A judge has temporarily blocked Texas from pursuing probes of parents who seek transition surgeries and treatments for their children struggling with gender dysphoria.
Travis County District judge Jan Soifer issued a temporary restraining order Friday in favor of three families with transgender kids who are also a part of PFLAG, an LGBTQ advocacy group, the Texas Tribune reported.
The ruling is the latest development in a broader litigation fight triggered by Texas governor Greg Abbott’s February directive to the Department of Family and Protective Services to investigate parents as well as medical providers who facilitate reconstructive surgeries and/or hormone-therapy treatment for their children. Deeming such treatment “child abuse,” he ordered DFPS to “conduct a prompt and thorough investigation of any reported instances of these abusive procedures in the State of Texas.” He emphasized that many of these medical interventions, including “sterilization, mastectomies, removals of healthy body parts, and administration of puberty-blocking drugs or supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or estrogen,” can cause irreversible damage in children.
In May, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that a lower court incorrectly granted an injunction blocking state child-abuse investigations of the parents of transgender children but also determined that the governor and attorney general do not have the authority to order such investigations. The court maintained the injunction for one family, two parents of a 16-year-old transgender child, who originally sued the state after DFPS began an investigation into their case.
“DFPS alone bears legal responsibility for its decisions,” the Texas Supreme Court ruling stated, adding that “DFPS’s preliminary authority to investigate allegations does not entail the ultimate authority to interfere with parents’ decisions about their children, decisions which enjoy some measure of constitutional protection whether the government agrees with them or not.”
Soifer’s decision is in response to a new lawsuit, filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, to halt investigations into parents of transgender children who are members of PFLAG.
During a Friday hearing, Lambda Legal’s Paul Castillo noted that the state has already dismissed accusations of child abuse against Amber and Adam Briggle, who were being probed for seeking transition-related medical interventions for their 14-year-old transgender boy. However, at least eight more cases remain open, the Texas Tribune reported.