Thu. Dec 5th, 2024

Texas appeals court blocks state from probing transgender kids’ parents

By 37ci3 Mar30,2024



A Texas appeals court on Friday upheld a lower court ruling that blocked the state from investigating parents who provided gender-affirming medical treatments to their transgender children, which Gov. Greg Abbott called abusive.

Abbott, a Republican, ordered the Department of Family Protective Services to conduct child abuse investigations in February 2022 against families whose children received treatment as minors.

A month later, a district court judge imposed the statewide sentence temporary injunction He said that such investigations put children and their families at risk.

An appeals court in Austin upheld a district court judge’s order in a pair of rulings Friday, handing a victory to LGBTQ groups, medical professionals and civil liberties advocates who have opposed actions by conservative politicians. dozens of states criminalizing the provision of gender-affirming treatments for trans youth.

“This is a much-needed victory for trans youth and those who love and support them,” the American Civil Liberties Union said Friday.

Representatives for Abbott and DFPS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The ACLU and Lambda Legal challenged Abbott’s order on behalf of the family of a 16-year-old transgender girl targeted for investigation.

The child had taken puberty retarding drugs and hormone therapy. Her mother was a DFPS employee who was placed on paid administrative leave after she questioned what Abbott’s order meant for her family.

In 2022, a district court judge said the governor’s order could cause “irreparable harm” to families, given the stigma and loss of livelihoods of being the target of a child abuse investigation.

Texas will restrict gender-affirming care to youth in 2023, becoming one of more than a dozen states that currently prohibit young transgender people from taking certain puberty blockers and hormone therapies, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

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By 37ci3

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