Note: Andrew Kilgore previously testified in front of the Idaho Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Republican State Senator Todd Lakey in favor of HB 668. That testimony is below.
An Idaho father hasn’t seen his oldest daughter in over a year- despite multiple court orders giving him regular contact- and now she’s struggling with gender dysphoria.
On July 1, 2026, the Pediatric Secretive Transitions Parental Rights Act (House Bill 822) went into effect, and Andrew Kilgore’s daughter’s school was required to inform him.
He received an email on July 2, 2026 that his daughter wasn’t sure what gender she was any more.
Another bill, (HB 668), might have helped him prevent the gender dysphoria from happening.
That bill passed the Idaho House 68-1 but failed in the Idaho Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Republican State Senator Todd Lakey.
That bill would have transformed enforcement of custodial interference, but Lakey, joined by four colleagues, voted the bill down in committee 5-3.
Andrew has been locked in a custody battle with his ex-girlfriend, Jessica Thompson, for over a decade.
The case reached its end, or so it seemed, when a custody order was entered on May 27, 2021.
That order gave him two weekends per month during the school year and 50/50 over the summer.
Andrew told me that everyone followed the order until the beginning of 2025.
He said Jessica demanded to move to California; after he refused to grant permission, she threw a hissy fit.
She stopped doing exchanges, and Andrew went months without seeing his kids.
He said he went to the police, who refused to help calling it “a civil matter.”
That is what Meridian, Idaho Police Department Police Chief Tracy Basterrechea said when he testified in front of the Idaho Child Custody and Domestic Relations Task Force in the summer of 2025.
Meridian is a suburb of Boise, Idaho.
“We really don’t have any ability to take that child back because it is a civil matter (emphasis mine),” Police Chief Basterrechea stated in his testimony, “Unless we can prove there is a safety issue there, they need to work it out through their attorney.”
That’s what Andrew tried to do; he took Jessica back to court to get relief there.
Only, the courts refused to enforce their orders as well, and he was left in limbo. He explained further below.
“Nobody wants to get involved and enforce the court order,” Andrew told me.
This is the situation that HB 668 sought to solve. HB 668 required police to investigate and produce a report, which would be used to enforce custodial interference violations.
In the current system, he was in a legal haze. He said that in August 2025, his judge issued an order which found that Jessica had violated the court order; however, the order had no mechanism for relief.
The judge who issued that order, who remains presiding over the case, is Judge Stephen Stokes. I watched him hold court last year during my trip to Ada County, Idaho.
In February 2026, Judge Stokes reduced Andrew’s custody time on paper to four days per month with his youngest daughter. His custody was suspended entirely with his oldest.
He was seeing his younger daughter intermittently before then, Andrew told me. He hasn’t seen the oldest since the beginning of 2025.
Judge Stokes responded to unsubstantiated abuse claims, Andrew told me.
Jessica continued refusing to make exchanges after this order went into effect, Andrew told me.
In June 2026, he was back in front of Judge Stokes to hold Jessica in contempt.
Judge Stokes twisted himself into a pretzel not to hold Jessica accountable, criticizing his prior order in the process.
Judge Stokes found that his February 2026 order was too vague to be followed.
“First, the court’s temporary custody order is impermissibly vague, overbroad and patently unenforceable in these proceedings,” Judge Stokes stated, referring to his prior order.
Judge Stokes voided that order, making it even harder for Andrew to see his kids.
Judge Stokes found that because the order only stated that Andrew was to see his kids two weekends per month- without spelling out which weekends- Jessica couldn’t be expected to follow it.
Andrew told me this was subterfuge. He said his work schedule hasn’t changed for years, and it was always Jessica who proactively cancelled visits for various reasons. Andrew and I discussed it further below.
With the last order voided, Andrew isn’t sure what order governs his case. He remains in limbo until a trial later this year.
Update: I initially mixed up the custody arrangement for the most recent order. That has been fixed.
