Last week, a state district judge temporarily blocked the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services from launching child abuse investigations into the parents of transgender children receiving gender-affirming care. Lambda Legal and the ACLU want to ensure the temporary injunction remains in effect throughout the appeals process.
Shelly Skeen, an attorney with Lambda Legal in Dallas, says the directive to investigate these families came from governor Abbott and was implemented following an opinion from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. She says Paxton's opinion says this doesn't apply to medically necessary health care.
"We want to make sure that parents who affirm their trans kids are able to continue affirming their trans kids and providing them with a safe, healthy environment in which to grow up," Skeen said. "Every major medical association, including the American Medical Association has said that gender affirming care is best-practice, life-saving medical care."
Skeen adds that the governor and Department of Family and Protective Services have tried to change the law.
"The law is very clear," Skeen said. "The Texas Family Code says that parents are required to provide their kids with medically necessary care. The governor and DFPS are doing the antithesis of that. They are investigating families who support and honor their trans kids."
She says these parents getting treatment for their children are only supporting their children to give them happy, healthy lives. Gender-affirming care in this age group does not involve surgery. Some children may receive puberty suppressants and older children, typically 16 and up, could get hormones.
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Implications from the original order are being felt across the state.
Dallas doctor Ximena Lopez helped launch the GENECIS Clinic at Children's Medical Center seven years ago, a clinic that gives kids and teens access to these therapies. She has filed a petition against UT Southwestern after being told to deny new requests. UT Southwestern reportedly is now referring new patients to an outside practice.
The state's teachers union, Texas AFT has also come out against the directive. They say Texas law imposes reporting requirements upon all licensed professionals including doctors, nurses, and teachers and provides criminal penalties for failure to report such child abuse.
Texas AFT President Zeph Capo writes: "It's reprehensible, the idea that school employees would be prosecuted for not reporting what is a personal healthcare decision by families and their kids. We're not going to report, and we're going to fight any attempts to prosecute teachers. This is a pathetic political move by a governor whose primary political pursuits of late have been targeting teachers with threats."
Skeen believes that both Ken Paxton and Governor Abbott have challengers who made targeting trans people an issue they can appear to look strong on.
"What's happening is they're doing the very antithesis of what they should be doing as elected officials, which is supporting all Texans," Skeen said. "Targeting one group to the exclusion of any other group is not only wrong morally but is also wrong on the law."
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