A Texas judge on Friday expanded his order in an ongoing lawsuit, giving families of transgender youth more protections against state child abuse investigations.
Judge Amy Clark Meachum’s order is the latest in a lawsuit by LGBTQ advocates against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the state’s child welfare agency to stop current and future child abuse probes who have received gender-affirming medical care.
Friday’s order “extends and strengthens” the judge’s previous temporary restraining orders that blocked child abuse investigations for a set number of days, Stephen Sheppard, former dean of St. Mary’s School of Law in San Antonio, Texas.
What does the judge’s last order say?
Meachum’s latest injunction also protects Adam Briggle and Amber Briggle, who have a 14-year-old transgender son, and two other families who are part of the lawsuit.
Meachum wrote that the Texas child welfare agency acted contrary to law and exceeded its authority when its commissioner Jaime Masters launched child abuse probes in response to a governor’s directive in February to investigate families that provide their children with gendered care.
The order also notes that a trial in the case is scheduled for June 2023.
“All of the plaintiffs state a valid cause of action against Commissioner Masters and DFPS and have a probable right to the declaratory and permanent relief they seek,” Meachum wrote.
The families faced investigations
Meachum wrote that without the injunction, families would “suffer probable, imminent, and irreparable injury in the meantime.”
Another family that is a plaintiff in a separate lawsuit says their son was questioned for nearly an hour by Department of Family and Protective Services officials who came to their school in late August. A fifth Texas boy whose parents are under investigation has received no gender-affirming medical care but is “in the midst of exploring what a social transition looks like.”
PREVIOUSLY:Texas Judge Blocks Child Abuse Investigations Into 2 Families Over Gender Affirmation
EDUCATION:LGBTQ students share their plans, fears for the new school year amid growing backlash
The Texas Supreme Court in May allowed the state to investigate parents of transgender youth for child abuse while ruling in favor of a family that was one of the first contacted by child welfare officials after a February directive from Abbott. That family is the plaintiff in a separate lawsuit, Doe v. Abbott.
The most recent lawsuit was filed by Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the families of three teenage boys — two 16-year-olds and one 14 — and all PFLAG members in Texas.
“Once again, a Texas court has stepped in to say what we’ve known all along: State leaders have no business interfering with essential life care for transgender youth,” said Adri Perez of the ACLU of Texas, in a statement.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services said last week it had opened 12 investigations since Abbott’s directive was issued. Only four remain open and no youths have been removed from their homes as a result of the investigations, the department said.
A judge in March suspended Abbott’s order after a lawsuit was filed on behalf of a 16-year-old girl whose family said she was under investigation. The Texas Supreme Court ruled in May that the lower court exceeded its authority by blocking all future investigations.
The lawsuit that led to that ruling marked the first parent report investigated after Abbott’s directive and an earlier nonbinding legal opinion by Attorney General Ken Paxton that argued that certain gender confirmation treatments could be considered “child abuse.” .
Bills that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth have been introduced in the Texas legislature, but have not become law.
Abbott’s directive and the attorney general’s opinion run afoul of the nation’s largest medical groups, including the American Medical Association, which have opposed the Republican-backed restrictions presented to authorities across the country.
The latest court action follows rulings in other states against Republican-led efforts to restrict care for gender-affirming children.
Last month, a federal appeals court ruled that Arkansas cannot enforce its law banning care for gender-affirming minors, and the state plans to ask the appeals court to lations complete review of this decision. A federal judge in May blocked a similar law in Alabama.
Contributors: The Associated Press; Chuck Lindell, Austin American Statesman.
