Related videos:
Eric Ethington, 42 years old, also known as 'Rose Inessa-Ethington', was arrested this Tuesday after being deported from Cuba along with his partner, accused of kidnapping his 10-year-old biological son and taking him to Havana with the alleged intention of subjecting him to gender reassignment surgery.
Ethington is a prominent transgender activist from Utah with over 15 years of experience in the LGBTQ+ movement, founder of organizations such as PRIDEinUtah and Queer Quorum, and author of more than 50 articles for LGBTQ Nation, a publication whose work has been highlighted by MSNBC, The New York Times, and The Guardian.
According to court documents from the Department of Justice, on March 28, Ethington deceived the child's biological mother, Lindsey Boden, telling her that he would take the minor camping in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
The group crossed the border from the state of Washington on March 29, took a flight from Vancouver to Mexico City that same day, traveled to Mérida, and arrived in Havana on April 1 using U.S. passports and 10,000 dollars in cash.
The minor was supposed to be returned to his mother on April 3 according to the shared custody agreement, which never happened. Boden alerted the police in Logan, Utah, when he was unable to contact his son or Ethington.
The defendants' home registry revealed to-do lists for emptying bank accounts, learning Spanish, and obtaining tourist visas, as well as notes from a therapist in Washington D.C. about "gender-affirming healthcare for children" and a payment request of 10,000 dollars to that professional.
The partner of Ethington, identified as Blue Inessa-Ethington, whose real name is Carly Ann Crosby, 32 years old, was also arrested and deported. Both appeared before a federal judge in Richmond, Virginia, where they face charges of international child kidnapping.
On April 13, a Utah state court granted sole custody of the child to Boden and ordered their immediate return. Three days later, Cuban authorities located the group in Havana and began cooperating with the FBI.
On April 21, a Boeing 757 from the U.S. Department of Justice landed at José Martí International Airport in Havana during an operation described as "unprecedented" by experts in parental abductions, given that Cuba is not a signatory of the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
Ethington began to identify as a woman shortly after the birth of her son and gained joint custody following her divorce from her ex-wife.
In 2021 launched a fundraising campaign titled Help a Trans Mother Keep Custody of Her Child to contest for greater custody rights, complaining about being at a "disadvantage" compared to her ex-wife.
According to the FBI affidavit, the minor, assigned male at birth, identifies as female, a situation that the biological family attributes to manipulation by Ethington, who began identifying as a woman around the time of the child's birth.
The FBI Director, Kash Patel, publicly celebrated the rescue: "The FBI and our partners acted quickly and saved a child who ended up in Cuba, with the alleged kidnapper father intending to subject the minor to a gender transition."
Filed under: