Friday’s Texas court ruling temporarily stopped the state’s investigation of transgender families who had received gender-confirming medical treatment. This is a new obstacle for the state to label such treatments child abuse.
Jan Soifer issued a temporary restraining order that stops investigations into three families that sued and prohibits similar investigations against PFLAG Inc members. It has over 600 members in Texas.
Soifer stated at the conclusion of the roughly 40-minute hearing, “I do believe there is sufficient cause to believe that plaintiffs will suffer immediate and inexorable injury if (Department of Family and Protective Services are allowed to continue to enforce and implement this new Department rule that has equated gender confirming care and child abuse.”
This ruling comes just a month after Texas Supreme Court granted the state the right to investigate transgender parents for child abuse. It also ruled in favor of one family, who was first contacted by child welfare officers following an order from Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
Brian K. Bond, executive Director of PFLAG National stated in a statement that families would be protected from invasive and unnecessary investigations by DFPS because they help their transgender kids thrive and be themselves. Let’s not forget, however, that these investigations into affirming and loving families should not be taking place in the first instance.
Lambda Legal and American Civil Liberties Union brought the latest challenge on behalf of the three teenage boys’ families — two 16-year olds and one 14-year-old — and PFLAG. The judge was informed by a Lambda Legal attorney that the state had dropped its investigation into the family of the 14-year old after the lawsuit had been filed.
Spokespeople for Attorney General Ken Paxton and Abbott did not respond to our requests for comment on Friday afternoon.
Abbott’s order was rescinded by a judge in March after a lawsuit was brought on behalf a 16-year old girl whose family claimed it was under investigation. In May, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that the lower court had overstepped its authority and blocked all further investigations.
This lawsuit was the first to report parents being investigated after Abbott’s directive and Paxton’s earlier non-binding legal opinion, which labelled certain gender-confirming treatments “child abuse”.
The directive of Abbott and the opinion of the attorney general go against the nation’s largest medical organizations, including the American Medical Association. They have opposed Republican-backed restrictions in statehouses across the country.
