. We've got a whole wave of kids that have been potentially sterilized. They1:29 will never have any kind of sexual functioning. You have destroyed their body with cross sex hormones. They will have lifelong issues that many doctors don't even know how to treat.1:41 Putting a child at war with their natal body is evil. Making them wanna cut off healthy body parts, that's evil. And we need to call it out from a place of love and compassion and help1:53 these kids find and root their identity in Jesus Christ because he is the only one that will2:00 Welcome to the Love and Truth Network podcast, your guide for hope and healing in a hurting world searching for truth. Here, we explore God's extraordinary design for biblical sexuality, identity, and authentic2:11 community. You'll be impacted by incredible stories of transformation, practical wisdom from pastors and counselors, and the power of God's grace that changes lives.2:28 Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the Love and Truth Network podcast. We're so glad that you're here with us, and I have been wanting to have this conversation with January Littlejohn for2:39 quite some time. Now you may be familiar with her name. You may may not at all be familiar with her name, but you're gonna be very familiar with her story both in terms of her own personal story of coming to faith. All2:49 of our podcasts involve our guests sharing that story and and their backstory and that kind of thing. But, boy, does she have something to share with us about, the last several years of, of walking with her3:01 daughter and and dealing with a lot of things I'm gonna let her unpack for us. But I'm just glad that you're here and you get a chance to hear from January directly. January, thank you so much for joining us and taking3:12 the time to be here.3:14 Thank you so much for having me, Gary.3:16 You bet. Absolutely. Well, I would just love to dive right in and just kinda begin with some of your own origin story and your your story of coming to faith, and, and then we'll kinda pick up with what's been going on3:28 the last few years.3:30 Sure. I'm originally from Memphis, Tennessee. My parents divorced when I was only in second grade. So I do come from a a broken home, a single mom who was a nurse, and I think did the very best3:42 she could. But faith was not a strong foundation in our home. We would go to church on and off, especially when I was young, but then fell away when we moved from Memphis to South Florida.3:54 And so I think that like many kids and adolescents, I was searching for identity for a very long time and always claimed to be a Christian. I certainly believed in Jesus, that4:06 he was our Lord and savior. I believed in God, but I wasn't following Christ. I didn't even really understand what that meant until this crisis hit our4:18 family, really. I certainly was not. You hear a lot about the salad bar. I would pick and choose what to believe, what fit in with my value system4:30 as opposed to really learning about what God's word says and being obedient to his word and his will.4:37 Yeah. That's powerful. And, at some point along the line... So when would you say that you gave your life to Christ? It sounds like, if I'm not mistaken, it sounds like that happened maybe fairly early on. But4:49 in terms of really getting rooted in discipleship that came later. Definitely, more recently, the depth of it really took root. But how would you kind of set that up5:01 in terms of, chronology of of faith?5:06 Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, it's like the parable of the seed. My seeds weren't rooted. They would burn up or they would blow away. And so I wish that weren't the case, but that5:18 is a part of my journey, and I hope others learn from that because I think I could have saved myself a lot of grief and maybe even the way that I was raising my children would have been very different than it is now.5:29 Yep.5:30 But, really, I think the tipping point for us, even my husband, we both came to really follow Christ at the same time because of this issue, because it's really so evil5:43 that we didn't have a choice but to turn to God. And5:46 so Yeah.5:47 That's... Twenty twenty would be the time that we really started walking with Christ as opposed to just sitting in a pew. Because we were going to church. We were doing all the things, but, again,5:59 it's it's really not the same.6:02 Well, I I... So I love actually what you're talking about there, and I wanted to spend a moment that this is the primary reason that we connected and wanted to do a podcast together. But I think what you're sharing is so6:14 important, so critical. And you mentioned, you know, it... It's something that other people need to think about. For example, you know, my audience knows I I gave my life to Christ finally at the age of twenty three. I6:24 grew up in a Christian home. I'd said the sinner's prayer a number of times, you know, and I and I grew up in denominations, like, that says, you know, once and done kind of, but I knew something wasn't taking. I knew6:35 something wasn't changing in my life. And and so I was going through all the motions of a very kind of religious respect... Or ideas and trying to do the right things and yet failing constantly at at... You6:47 know, my story is, we don't need to get get in that now. My audience knows that. But a lot of brokenness, a lot of double living as a as a young person, as a teenager, and a young adult. But, I think what you're6:59 sharing is so critical that... And it's something important I really want people watching or listening to what we're talking about to consider for themselves or maybe, you know, even others in their lives. We we don't7:09 know where other people are at spiritually. I think sometimes people do come to faith and through a lack of discipleship, they kind of, they're kind of dormant, you know, for quite some time until that's really7:20 activated. But I think so many of us have become inoculated to the gospel or have been around religious things for a long time, but we really aren't in. They're really... Like, we're... Maybe we7:32 try to apply truth and religious ideas and and Christian principles, which benefits anybody by doing that. But it's not the same thing as being in faith and being a Christ follower and being born again and7:44 being filled with the Holy Spirit and those kinds of things. So it sounds like what you're describing is having lived a life around Christianity for a long time, having dabbled in that even as a kid and with your, you7:56 know, with your mom for sure. But but actually surrendering your life to Jesus, that was a newer experience.8:04 Yeah. Absolutely. And even really, you know, being consistently in God's word was a new experience. I prayed a lot even when I wasn't necessarily following Christ and bending8:15 to his will. But being in God's word, I mean, that really is our protection armor against what's happening in8:23 the future.8:24 And I don't think people understand that enough that when we really draw on the Holy Spirit to help us and guide us and convict us, when you're reading God's word even. And so just even all of that has been a8:36 very new experience for me. And Yeah. When I really started listening to God's calling for my life, that's when things really started to fall into place. And Right. You know, by the grace of God, I am saved.8:48 It is only by his grace.8:49 And so8:50 my sin is erased. And that is just such a miracle to me that, I really am born again, and I certainly fall all the time. I do not judge other people where they are in their walk. But9:02 if I can inspire other people to consider surrendering, you know, truly surrendering, surrendering, which is a daily surrender for me. That's right. And I started volunteering at9:14 our church as a youth leader, and I started, you know, basically putting my money where my mouth was because if I'm telling parents they need to inoculate their children from this ideology,9:27 I have the tools and skills to do that. And so I've really dedicated the last six years of my life to our youth administering to them and Mhmm. Really9:39 helping them to understand that they are made in God's image as male or female and what the purpose in God's design is for their lives.9:49 Yes. Okay. So there's already a bunch of things I wanna unpack, but I... Again, I want to just put a couple of exclamation points, behind what we just talked about because we're gonna get into quite a few things in our10:01 conversation that are going to draw a lot of attention. And and it is the focal point of what I wanted to talk about, but I do not want people to miss what you just discussed and talked about. We can be10:13 around Christian, ideas. We can be in church. We can be in a Christian family. We can do all the things and yet not actually be in the kingdom, not actually be a son or daughter of God.10:25 And so it... That is so essential. And I, again, would love people to to really ponder about that for themselves, and and for those that, maybe have been in a similar10:37 situation and and are hearing and maybe resonate with what you're talking about, it could very well be that even after decades of being around Christianity, they still need to surrender their lives to Jesus. And that is10:48 critical to understand if, in fact, that's the case. So, but I I wanna shift to the conversation that we originally wanted to talk about, January. But you also just mentionedThe Cultural Onslaught Against Identity 11:00 something that I think is so critical, and I wanna use this kind of in between our next, what what you're really going to unpack. And it is the idea... I'm often saying and contending that I am more and11:12 more, convinced that children that are growing up in Christian homes are are going to Sunday school classes. They are hearing a lot of things maybe in their home, certainly in their... In church about11:24 biblical ideas and principles. Their minds may be filled with lots of bible stories, which all of that is wonderful. Every part of that is great. But in terms of their sense of identity, they are completely blank slates.11:36 Nobody in church is actually writing beautiful and glorious things about the fact that they were made with God's incredible intention in who they are as boys or girls made in his image. They're11:48 not just... This this is not just a physical representation of something. It's a representation of God's, identity for them. So everyone who is ever created, everyone who is,12:00 comes into the world has an identity. Even as an unbeliever, they have an identity as an image bearer of God in their maleness or their femaleness, And we need to be doing a far better job in the church and in our12:11 Christian families of really equipping and finding rich ways and frequent ways to talk about that reality. So when kids are exposed, whether that's in public school, or whatever... I mean, we know12:22 kids that... I've been through public school, Christian school, and homeschooling, but there are kids that that get exposed to this stuff because of the Internet or whatever, even in homeschool situations. But one of the12:33 reasons that kids are so susceptible is because they're blank slates even though they've grown up in Christian homes and have gone to church for forever. So could you maybe speak to that issue first, and then let's shift12:44 to talking a little bit about your story, in relationship to, I mean, I wanna say in sense your activism, but you're standing up against the onslaught and the tsunami of confusion around identity in our12:56 culture.12:58 Yeah. Absolutely. And I think, you know, we're here to really unpack gender identity ideology and how that issue impacted our family and really propelled us, you know, on this kind of mission to save13:09 other families from going through what we did. But in terms of these kids, I think parents need to really understand this ideology, this notion that13:21 we have this, you know, this feeling of our gender, which is separate from our sex, because that's what's being taught to children either explicitly or implicitly. But this ideology has infiltrated13:33 every institution in our culture, even the judicial institutions in many of our states. And so for a long time, especially back in twenty nineteen,13:45 twenty twenty, we were really playing catch up on what was actually happening. And so, you know, it's not just in our schools, which it absolutely is. Even here in Florida,13:57 we still have issues and we can talk about those mechanisms as to how this is still being taught to children, even with the really great laws that we have passed. Right. But it's in the media.14:08 It's in children's programming. It's, of course, all over TikTok, Instagram. You've got trans influencers that are normalizing this, glamorizing this, and children see14:20 it. You know, you have pride flags everywhere, especially in the month of June. It's all of these little signals that we may not have even picked up on that are subliminal to these kids where14:32 it's normalizing this identity crisis. And if we are not being very intentional about teaching children the truth from a very young age,14:44 I fear that families are going to be caught off guard just like we were.14:51 Yep. Yeah. It's so true. It's so true, January. And I, what what actually happened? What was the... Where would you like to kind of pick up the the story, the narrative15:03 about what happened with your daughter, what happened with you guys as a family?15:07 Sure. So, you know, I think that a lot of us and and rightly so wanna forget what happened during COVID. We wanna forget how chaotic that time15:19 period was for children, for families, for schools, but that's really where our story started. And I... My fear is a lot of people think15:30 this issue has been solved15:33 Right.15:34 That we don't need to, stand up against it anymore. And what's really happened is many many of these activists and ideologues are dormant15:46 and they're waiting. And so our story started in twenty twenty when our daughter was just thirteen years old. She's gifted, but she's also15:58 ADHD. And so at that time, it really read a little bit like autism because she had a tendency to perseverate on on things or, book series, music, and then she would have a16:09 difficult time talking about anything else or even introducing anything new into her life. And so that can be very off putting unless you find a group of friends that also16:21 has that same interest Right. And those likes. And and we're talking about things that aren't mainstream. So she didn't fit in with mainstream kids. She's very artistic. She loved theater, which a lot16:33 of these kids do that are falling prey to transgender ideology. And so when she went to middle school, a public middle school, initially, we were thrilled that she seemed to find16:45 this group of quirky friends that were into the same things that she was, the same books. They like to play games, things of that nature. But then I started to have concerns because they seem to16:57 be hyper focused on LGBTQ identities. Mhmm. So many of these kids, and these were eleven and twelve year olds, were claiming to be pansexual,A School's Secret Social Transition 17:09 bisexual, gay, and then that would morph into these trans identities. And so my husband and I were really struggling to understand what was happening. I17:21 had never heard the term pansexual back in twenty twenty, twenty nineteen. So I'm looking at these terms, and I'm a licensed counselor. And so when I was trained in17:33 transsexualism, it was so rare that it really wasn't discussed much. It was kind of one of those things where this is in the DSM, you know, this is in the DSM.17:45 Many refer out. You'll go your whole career and you won't encounter this. And if you do, it's typically males and it starts in early childhood and there's typically some kind of precipitating trauma or attachment17:57 issue. And so when she started... When my daughter started to tell me that there were multiple kids in her friend group claiming to be non binary18:09 or the opposite sex, I just... There were a lot of red flags. And I was thinking to myself, this is not correlating at all with my training. What I know to be true about this issue18:22 and in my clinical background, by the way, is in adolescence and young adults. I interned on a very liberal college campus, and this issue in the late nineties, early two thousands18:34 was nonexistent. If it had been a thing, I would have seen it. And so we were just really struggling to understand what was happening with her, and then she came to18:45 us in March of twenty twenty and told us she no longer felt like a girl. And so we were just really stunned by this announcement. We took it very seriously.18:57 Mhmm.18:58 We utilized the service through the school to find a counselor. And so we were really trying to walk alongside her with19:10 this issue. But also I was approaching this with curiosity as to why is she suddenly rejecting her sex? This doesn't seem like a normal pathway19:22 of identity. And so to make a long story short, in the fall of twenty twenty, I had reached out to a teacher and it was her homeroom teacher. And you19:34 have to remember, this is fall of twenty twenty, so a lot of states weren't even allowing their children to go back in person school. Florida, we did have that option, but parents were not allowed on campus. The kids19:45 were wearing mask. It was very, very much on lockdown. So all of the communication I was having throughout this entire experience was through email or phone conversation.19:57 But I explained to this teacher via email that our child was confused out of nowhere. I thought it was directly related to her friend group, that she was claiming to be non binary, asking20:09 to go by a different name, use different pronouns, and we were not doing that at home, that we had elicited the help of a counselor. And, you know, again, that I thought it was directly related to this friend20:21 group. Mhmm. And unbeknownst to me, the teacher I confided in was the LGBTQ advocate on campus, had no idea that there was such a person.20:34 And these were advocates created and utilized by Equality Florida, which is our largest LGBT activist organization.20:48 So that encounter precipitated my daughter going to the guidance counselor and saying, I want to go by this name. I falsely21:00 and and naively thought it would be treated as a nickname. I mean, again, back in twenty twenty, there was no information for parents. Anything you googled about this, it was affirmation, affirmation,21:12 affirmation. If you don't affirm, your child's going to kill themselves. It was That's right. Yeah. Project p flag. You know, there was no Genspec. There was no do no harm yet. And so I21:24 was really up against a lot of forces telling my husband and I, you must affirm this. But deep down, I knew that did not feel right for our21:35 child.21:37 Mhmm.21:37 And so when my daughter went to the guidance counselor and told her that she wanted to be called this new name, different pronouns, that triggered21:50 what is now known as a gender support plan. It's from an organization called Gender Spectrum, and we didn't know it at the time because we were cut out of this social transition they22:02 did with our daughter. And so I really want your audience to understand this was not a nickname. They sat our thirteen year old child down in a private room with three adults.22:14 It was the assistant principal, a social worker I had never met, and the guidance counselor who I had multiple conversations with over the last, you know, couple of years because my daughter had a five zero22:26 four plan. So it wasn't like I was this uninvolved parent, but they put the burden as to whether or not parents will be informed of this meeting or included in22:38 the social transition plan meeting on the child themselves.22:43 And the22:43 only question they ask that child is, are your parents supported? Meaning, do they affirm you? And my daughter said no. And so that was it. And we didn't find out22:55 about what they had done with my child for about seven to eight weeks. Because the only way we found out this had even happened, Gary, is my daughter got23:07 into the car after school. You know, I'm a stay at home mom. I gave up my career to be that mom, be there for my kids. And she got into the car, and she said, oh, mom. I had a meeting about my name today, but they asked23:19 me which restroom I wanted to use. And I... Right then, I'm going, well, wait. What does a nickname have to do with the restroom?23:28 Right.23:29 What do you mean which restroom? Like, the boys' restroom? I mean, I I was shocked. I just... That's a huge safety issue, and I just Mhmm. I looked at her and I said, woah. Woah. Woah. What do you mean? And she, you23:40 know, she was almost confused. Like, why are you getting so upset?23:43 Yeah. Right.23:44 So I immediately reached out to the guidance counselor and was called back with the assistant principal and the guidance counselor and told, missus Littlejohn, we cannot give you any information about the meeting we had23:55 with your child. She's now protected by a nondiscrimination law.24:00 Wow.24:00 And so it took many weeks for us to even get a meeting with the principal where we were then shown that six page social transition plan where24:12 it went well beyond names and pronouns. They asked the children which restroom and locker room they prefer to use and also which sex they prefer to room with on overnight field trips. In other words, they were giving24:24 my daughter the ability to room with boys. Because if you look at these policies, they'll say the transgender student can room with any child based24:36 on their gender identity, not their24:39 sex.24:40 That's really important for your audience to to understand because this notion of a gender identity, which is complete nonsense24:48 Yep.24:49 That is one of the reasons why we're having such legal problems because they started to replace sex or at least say sex includes sexual orientation and gender25:01 identity. But you can't protect sex and this notion of gender identity at the same time because gender identity means the person identifies however they feel.25:13 On the given day?25:15 Correct. Mhmm. And so we filed the first federal lawsuit. It took over a year from the time that we found out what they did with our child25:28 until we actually filed the lawsuit because we naively thought, okay, they made a mistake. As soon as we show them that this is harmful,25:40 this has become a social contagion, kids are popping friend... My daughter's group. By this time, Abigail Schrier's book, Irreversible25:51 Demons, had come out.25:53 And25:53 so it really confirmed all of these thoughts and feelings and intuition that I was having that this isn't normal. This isn't happening naturally. This is a social26:05 contagion. But that's not what happened. And a lot of people know my story and they know that we took this all the way to the Supreme Court. And unfortunately, the Supreme Court decided not to take up our26:17 case. And so we're still in a situation, unfortunately, where legally there is no precedent protecting parents. States are now26:28 passing laws preventing the secret social transition of children. But back in twenty twenty one, when my husband and I made the very difficult decision to go public with what happened and26:40 we went public first, I thought, sunlight is the best disinfectant. Go public. Maybe that'll be enough to stop the school. You know, they'll be shamed by what26:52 they've done.26:53 Mhmm.26:54 But I really had no idea how far deep the rot went, how deeply committed they were to transgender ideology27:05 over the safety and well-being of children and their families, and especially how deeply embedded they were with Equality Florida. And because27:17 of our lawsuit, I do have some things from discovery. And so, you know, now that the lawsuit's over, I'm free to kind of discuss that. And so you're the first interview that I've had since27:28 Okay.27:29 Our lawsuit was dismissed. And so it's really... I don't know what to do with all that information other than, you know, one day maybe share it, not to relitigate what happened to us27:40 because it's done.27:43 Mhmm.27:43 But I never want this to happen again.27:46 Right.27:48 And there were a lot of things happening within the public school system all over the country in terms of these alliances with these activist orgs, and parents and sometimes even28:00 school boards had no clue.28:03 Mhmm. Yeah. It... It's so true. And I... It's just an... It's infuriating. And thinking about the fact that we're talking about Florida, we're not talking about New York or Illinois or Washington or28:15 Oregon or California. I mean, the fact that it is hap... It could happen there and still is, I think, probably on on, many levels happening there, it's it's it's happening throughout28:27 the country. And there's just... Even with laws being passed, we're seeing that everything is being done to to try to circumvent them. The... It reminds me also, January, are you familiar with Erin Friday?28:39 Does that name sound familiar?28:41 My very best friends.28:42 Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So she's amazing. She's been on our podcast quite some time ago. But, you know, very similar story in terms of what the school was doing with her daughter and also being a parent that was on it, not28:54 not, like, completely distracted and checked out. I mean, she was very involved and had no idea what on earth was going on, but the same kind of thing was, was happening with them. So the... You know, one of the thingsShow more In this video 0:00 Surrendering to Christ in Crisis11:00 The Cultural Onslaught Against Identity17:00 A School's Secret Social Transition29:00 The Harms of Gender Affirming Care40:00 Rooting Identity in Christ
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