Biden Slams Texas Investigations into Child Gender Transition Procedures: ‘Cynical and Dangerous’

The Biden administration vowed Wednesday to do anything in its power to counter the state of Texas’ investigations into cases of parents and doctors who enable gender transition surgeries and hormone treatment for children.

In response to Texas’ initiative, the Department of Homeland security released guidance for state child welfare agencies, guidance on patient privacy, and encouraged parties who believe they’ve been discriminated against on the basis of gender identity to file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights.

In its statement condemning Texas’ action, which comes on the heels of Governor Greg Abbott’s official characterization of transgender surgeries as “child abuse,” the Biden administration called it “a cynical and dangerous campaign targeting transgender children and their parents” and “government overreach at its worst.”

Its retaliatory efforts, the White House noted, will “make clear that rather than weaponizing child protective services against loving families, child welfare agencies should instead expand access to gender-affirming care for transgender children.”

At the heart of the Biden administration’s complaint is a recent Abbott order that directed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) to probe doctors and parents who enable hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and sex reassignment procedures for children. Abbott had warned that such procedures can cause irreversible damage to children who undergo them, including “sterilization, mastectomies, removals of otherwise health body parts, and administration of puberty-blocking drugs or supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or estrogen.”

“Texas law imposes reporting requirements upon all licensed professionals who have direct contact with children who may be subject to such abuse, including doctors, nurses, and teachers, and provides criminal penalties for failure to report such child abuse,” Abbott confirmed last month.

On Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union and its Texas chapter sued the DFPS seeking to block the agency’s investigations on the grounds that Abbott’s order violated state law, exceeded his constitutional authority, and infringed on the rights of transgender youth and their parents.

A Texas judge granted the plaintiffs in the case a limited temporary restraining order on Wednesday stopping the DFPS from investigating the parents of a 16-year-old transgender teen, as well as a licensed psychologist, for alleged child abuse. The lawsuit was brought by the teen’s mother, who works at the Texas DFPS, and the psychologist, who has objected to the reporting requirement, arguing that it will force her into compromising her confidential relationship with clients.